Bledsoe is starting to look better

[TruBlueCowboy]

I don't know. We nearly beat Pittsburgh last year with Vinny, who is just as immobile as Drew. If we shore up our protection there's no reason we can't beat Pittsburgh.

Better do it soon. Roethlisberger was a shiny faced rookie that game. He gets better ever week. Damn those Steelers for drafting what may end up being another HOF QB.

 

[TruBlueCowboy]

Jake, Ben, Jake and Brady can all move in the pocket and buy some time. Thats what I noticed this weekend.

Yup, me too. Watched a lot of plays where Bledsoe would have gone down. Fast!

 

[Doomsday101]

But we face a team like Pittsburgh and they'll do to the Cowboys what they did to the Colts.

The Steelers knew Manning was immobile. With their speed linebackers, they were quick enough to get to Manning. IMO, the same thing would have happened to the Cowboys. Our OL don't have the feet to counteract speed rushers.

Things have to be absolutely perfect for Bledsoe otherwise he's not driving us anywhere but the offseason.

Blocking does not need to be perfect and Bledsoe is not the statue some try to make him out to be, he can move around but when your center is getting pushed back and the outside protection is breaking down it is damn hard to find a place to step up to throw the ball. This is not to say that Drew does not hold on too long at times but he is not stuck in cement as some continue to try and claim.

 

[Jarv]

Blocking does not need to be perfect and Bledsoe is not the statue some try to make him out to be, he can move around but when your center is getting pushed back and the outside protection is breaking down it is damn hard to find a place to step up to throw the ball. This is not to say that Drew does not hold on too long at times but he is not stuck in cement as some continue to try and claim.

Ben or Drew, which would you rather have and why ?

 

[Doomsday101]

Ben or Drew, which would you rather have and why ?

Ben because he is a much younger QB and should be around for quite some times. 1 has been in the league 13 years the other 2 years

 

[burmafrd]

Stupid question since we have Bledsoe. Did not do much good having mobile QB's like Plummer and company this weekend did it? Delhomme and Plummer stank it up. Delhomme was going to have a bad game sooner or later and yesterday was it. You cannot have 6 in a row good games and call it a fluke.
The Snake reappeared yesterday just as we all knew he would sooner or later.

 

[Juke99]

I'm seeing it exactly the opposite...and I've said before, I think Bledsoe had a better year than I figured he would.

Two things that I've seen in the playoffs, consistently...defenses apply TONS of pressure on the QB...and every QB I've seen, has shown the ability to avoid the pressure and buy some time...

I have pictured Bledsoe back there getting sacked time and again.

Every team in the playoffs has an O Line better than ours. I dont care how good your O Line is, the defense is still going to bring pressure and the QB has to at least be able to move his feet to avoid that pressure on occasion.

I've seen a number of plays where the QB made a completion, after avoiding the rush and thought "No way Bledsoe makes that play"

So, this offensive line we are all hoping for better be better than good...cuz it's way to easy for the opposing defense to find our QB.

 

[Doomsday101]

Stupid question since we have Bledsoe. Did not do much good having mobile QB's like Plummer and company this weekend did it? Delhomme and Plummer stank it up. Delhomme was going to have a bad game sooner or later and yesterday was it. You cannot have 6 in a row good games and call it a fluke.
The Snake reappeared yesterday just as we all knew he would sooner or later.

I agree and would add that Pitt offensive line played a great ball game. The same Denver pass rush that caused a lot of problems for New England was stopped dead in it's tracks aginst Pitt.

 

[Jarv]

I'm seeing it exactly the opposite...and I've said before, I think Bledsoe had a better year than I figured he would.

Two things that I've seen in the playoffs, consistently...defenses apply TONS of pressure on the QB...and every QB I've seen, has shown the ability to avoid the pressure and buy some time...

I have pictured Bledsoe back there getting sacked time and again.

Every team in the playoffs has an O Line better than ours. I dont care how good your O Line is, the defense is still going to bring pressure and the QB has to at least be able to move his feet to avoid that pressure on occasion.

I've seen a number of plays where the QB made a completion, after avoiding the rush and thought "No way Bledsoe makes that play"

So, this offensive line we are all hoping for better be better than good...cuz it's way to easy for the opposing defense to find our QB.

I was thinking the same thing Juke. I saw Jake D. avoid the rush a few times that I know Bledsoe would be sacked on. Like you said, no matter how good a line is teams can always force pressure.

