Buckeyetroop, if that's your explanation then i just have to disagree. Every qb who snaps every ball has options and doesn't always pick the best one on any given play. You pointed out 2 instances where he made mistakes compared to 20 + postive plays he made. Henne protected the ball all game, made a variety of throws to several recievers, came back after being down 14 nothing early. Even though our D couldn't get a turnover and very few 3 and outs. Mentally he was spot on for a whole game and gave his team a chance to win. Sanchez played mistake free football and we gave up points on too many drives. Our sp teams didn't help out either. There really was not much else Henne could have done. It wasn't his fault he was forced to throw that 4th down play at the end of the game. It wasn't his fault the team was in that situation to begin with. he tried and it didn't work. He came back from behind, got us the lead, came back again and again. Mentally he was tough. Didn't give up, didn't get flustered no matter how poorly the rest of the team played. I would like to know your definition of mentally good? Just because you see a wideout who is open that he doesn't look for doesn't mean you would see said wideout if you had a constant pass rush of 280 pound linemen comming at you, who were getting their arms up in passing lanes almost every play. Henne can't see the angle we see on TV or in the stands. And he usually has less than 7 seconds to figure it out. Last night he was mentally strong. Very strong. He fought back. Kept getting yanked everytime he got 3 passes in a row completed to watch a wildcat put him in a 2nd n long situation, got us back in the game, got a lead, came back again and got us to the red zone on the last attempt. What is mentally wrong with a qb who does that? Absolutley Nothing IMO. Again, i don't think he's perfect, but how people aren't extremely impressed with him this year is something i can't agree with. Not from what i've seen from our second year qb through 3 games. And he's lead our team to a 2-1 record. I'll take that.
One other good thing: I believe Pittsburgh and KC are the only two undefeated AFC teams, and I think Chicago is the only undefeated team in the NFC. There seems to be a lot more parity this year than in some past seasons where you had a two or three really dominant teams (like Indy and the Pats). We probably play in the toughest division but a record like 9-7 may be enough to get us in. I see no reason why we cannot win the division like we did two years ago. Next week we have to put lots of pressure on Brady and make sure we have a guy on Welker and we also have guys on their Tight Ends. I think we can handle the long bombs to Moss better than in past years, but again we cannot give Brady time to launch it down the field. I think we should be able to pressure Brady better then we did Sanchez. They don't have much of a running game and their RB's are banged up.
Collinsworth was dead on about the turf- it totally gave way under Jason Allen. Bad luck for Allen, but if you look at that play- his technique looks picture perfect, but his body lean and footwork left him vulnerable to the wet, loose turf. Easy for me to criticize, but imo he should have factored in the very loose turf to his style of play. Nonetheless I still prefer him to the overrated Sean Smith, who statistically is an awful CB. I really wouldn't mind going with Vontae, Jason, Sapp and Carroll at CB and start getting Smith some reps at WR- why not at this point? That doesn't mean that I'm giving up on him, but he's not a very good CB, he's too soft and lousy of a tackler to move to S, he's got size, athletic skill and a history at WR. Why not give it a shot there if he's not getting playing time at CB?
Don't get me wrong, I see a lot of positives about how he played. When I'm questioning the mental aspect, I guess i'm looking more at decision making. I haven't missed a game in years just like a lot on this board and have really paid attention to his progress. I was talking about missing BM pre-snap in the slot uncovered and he decides to throw a fade. That was a huge mistake at that point in the game. I don't expect him to be perfect but I would expect him to pickup on that if he's scanning the D pre-snap. I predicted, like a lot of others, during his frosh year at Michigan that he looked like a pro style QB who could succeed at the next level and I still believe that.
Chris, a QB can be off the mark all game one game and still have good stats, because his Receivers make heroic efforts to catch his ****ty passes. All I'm saying is look at the plays on shortcuts, and tell me if his Receivers - ALL of them - aren't struggling to adjust to his errant passes all game long. Tall, short, behind, overthrown - all game long Receivers were unable to get any YAC because they were selling out their bodies to simply catch the balls. THIS is why stats don't mean **** except to fans and agents.
