Bledsoe: Sacks and Options

[dallasblue05]

I mean there comes a time when you have to stop blaming the line... the Buffalo line wasn't terrific but these guys were professionals... Jonas Jennings, Mike Williams, Chris Villarrial... 3-4 sacks in a game is a good defense getting the best of your line... when you get to 7 sacks, against the Raiders no less (not a bad D, but not worthy of 7 sacks), something is wrong with your QB. It's probably all a moot point because his line here is better, but in Buffalo, Bledsoe had problems that stemmed from him.

You cant be serious. Calling them professionals doesnt mean anything but they make a lot of money. But also by calling them professionals, you need to consider what they are a professional of.........how about PROTECTING THE QB. That is their freaking job, to protect the QB and make holes for the RB. What do you mean you cant place all the blame on the OL? Sure if the QB runs right into a blitz, or if he just holds on to the ball forever, it can be his fault. But as previously stated, only 1 sack came from a lineman. Which means, Bledsoe was completely let down by his line. If a QB throws a pass on a rope to his WR and the WR just misses the ball, or runs an off route and the ball somehow ends up with the other team, you cant blame the QB for that. The WR didnt do his job, which is catch the ball if at all possible!! You cant blame Bledsoe for having a OL that played like they were high schoolers. Did you see Buffalo's line? It was worse than ours most of the time. Come on, man, think things through before you post them.


ps-
There comes a time when YOU have to stop blaming the Quarterback.

 

[Alexander]

I wonder precisely how many of you actually had an opinion about Drew Bledsoe before he signed with us? I can at least respect the opinion of Mr. Winicki as he has admitted to actually seeing him play. The majority of everyone else is simply buying into the "Buffalo had a bad OL excuse" and rallying around the wagons. Even the one game that most Dallas fans should have seen in 2003 obviously is not enough for anyone to be realistic about what to expect from this player.

I wonder if there was a poll last year during the season, how many of you would express the same heartfelt excuses for his level of play?

Once someone dons the colors, all their warts disappear and the rose colored glasses come on.

This is really great to see fans rally around our QB and make excuses for him.

Afterall, it is a Dallas tradition.

 

[Doomsday101]

I wonder precisely how many of you actually had an opinion about Drew Bledsoe before he signed with us? I can at least respect the opinion of Mr. Winicki as he has admitted to actually seeing him play. The majority of everyone else is simply buying into the "Buffalo had a bad OL excuse" and rallying around the wagons. Even the one game that most Dallas fans should have seen in 2003 obviously is not enough for anyone to be realistic about what to expect from this player.

I wonder if there was a poll last year during the season, how many of you would express the same heartfelt excuses for his level of play?

Once someone dons the colors, all their warts disappear and the rose colored glasses come on.

This is really great to see fans rally around our QB and make excuses for him.

Afterall, it is a Dallas tradition.

Some of us also watched him play at Buffalo and have seen him on his good days and his bad. Myself I think with a good supporting cast around Bledsoe he can do the job, not claiming Pro Bowl numbers but yes I think in Parcells system Bledsoe can do a good job. For those who want to rip him at every turn go for it but we will all see soon enough if Bledsoe is a good fit in Dallas or not.

 

[dallasblue05]

You know, you do have a point. However, I actually saw most of the games last season. We had the NFL Sunday Ticket thing every week where we could watch all of the games. I saw a lot of Drew Bledsoe, I didnt pay as much attention when the Boys were playing too, but I did watch a lot of the games. I have never really liked Drew Bledsoe. I've always thought he didnt have much to bring as a QB. He does well when he has a OL that gives him all they possible can. He takes a while to throw the ball, which gets him in a jam. Once he is in a jam, he cant do crap, because he's about as quick as Bill Parcells would be. I will support him as he has donned the Cowboy colors, but that doesnt mean I am a Bledsoe fan, it means I'm a Cowboys fan. And I know everything I just said is stuff that anybody would know if they read this board for any period of time, so you dont have to make me aware of that, lol.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

It wasn't Bledoe's fault that he was sacked seven times. The reason he was sacked that much was because Oakland played a 3-4 defense last year and that scheme can't be stopped. It's relentless and Bledsoe never stood a chance against it.

