Henne has improved..but

Henne has all the tools to make the next step. hope to see it happen next week against Minnesota. how about that defense!!!

 

I think Henne played a great game, obviously he had zero turnovers and he had a nice 62% completion. The only issue I had was the overthrow and underthrow on the two Brandon Marshall plays, but I think that will come with time, he obviously has the arm to make those passes he just needs to get in sync with 19, who if we all remember only got limited reps with Henne in TC because of his hip.

 

His touch still needs some work. I saw a few other small under/over throws as well.

 

The touch pass to Fasano was a thing of beauty and the pass under thrown to Marshall was into the wind.

Not saying he is perfect, but there are other things to consider also.

 

Henning was definitely using kid gloves with Henne yesterday. Overall, Henne did what they asked of him. He missed a few throws, but didn't force anything. This is why I wish we could see the coaches tape, because they were times he had all day to throw and either checked it down or took a sack/threw it away.

There was one play where Tasker said Hartline was wide open, but Henne never saw him and checked it down.

 

He probably did see him and didn't care

 

I remember the play. He never even looked down field. He was under a little pressure, and immediately looked for a back. That's one area he needs to improve. Just because you're under pressure doesn't necessarily mean you have to check down. You have to know as QB that when they bring the blitz chances are someone is open down field or over the middle. Marino was the best in the history of the NFL at this. He was the best at pretty much everthing passing wise, but even late in his career he threw deep against the blitz.

 

On the big underthrow to Marshall, warn't the throw into the wind. Could be it just got held up in the wind more than he expected.

I was pretty pleased with Henne. For the first game out he looked good and kept the mistakes to a minimum.

 

It was definitely caught up in the wind. Henne later said he thought he threw it hard enough, but obviously didn't. So he was aware of the wind, just missed it.

For evidence of just how strong the wind was, Lindell made a 63 yard FG pretty close going the other direction. Or, at least closer than it should have been.

/thought it was good when it left his foot

 

I am just shocked a Kicker actually missed against us.

 

- as soon as they lined up I turned to my (completely uninterested) better half and said - "This guy will make it. No one ever misses long field goals against the Dolphins".

 

It looked to me that Henne was playing not to make a mistake. It was the first game, on the road against a division rival in a hostile situation. Add to that it was against a very good secondary. There's alot of pressure on this guy. Give him a few weeks to hit his stride.

Next week is gonna be an enormous test. Be prepared, and watch level-headed. The Vikes are going to stack the box all night long and make Henne throw.

TBH as long as we dont look like a highschool team againt them i'll be somewhat happy being 1-1 going into the Jets game!

 

Remember, this guy still hasnt even played a years worth of games yet in his NFL career, he is still getting better.

 

By my count Henne left 3 TDs on the field yesterday.
1. The one that we all saw with the overthrow to BM
2. At 448 min left in the first Hartline on a post wide open; Henne never saw him!
3. At 200 min left in the second, the play where Henne takes off running, RB down the right sideline uncovered (and waving) Wide Open. Henne never saw him.

There may have been others in the second half but I didn't catch them.

I said this last year when it was reported that Henne needs glasses but doesn't wear them, just maybe he needs to have someone change his mind.

You take those 3 scores and the 2 dropped INTs for TDs and we have a blowout in Bills land!

 

Drew Brees sucked until his 4th year. Aaron Rodgers was good in his first year as a starter, but it was also his 4th year as a pro. I think Henne is progressing just fine. He has the mental makeup of a dominant quarterback. He has the arm to make any throw. Once he gains the experience that everything slows down for him, it'll be raining touchdowns. It'll be sooner than later.

 

What decisions did Henne make or not make yesterday, that Penny would have done better?

Henne turned in a very Penny like game yesterday. I fail to see how a QB who hasn't even started enough games to fill an entire season, can be gauged to never be an upper tier player.

Seriously, I must have watched a completely different game yesterday.

 

can someone develop that? can he?

 

At the point RB was waving he was at the edge of the camera coverage but with the wave I'm thinking he thinks he is open so I would too. Its a real shame because after that is when we miss the field goal and comeaway with zip.

 

the formula:

1) offense line wins the war of the trenches, consistently opening running lanes
2) ground game is established, forcing the Vikings to a run defense
3) Henne can settle into a rhythm, opening up the passing game
4) the ferocious beast are well rested & ready to devour the opposition offense, when they take the field

hopefully, the new interior line will have their timing & chemistry down by game-time Sunday & Henne can step up & make some big plays

 

I'm not disagreeing with you by any means, but wouldn't Henne's (vastly) superior arm strength allow him to look at his reads a little longer than Penny? Pennington was quick on his reads because he had to be out of necessity. You'd think that someone with a laser could afford to wait and see if things open up before checking off. Maybe I'm off-base on this. Just a thought.

 

I understand what you're saying, I just don't know how you can with complete confidence claim he waited 1/2 second too long. That isn't really measurable, especially from watching it on TV. No QB hits every open guy. And what are you even basing that on exactly? He had a 62% completion, engineered 3 scoring drives that weren't the benefit of good field position based on a TO. He had over 200 yrds passing and no interceptions. All that says he played the gameplan exactly.