I also think Big Ben has it all. Great in the pocket, reads the "D" very well, pump fakes and has a strong arm with a nice touch. When he is blitzed and escapes the rush, there is less people out there covering his recievers and he cleans up. This kid has the makings of a star.

 

[Juke99]

I was thinking the same thing Juke. I saw Jake D. avoid the rush a few times that I know Bledsoe would be sacked on. Like you said, no matter how good a line is teams can always force pressure.

I also think Big Ben has it all. Great in the pocket, reads the "D" very well, pump fakes and has a strong arm with a nice touch. When he is blitzed and escapes the rush, there is less people out there covering his recievers and he cleans up. This kid has the makings of a star.

People tried to detract from Rothleisbergers performance by slapping the "busdriver" tag on him.

But fact of the matter is vs the Colts the Steelers game plan was for him to throw...and yesterday he had a great game despite the running game averaging 2.7 per carry.

Bledsoe. Love the guy's arm and his toughness. But I am more convinced than ever, with every team's defensive philosophy being "get the QB" that he is always going to be a liability.

 

[superpunk]

I was thinking the same thing Juke. I saw Jake D. avoid the rush a few times that I know Bledsoe would be sacked on. Like you said, no matter how good a line is teams can always force pressure.

You know that the great Jake D. was third worst in the league in terms of INT per pass attempts? Only Aaron Brooks and Brett Favre were worse? And this while playing behind an offensive line that gave up the 7th least sacks in the league, being able to throw to the most dangerous WR in the league this year?

How many of those advantages did Bledsoe have? And yet he was still better than Delhomme.......amazing.

 

[superpunk]

People tried to detract from Rothleisbergers performance by slapping the "busdriver" tag on him.

But fact of the matter is vs the Colts the Steelers game plan was for him to throw...and yesterday he had a great game despite the running game averaging 2.7 per carry.

Bledsoe. Love the guy's arm and his toughness. But I am more convinced than ever, with every team's defensive philosophy being "get the QB" that he is always going to be a liability.

Juke - we were 7-3! 7-3 with this liability. We were three kicks away from being 12-4! Winning is the bottom line, and he put us in position to win the games. You can't give all the credit to those QBs yesterday. Their defenses played lights out. Defenses that have been getting after the QB all year long. Their offensive lines are regarded as some of the best in the league. One of them has an elite RB, and the other an elite running game. These are established teams, that have had the same coach and philosophy for years now.

Bill is trying to do the exact same thing, build a strong team first, establish a foundation, then bring the young QB in. Until that time comes, Bledsoe can get it done, far better than some others would do in the same situation. Our team is not at dominant status yet. It's gonna come down to the final minutes sometimes. Bledsoe put us in position to be 12-4, a #2 seed. Unfortunately, our real liability - our kicking game - let him, the team, and us down.

 

[Ashwynn]

Just wait til he has his sophmore year slump like he did in Buffalo, and his junior slump and senior slump.

See thats the thing Kartr, you are like just wait, a mistakes gunna happen. And your right, it will happen. When it does you jump up and down and pontificate how great you are cause you called it.

You just hang out and wait for 1 bad thing to happen. Its like two kids, if he leaves his coke can in the living room and not throw it away in the trash can, you right there to tell mom on him. If he gets more cerial then you, you run to mom, If his friends come over to play with him, you get all mad cause you dont have any friends (cause your so damn negitive and tell on pple so damn much) that you have to get him in trouble so your not alone in misery.

I just dont understand how someone can live in such dark lonely ways and enjoy it. SPreading doom and gloom cause your not happy with the QB, yet we had no real options on anyone else. Hes the best we could get to do the job and hes done a great job of it. Yet here comes Carter telling us how he sucks that hes bot young, Sucks that he cant move like vick, sucks cause he pats the ball, sucks that he throws a pick here or there, Sucks cause he has had a snap miscue or three.

Would he suck if Nat Jones sneezes? Would he suck if Dan Reeves fell off his bike? Would he still suck if the sky were blue tomorrow? Would he still suck if Osama Bin Laden ended up dead tomorrow. Course you would probably protest Bin Ladens death as unfair since he was hiding in mountains and we bombed the whole damn mountian range.

Pple get tired of your incessent whining the nothings done right, no one will listen to me. That because your an idiot and a first class fool that proves it everychance he gets.

Between you and Iceberg, I am not sure whos the biggest fool. Both have a hard on for Bledsoe and are ashamed so you bash the dude or something. Your hate of him is unrational and unwarented. Grow the hell up already.

