Interesting to say the least.......................Oh, and this coming from the guy who still doesn't get the QB situation in the 3rd qtr. Lol
Interesting? Care to elaborate or are you confused, again? You're wrong. Re-read this entire post and at least try to comprehend what was written. When I was explaining to my wife why they were running the WC over and over in order to get into the 3rd quarter she seemed to understand it better than you do. Again though, my point is still relevant. They were so worried that they would have to keep Thiggy in the rest of the game that they ran the WC over and over until the 3rd quarter ran out and until they were sure Henne woudln't be back in. There, I repeated what I wrote previously. Just for you. In hopes that you'll understand it now.
Some games your stats are horrible and yet you played very well. Some games your stats are great even though you didn't do so hot. Today was the latter scenario for Henne. He may have had a good QB rating and decent yards, but they're deceiving. If you look at the drive charts you'd see that for Henne, there was only one, maybe two DRIVES where he orchestrated anything positive, and that's assuming that I'm calling a drive in which he hits a wide open Hartline for a 54 yard strike flea flicker (should have been a TD to a WIDE open hartline if not for the bad throw), chunk yards if I've ever seen them, and yet he still managed to get only a FG out of the drive. That's 2 drives out of 8 where Henne was involved with the offense moving down the field. I don't count the first TD, as he was only handing off to RB, and I'm not counting the TD to Cobbs after the fumble recovery, even though the pass was nice to Henne's credit, but come one, that's one outlet pass, not a solid drive.
Listen, you can cherry pick all you want. Henne played great yesterday. Was he perfect? No. Show me a QB who completes all of his passes and never underthrows or overthrows a pass and I'll give you the keys to my home. Henne, coming off of the bench, where 4 days earlier he found out he would be sitting, after watching his friend and mentor most likely receive a career ending injury, with no running game to speak of and WR's p!ssed off still found a way to put together a very good game and pull out a victory. You're blaming Henne for stalled drives when we had NO running game, stupid, drive stalling injuries and a few questionable calls from the OC shows you to be nothing more than a biased, Henne hater. Man, I may just have to purchase the "Club Level" here so I don't have to converse with certain people.
If you're referring to me as "certain people", I can tell you that you won't get any more of a free pass from the Club Level than what you're getting here. Club doesn't mean everyone agrees with you. Club doesn't mean everyone there is an astute observer of the game. I've been a member for years now, so I speak from experience. I no longer choose to go to the Club, because I consider the Mains a less homogenous forum for discussion. And if you think I'm being unreasonable for simply stating my opinion, and you can't tolerate having an intelligent discussion with another fan, then maybe forums period are just not for you. Lest I be labeled a troll, I've copied and pasted a post of mine from another thread on the same topic, and with your terse comments, it appears to be appropriate for discussion: "I don't know if "great" is the proper adjective. Until Henne connected on that flea flicker, he was getting real close to losing this team altogether, and I'm still not sure he hasn't already. Until that play, we were utterly toothless. And even with that play we only netted a FG where a well thrown ball would have been a TD without question as Hartline had four or five steps on the safety. Let's take a look at how drives ended where Henne had anything to do with it whatsoever (not counting the first drive; that was more Penny's drive and Ronny just fnished it off after a fumble gave us great field position): Possession 2: 3 & out Possession 3: 3 & out Possession 4: 3 & out Possession 5: FG (this after a 54 yard flea flicker) Possession 6: 3 & out Possession 7: Interception (poorly thrown ball by Henne to Marshall; should have led him over the middle) Possession 8: FG (Henne had some nice throws on this drive; looked very, very good...until he hit the red zone) Possession 9: TD (this was after the VY fumble; 2 play drive; good pass by Henne; great effort by Cobbs) Possession 10: Henne leaves game In total: That's 8 drives, 4 3&outs, 1xInt, 2 FGs and 1xTD I wouldn't say this was a "great" effort for any QB, don't care who he is. "
Haven't you heard? There are millions of fans who (think they) are smarter than the NFL coaches and GMs, but they selflessly turn down the fame and millions in order to work regular 9-5s.
No offense, but give me a freakin break...... Henne took over and did pretty damn good in 3 qtrs of play. You act like no QB in the league has had a few stalled drives in virtually EVERY game this season..... or that every QB is expected to complete 100% of his passes. By your unrealistic standards, the scores should look like Arena league or even an NBA game b/c every QB would march up and down the field with every possession.... and rookies wold play like seasoned vets within just 2 years. When will you understand-- He's a still-developing 2nd year starting QB, not an 8 year seasoned vet; hence a 92 rating considering our putrid ground game at the time is pretty damn good. Did he steal your girlfriend away from you in middle school or something?
This ^^^ is what kills me. How many people made this same statement about Drew Brees, Steve Young, Neil O'donnell, Matt Schaub etc. QB's take time to develop. Admittedly, some never do, and there is a chance Henne falls into that category. But it's unfair and borderline ignorant to say he will never this or never that. He was a late 2nd rounder, so everyone one knew he needed a significant amount of work and development. That requires patience, something that seems to be in short supply around here.
