Carroll: Russ could've done a better job on the four sacks

[MontanaHawk05]

Wilson has more than a little Tony Romo in him - by which I mean the compulsion to go for the 400-yard touchdown every play, not the choker gene. He's just greedy.

And frankly, Pete doesn't discourage that enough. He never has. One thing Pete has always valued is analytics, and the analytics of football tell us that one big sixty-yard completion to Doug Baldwin can equal the statistical weight of a pair of three-and-outs. Or something like that. Especially in the fourth quarter once your running game has worn down the defense.

So it never surprises me that Wilson holds onto the ball and gets himself sacked, and it doesn't surprise me that Bevell always called four-vert packages that led to it. Last year they both finally learned to knock it off, switched to quick-rhythm passing, and look what happened. I figure that Pete is just letting them deevolve back into their sandlot form for the preseason and then he'll trigger them again when the time is right.

Besides - the Wilson-Baldwin-Lockett-Kearse-Prich(-Graham-backfield-RBs?) game is one of the most hotly anticipated in the NFL right now. Pete's not about to be too transparent with it before week 1.

 

[dogorama]

Griffen runs a faster 40 than Russ, and he doesn't have to carry the ball. Russ also wasn't running at full speed because he still had his eyes downfield and was setting up to throw. It's very difficult to throw once you get up around 75-80% of your top speed.

Griffen is the fastest DE in the league but his official combine time is 4.59 compared to RW's 4.55. Granted, that is splitting hairs and your point about running free w/o the ball is well taken, but the myth that some scouts timed him at 4.46 is not supported by any facts. Still, that is SCARY fast for a man almost 6'4" and 273lbs!

BTW, he is significantly faster than Boykin whose official time is 4.77.

 

[jammerhawk]

Russell was not very good last night. As much as he has improved his game from his rookie year, one thing he hasn't got better in is throwing the ball away and not taking a sack. He was terrible in that regard yesterday.

Absolutely agree about RW still being challenged in throwing the ball away, he has this "I can still do something" borderline arrogance to use an expression, all but one of the sacks were on Wilson and not on the OL. Wilson has yet to play very well in the preseason but he does seem to start slow and finish fast.

 

[Anonymous]

I still say it was the shoes. :mrgreen:

To Aros' comment; I agree. No cats will be let out of any bags in the preseason, me thinks. I think it is highly plausible that Russell could be emulating a pre-season ineptitude strategy based on how Pete and John need to see different guys under certain conditions. I mean, it's not like he needs to keep his numbers up in these games.

Also evidenced by not keeping a single option handoff and scrambling for the first like we'd expect to see. In fact, and I'd need to watch them back to be certain, but I don't think he has really tried to run and gain a first at all in either of these games. Besides the 60-yard bomb attempts Montana mentions, I even get the feeling they are wanting to make sure the punt team plays a lot.

Yeah, they can play around all they want, IMO. Provided that horseplay they call football produces solid decision making when cuts are being made. Although, I really don't like to see Russ piled on by 300-pound dudes.

 

[chris98251]

Well last pre season and during the season they wanted him to learn to be more patient and work from the pocket, I think were probably still seeing some of that forced growth.

 

[sc85sis]

Everson has always been a freak of nature. That's why I wasn't sure whether Russ was actually slower or just misjudged things on that play.

 

[Tical21]

I still get so baffled that when the defense shows big blitz, we recognize it, stop what we are doing, tell our whole team they are blitzing, call a new play, slide the protection, and take a sack. Over and over and over. That is when you have to make them pay. 1 on 1 all over the field and you can't find something you like? Ugh so frustrating.