Newday.Com: It's Quincy's turn to strut his stuff

[LaTunaNostra]

Sic, Newsday

BACKUP PLAN
It's Quincy's turn to strut his stuff


BY KEN BERGER
STAFF WRITER

November 9, 2004
The news yesterday that Quincy Carter would assume the Jets' starting quarterback job for the immediate future didn't shake the Jets' locker room as much as you might think. It didn't faze Carter much, either.

Neither did the prospect of facing Ray Lewis and the vaunted Baltimore defense in his first start since last season.

"We don't want to bow down to them or anything like that, but I have a lot of respect for Ray Lewis and those guys, especially one of my idols, Deion Sanders," Carter said. "They're a good defense."

The addition of Carter in preseason, after his surprising release by Dallas, was never more important than it was yesterday, when the Jets learned that Chad Pennington could miss two to four weeks with a strained rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder.

"He's led a team to the playoffs before, so we feel that there's no reason he can't do the same with us," running back Curtis Martin said.

His style, much different than Pennington's, will take some getting used to for his teammates. Flanker Santana Moss said it's necessary to really look Carter's passes into his hands because he throws with much more velocity.

In relief of Pennington Sunday in the Jets' 22-17 loss to the Bills, Carter inspired confidence not only with a 51-yard TD pass to Moss, but also with his demeanor. He'll need more of that, because two of the Jets' next three games are on the road. Carter is 5-12 as a road starter in his four-year career.

"His attitude was that we weren't going to miss a beat, and I think that's what we needed," Martin said.

Carter, released by the Cowboys amid reports that he'd violated the NFL's substance abuse policy for the second time, said, "I have relished this opportunity simply because of the situation that I was in in Dallas. Just to get this opportunity, I have been busting my tail for two months learning this offense. My opportunity is here."

Hackett, who likened Carter to Steve Young when the Jets signed him in August, wasn't available for comment yesterday.

"I think this guy is a magnificent fit [for the West Coast offense]," Hackett said at the time. "I said it when he came out of college at Georgia ... He was right at the top of my personal list."

Now, Carter is at the top of Hackett's depth chart.

"The main thing is that we don't want the football team to go backward," Carter said. "We want to make sure we keep making steps forward."

Quincy Carter File

Personal

Age: 27

College: Georgia.

How obtained: Signed with Jets as an unrestricted free agent Aug. 24, 2004, 20 days after he was released by the Cowboys.

NFL experience: Selected after junior season by Cowboys in second round (53rd pick overall) of 2001 NFL draft ... Spent three years with Cowboys.

2003: His 3,302 passing yards ranked seventh in the NFC ... Led Cowboys to 10 regular-season victories and a playoff berth, becoming only the sixth QB in club history to win 10 games in a season.

Pro career: 16-15 (.516) as an NFL starter ... In a streak spanning the 2002 and 2003 seasons, Carter threw for at least 200 yards in eight consecutive games ... One 300-yard passing game (321, vs. Giants on Sept. 15, 2003) . . . has 498 career rushing yards.

Scouting report

Strengths: Experience, mobility and arm strength. Though he generally doesn't complete a high enough percentage to be an efficient, productive West Coast quarterback, he was 5-2 last season when attempting 25 or fewer passes. In those games, his percentage (.585) was closer to what West Coast coaches want.

Weaknesses: Accuracy and decision-making. The knock on Carter is that he makes too many mistakes and turns the ball over too much. He's thrown 30 TD passes and 36 INTs in his career, including 17 TDs and 21 INTs last season. Also, despite his mobility - or perhaps because he's too quick to take off running - he was sacked 37 times last season.

http://www.newsday.com/sports/footb...35800nov09,0,4262281.story?coll=ny-jets-print

 

[LaTunaNostra]

Bob Glauber

Quincy must pass test

November 9, 2004

Midway through the fourth quarter of the Jets' 22-17 loss at Buffalo on Sunday, Chad Pennington went up to Herman Edwards on the sideline.

"Coach, I've got a dilemma," the Jets quarterback told his coach.

"Dilemma? What do you mean, you've got a dilemma?" Edwards said.

"My shoulder feels kind of funny," Pennington said. "I don't know . . . " Edwards wouldn't let Pennington finish his sentence.

"That's it, that's it, don't say anything else," Edwards told him.

