Jonny wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 10:07 am
Grahamburn wrote: ↑Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:49 am
First INT had nothing to do with a blitz. It was a roll-out to his left and a deep throw against his momentum and body. He didn't throw it far enough. The second one the ball was deflected at the line.
Not saying he played well or anything, but I don't think the Saints blitzing is what effected him. They were playing almost exclusively man and we did nothing to combat it. No screens. No man beaters. We just kept running the ball for no gain and consistently were in 3rd and long instead of 3rd and short where we've been the best offense in the NFL. Then when we did have plays to make to get into the game we fumbled or turned the wrong way or whatever else.
Would love it if our resident experts (@Nobody , @Cheb ) took time to watch all-22 and comment on Bakers play. Our coaches are who they are. I'm holding out hope that Baker was put in a bad situation and was asked too much. It's funny, I have spent most of the season being a Baker critic and I feel like I am among the few besides you that appreciates his 4th qtr heroics.
In this game in particular or on the year generally?
He was very much not-good through the first 3 quarters of the game (it was over in the 4th) but very little was going right around him. Our gameplanning, play-sequencing, situational play-calling was terrible. The weird thing is that (a) its been very good as of late and (b) this isn't a difficult team to scheme for...they (New Orleans) "do what they do" defensively and on Sunday "they did what they do." And our iOL play was brutal on top of that.
I don't understand why we get cute (on both sides of the ball) or literally gameplan/play-call right "into the teeth" of the other team's strengths or away from our own strengths or away from tried-and-true analytic trends (including ones that have been working for us recently). Its a total head-scratcher. Makes no sense.
Winfield is elite as a 2 Deep or Single High or Buzz/Seam/Hook Zone defender. Absolutely elite. He's dead average is a Man defender and he has better and worse attributes/matchups in Man. Like last week. Putting him on an island...against a Wide Stack...in a rub situation...against a player that out-athletes and out-sizes him in space? Complete mismatch of his ability-set. Made no sense whatsoever. Almost as much sense as having him cover Cooper effing Kupp 1v1, off-ball when Kupp has the entirety of the route tree...in the middle of the field...available to him.
These sorts of scheme aneurysms need to be curated out of the playbook entirely.
As far as Baker Mayfield is; the proverbial "he is what he is." There is nothing new under the sun with him. The cake is...baked <badoom tiss>. When things are going alright-to-well around him, he is in that upper-middle tier of 10th-13th best QB in the league (his ceiling) with a floor in mid-20s. He'll give you uneven play on-schedule and on-script and he is enormously streaky there. He'll give you a nice chunk of off-schedule, off-script playmaking both with his arm and his feet. He'll sometimes "get stuck" cognitively and either hold the ball when it should be out or he'll throw a stray ball into coverage (typically in the Hook/Seam, intermediate, area). Look at him like "a more stable Jameis Winston with authentic, legit leadership qualities" but he's nowhere close to elite (which is basically two full standard deviations from Mayfield's play) nor will he ever be.
He is a solid QB with both the "streaky gene" and the "clutch gene" and, unfortunately, the "WTF Turnover Worthy Play" gene. Historically, he's been pretty good at not generating "QB Own Pressure", but he's been oddly deviant here and there on that metric this year.
At this point, I would very much get used to the idea of him sticking around. My guess is he's going to be here next year. As will Coach Bowles. And I would imagine that next year looks a lot like this year.