Yup. Not to mention he was the best pure passer at the combine and was regarded as 1st round talent IIRC. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought some teams had Henne rated higher than Ryan, including us (which would be the reason we took Long #1 instead).
Honestly, I do not remember, but I would find it surprising if any team had Henne above Ryan. Now Henne above Flacco I could see.
Pretty damn good huh? Look at that drive chart and tell me how that is so. If you were watching the game, you would have picked up on the feeling that prior to that flea flicker, our offense was about as effective as a girls softball team out there. Henne looked scared. He looked unsure of himself. And the rest of the team was sensing it too. Lie to yourself if you wish, but I know what I saw. I began this year a HUGE fan of Henne. I liked what I saw last year and was ready to see him progress as he should have. Alas, he's digressing. He's incapable of playing vs. zone coverage. And it's hurting our team BIG TIME. And the "he's only a 2nd year starter argument" is getting old. How many games are we to hold our tongues before we say what we're seeing out loud? Some people see it sooner than others. And I'm pretty damn sure Tony Sparano saw what I'm seeing. You don't run the risk of ruining your QB who was to be your franchise guy by benching him if he's just going through growing pains. You let him ride it out. But that's not what happened. My guess is Sparano saw what we CAN'T see on film, the play by play shots of who's open and when, and he came to the conclusion that this guy is flat leaving too many plays on the field and its costing us games, and will continue to cost us games. The jig was up. DCs around the league had cracked the Henne code and the word was on the street, IMHO. Sparano benched Henne because he saw that his problems were fundamental, not bumps in the road like you're suggesting. A rookie like Sam Bradford can use your excuse for inneptitude. He's a rookie. But Chad Henne sat an entire year studying our offense, learning the studying habits of the most cereberal QB of our time, then was given a 13 game audition his second year in which he was working without any real expectations. WE ARE IN YEAR THREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And he's digressing. It kills me that this is true, but it doesn't change the facts. At this point, I have real concerns that Henne has lost his confidence alltogether and it will take an awakening of sorts to snap him out of what has become his shell of timid decision making.
No offense, I don't think you can see the forest for the trees. You want to blame Henne, some want to blame Henning, when neither is at fault. Lots of QB's regress in their second year, its normal. Not that Henne has regressed, b/c I don't think he has, but that's besides the point. IMO Henne and Henning are like oil and water, and they are both making each other look bad. Henning's offense is old school. Run the ball, throw short, play it safe, take an occasional shot. From the QB, it requires quick decisions, and pinpoint accuracy on short-intermediate throws. Pennington's skill set matches almost perferctly, and I respect those who say he should've been the starter. I disagree, only b/c I'm more concerned with life after Penny and Henning. Henne, on the other hand, is a terrible fit for Henning's system. He belongs in a Norv Turner type system. One that utilizes the run to set up the down field passing game. The Chargers throw down field as much as any team in the league, they force you into quarters coverage/Cover 2 and they punish you if you refuse. Turner's Cowboys teams fed Emmitt and Irvin, using Moose and Novachek as reliable blockers and check down targets, and Alvin Harper to blow the top off of coverages that crept to close to the LOS. Henne's not going to keep plays alive for 5-7 seconds like Big Ben or Rodgers or throw pinpoint passes into short zones and rolled up coverages like Brady, that's not his game. But he can spray the ball with the best of them. He can find windows down the field and he can throw it over any safety's head when he needs to. Admit it, every once in a while you'll see Henne make a "wow" throw, but then the rest of the game goes by and he's not even allowed to attempt another one. It's Henning's philosophy to be conservative, and it's holding Henne's development back. In order for offense to be an elite, Top 8 unit, we don't need a new QB. We need to upgrade our FB, WR2, TE2 & RB2 & a new OC. We need a FB who is an effective check down receiver as well as a good blocker. Polite was awesome last year, but he's been inconsistent at best this year. Fasano is good enough but Mastrud is not an NFL player. Hartline needs to be upgraded with a faster guy who can stretch the field without help from play fakes, much flea flickers. Ricky needs to be upgraded to a slasher, Jamal Charles/Darren Sproles type. Our RB's are physical but the don't threaten the secondary AT ALL. I'm not on love with Ronnie either, but it'll cost a first round pick or a huge contract to get someone like Deangelo Williams or Mark Ingram and I'm not down with that. Lastly, Henning has to go. I'm not bashing or blaming, he just doesn't fit Henne, he's not willing to change, and it's a lot easier to change coordinators than QB's. He refuses to stop calling power plays, even though his line is G's are much better at drive blocking than pulling. He's made almost no effort to feed his best offensive player, Marshall. I know Marshall is up there in targets, but he's not been anywhere near as effective as the #s suggest, and he's been a non factor for large segments of several games, which is unacceptable IMO. Anyhow, that's JMHO, I'm going out for a drink or five before MNF. I'll be jealously watching how Philly threatens to blow the top of of Washington's coverages throughout the game, more times in a half than we'd see down here in half a season.
