3rdandinches
Seasoned Veteran
Please understand I know the season is not over, there's a lot of football left and we could very well be in the mix at the end for a playoff spot. I'm addressing the bigger picture for the long term needs of this team with my reasons why?
TS does not need to be fired no matter if we make the playoffs or not he has the right idea in a strong run game supported by a strong passing game (we're just not there yet run wise), passion, knowledge and very importantly he has the players behind him playing for him. M.Nolan hopefully isn't going anywhere either (not that anyones calling for his head), I really hope his HC stint left a real fowl taste in his mouth and would love to stay as a DC for a long time.
Argue all you want about kicking fg's and it being on TS but 99% of the coaches out there would have done the same thing taking all of those fg's (even the coaches the fans here want to replace TS would have taken the fg's!!!). You always take the points, especially in a game where you have to figure it will come down to a fg to win it. Not scoring would have lost us the game by the 3rd quarter and taking into account the play calling I would rather take the fg then let Henning run the ball up the gut.
Which leads me to this.... we do need a serious change in the way our offensive play calls are being done and an overhaul of the way we run ST's. These are the two glaring weaknesses on this team and it's not a new problem that some like to call for a reactionary bandage approach. This has been this way for a couple years therefore a change needs to be made or we're doomed to make the same mistakes next year. Both issues have directly cost us two games already in this short season and will continue to do so in the future.
Where Henning does have the right idea in his play calls most of the time his negative calls hold this offense back more then execution or lack of talent. By calling certain plays in the wrong situations especially in the red zone has left to many points on the field. Ex. Bad Call = The situation: Pitts is # 1 against the run, we are 3rd and 1 near the goalline and we run the ball. This was the perfect place to call a playaction boot to a TE coming off a block or a back of the endzone WR (Marshall happens to be a large target perfect for these calls). Whether we score or not isn't the issue, it's the fact that this type of play in that situation gives us the best chance to score. A run in any sort does not, it actually helps Pitts get out of a sticky situation everything a good OC isn't suppose to do. We all know that there have been hundreds of these bad calls over the past few years (wildcat when Henne's on fire, Ricky's pass against the Bills, redzone reverses etc..) some he's gotten away with and others that blew up in the Dolphins face costing us chances at TD's. A great Henning call would be that back door screen against GB off booting to the right. We typically run the boot and GB's defense probably were expecting us to, so to then use that down and distance in that situation to call a back door screen put the Dolphins in a great situation to score, the play is executed well and the result is a TD. We typically see a minimum of 4 to 5 of these horrible play calls a game which either kill drives or force us to settle for fg's instead of TD's. This not only leaves points on the field but also losses us the field position battle when we're forced to punt instead of getting another 1st down, yet another stress placed on the team by our own accord.
Good OC's are suppose to be able to realize what the defense is going to try to do in certain situations and use it against them constantly putting pressure on them and making them indecisive. Play calls in the 1st and 2nd quarters are used not only to move the ball but to set up other plays later on in the game in similar situations for bigger results. Not really rocket science here, this is why Chess is sited as an example of what an OC needs to do against a DC.... always looking two steps ahead.
This is by far the greatest problem for our offense, too often it's the players needing to make something extra happen to overcome bad play calls. For these reasons alone a change of offensive co-ordinators is a must, but in the off season not now. I do not believe hiring a part timer (bandaid) to mess with Henne and then replace that guy in the offseason to change things again! Unless you really believe the future OC can be had now we should wait until the off season for any drastic changes.
Fans constantly call for Henne's head when we fail to score but he is seriousily handicapped by the play calls. M.Ryan (some people's god) has a 3rd and 1 with M.Turner pounding out yards at will has a play call of playaction to Turner, 40 yard bomb to R.White which results in a TD. Does this clear up anything? M.Ryan is being put in situations to succeed when our young QB is constantly being put in negative situations, therefore has to overcome a greater difficulty to be successful. The defense over played the run allowing R.White to get wide open (atleast two steps on the defender and the safety couldn't recover in time when he bit on the run fake), this was a brillant play call but really every OC should know that. The situation was ripe and then the execution re-inforced the call.
