Tired of hearing about how Henne may struggle...???

[mnphinfan]

I am getting very tired of hearing how Henne is going to struggle on the road playing in hostile crowd environments. We heard it last week vs the Jets and now we are hearing it again for when we travel to Foxboro. Do these people not realize where Henne played college ball? If you don't let me tell you he played at MICHIGAN in the BIG 10. So I decided to break down his stats from his toughest road and neutral site games in his 4 year college career just to see how he fared in hostile crowd environments.

Freshman: Notre Dame, Illinois, Ohio State and Texas in Rose Bowl

Sophmore: Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska in Alamo Bowl

Junior: Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, USC in Rose Bowl (basically away)

Senior: Wisconsin, Illinios, Florida in Capitol 1 Bowl (Orlando basicall away)

In these 13 games he had a 57.9 competion %, 27 Td's, 14 Int's and a passer rating of 86.1. He however did only have a W/L record of 5/8, which I would have liked to see better.

Based on these stats and the maturation process of Henne in the last season and a half I see no reason why we should fear Henne getting rattled on the road at any NFL stadium.

 

[oasis]

He's a robot...it's not possible to rattle him unless you snip the wires to his power supply.

That being said, the W/L record in big games always worried me. Maybe it was because of the opposite of getting rattled - maybe he didn't get amped up enough!

 

[Dolphin Dave]

I really dont care what people say he might do. I am only interested in what he does do on Sunday. Bring on the Patsies.

 

[dolphinsbshaw72]

henne will be fine.. he just need's time to get used to the starters role.. i mean come on hes starting for the first time in the nfl.. last time i checked thats hard to do.. all the good qbs had trouble starting there first games.. henne will be no different.. next year i will expect him to really show us whats he is made of.. this year is like his rookie season.. there is going to be ups and downs..

 

[Fins1971]

Freshman: Notre Dame, Illinois, Ohio State and Texas in Rose Bowl

In losses to Notre Dame, Ohio State and Texas the Michigan defense gave up 28, 37 and 38 points respectively (Average 34 points allowed)

Sophmore: Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska in Alamo Bowl

In losses to Wisconsin and Nebraska the Michigam defense gave up 23 and 32 points respectively (Average 28.5 points allowed)

Junior: Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State, USC in Rose Bowl (basically away)

In losses to Ohio State and USC the Michagan defense gave up 42 and 32 points respectively (Average 37 points allowed)


Senior: Wisconsin, Illinios, Florida in Capitol 1 Bowl (Orlando basicall away)

In losses to Wisconsin and Ohio State the Michigan defense gave up 37 and 14 points respectively (Average 25.5 points allowed) In the Ohio State game he shouldn't have even played any. He was injured and came in to give them a spark since it was a close low scoring game. He wasn't able to do much becuase of Ohio State d and his injury.

In those 9 loses the Michigan defense gave up an average of 31.5 points per game

It pretty hard to put those road losses on Chad when the Michigan defense forgot to get on the team bus...

 

[FinHopeful]

I am getting very tired of hearing how Henne is going to struggle on the road playing in hostile crowd environments.

You need to understand that the evaluation of a QB struggling in a hostile environment is different in the NFL than in college. NFL players study tendencies of their opponent. Does the offensive tackle in front of the DE place more weight on his down hand for running plays. This does not occur in the college game. The tendencies and the crowd noise gives the home team defensive line a large advantage; therefore, the offensive line tends to perform worse when on the road. This reduces the time that Henne has to get rid of the ball since the defensive line gets off the ball more quickly than the offensive line.

So the evaluation of a QB playing on the road goes like this:

• Does the QB complete his progression more quickly than the average NFL QB?
• Does the QB have a tendency to hold onto the ball too long?
• Has the QB demonstrated problems identifying the blitz in presnap reads?
• Does the QB panic when a blitz is coming?

The answer is yes to three of these questions, so an analyst would be foolish not to expect Henne to have problems in a big road game.

