The more I look at their film the more...

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ED_29

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And yet zero of those pick sixes were on targeted throws. None of them were bad decisions. One was a tipped pass by a DE that was supposed to be chipped by Cook on a boot-leg. One bounced off the chest of the recently cut Richardson. One was a dead duck because Stacy blew his blitz pick-up and Mikell hit Bradford's arm while it was coming forward.

None of those plays were bad QBing. They were bad luck. And I think that speaks volumes. I was much more bothered by some of the non-INTs(including a couple dropped INTs) than Bradford's INTs last year.

As far as it being the difference in the score, that play was 110% on Daryl Richardson. Can't blame the QB when the ball bounces off the chest of his intended receiver.
Well I don't agree on that at all

The 1st in against the Cards he clearly did not get the ball over the defender. It was an easy play by the DT who read Bradford's eyes the whole way.

The 2nd against the Falcons he had a lot of time... Just don't get why he was so quick to check it down and it wasn't the greatest pass. It really lacked the kind of touch required to make it easy for DR to get it. That being said it would have been good if DR caught it but clearly the play was going nowhere. What down was it? If I recall I believe it was 3rd and long as well.

The third int was clearly a poor throw. Quick was open but the ball was short. He attempt to make a play on it but because it was short he had to slow his momentum and it allowed the defender to get over...this the top for the int.

I already mentioned the Carolina pick 6

So while all of them may not have been bad decisions (I would argue the throw to DR was not a good one) the passes in the video against the Crads and 49ers CLEARLY were not good ones IMO
 

RaminExile

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In the one against AZ, that's a snap judgement call. Either take as much off of it as you can without floating it over the RB (for a sure interception), or tuck it down and try to get away without taking a safety (unlikely). Remember, all of that takes place in a one second time-frame. Good play by AZ? In the second one against ATL, he could have taken a little off of that ball; but at the same time, if you're collecting a check, CATCH the ball. That wasn't a bullet. It was a fluke how it bounced up so high, so I'd say just bad luck and not enough touch. In the third one against SF, no fault of his whatsoever. That's what everyone expects him to be able to do. Throw up a contested ball at a predetermined point, and hope (count on) your receiver to out-muscle the defender for the play. The last one was a fluke. He planted and threw, and luckily for CAR, someone was able to hit his arm during the release. The result was a floater, and the fact that it was returned for a TD is absolutely not his fault.

Fair enough?

Interesting analysis X. I also like your explanation of the tipped passes. Cant wait to see him tear it up this year with his new ACL!
 

ED_29

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I've always wondered about the batted passes thing. I think it's a product of another issue I brought up with him, and that's the idea that he finds the isolation matchup in his presnap read (which is fine), but follows that guy until he gets to the top of his route tree. That gives defensive linemen the opportunity to follow his eyes and time his delivery. I suspect that's something Cignetti is working on with him too.
very good sir!
 

ED_29

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One of the reasons they went away with Clemens at QB might be due to the fact that they only averaged 16 passes per game with Clemens. Not much of an opportunity to bat them down, when they aren't throwing it.
could be but I think that is too simplistic... we don't only have to use Clemens as an example... we can look at other QBs with similar attempts.
 

jrry32

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Well that's true the team didn't play well either. However I do recall Bradford missing Pettis badly for an easy TD against the Niners. It would have been nice for him to hit that... Maybe it sets a different tone and gives the Rams a spark offensively. As for the Cowboys no doubt, Jake Long in particular was just getting abused by Ware. However the Rams had what 1 1st down in the first half? And 18 total yards. Surely Sam had some role in that?

Yes, he did. It was an ugly play. But keep in mind that things are not always what they seem. NFL passing offenses are about precision and spots. If you recall ever hearing Warner talk about what he did...he threw to SPOTS. Which means if his guy wasn't where he was supposed to be, Warner looked the fool.

On that particular play, there was a blown coverage. I know they were running a variant of the "Levels" play that the Colts loved to run with Manning. What I can't tell you is what route Pettis was supposed to run on the play. Bradford very well could have just missed him. Or Pettis wasn't where he was supposed to be.