How often do you get frustrated with the check down passes when Henne sees the down the field is taken away? is this Henne's fault or is it again play calling? Well let's see.... why do we not run more rubs, crossing patterns, curls/hooks or double moves? The time Henne needs to throw has consistantly been there but we seem to run deep outs or deep ins and then being forced to check down when their covered. This is exactly what the defense wants, keep everything underneath and come up and make a play. Again our OC putting Henne in constant bad situations! When we actually have Marshall run slants, quick ins and hooks we see a great deal of success between Henne and Marshall. This then sets up the bigger plays later on but when we fail to start the game doing these things how can any QB be successful? When we get 1st downs from check downs it's because our players make the extra play by making guys miss or drag us tackler across the 1st down line. Again more negative plays, plays that do not have a high success rate. Crossing patterns, picks, hooks at the 1st down marker allows us to get into open space, find blown coverages, catch balls at the 1st down marker all positive plays. Setting up big plays like double moves almost never happen for us because we don't run them, yet we get burned by them by opposing offenses adding to our frustrations. A simple example is....How many times can we run a 12 yard out to Bess for a 1st down before Henning realizes that this success sets up a double move for Bess and Henne for a much bigger play but we never run them. Another simple example is we go to Polite in short yardage situations and everyone knows it, why haven't we play actioned Polite and hit a TE on a quick seem route when you know the LB's are completely committed to stopping Polite???? More big play opportunties that we don't even try to execute even though they have been set up for success against opposing defenses!
The big picture item here is when we start calling plays that allow us to have chances to score on a regular basis then and only then can we really ever judge C.Henne. So far when we have done so he has succeeded and that tells me a change of OC's will have the biggest inpact in the off season more so then any 1 FA or drafted player would have long term.
I will say this though, if TS refuses to let Henning go then it all falls on him for not reconizing the real problem the team is having and that is what a head coach is suppose to do isn't it?. Where I do not want to change the head coach every few years we would be forced to do so to get the end results we would like to see. You fired PP and that turned out to make a big change on defense, so don't let us down now fire DH after our last game please or we either see the same failures next year or a whole new regime.
Sorry for another Henning thread, but I atleast tried to show why it is important to make the change instead of yelling and screaming "off with his head" like to many fans do after a loss.
TS does not need to be fired no matter if we make the playoffs or not he has the right idea in a strong run game supported by a strong passing game (we're just not there yet run wise), passion, knowledge and very importantly he has the players behind him playing for him. M.Nolan hopefully isn't going anywhere either (not that anyones calling for his head), I really hope his HC stint left a real fowl taste in his mouth and would love to stay as a DC for a long time.
Argue all you want about kicking fg's and it being on TS but 99% of the coaches out there would have done the same thing taking all of those fg's (even the coaches the fans here want to replace TS would have taken the fg's!!!). You always take the points, especially in a game where you have to figure it will come down to a fg to win it. Not scoring would have lost us the game by the 3rd quarter and taking into account the play calling I would rather take the fg then let Henning run the ball up the gut.
Which leads me to this.... we do need a serious change in the way our offensive play calls are being done and an overhaul of the way we run ST's. These are the two glaring weaknesses on this team and it's not a new problem that some like to call for a reactionary bandage approach. This has been this way for a couple years therefore a change needs to be made or we're doomed to make the same mistakes next year. Both issues have directly cost us two games already in this short season and will continue to do so in the future.
Where Henning does have the right idea in his play calls most of the time his negative calls hold this offense back more then execution or lack of talent. By calling certain plays in the wrong situations especially in the red zone has left to many points on the field. Ex. Bad Call = The situation: Pitts is # 1 against the run, we are 3rd and 1 near the goalline and we run the ball. This was the perfect place to call a playaction boot to a TE coming off a block or a back of the endzone WR (Marshall happens to be a large target perfect for these calls). Whether we score or not isn't the issue, it's the fact that this type of play in that situation gives us the best chance to score. A run in any sort does not, it actually helps Pitts get out of a sticky situation everything a good OC isn't suppose to do. We all know that there have been hundreds of these bad calls over the past few years (wildcat when Henne's on fire, Ricky's pass against the Bills, redzone reverses etc..) some he's gotten away with and others that blew up in the Dolphins face costing us chances at TD's. A great Henning call would be that back door screen against GB off booting to the right. We typically run the boot and GB's defense probably were expecting us to, so to then use that down and distance in that situation to call a back door screen put the Dolphins in a great situation to score, the play is executed well and the result is a TD. We typically see a minimum of 4 to 5 of these horrible play calls a game which either kill drives or force us to settle for fg's instead of TD's. This not only leaves points on the field but also losses us the field position battle when we're forced to punt instead of getting another 1st down, yet another stress placed on the team by our own accord.
