I appreciate your vote of confidence, but honestly I'm just a fan. I do plan on getting all-22 access just to study this stuff. I'd like to do a weekly thing next season where we study games together, or at least key parts of games.
That said, there are a lot of good football minds - both fans and media - that break these plays down and are revealing the same tendencies in O'Brien's offense. This scheme lacks a clear identity. O'Brien calls it a "game plan offense", but what exactly does that mean? I understand the concept, but it also means he's not consistently running the same designs and is constantly trying to out-think opposing DCs (according to his own words). You can get away with that mentality when you've got Tommy GOAT at QB, but I don't think Deshaun is nearly at the same point of processing information in real time.
Deshaun Watson threw the ball away ... backwards
Watson is a great quarterback. But even great quarterbacks do some very dumb things. Even though he got the win this week,
Watson’s blunder was pretty up there, when he fumbled the ball against the
Chargers. It wasn’t just that he fumbled, though. It was
how he fumbled.With Joey Bosa bearing down on him on a second-and-7 from Houston’s 39-yard line,
Watson looked to
Duke Johnson for a screen pass behind the line of scrimmage. But
Johnson had
Desmond King coming at him with a full head of steam and, not wanting to put his running back or himself in unnecessary danger, he threw it away.Problem is, he threw it away behind the line of scrimmage — and backwards.
Yup, that’s always a fumble. This one was recovered and advanced by the Chargers, who took a 7-0 lead on the ensuing possession.On one hand,
Watson choosing to not take a sack AND to not put Johnson in line for a massive hit from
King were good decisions. Too many quarterbacks dump the ball without looking at the position their potential receiver will be in once they’ve caught it. On the other hand, MAYBE throw it somewhere else next time.
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I remember reviewing this "screen" play on all-22. You can't tell here, but virtually the entire D shifted left........and yes, Coute was open with no one in front of him.
Basic processing, not scheme run amuck. Although Watson was moving to the right, his tunnel vision processing led him to ignore Coute and force the ball to a receiver that was not open.