"You're out. Now go be a coach for Quincy [Carter]." Pennington then confided to Edwards that he was worried about letting the team down because of his injury. But Edwards wouldn't hear of it, and refused to let Pennington even consider getting back in the game for fear he'd be more seriously injured.

The coach's premonition was dead on. Yesterday, he learned Pennington had suffered a strained rotator cuff that would require him to miss the next two games, and possibly four.

Pennington's reluctance about taking himself out against the Bills was understandable. After all, he knows the risks associated with his absence - see: the 2003 season, which essentially ended when Pennington's right wrist was shattered in a preseason game against the Giants.

Last year, Vinny Testaverde couldn't revive the offense in Pennington's place, and the Jets stumbled out of the gate with a 2-4 record. It worsened to 2-6 before they finished 6-10. The Jets bid Testaverde farewell, and he wound up in Dallas, where he replaced Carter. Testaverde isn't doing any better with his new team, which is 3-5 and sputtering out of playoff contention. We'll see if Carter can one-up Testaverde with the Jets by keeping the Jets afloat until Pennington's return.

It won't be easy, because the Jets face linebacker Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Giants Stadium. It is about the last defense you'd want to face with a quarterback you just signed in August.

Outwardly, Edwards doesn't appear worried. He didn't even tell his players in yesterday afternoon's team meeting that Pennington wouldn't play - a subtle psychological ploy designed to show the team he wasn't overly concerned.

"I think Quincy will go in and do a good job," the coach said.

It won't be as good as Pennington, though. Although Pennington wasn't as effective the last month, often struggling to hit open receivers and not displaying top velocity on his throws, the Jets are much better off with him running the West Coast offense than Carter, who is still a novice in this system.

Even in a more conventional system, which Carter ran last year in Dallas, he struggled with his accuracy, completing 57.1 percent of his passes. Carter threw 17 touchdown passes and had 21 interceptions, dismal numbers by anyone's standards.

Cowboys coach Bill Parcells, who released Carter during the preseason after it was revealed he had failed a substance abuse test, has admitted the team tried to hide Carter's quarterbacking flaws by running the ball as much as possible to stay out of obvious passing situations.

Fortunately for Carter, the Jets have a much better ground game than the 2003 Cowboys, so coordinator Paul Hackett can design a relatively conservative offense that will limit Carter's exposure to interceptions. That said, it won't be easy to succeed against the Ravens, who have as complete a defense as there is in the game. Lewis is at the center of a front seven that is as dominant as any, and the secondary is particularly strong with safety Ed Reed and cornerbacks Chris McAlister and Gary Baxter.

Hackett will almost certainly have to test the Ravens deep early, simply to give the Jets' receivers some running room on their intermediate routes. If Carter can complete a long pass early, it will keep the defensive backs from pinching in on the shorter patterns, which Pennington is so adept at completing.

Establishing the running game is essential, even if it means pounding the ball in the first half without any measurable results. Carter was at his best last year when the Cowboys ran on first and second downs, which often created third-and-short situations.

Any quarterback is more efficient on third-and-3, as opposed to third-and-8, because the margin of error for the defense is that much smaller in trying to prevent the first down. If the Jets do get the running game going, it gives Carter the added benefit of using play-action passes to momentarily freeze the defense into thinking it's a running play.

Carter insists he's ready.

"I practiced against the number one defense every day last year in Dallas," he said.

"I have played in the NFL and the [Ravens] get all the respect from me, but we put on our pants the same way they do. I have a lot of respect for Ray Lewis and the rest of those guys over there, especially one of my idols, Deion Sanders. They are a good defense."

And a good test for Carter. If he beats the Ravens in what could be a pivotal game in the AFC wild-card race, then the Jets will take a huge step forward in their chase for a playoff spot.

If not, then 6-1 will feel like forever ago.

 

[Martice]

Hi LTN. Thank you for all of the updates.

 

[Hostile]

"I think this guy is a magnificent fit [for the West Coast offense]," Hackett said at the time. "I said it when he came out of college at Georgia ... He was right at the top of my personal list."

I will be very interested in seeing if this gets any commentary by the fans here who swore up and down that under Coslett and the WCO it played to his faults instead of his strengths. Instead of downplaying his accuracy problems they demonized the system.