If you made this observation about Sanchez last night, then it would make more sense, but the results were very different.

If Henne focuses on Marshall an extra half second, it is just as likely due to this is their first real game together as it is that he simply incapable of not doing it. Focusing on a receiver too long causes interceptions, throw aways and incompletions. None of that happened in an unacceptable amount.

Yes, he can become more cerebral and make faster decisions...however, I just haven't seen anything to indicate he should be as polished as Manning in less starts than a full season. Not too mention, your first post basically said he'd never get there.

 

It is common for young QBs to dump off too soon. And Henne himself said he needs to trust his WRs and let it fly more.

What I love about the kid is he knows his mistakes and that is the first step to getting better. Once they get some more reps and he sees that he can trust his guys, I think we will see him take some more shots downfield.

If you noticed Flacco started to get more comfortable in yesterday's game once Boldin started pulling those catches in. I have faith it will come with Henne as well.

 

This whole post is the best thing I have read all day, D.F.

The bolded part is especially an area of concern to me, as I am just not confident that this will (or can) improve much in a player. Processing things faster. Being smarter. I mean, that's processor speed and nothing I;ve heard or seen of henne for years has led me to see him as a very quick-thinking QB.

So, I could see him getting a LITTLE better at that, but not a LOT.

This Minnesota game, and the Jets game (with their complex D scheme) will be the best litmus test to see if we have a top 5 QB talent or just an 'above average' guy.

 

Neither is saying a running back waited a split second too long before 'hitting the hole', or an LB waited a split second too long before reading and reacting to an outside run.

Seriously, a lot of posts recently questioning our basically ability as experienced football fans to know what we're looking at.

To me it's very basic. If you understand football decently and watch it regularly you can absolutely make those sorts of judgements by eye.

I mean, I don't need to know a measurable like that a girl is a 3.2 out of 10 to see that she's ugly with my own eyes.

 

I think a lot of that is Rain Man Sparano's obsession with avoiding risk. lol. He has probably convinced Henne that he'll be crapped on all week long if he doesn;t act very conservatively with the ball except the two times per game we take our deep shots. Sparano would say, I'll bet, that it's critical you hit those couple chances cuz it's all you're getting.

 

If this is true, he's far stupider than I could ever have feared and I will simply stop worrying about his future.

 

Where's your Mojo? I'd be surprised if we lose to Minnesota, we match up with them quite well IMO.

 

No you can't.

I've watched plenty of football, and on TV broadcasts they don't show the field. You really have no idea what's going on off camera. You also don't know where half the defense is looking. You can't feel the wind and you have the benefit of a third person view.

Your RB analogy doesn't work, because the footage provided on TV is a little different. You can see a hole collapse a split second before the RB got there. With a pass, you can't see the lurking safety a yard or two away just off screen. Point is, if you can see a QB holding the ball and locking on a receiver, then it generally means you can't see what he's looking at from TV footage.

Henne did not have a horrible game. Henne did not show that he won't or is unable to improve. Henne's stats from that game disprove a lot of what is being said. And if anyone claims, they can watch TV footage and say that he's holding the ball a half second too long....they're simply wrong.

 

Marino did not need to check down. He would constantly stare down his target and dare the defenders to make an early break on the ball...

 

If he hits that one long pass to Marshall, in stride for a TD..... this thread doesn't exist.

And since it's only his 14th game as a starter, first live action with Marshall, playing against a very solid secondary...... these "judgments" seem too premature and harsh.

It's going to take a while for this offense and Henne to develop.....

He's a 2nd round QB making peanuts...... not a 50 million dollar, top 5 pick. You can't expect him to be out there lighting it up with less than a years worth of games under his belt.

 

Exactly. And its not like he played poorly. He played solid legitimate football. He played like Penny.

 

He played a good game and he does hold the ball to long sometimes, and panics with a defender coming full steam from the middle. You don't HAVE to have see the whole field to see it either. I'm not saying I can see it off screen either. :-)

He simply needs to get rid of it or move around in the pocket to buy time. Timing is key and yes, he showed some improvements Sunday but he is not playing like Penny just yet. He has the better tools but man, Penny is one of the best at timing the Wr's coming out of there breaks. Henne can do it but he needs to keep watching and listening to Pennington to get there.

I'm going to get a bunch of no he wouldn't haves on this but I'll stand by it. My bet is that Pennington would have hit Marshall on that pass or came a lot closer to it. He knows the swirling winds of NY and IF he had his eye on Marshall before he broke loose, he would have thrown it the second he saw Marshall WAS going to get behind the defender. So he would not have had to throw it a mile since he can't. He would have known what to do. Henne was just a split second late on throwing it. I would also take a guess that Henne hits that pass at least 6 times out of 10 so I'm not saying bring in Pennington at all. I'm dying to see that play start to work with Henne on game day.......more often.