Anytime you say “this game proved _____,” you’re wrong. All young QBs have lousy games where they look terrible. The issue is the ratio of lousy games to crappy ones. Jury is still out on McCoy; the fact that he has no weapons to work with is a mitigating factor.
Thanks, Moidalize. I knew that defense was going to be pretty good once healthy under Zimmer with the talent they have along that d-line. The elephant in the room was Andy Dalton. Well, he’s played pretty damn good for a rookie…really like his poise, lack of INT’s and his ability to feel his way around the pocket, see his progressions (he spreads the ball around a LOT) and the fact that he can take off with a little speed if necessary. Also: AJ Green is a fucking MONSTER. The guy is on pace for a rookie campaign with 1300 yards and about 9 or so TD’s. He looks so damn fluid out there…and he’s got humility about his demeanor, a refreshing change from the primadonnas from last season.
I am really looking forward to the divisional games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh. That will really tell me what this team is made of. Oh, and note to Hines Ward and James Harrison: THIS is how you hit an unsuspecting opponent, in the chest, not in the head and not with your helmet!
Urp. Thought you were Ogre. Your team certainly didn’t get beat…
D’oh!
I’ll agree that the Browns’ receivers are subpar, but they were still getting open and McCoy was missing them by a lot. He also had a heck of a time identifying not-so-well disguised blitzes. And this has been the pattern for McCoy, who I actually think has regressed from last year (probably because teams have seen what he can and can’t do well).
He had one really wide open receiver all day, which was Greg Little, who promptly preceded to get his cleat grabbed by a turf monster and fell down short of the goalline. Opposing defenses have had no problem covering the underneath stuff. I don’t know if they’re not dragging the routes far enough across the formation to get separation or if they’re just too slow, but when he throws underneath the receivers get hit almost instantly. The only medium to deep route they seemed to run was up the sidelines, and he had a couple of close incompletions on them. And the supposedly good O-line had another mediocre game. Not that Shurmer helped by having McCoy sit in the pocket alone with no RB to pick up the safeties blitzing off the edge.
And no commitment to the run, again. That’s on Shurmur. Rich Gannon was saying all game “they’ve gotta start passing on the early downs,” but all that does is put them into 3rd and longs. They have to run and they have to set up play action.
“This game proved that Jason Campbell cannot be a starting quarterback in this league.”
(Possibly questionable extension: Might also be true of Kyle Boller.)
I do admire Hue Jackson’s balls, though it’d be better if he looked more reasonable about it. Fake a field goal when three points does little to improve your lead? Decent risk to take. Going for it on fourth when you have a sure-fire kicker who can give you a three-possession lead? Dumb (as the tense ending showed).
They had no problem covering the underneath stuff because they knew that’s where the ball was going. It was kind of absurd. They knew McCoy would only go for, and could only hit passes within about 4 yards of the line of scrimmage and so they focused all the coverage there.
There were lots of times where the two receivers that were within 4 yards of the line of scrimmage were double covered. What a crazy insult that is, and a strategy that can only work to the most dumpoff prone of QBs. They left single coverage on anything deep knowing that even if McCoy tried (and he did a decent bit) he wouldn’t get within 5 yards of his receivers anyway, and then he kept throwing 3 yard passes to his double covered RB. Even when they were down 2 TDs.
It’s absurd because he’s going for his checkdowns even when his checkdowns are double covered and no longer an option, and his receivers running deeper routes are open downfield.
Because he got injured? :dubious: 
Presumably a broken collarbone can heal, and he’ll be as adequate as ever.
Indeed; if he keeps going like this for a few more years, he’s going to start some interesting conversations about the Hall of Fame.
The second play of the game Massaquoi was wide open and McCoy threw it 10 yards over his head and out of bounds. On the last drive he threw well behind an open Watson, although I think it could have been caught. There were a couple others where receivers broke free from coverage and McCoy just plain missed them.
That blitz on the first drive was a great scheme by the Raiders, although I think the fullback missed something. Otherwise, McCoy never seemed to know where pressure was coming from even though it was telegraphed presnap.
I would argue that he already is.
Okay, append “this season” - I meant it as a joke (in somewhat poor taste, considering he’s out of action). Although he does need to learn how to fall down properly. Not so much for the collarbone injury, but for the fumble early on that he ought to have avoided.
So, Lloyd goes to St. Louis for a conditional 6th rounder and Sims-Walker fades out with a one line mention in someone else’s press release. At least Bradford will have one person who can catch the ball.
League leader in rec yards to conditional 6th round pick, that’s gotta be unprecedented. I mean, it’s not even a guaranteed 6th rounder 
Well before last year his best year was 733 yards, but mostly he had done nothing before last year. I think if you take out last year, he probably wouldn’t even be worth a 6th rounder, probably just cut outright.
Eh … I don’t think so, yet. He scores 2 TDs per season more than the average return man; if you factor out the long returns, his average is unspectacular. I think you need more than that to be a HOFer.
Is that a serious comment?
Completely. What I’m saying is that Hester’s value lies solely in his propensity to break the occasional long return; he does not routinely get five yards more than the average return man. To be specific: his non-TD punt returns are about 9.5 yards, and his non-TD kickoff returns are about 22 yards. Those are both about league-average numbers for non-TD returns.
The TDs are valuable, of course, and he’s scored 16 in 5+ seasons. The average return man, given the same 300 chances, would have scored about 3. Hence, over his 5+ year career, the value of Devin Hester above average is 13 TDs.
Is that enough to be a HOF? I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.
And he has more than his fair share of fumbles, close to one every three games.
There’s a rumor that Oakland is trying to swing a deal for Carson Palmer before the trade deadline…