LOL!!!


That sounded very much like the artist formerly known as Nors.

:laugh2:

Good one!

 

[Alexander]

Some of us also watched him play at Buffalo and have seen him on his good days and his bad. Myself I think with a good supporting cast around Bledsoe he can do the job, not claiming Pro Bowl numbers but yes I think in Parcells system Bledsoe can do a good job. For those who want to rip him at every turn go for it but we will all see soon enough if Bledsoe is a good fit in Dallas or not.

If anyone has truly watched him and thinks he will be something special when he reunites with the Tuna, they have to be kidding themselves.

I can understand the desire to wish him well, as we all do, but there does not appear to be alot of substance behind it.

It is pretty obvious to me we took a slight step up from Testeverde, but nothing close to being anywhere we need to be if we want a team that can do more besides sneak into the playoffs in a best case scenario.

 

[dboyz]

One thing I see in those numbers is that under Parcells, Bledsoe got rid of the ball. He didn't do as well with the other coaches. Hopefully Parcells influence will be positive again.

 

[Doomsday101]

If anyone has truly watched him and thinks he will be something special when he reunites with the Tuna, they have to be kidding themselves.

I can understand the desire to wish him well, as we all do, but there does not appear to be alot of substance behind it.

It is pretty obvious to me we took a slight step up from Testeverde, but nothing close to being anywhere we need to be if we want a team that can do more besides sneak into the playoffs in a best case scenario.

Something Special? Never said that I said I think he can do the job and help us wins some games. Personally I think the Bills coaching staff sucks with Tom Clements as OC and Mike Mularkey HC and I don't think it is by accident that Bledsoe numbers did drop off with these two idiots running the show. Add to that the lack of a quality TE I think has hurt Bledsoe as well. Again we will see how this plays out in Dallas where I think Witten will be a God send for Bledsoe along with a running game headed up by Jones

 

[Gent]

One thing I see in those numbers is that under Parcells, Bledsoe got rid of the ball. He didn't do as well with the other coaches. Hopefully Parcells influence will be positive again.

Yep. I think Bill is gonna keep a tight leash on Bledsoe.

-Gent

 

[Alexander]

I don't think it is by accident that Bledsoe numbers did drop off with these two idiots running the show.

Here we go again.

Mularkey and Clements are idiots now and that could be a reason why Bledsoe's numbers declined.

So let's make an official list of excuses:

• Poor offensive line
• No tight end option as good as Coates
• Bad WRs
• Idiot head coach and offensive coordinator

Sam Wyche was their QB coach. Is he an idiot too?

 

[ravidubey]

The majority of everyone else is simply buying into the "Buffalo had a bad OL excuse" and rallying around the wagons.

Alexander, that's the kind of broad sweeping statement that's not worthy of you and more worthy of a catch phrase form a politcal campaign or news story.

I watched Bledsoe mostly in New England and saw him come through in the worst of times. I watched him win a game playing with a broken index finger on his throwing hand. I watched him come in cold off the bench in the playoffs and cement a Patriots victory with a corner touch-pass TD thrown most of the way across the field. I watched him carry himself with class that entire season, despite what he must have been feeling.

We all know the main reason Belichek stayed with Brady during the remainder of those same playoffs-- to stay with the hot hand and stay with the guy who got rid of the back the quickest because he knew the OL could not block for very long. The subtext was that keeping Bledsoe was a far more expensive path to winning, not only because of his salary but also because of the cost of the linemen to protect him.

Most of us also watched the Buffalo OL struggle with Rob Johnson and thrive with the mobile Doug Flutie. We also watched Eric Moulds languish under Flutie, and his career revive in 2002 under Bledsoe. Maybe Bledsoe doesn't do too well with the blitz, but also maybe the Buffalo team had a lt to do with that.

