Drops are the most visible issue. Then you have the wrong reads where the wr doesn't sit in the right hole. Leary throws to the hole but the wr overruns it. A great sign from key last week was a route where he curled in, then slide to the sideline into the hole and Leary immediately find him. I didn't notice that until I saw van hiles break it down. All year, Leary waited on these guys to see the same holes and they haven't. Maybe they'll soon turn the corner.
The other issue is lazy/poor routes mainly from brown. On his go/fades he releases way outside, right on the sideline, and gives the QB nowhere to throw the ball. Then he inexplicably always turns and backpedals hoping to catch it with his pads. Never over the shoulder, never high points. Just awful and I have no idea why coen continues to force it to him deep.
Of course QB play could be better. Of course QB misses throws. But the way bigger issue is the poor wr play.
While we're at it, how about some praise for the fact Leary almost always quickly makes the right read and has great pocket presence (all areas where Levis was terrible). The much improved OL pass blocking is as much to do with him as it is the ol.
Watching Leary play yesterday, I thought he was doing a great job running the offense. Once they stopped being aggressive and his WRs started dropping balls, and his line let him get smashed, everything changed in the passing game itself. He used his feet well to escape the pocket and on called draws.
WHY we keep calling for the slow-developing, rollout right from under center, right into the speed rush of the opponent's DE is BEYOND COMPREHENSION. If you want to do that sht from the shotgun, sure. But from under center is a REALLY BAD IDEA.
Once again in this game, we start out feeding Ray Davis on creative blocking and motion plays, then run play action off of that to decent effect.
Unfortunately, as the game goes on, we start running routes that put the rush DE DIRECTLY in the view of our QB and primary receiver routes. IF YOURE GOING TO DO THAT, TEACH YOUR mother-loving OL to go low and cur the defender down. Letting him stand straight up on those plays leads to INTs and incompleteness, if not sacks. Leary isn't getting any taller.
And FFS please teach our TEs and receivers to not hold on plays where all they need is a chip, cut, or a roll. Our holds were many times after the ball carrier was 4+ yards past being tackled by the defender they held.