Because viewing the play on Coach's Film, Bradford threw it as if he was expecting Pettis to run a flag(corner) route whereas Pettis never really made a hard cut. He just kind of faded towards the sidelines while running a go route. So I can't tell you if that was just inaccurate throw on the part of Bradford, a miscommunication on the part of either player or Pettis getting over-excited and not running his route properly.

However, I can tell you that they ran the same play later in the game with Cook in Pettis's place and Cook ran a flag(corner) route. It was actually on the play with worst pass I saw Bradford throw all year.(the ball that bounced off Whitner's hands into Cook's)
SFPlay1_zps450c7901.png

SFPlay2_zps21e1900c.png

The blue spot is where Bradford threw the football in the first pic(the Pettis miss).

Like I said, we don't know for sure but I think it's worth considering. All I'm saying is that things are not always as black and white as they appear.
 

jrry32

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Well I don't agree on that at all

The 1st in against the Cards he clearly did not get the ball over the defender. It was an easy play by the DT who read Bradford's eyes the whole way.

We certainly don't agree. The DE, Shaughnessy, was supposed to be chipped by Cook so Bradford could boot and throw. Cook slipped when he tried to reset after motion and missed the chip. That left Bradford with a DE in his face. So Bradford attempted to throw over the DE to Kendricks in the flats since he was in his own end-zone and wanted to avoid a safety. The DE jumped and got a hand on it. Not much Bradford could do in that situation. Cook's whiff threw the entire play off. Here's the play:

The third int was clearly a poor throw. Quick was open but the ball was short. He attempt to make a play on it but because it was short he had to slow his momentum and it allowed the defender to get over...this the top for the int.

It was a poor throw. He left it too far inside. That all said, the entire point of having a guy like Quick is being able to throw jump balls up and have him win the battle. I've seen Alshon Jeffery bail his QB out on worse throws. Quick mistimed his jump which kept him from being able to high-point the ball. The CB deflected it and it was intercepted in the end-zone. But I'll give Bradford the blame on this one. However, it wasn't a poor decision. Just an inaccurate throw.

Quick was NOT open, though. That's a misrepresentation. Here's that play:

The 2nd against the Falcons he had a lot of time... Just don't get why he was so quick to check it down and it wasn't the greatest pass. It really lacked the kind of touch required to make it easy for DR to get it. That being said it would have been good if DR caught it but clearly the play was going nowhere. What down was it? If I recall I believe it was 3rd and long as well.

It was first and 10. Bradford scanned the field, didn't like what he saw and looked for his checkdown option. As far as the pass is concerned, I'll let the play speak for itself because there was NOTHING wrong with the throw:
 

ED_29

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X & Jrry standby... I'm in the middle of a virtual network upgrade.... I will get back to each of you with my thoughts. The screen captures are excellent and add relevant context to the conversation
 

jrry32

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Oh and X for a 6'5 QB Bradford seemed to have an inordinate number of batted passes at the los. My guess is it's because of the high number of passes Bradford attempts within 5 yards of the los (remember our discussion the other day regarding his very low 6.2 career ypa) Any thoughts on that? I will say the batted passes seemed to go way down when Clemens played.... But I'm open to hear other theories

I'd blame a few different causes:
1. A high number of shorter passes
2. Bradford being too deliberate with his eyes (needs to do a better job of using his eyes and stance to manipulate coverage)
3. The interior OL struggling (Dahl and Williams played poorly...the interior OL is responsible for helping create passing lanes...if they don't...it can cause BPs)

Interestingly enough, Bradford and Kaepernick had the same percentage of their passes batted down at the LOS. Also, interestingly enough, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, and Philip Rivers(on top of Colin Kaepernick) all were in the top 10 in most passes batted down last year.
 

-X-

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The one to Quick was under thrown, then tipped. Sam's booboo.
Possibly. But if you're throwing a deep ball between two defenders to a 6'3 receiver, you kinda hope he can make the adjustment. $20 says Calvin Johnson comes down with that ball, and ONLY Calvin Johnson. I really give 50/50 blame for that one, but even if I gave Bradford 100% of the blame, we're talking about 4 interceptions that were tipped against 14 touchdowns in 7 games. I've picked bigger nits in my day...
 

rhinobean

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Being a Sam fan, I'm not picking on Sammy! Wished he had led him further down field is all! Sam don't make many mistakes in his play!
 