I know for a fact if you blitzed him in New England you were usually looking at Ben Coates lumbering deep into the secondary with the ball.

 

[Alexander]

One thing I see in those numbers is that under Parcells, Bledsoe got rid of the ball. He didn't do as well with the other coaches. Hopefully Parcells influence will be positive again.

Doesn't that bother anyone that Parcells has to "control" him?

Can we add another thing to his plate?

Make draft choices.

Install 3-4 defense.

Hold Mike Zimmer's hand.

Call offensive plays.

Control Drew Bledsoe.

I know he is a control freak, but does he really need or want this kind of control?

 

[Doomsday101]

Here we go again.

Mularkey and Clements are idiots now and that could be a reason why Bledsoe's numbers declined.

So let's make an official list of excuses:

• Poor offensive line
• No tight end option as good as Coates
• Bad WRs
• Idiot head coach and offensive coordinator

Sam Wyche was their QB coach. Is he an idiot too?

Yes all those things do contribute to success or failure, I do think highly of Wyche but he is not the HC and he is not the OC calling the plays. I'm not making excuses for Bledsoe but I damn sure am not going to write him off as you have done. Fact is Buffalo TE has sucked since Jay Riemersma was shipped out add to that the loss of Price to Atl who with Bledsoe did record over 1,000 yards Receiving and 94 catches. As for the O-line there play speaks for itself. I don't expect miracles from Bledsoe but yes I think he can do a good job with the Cowboys

 

[Alexander]

I watched Bledsoe mostly in New England and saw him come through in the worst of times. I watched him win a game playing with a broken index finger on his throwing hand. I watched him come in cold off the bench in the playoffs and cement a Patriots victory with a corner touch-pass TD thrown most of the way across the field. I watched him carry himself with class that entire season, despite what he must have been feeling.

I also watched a good bit of Vinny Testeverde with the Jets and Bucs.

That did not mean I translated what happened five years ago, or even three years ago to now.

But some people, and it may not be you, actually believe he will be the 2002 Bledsoe. They exist.

We all know the main reason Belichek stayed with Brady during the remainder of those same playoffs-- to stay with the hot hand and stay with the guy who got rid of the back the quickest because he knew the OL could not block for very long. The subtext was that keeping Bledsoe was a far more expensive path to winning, not only because of his salary but also because of the cost of the linemen to protect him.

That is ridiculous to assume.

They could not afford to pay for good offensive linemen, so they got rid of the expensive QB. Brady was better and cheaper. It is that simple.

Most of us also watched the Buffalo OL struggle with Rob Johnson and thrive with the mobile Doug Flutie. We also watched Eric Moulds languish under Flutie, and his career revive in 2002 under Bledsoe. Maybe Bledsoe doesn't do too well with the blitz, but also maybe the Buffalo team had a lt to do with that.

So the Bill offensive line has been cursed for three years, despite investing free agent money and first round draft choices on it? It was not good, but it was not so terrible that it supercedes all the shortcomings Bledsoe has. It was a combination of both. And unless we protect him like he was expensive china, we will have to deal with those shortcomings, just like they did.

 

[Alexander]

Yes all those things do contribute to success or failure, I do think highly of Wyche but he is not the HC and he is not the OC calling the plays.

I guess I need to add poor playcalling to the list.

The Bills started winning games when they took the ball out of his hands and gave it to their RB. That is blatently obvious. We will need to do the same.

I'm not making excuses for Bledsoe but I damn sure am not going to write him off as you have done. Fact is Buffalo TE has sucked since Jay Riemersma was shipped out add to that the loss of Price to Atl who with Bledsoe did record over 1,000 yards Receiving and 94 catches. As for the O-line there play speaks for itself. I don't expect miracles from Bledsoe but yes I think he can do a good job with the Cowboys

So we are back to having a QB that is so limited that we must have the BEST WRs, the BEST TE, the BEST OL and BEST RB to make up for his handicaps.

