OK, I might have some typos here as I'm doing a quick recap of the game against the lowly Chargers.
MEDIOCRITY was what I saw.
And like I said, I'm freaking tired of Mediocrity.
.........................
vs. Chargers
First drive.
5-yard pass to D. Thomas, who made 2 guys missed and turned the play into a 72-yd TD.
It was a good play by Osweiler, but most of the credit ought to go to Thomas who got separation with a good move and then all the extras after the catch.
Second drive.
Sanders gained an extra 30 yards before having the ball taken away from him by a defender.
NOT Osweiler's fault.
Third drive.
The first INT.
This is the play where I said Osweiler didn't help himself.
The Chargers only rush 3; he had plenty of time.
The Broncos were in empty shotgun on 3rd and 1.
With the 2 wide outs running deep sideline routes; the Broncos had the other 3 receivers in bunch formation in the left slot.
All 3 ran their routes across the field.
Osweiler could wait a bit longer for the first two to clear the area; he could have done better keeping an eye on those two receivers to "freeze" the other defenders.
He didn't help himself there.
The DB who was following another receiver across the field saw the play the whole time and came back for the INT.
Fourth drive.
With the ball at the Chargers 21, on 2nd and 11, Osweiler fumbled the ball.
Severe lack of awareness.
Broncos had a wideout on the far left side.
Chargers originally had
nobody on him; they finally sent a LB out there.
Osweiler never saw that.
Who remembers the play on which the Texans allowed a free TD in a similar situation a couple of years ago?
A quick call for a snap and that would have been an easy TD right there.
Even with the LB finally making it out there, wouldn't you want your QB to go with the wide-out on such a situation.
But Osweiler never saw that.
And that was also why he never saw the free blitzer.
Sack.
Fumble.
Scoring chance gone.
He was lucky it was a DE that recovered the fumble.
An OLB would have taken that in for a score.
There was nothing but green grass back there.
Fifth drive.
2nd and 10
Screen pass losing 4 yards.
It's difficult to describe it here.
I contend that Osweiler also had the option to go with the crosser just ahead of the screen pass.
He had to check the LB who was right ahead of him (the guy that's on the RB) and the D-lineman that his O-lineman peeled off from to make the block downfield.
With those two guys converging, his RB had zero chance.
The guy with the big chance was the crosser (as the LB left his area in the middle to come up on the RB).
All this was developing right in front of him.
That was at best "mediocre" QB play (poor recognition).
That could have been an easy completion on the crossing route, but instead it was a 4-yd loss and 3rd and 14.
3rd and 15.
With plenty of time, Osweiler went with a dump-off that went nowhere.
He had a receiver further downfield (in his eyesights) that ran a fade route past the marker.
But, OK, let's go to a dump-off just to be safe.
Sixth drive.
2nd INT
NOT his fault as the RT was beaten in just over 2 secs.
However, his long wind-up (a la old Schaub) - that starts below chest level with the ball way out there for the taking - definitely was a good reason why the rusher was able to have a hand on the ball.
If he had started his throwing motion in the classic sense, that would have been a long completion instead of an INT.
That's not his fault, but it's his draw-back. It hinders him.
Seventh drive.
2nd and 12
With the Chargers rushing 3, Osweiler ran right into the teeth of the rush; he managed to dump the ball off for 2.
But he could have just stayed put and get the pass out to OD or the receiver on the other side for at least 5 yards.
He had choices on either side, but because he took off up the middle, he took away his own options.
(Lack of vision and mentality.)
3rd and 12
Delayed 5-man blitz with the safety coming all the way from 10 yards deep.
You know a dump-off or a throw-away ball is coming.
Most optimistic description of this scenario is MEDIOCRITY.
Eight drive
Another delayed blitz. Another ball thrown away.
Osweiler had no idea what the defense was doing.
He was reacting to it rather than picking it apart.
On the next play, he didn't see a wide-open man further downfield (again on the same line of sight); he settled for the shorter throw.
MEDIOCRITY AT BEST. 