-X-

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Pffffft.....Another Bradford debate thread :wabbit:
Look at it as an opportunity to fortify your own beliefs and/or arguments. These things don't always have to be bad.
 

wrstdude

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Yep. I remember that play. The one where Pettis threw his hand up and Bradford didn't take enough off the ball. But now we're getting into perfection territory. Agreed it would have been nice to get 7 there instead of 3, but it was not smooth sailing, offensive or defensively for the Rams, from there on out either. In the Cowboys game, I already said I'm not absolving him of any wrong doing, but what happened to him is what happened to Manning in the Super Bowl. Was Manning to blame for that? I suppose so. But at some point you have to give another team credit where its due. When we smacked the Colts around, I wouldn't necessarily characterize Luck as being the reason for it. If I was a Colts fan, I would say it was our defense's fault and I hope we never have to play the Rams again. See what I'm getting at?

The bold is so accurate it's scary. Too much of the Bradford criticism is the desire of his detractors for him to be perfect. I remember the announcers' utter disbelief on that play as if Bradford was the only QB to ever miss a throw for a potential TD. People were shocked, that on one of the biggest stages against one of the best teams in football, a QB could make a mistake. How did SB8 even get a job?

A future Hall of Famer & Super Bowl champ would never make that mistake right?

Bny9wPjCcAERBSZ.jpg


Ok, 2x, but certainly not 3x.


Bny9aYBIgAAN18t.jpg:large


4x??

Bny749hCIAEicvM.jpg


How has that bum kept a job for so long?



I'd blame a few different causes:
1. A high number of shorter passes
2. Bradford being too deliberate with his eyes (needs to do a better job of using his eyes and stance to manipulate coverage)
3. The interior OL struggling (Dahl and Williams played poorly...the interior OL is responsible for helping create passing lanes...if they don't...it can cause BPs)

Interestingly enough, Bradford and Kaepernick had the same percentage of their passes batted down at the LOS. Also, interestingly enough, Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, and Philip Rivers(on top of Colin Kaepernick) all were in the top 10 in most passes batted down last year.

I say it's 100% the bold. It's only not, if someone can show me a time where an attempted 20 yard pass gets tipped. The angle of release is greater on the intermediate to deep passes. No chance for a DL to deflect those. Over the course of a game where the majority of the passes are under 10 yards-absolutely a DL can get his hands on one or more of those. DL is trained to jump to knock those down if they're not getting pressure. It's easy pickings if a 6'5" QB is throwing a 5 yard dump to a 5'10" RB.
 

max

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True. There's a difference.

And why does a naturally very accurate passer make a very inaccurate throw in a critical situation?

Some would that's a sign of a QB who just isn't the guy. We shall see.
 

bluesjoc

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And why does a naturally very accurate passer make a very inaccurate throw in a critical situation?

Some would that's a sign of a QB who just isn't the guy. We shall see.
RMKhJq3.gif
 

The Rammer

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Look at it as an opportunity to fortify your own beliefs and/or arguments. These things don't always have to be bad.
They don't always have to be bad but If you put up a on sports book on a thread to be ransacked by negativity and bad info it'll have to be a Bradford one!
 

jjab360

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And why does a naturally very accurate passer make a very inaccurate throw in a critical situation?

Some would that's a sign of a QB who just isn't the guy. We shall see.
We still talking about the Pettis miss? Because that wasn't really a critical situation, that was still the beginning of the game iirc. His throw in OT against the 49ers to Amendola last year that got called back, or the dime that Quick dropped against the Panthers, or how about his game winning throw to Gibson in the back of the endzone against the Bills. Those were critical situations and he definitely delivered, just not the rest of the team at least in the first two instances. I'm sure there's countless more situations but I think his much improved passer rating in the 4th quarter disproves whatever direction you were going with. If anything, he needs to learn how to make the plays when it doesn't matter as much.
 

-X-

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And why does a naturally very accurate passer make a very inaccurate throw in a critical situation?

Some would that's a sign of a QB who just isn't the guy. We shall see.
haha. You made me snot too.