There is a lot of reasons to be frustrated today... and I'm not going to go into them b/c there are plenty of other threads discussing those topics. However, one of the brightest spots of yesterday IMO was that of Henne's 19 career starts, I believe yesterday was the best game of Henne's career. Statistically, hes had better. Yesterday he finished with 257 yards on 64% with 1 TD and 0 INTs and a 94.3 QB rating. Good, not amazing. However, it goes far deeper than what the stat sheet read. On Sunday, Henne took HUGE steps toward being our franchise QB IMO. There were 2 aspects of his game in particular that showed tremendous growth in his game. The first was how he went through his progressions. In the past, he has had a tendency to lock on to WRs, or if he went through his progressions, he would go through them too fast and not give the routes time to develop, and end up checking down too early. However, in this game Henne methodically went through his progressions all game long. He didnt rush his way through his progressions, and he didnt lock on to WRs. He took his time and gave a route a chance to develop before moving on to the next progression. That is the kind of growth we need from him to become our QB of the next decade. And the 2nd thing, and most impressive thing that I had never seen from Henne before was the pump fake. In fact, it has been one of my biggest criticisms of Henne. He never would use it, which would allow defenses to tee off on him as soon as they saw him begin a throwing motion. However, yesterday it came out of no where... and all of a sudden he was using the pump fake all over the place. More importantly... used it to move defenders and set up WRs and throwing lanes. I cant stress enough how big that is. That is BIG TIME stuff from a young QB. Thats really showing that hes getting comfortable in the mental aspect of the game. Seeing the coverage, recognizing it, and knowing how to manipulate that coverage in order to beat it. That is veteran QB stuff... from a 25 year old QB. And lets not forget WHO he was facing when showing this growth in his game. He was going against the best defense in football. I loved what I saw from Henne this week... and if we continue to see the growth in his game like we saw Sunday... we will be set at the position for a long time.
Might we be seeing the makings of a younger Roethlisberger... Minus the Raping part I hope... Great on the rollout scramble to the right, strong pump fake... Cannon that can fire it deep?
100% correct! This is Henne progressing from week to week. This was a huge jump and makes it fun to watch. I didn't have that empty feeling in the bottom of my stomach when the offense hit the field because of the way Henne looked in the pocket doing exactly what you said. I just find it amazing the way he progressed from last week to this week. He looked natural going through his reads and pump faking, as if he has been doing it all along. Credit to Lee and Pennington as well, they are doing a fine job with Henne!
I still think Henne is a little late in his drop and he gets way too many passes batted down but I'm pleased with his poise and his arm. Still has to work on putting some touch on the ball at times.He is developing nicely I think. Henning does a good job trying to stunt his growth unfortunately.
Great, unbiased, rational, cerebral thread! It's refreshing to read one of those around here every once in awhile!
I was jesting. I actually agree 200% with the OP. Just putting out what detractors might argue in advance.
I was pleased with his performance... Outside of the final drive. But perhaps a lot of that blame falls on the receivers as well.
Sorry, but have to disagree. Let me give another perspective of what I saw yesterday (and any game Henne has played for us). He was getting FANTASTIC pass protection yesterday, and had all day to make decisions. The problem is that because he is so inacurate, he has to wait for way more separation between his reciever and the defender before he makes a throw. So what you are considering as going through progressions is more like "Rats, Marshall only has three feet between him and defender; can't throw there".. "Damned, Bess only has four feet between him and defender; that's out"..."Well, better check down to Ricky so I don't get intercepted again". He makes the safe throws, but not the winning ones. That's why we are about dead last in the league in offense, and why we will never win if the ball has to be in his hands when the chips are down. I think ANY QB could have put up those stats with the type of protection he had, but beyond that, MOST any other QB's would have won the game by a large margin. Three times in the Red Zone and all field goals? The one "passing TD" was just about a lateral to Bess, and HE ran the ball for about 15yds for the touchdown. Henne didn't pass for squat. Most of the passing yards were after the catch. Compare how fast Rothlisberger made decisions, and look at the yards gained THROUGH THE AIR and you will see a huge difference. Hell, even Sanchez can throw the quick pass on a short drop; Henne is incapable and needs all day to make a pass. That showed up for sure on the last drive, and unfortunately, it was all we needed to win the game. I think this team is great on defense, great on offensive line, we have great running backs and receivers, and even the special teams has turned around and playing pretty darn good. Our quarterback is the only spot that is absoutley killing us right now, and the cause for where we are.