Too bad we only have at best two of those categories covered. Maybe next year we can draft a RT in the first round, sign a top flight WR and maybe then we will be ready to compete.

 

[Doomsday101]

I guess I need to add poor playcalling to the list.

The Bills started winning games when they took the ball out of his hands and gave it to their RB. That is blatently obvious. We will need to do the same.



So we are back to having a QB that is so limited that we must have the BEST WRs, the BEST TE, the BEST OL and BEST RB to make up for his handicaps.

Too bad we only have at best two of those categories covered. Maybe next year we can draft a RT in the first round, sign a top flight WR and we will be ready to compete.

No we must play good as an offensive unit to have success and I do think Players like Witten will be a big help in cutting down on some of the sacks that Drew has taken. You talk about some of us with rose colored glasses I suggest you take off the Ray Charles glasses, Buff has problems and weakness of their own on offense and yes their OC and HC are not that damn good and Bledsoe number slide at the same time they took over. We will find out soon enough. This is why the play the games on the field instead of a message board.

 

[wileedog]

If anyone has truly watched him and thinks he will be something special when he reunites with the Tuna, they have to be kidding themselves.

I can understand the desire to wish him well, as we all do, but there does not appear to be alot of substance behind it.

You mean its completely unreasonable to expect some improvement from working with a HOF head coach? Or with a better line, better RB and better receiving options?

Funny, everyone thought Vinny was completely washed up too. Yet in the first 8 games he threw for 2000 yards and a respectable 82 rating before losing Glenn and wearing down due to age. ANd that was with Eddie 'running' the ball and a defense handing out points like candy.

What did Vinny have that Bledsoe doesn't, other than 10 more years under his belt?

It is pretty obvious to me we took a slight step up from Testeverde, but nothing close to being anywhere we need to be if we want a team that can do more besides sneak into the playoffs in a best case scenario.

Its a step up on Vinny and a quantum leap over Carter, who did manage to sneak into the playoffs.

Again, Vinny was having a perfectly respectable season last year until the wheels started coming off half way through. Assuming better health, better depth at receiver, a full season of Julius, and the fact that Drew probably won't wear down over the course of the year nearly as bad as Vinny did, I'm missing where the 'doom & gloom' scenario comes from.

Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, like it or not Bledsoe was the best available option assuming Henson is not ready. We can certainly start yet another thread arguing the merits of just tossing Henson out there this year, but seeing that Bill has decided he's not ready to take over yet, there was absolutely positively not a better option available for the pricetag we got him at than Drew Bledsoe.

I don't see anyone proclaiming Bledsoe is headed to the Pro Bowl. However I do see reasons to be optimistic that he can have a significantly better year than he did last year and a better one than Vinny did overall. You can call it 'excuses' if you want to, but there really is no denying that Drew is in a better situation here than he was with Buffalo last year, and should in theory be more effective.

And until Henson is ready or the Patriots lose their collective minds and trade us Brady, that is probably the best we can hope for.

 

[ravidubey]

Here we go again.

Mularkey and Clements are idiots now and that could be a reason why Bledsoe's numbers declined.

So let's make an official list of excuses:

• Poor offensive line
• No tight end option as good as Coates
• Bad WRs
• Idiot head coach and offensive coordinator

Sam Wyche was their QB coach. Is he an idiot too?

So Alexander, how do you explain the decline in offensive production from 2002 to 2003? Mularkey's arrival and Price' departure obviously had nothing to do with it, it's all on Bledsoe. You are taking the other extreme and refusing to see anything positive in Bledsoe. It's like you aren't even trying to project him into the Cowboy offense.

If Clements is in the Mularkey mode, we will see an OC who uses gimmick plays, misdirection, and less deep passing in the passing game and a steady dose of the run. All well and good until you play someone good. We saw a lot of the same with Mularkey's mentor Chan Gailey. These guys think legit receiving talent should take a back seat to their own godlike gimmicky play-calling. Gailey was one step shy of calling Troy Aikman ******** and even kept Michael Irvin on the bench despite fielding 5-WR sets.


