pittpnthrs":1mcyerl3 said:
Chris isnt wrong on this though. Pete has said he likes the long ball because there is only a small chance of a turnover, and to be honest, if it was picked off, its as good as a punt. Reward outweighs the risk. He has also said to some extent that most turnovers happen on short to mid pass plays in the middle of the field. Yeah, Russ struggles with seeing some of those plays and release time so I feel the only way to help that is a healthy dose of rollouts and I hope Waldron does just that.
True, but there's a difference between talking philosophical belief in the context of how one sees the game of football and literal strategy in executing a gameplan, week in and week out. Pete Carroll says its risky because statistics say its risky. Pete Carroll has also said he doesnt like blitzing for the same reason- Dont get to the QB and you expose your back end. But we call blitzes in situations where its deemed to have a higher probability of working. Just like we've called pass plays over the middle.
The D coordinator calls a blitz, contrary to Pete's belief that statistically blitzes are risky and expose the back end, and the blitz is executed.
The O-coordinator calls a pass play that gets DK or Lockett open over the middle, contrary to Pete's belief that statistically, passes over the middle are risky, and the play isnt executed because the QB chooses not to go there in favor of extending the play and hitting a more obvious read.
And if you want to make the argument that early in Pete's tenure, when we had a running game and a defense that allowed us to skew more to a gameplan that afforded us the ability to avoid risk areas on O and D, I'd agree. But for the last 3 years at least, we havent had a reliable running game nor a reliable four man rush, and on both offense and defense the playcalling has shown a tendency to incorporate a more aggreessive appoach. On D, one that incorporates blizing at a higher rate (statistacally proven) and on O, a tendency to pass more overall (statistically proven), on early downs and if you study tape at all, incorporate plays that are designed to go over the middle.
Its just silly to believe that even though its historical fact that we are throwing more than we ever have, that somehow the Hawks o coordinator has managed to dial up all those additional pass plays... And all of them still manage to avoid the middle of the field.
i dont thing that you would find many coaches that would disagree with the what Carroll has said about passes over the middle. Its a basic principle. But the tape shows week in and week out that there are plays called speciically to work the middle and on so many occassions the only reason the ball doesnt go there is because the QB chooses not to.