. Sorry, but you're mistaken if you think any QB could have done that. A perfect example of Henne's improvement was the TD to Bess. Troy Polamalu timed the snap perfectly and nearly busted the play. Henne never panicked, stood tall, and made a perfect pass to the outside. That's a veteran play. Your post is a classic example of putting too much blame on the QB. You wanna know what really killed the Dolphins yesterday? 3rd downs. Pitt converted several 3rd longs, one of them for a TD to Hines Ward.
I was surpised that Miami didn't get into FG range at the end. I really thought they would. When you look at the drives they had beginning with the 3rd FG (and not including the very last) they had 6 offensive drives and scored points on 4 of them. That's pretty damn good and they were moving the ball well in the second half. The downside for me was that they had 5 drives in the game that went 4 plays or less (not counting the final drive) One of those did end in a fumble though. They had another drive go 6 plays for 11 yards. If they could only have scored 1 TD instead of one of those early FG's, they win. I thought Henne played well and the play calling on the final drive was abysmal.
I honestly thought we would too. We played really good against a great team. I just hate the fact that despite everything, the refs really got to determine the game.
henne played great. we should have won and Henne should have his name back in the conversation of Matt Ryan, Sanchez, and flacco for young qbs in the league. But we didn't win, so his performance will go unnoticed. Fine by me as long as he keeps this up. He played against the best defense hes ever seen and he did almost everything right. This our guy fellas. This is our guy.
Well..... I will say this. I have seen more cool Jets fans this season than I can remember in a long while. Its pretty cool to have rival fans that aren't deuchbags here to talk ball with!!!
I love how you compare Ben to Henne with their decision making. Let's see, Ben, a QB who fell into a GREAT team, has been a part of TWO Super Bowl winning teams, has been surrounded by experienced, HoF players, a top ranked defense year in and year out, and to top it all off he's been in the league twice as long and played in 66 more games than Henne. Yeah, comparing those two makes a lot of sense. You then throw Sanchez out there who has inferior numbers to Henne not only this year but during last year too.
If we ever get a competent OC, watch out. Playcalling was a complete laughingstock last night, and has been the majority of the time Henning's been here. Get someone who knows what they're doing, I have no doubts Henne will be at least a top 10 QB. He really impressed me last night with the pump fakes which I've been wanting to see from him, and going through his progressions. Against the best defense in the league to boot.
WTF Jay Fiedler Damon Huard Ray Lucas Brian Griese AJ Feeley Sage Rosenfels Gus Ferrotte Joey Harrington Daunte Culpepper Cleo Lemon John Beck Pat White Enough Said I hope............. About the chips being down here ya go and against two division rivals....not too shabby: His three fourth quarter comebacks came on Dec. 6th vs. New England, Nov. 15, 2009 vs. Tampa Bay and on Oct. 12, 2009 vs. N.Y. Jets.
He spread the ball to everyone as well...Marshall didn't even have a big game, yet he put up 250+. He took what the D gave him.
An out pass that is 11 yds downfield is just about a lateral? I hope we just throw a lateral whenever we're in 3rd and long from now on, I'm sure the refs will give us the 1st down since it's the same after all.
On a side note which quarterback out of this list was the best. I think I have to go with Joey Harrington.
Stats don't tell the story. So he completes 64% of his 5yd passes. Wow. And please don't show his yds/attempt; a 1yd throw with a 89yd run after the catch goes down as a 90yd completion. Stats don't tell the story.