Good OC's are suppose to be able to realize what the defense is going to try to do in certain situations and use it against them constantly putting pressure on them and making them indecisive. Play calls in the 1st and 2nd quarters are used not only to move the ball but to set up other plays later on in the game in similar situations for bigger results. Not really rocket science here, this is why Chess is sited as an example of what an OC needs to do against a DC.... always looking two steps ahead.
This is by far the greatest problem for our offense, too often it's the players needing to make something extra happen to overcome bad play calls. For these reasons alone a change of offensive co-ordinators is a must, but in the off season not now. I do not believe hiring a part timer (bandaid) to mess with Henne and then replace that guy in the offseason to change things again! Unless you really believe the future OC can be had now we should wait until the off season for any drastic changes.
Fans constantly call for Henne's head when we fail to score but he is seriousily handicapped by the play calls. M.Ryan (some people's god) has a 3rd and 1 with M.Turner pounding out yards at will has a play call of playaction to Turner, 40 yard bomb to R.White which results in a TD. Does this clear up anything? M.Ryan is being put in situations to succeed when our young QB is constantly being put in negative situations, therefore has to overcome a greater difficulty to be successful. The defense over played the run allowing R.White to get wide open (atleast two steps on the defender and the safety couldn't recover in time when he bit on the run fake), this was a brillant play call but really every OC should know that. The situation was ripe and then the execution re-inforced the call.
How often do you get frustrated with the check down passes when Henne sees the down the field is taken away? is this Henne's fault or is it again play calling? Well let's see.... why do we not run more rubs, crossing patterns, curls/hooks or double moves? The time Henne needs to throw has consistantly been there but we seem to run deep outs or deep ins and then being forced to check down when their covered. This is exactly what the defense wants, keep everything underneath and come up and make a play. Again our OC putting Henne in constant bad situations! When we actually have Marshall run slants, quick ins and hooks we see a great deal of success between Henne and Marshall. This then sets up the bigger plays later on but when we fail to start the game doing these things how can any QB be successful? When we get 1st downs from check downs it's because our players make the extra play by making guys miss or drag us tackler across the 1st down line. Again more negative plays, plays that do not have a high success rate. Crossing patterns, picks, hooks at the 1st down marker allows us to get into open space, find blown coverages, catch balls at the 1st down marker all positive plays. Setting up big plays like double moves almost never happen for us because we don't run them, yet we get burned by them by opposing offenses adding to our frustrations. A simple example is....How many times can we run a 12 yard out to Bess for a 1st down before Henning realizes that this success sets up a double move for Bess and Henne for a much bigger play but we never run them. Another simple example is we go to Polite in short yardage situations and everyone knows it, why haven't we play actioned Polite and hit a TE on a quick seem route when you know the LB's are completely committed to stopping Polite???? More big play opportunties that we don't even try to execute even though they have been set up for success against opposing defenses!
The big picture item here is when we start calling plays that allow us to have chances to score on a regular basis then and only then can we really ever judge C.Henne. So far when we have done so he has succeeded and that tells me a change of OC's will have the biggest inpact in the off season more so then any 1 FA or drafted player would have long term.
I will say this though, if TS refuses to let Henning go then it all falls on him for not reconizing the real problem the team is having and that is what a head coach is suppose to do isn't it?. Where I do not want to change the head coach every few years we would be forced to do so to get the end results we would like to see. You fired PP and that turned out to make a big change on defense, so don't let us down now fire DH after our last game please or we either see the same failures next year or a whole new regime.
Sorry for another Henning thread, but I atleast tried to show why it is important to make the change instead of yelling and screaming "off with his head" like to many fans do after a loss.