I saw the same with Mularky in Pittsburgh. Obviously, like Aikman, Bledsoe wasn't buying it. Mularkey would take an Ernie Mills over Plaxico Burress in a heartbeat. Watch now as Eric Moulds primary role becomes that of decoy in 5-wide sets. He's only missing his Kordell Stewart, a role I assume Losman will fill nicely-- unless he turns out to actually be talented enough to throw deep and like it.


BTW, Sam Wyche is a has-been. He QB-coached Vinnie Testaverde to the point where VT felt it was good for him to become a backup QB in Cleveland.

 

[kmd24]

The key to stopping Bledsoe in the recent past has been blitzing up the middle. Interestingly enough, Bill Parcells basically wrote the blueprint for stopping Bledsoe when he moved to the Jets. It's now common knowledge that Blesdsoe needs to have a well-defined pocket so that he can step up and make his throws.

To that end, Al Johnson, Marco Rivera, Larry Allen, and the backs will be key to his success this year.

This is also why the TE is so critical to Bledsoe's success. Blitzes up the middle come from the same defensive players usually assigned to covering the TE, so the TE ends up in single coverage or possibly uncovered. Riemersma was an OK TE, but not that good at beating single coverage. There aren't too many LB's that can handle Witten one-on-one.

Finally, it is documented that one of the things Bill Parcells used to do with Bledsoe is stand behind him and yell "Throw it, throw it, throw it!" during practice. It is reasonable to expect Parcells to focus some attention on this particular QB (perhaps through David Lee).

Are these excuses for Bledsoe? Sure, I guess you could say that.

OTOH, if your objective is not to assign blame, but rather to look at the liabilities of the player and come up with some ways to mitigate those liabilities so that he might be successful doing the things he is good at, they are completely reasonable statements. I feel certain this is what Parcells has done and will continue to do.

All this negativity towards Bledsoe is in the same vein as the negativity towards Roy Williams and his mediocre coverage skills (and I am not equating Bledsoe's ability to RW's before anyone goes there). However, most fans are completely comfortable with suggesting that Roy be put in a position (back to SS) where he will succeed. Why can't the same courtesy be extended to Bledsoe?

 

[ravidubey]

The key to stopping Bledsoe in the recent past has been blitzing up the middle. Interestingly enough, Bill Parcells basically wrote the blueprint for stopping Bledsoe when he moved to the Jets. It's now common knowledge that Blesdsoe needs to have a well-defined pocket so that he can step up and make his throws.

To that end, Al Johnson, Marco Rivera, Larry Allen, and the backs will be key to his success this year.

This is also why the TE is so critical to Bledsoe's success. Blitzes up the middle come from the same defensive players usually assigned to covering the TE, so the TE ends up in single coverage or possibly uncovered. Riemersma was an OK TE, but not that good at beating single coverage. There aren't too many LB's that can handle Witten one-on-one.

Finally, it is documented that one of the things Bill Parcells used to do with Bledsoe is stand behind him and yell "Throw it, throw it, throw it!" during practice. It is reasonable to expect Parcells to focus some attention on this particular QB (perhaps through David Lee).

Are these excuses for Bledsoe? Sure, I guess you could say that.

OTOH, if your objective is not to assign blame, but rather to look at the liabilities of the player and come up with some ways to mitigate those liabilities so that he might be successful doing the things he is good at, they are completely reasonable statements. I feel certain this is what Parcells has done and will continue to do.

All this negativity towards Bledsoe is in the same vein as the negativity towards Roy Williams and his mediocre coverage skills (and I am not equating Bledsoe's ability to RW's before anyone goes there). However, most fans are completely comfortable with suggesting that Roy be put in a position (back to SS) where he will succeed. Why can't the same courtesy be extended to Bledsoe?

Well said.