 

[LaTunaNostra]

I will be very intereste din seeing if this gets any commentary by the fans here who swore up and down that under Coslett and the WCO it played to his faults instead of his strengths. I took a lot of flack for saying that.

I will be very interested in seeing what Q can do in a wco.

Keeping in mind he has not been taking first team snaps in it since August, it should still be possible to get a sense of his general suitability in it.

The entire NY media seems to be saying Q is a bad fit for the wco.

The OC, who had to have had a , if not THE major say in Q's being signed, says he is a good fit in it..

I did not witness the Coslet debacle - only read retrospective views on it, and I can't recall one poster saying s/he felt Q could have developed into a good wco qb. To me, Q seems much more suitable to a wco than Hutch would be - the fact Coslet felt otherwise hints to me Q was abysmal in it.

I do know this tho - Paul Hackett is an extraordinarily stubborn man.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

As I think Hos believes but doesn't say, the Cater lovers hated Coslet because he didn't believe in Quincy, and because they feel he was responsible for Quincy's benching. The WCO or any Xs and Os had nothing to do with it, really.

 

[LaTunaNostra]

As I think Hos believes but doesn't say, the Cater lovers hated Coslet because he didn't believe in Quincy, and because they feel he was responsible for Quincy's benching. The WCO or any Xs and Os had nothing to do with it, really.

CL, how did YOU feel about Q's potential (which is all that could have been sensed) in it? Considering it was only a handful of games - footwork, timing, read progression, mechanics - Q needed mega developmental time in all these LAST year, in Bill's more simplified O - but did you feel in 02 Q had the makings of a wco QB? I mean, there are some QB you feel at once "this is not for him". Like Vinny.


In short, is Hackett nuts?

 

[Gah]

I will be very interested in seeing if this gets any commentary by the fans here who swore up and down that under Coslett and the WCO it played to his faults instead of his strengths. Instead of downplaying his accuracy problems they demonized the system.

You know, Coslett's offense wasn't really a WCO. More like a standard blah offense with some WCO thrown in.

 

[KINGBRICE_28]

QC is a dead man......though he has the weapons.......hmm.....this could be a good game......

 

[Martice]

As far as how QC looked under Coslets system, I specifically remember people saying that they were growing tired of the "dinking and dunking" offense that we were running. The thinking back then was that the Cowboys were afraid to open it up so there were a lot of short passes to the receivers. Also, Coslett tried to keep QC in the pocket and limited him to straight drop back passing plays. There was a lot of talk of not using QC's strengths, which was supposed to be throwing on the run. There were whispers of running more bootlegs and play action passes but that didn't happen enough as it should in a typical West Coast Offense. Although some say on this forum and in the media, that throwing on the run is not one of QC's strengths, you can find many on this forum and in the media who feel the exact opposite way. Strange but true.

After that terrible Arizona game (4 ints) some feel that we pulled QC too early and and basically tanked the season. Now that I think about it, the only full season we had with QC was last year. This current season was to answer so many questions about QC and it hurt to the core of my heart to not have a chance to see once and for all if he was as talented as some people like coach Hackett believed or if he was only talented to enough to keep people interested but never able to deliver as promised.

 

[OLDSCHOOL]

CL, how did YOU feel about Q's potential (which is all that could have been sensed) in it? Considering it was only a handful of games - footwork, timing, read progression, mechanics - Q needed mega developmental time in all these LAST year, in Bill's more simplified O - but did you feel in 02 Q had the makings of a wco QB? I mean, there are some QB you feel at once "this is not for him". Like Vinny.


In short, is Hackett nuts?

I'll give you my answer, if you do not mind. Carter played in 7 games we were 3-4 when Hutch took over. The pattern was we win one we lose one, it was making for an 8-8 season.

For some reason he always came back with a good game after a mediocre or bad game, and even in the games we lost that season with coslet, they always went down to the wire, you always felt that Carter would shift gears and make something happen to pull it out, at least that is how I felt, it was exciting to watch the games.

In that offense, in the 7 games he played he always spread the ball around, he would have completions to 6,7 and sometimes 8 different receivers.

People al;ways talked about his not being able to read defenses well he was completing passes to all those different receivers so he was reading something, you could see him going thru his progressions.

That is what I saw but everyone sees something different, he was not at 60% in completions but he was right there 2 or 3% away from 60.

He did well in my eyes, considering all the pressure he put on himself and others put on him.