Jantz wasn't that bad Saturday. The fumble was god awful. One interception is on Brun. Another interception is on the receiver who ran the wrong route. The problem started with the guy calling the plays and was basically summed up by a 3rd and 12 where we ran play action while they were showing blitz. Imagine that, a guy runs off the edge untouched and makes Steele's job a real pain in the ***. He didn't even get to look up the field before he was running for his life.
What did we do to counter the pressure? We kept running plays 10-15 yards downfield that take time to develop because our receivers can't beat press coverage when they're trying to run straight through it. An occasional screen to slow pursuit down? Nah. Maybe a draw? No, we'll just keep running the zone read right into the teeth of where they have us outnumbered. Makes sense.
I will disagree with you on Jantz' play. We shouldn't forget the "free play" interception. I know that you take a chance on that play and if you give up an INT when you know it will come back anyway it is no big deal. However you try to make a play not throw it to a D-back who doesn't have a single one of your receivers anywhere near him. I was in the endzone and saw that play unfold right in front of me. There were only a couple of players who had a prayer of getting in the vicinity of that ball and neither of them were wearing cardinal and gold. It's a free play so get it to one of your receivers, even in coverage; only good can happen. You get a big reception or a PI call. If they knock it down or get the INT you take the penalty. He simply threw the free play away. Even throwing it out of bounds would have been better because the easy INT just gave their D-backs more confidence.
The sideline INT was on both Jantz and Lenz. They obviously weren't on the same page. However, when Jantz threw that it was already apparent that Lenz couldn't get the the point he was throwing it to. It isn't like Lenz broke in just as Jantz threw it instead of breaking out. Lenz broke off the route long before the ball was thrown.
The end of game INT was just like the "free play". You have to take a chance at that point of the game, but you take a chance where someone (other than just the DB) can make a play. Again, there wasn't a Cyclone player in the same area code as that pass. Throw it into double coverage at that point but you can't compute the coverage there because you can't divide by zero.
The fumble might just be one of those inexplicable things that happen once in a great while, but the inexplicable happens a lot with this QB. He wasn't touched. I thought I was watching Brad Banks.
Jantz didn't give himself a chance either. The running game was atrocious. As others have said there weren't many holes created by this line. However on numerous occasions Jantz had an opportunity to take the seam and get two or three yards. Instead he would run lateral to the line and get dumped for no gain or a loss. Sure he didn't have a chance on third down because they were bringing the house. They would have had to respect a lot more options if it was 3rd and 4 or 5 rather than third and 8-12.
I agree with you on the screens. People keep talking about the bubble screen. I don't remember every play but it seemed like their corners were playing pretty tight and it might have been anywhere from difficult to disasterous. However what about a more conventional screen. Jantz was running for his life anyway, why not give a pretty good receiving back like White a chance to make a play on a screen? It might just slow down that pass rush as well.
The whole offense was terrible;
putrid was the word I used in a text at halftime. However, Jantz was as big of a problem as anyone.
At this point how about giving Richardson a chance with a pared down playbook? It couldn't get much worse. In any case I hope this offense as a whole is embarrassed and ****** off. They should be. Perhaps we will see a better performance out of them after a week of feeling like that. Kudos to the defense who played their hearts out. I was proud of them.
I certainly hope this ends the nonesense we were hearing on here just a couple weeks ago about how Jantz has a shot at the NFL. Curious that we haven't seen Rusty posting anywhere.
