dcboy said:
"Petitti played well until Flo went down."
Really???? He had help on most passing plays and rarely moved anyone on run plays. He wasn't exposed because Flo was usually left alone and that allowed them to 'hide' Petitti.
"Where Rob needs to improve is in his lower body strength, arm strength, and punch."
Agreed. That and staying in proper position.
"I honestly think he'll be starting for this team this year."
God, I hope you are wrong!
"I felt he showed in the early part of the season that he could be a better Tackle than Tucker."
That's not saying much and I don't necessarily agree with it either. Tucker could keep the de off Bledsoe when he has help too and he can run block better. Tucker shouldnt' be the benchmark for anything. Can Petitti be a quality starter? I think its best to plan for him to be on the bench and if he beats out the starter than great, but I just don't see it in him. I have been wrong before, lol.
In the early part of the season after every game we'd end up breaking down most of Rob's play with his father in the forums. I was generally in agreement with most of what he said. Where I felt Rob struggeled early on was in recognition. He had a hard time with stunts and delayed blitz. Some of that can be put down to positioning, but it's also simply experience.
What he did well was strand up blocking. I think he was excellent in engaging the player in front of him.
As the season progressed he was more exposed. Tucker commanded TE help and with Cambell ineffective or out, we didn't have anyone to really help Rob on most plays. Teams overloaded Rob's side of the field and he made several mistakes accordingly. I honestly never came up with the same figures as Stats.inc. They gave him several sacks that I felt belonged to other guys. 3 I can remember off the top of my head were Him taking the inside rusher and letting the DE get outside, where he should have been picked up by the back (Polite) but wasn't, a stunt play where his man came inside and was completely missed by Larry Allen, and another stunt, where I feel that Rivera didn't maintain his position well enough. I'm sure there were others.
One also has to account for the Bledsoe effect. Drew will always have a greater sack rate than another QB in the same situation. He has a very slow drop back, and generally will not throw the ball away as quickly as you'd like. I would say that he generally will inflate sack numbers by between 15-25% every year. That's fine though... it's part of his game. He also completes passes 5+ seconds after the snap, where most other QB's would have thrown the ball away. Still that must be accounted for in total Sacks. Any play where a RT rides his man around Drew and then the DE cuts back towards the QB and makes the tackle is not on the RT. That is on the QB. No RT in the league has better foot speed than a pass rushing DE. It's always a matter of buying time.
I agree that he must improve in run blocking. However our woes in rushing were in my opionion almost entirely on our interior 3. Larry Allen can't pull anymore, meaning that we hardly ever ran around Rob's side. Al was simply in capable of getting an intial push off the line, and Rivera tried to finesse opposing tackles instead of getting any push or penetration. I need to see our interior guys play better before I can properly judge our RT. I did think he was much better than Tucker at run blocking. Again... the thing that Rob did well was engage the man in front of him. When he was given a specific man to block (as was the case in run blocking) he did much better.
As for Starting him next year... I really think that he'll improve his fundemental strength with a year of conditioning. This should really help his initial punch, which will do wonders in buying an additional second or two on the line. I think he showed improvement in recognition in every week of the first 6 weeks. To me, this shows he'll improve further into next year. Finally, we should be better running the ball this year, which will keep teams from sending 5 or 6 rushers on nearly all plays.
Basically, all of the weaknesses he displayed last year, I really feel he's in a good position to fix in the offseason. If he had other problems, like not showing consistent improvement (making the same mental mistakes) - Tucker , showing very slow footspeed - Gurode, inability to play through injuries - Rogers, or attitude problems then I'd be more worried. Those problems are either harder or impossible to overcome.