 

[SkinsandTerps]

Tell us how you really feel Ashwynn.

 

[superpunk]

Tell us how you really feel Ashwynn.

No. Don't. There are children present.....

 

[Juke99]

Juke - we were 7-3! 7-3 with this liability. We were three kicks away from being 12-4! Winning is the bottom line, and he put us in position to win the games. You can't give all the credit to those QBs yesterday. Their defenses played lights out. Defenses that have been getting after the QB all year long. Their offensive lines are regarded as some of the best in the league. One of them has an elite RB, and the other an elite running game. These are established teams, that have had the same coach and philosophy for years now.

Bill is trying to do the exact same thing, build a strong team first, establish a foundation, then bring the young QB in. Until that time comes, Bledsoe can get it done, far better than some others would do in the same situation. Our team is not at dominant status yet. It's gonna come down to the final minutes sometimes. Bledsoe put us in position to be 12-4, a #2 seed. Unfortunately, our real liability - our kicking game - let him, the team, and us down.

I hear ya...and I'm not going to get into a long discussion about what our record was during the season...and how close we were in games...take a look at every team...I listed a half dozen really BAD teams who lost 5-6 games by a TD or less. That's the way "parity" has made the NFL.

We were 9-7. Not bad at all. That's why I said that I am not a Bledsoe basher...but that said, IMO, the other QB's I have seen through the playoffs at least have the footwork to avoid the rush at times....

Phil Simms made a great point by saying, with the new 5 yard rule on defense, it's more important that ever for a QB to be able to buy a little time because eventually, the WR will break free.

 

[superpunk]

We were 9-7. Not bad at all. That's why I said that I am not a Bledsoe basher...but that said, IMO, the other QB's I have seen through the playoffs at least have the footwork to avoid the rush at times....

I understand, and I wish Bledsoe was BETTER at that. He's not completely inept, he's good at stepping up, moving around a little bit. The trouble waas, watching the games - where was he gonna go? The center and guards were getting pushed back into his face. Both tackles couldn't stand up to a bull rush, so he was constantly getting pushed in from both sides. Where did you want him to go?

 

[Juke99]

I understand, and I wish Bledsoe was BETTER at that. He's not completely inept, he's good at stepping up, moving around a little bit. The trouble waas, watching the games - where was he gonna go? The center and guards were getting pushed back into his face. Both tackles couldn't stand up to a bull rush, so he was constantly getting pushed in from both sides. Where did you want him to go?

Like I said, I'm not knocking the guy...I think he'll always make the team competitive...but...he was sacked something like 45 times...I'm sure each time it wasn't a case of not being able to step up.

I can't think of a less mobile QB in the league. And I'm not talking about running ability...I'm talking about escapability...and it's not going to get better with age.

It's my opinion that he'll never take this team to elite status...even if we have a good offensive line...a VERY good offensive line? Perhaps. BUT we have a long way to go before this O Line is very good.

 

[Doomsday101]

Like I said, I'm not knocking the guy...I think he'll always make the team competitive...but...he was sacked something like 45 times...I'm sure each time it wasn't a case of not being able to step up.

I can't think of a less mobile QB in the league. And I'm not talking about running ability...I'm talking about escapability...and it's not going to get better with age.

It's my opinion that he'll never take this team to elite status...even if we have a good offensive line...a VERY good offensive line? Perhaps. BUT we have a long way to go before this O Line is very good.

If our line can help establish a running game that will help take a lot of the pressure defense have thrown at us. Your right Drew is not going to carry this team on his shoulders to the SB by himself. I was never under that impression to begin with, I knew going in we had to have a very good running game and provide some decent protection but the truth of the matter is we did not provide running lanes for our backs and did not provide much protection for our QB.

 

[Juke99]

If our line can help establish a running game that will help take a lot of the pressure defense have thrown at us. Your right Drew is not going to carry this team on his shoulders to the SB by himself. I was never under that impression to begin with, I knew going in we had to have a very good running game and provide some decent protection but the truth of the matter is we did not provide running lanes for our backs and did not provide much protection for our QB.

I guess time will tell, Dooms.

I just think it's too easy for a defense to game plan against a QB who is as immobile and one dimensional as Bledsoe.

We are going to have to invest serious $$$ into this offense, more so that if he was more mobile because you are right, the O Line would have to run block AND pass block much better.

He might get us back to playoff level...we were thiiiiiis close last year...but "elite" status? I just don't see it.