 

[PerfectFinz72]

If he struggles it has nothing to do with the road. He's basically a rookie as far as I'm concerned so struggles are expected no matter where he plays. Other than taking some sacks...I think he's been pretty solid. Aaron Rodgers is looking really good...yet he holds onto the ball too long at times. Aikman said during the Pack/Vikes game that young QBs often do this. Henne has less experience than Rodgers so I anticipate it will take some more time.

If anything I'm impressed with how he handles himself.

 

[Jersey DolFan]

You need to understand that the evaluation of a QB struggling in a hostile environment is different in the NFL than in college. NFL players study tendencies of their opponent. Does the offensive tackle in front of the DE place more weight on his down hand for running plays. This does not occur in the college game. The tendencies and the crowd noise gives the home team defensive line a large advantage; therefore, the offensive line tends to perform worse when on the road. This reduces the time that Henne has to get rid of the ball since the defensive line gets off the ball more quickly than the offensive line.

So the evaluation of a QB playing on the road goes like this:

• Does the QB complete his progression more quickly than the average NFL QB?
• Does the QB have a tendency to hold onto the ball too long?
• Has the QB demonstrated problems identifying the blitz in presnap reads?
• Does the QB panic when a blitz is coming?

The answer is yes to three of these questions, so an analyst would be foolish not to expect Henne to have problems in a big road game.

Henne will def have some probs on the road. He did not play well on Sunday if anyone remembers. The last couple drives he did much better which is what counts. but he overall did not play well. That being said, in college they DO break down game film. esp the QB's. Henne's experience playing in the Cold, in tough environments, and for 4 years in college is actually a HUGE plus and does make a big difference. That being said he does need to settle down a bit and hopefully against NE sunday he shows he can be himself on the road, since he got the first road game out of the way with a win and a confidence boosting drive at the end.

 

[SirDrums]

He will have his bumps, but henne is going to be just fine.

Just think of how much more comfortable you feel with henne behind center as opposed to:

Jay Fiedler
Ray Lucas
Brian Griese
A.J. Feeley
Sage Rosenfels
Gus Frerotte
Daunte Culpepper,
Joey Harrington
Cleo Lemon
Trent Green,
John Beck

 

[PerfectFinz72]

Henne will def have some probs on the road. He did not play well on Sunday if anyone remembers. The last couple drives he did much better which is what counts. but he overall did not play well. That being said, in college they DO break down game film. esp the QB's. Henne's experience playing in the Cold, in tough environments, and for 4 years in college is actually a HUGE plus and does make a big difference. That being said he does need to settle down a bit and hopefully against NE sunday he shows he can be himself on the road, since he got the first road game out of the way with a win and a confidence boosting drive at the end.

I don't think he played that poorly. Took a sack or two too many but he didn't force anything. He didn't turn the ball over and he made throws when he had to. There were a couple drops in there too. Also, the 3rd quarter kept him and the offense off the field...so its tough to judge how he would have performed in those situations because he didn't need to perform. He also lead them down the field for the final touchdown which was big.

I would be leaning more towards he played "ok" than "not well".

 

[AdamD13]

He will have his bumps, but henne is going to be just fine.

Just think of how much more comfortable you feel with henne behind center as opposed to:

Jay Fiedler
Ray Lucas
Brian Griese
A.J. Feeley
Sage Rosenfels
Gus Frerotte
Daunte Culpepper,
Joey Harrington
Cleo Lemon
Trent Green,
John Beck

Gives me goosebumps to see the list of stellar QBs we have had since Marino retired.

Has anyone played even a snap (Sorgi must of played a couple) for Indy at QB other than Payton Manning during this revolving QB door we have had?

 

[mnphinfan]

You need to understand that the evaluation of a QB struggling in a hostile environment is different in the NFL than in college. NFL players study tendencies of their opponent. Does the offensive tackle in front of the DE place more weight on his down hand for running plays. This does not occur in the college game. The tendencies and the crowd noise gives the home team defensive line a large advantage; therefore, the offensive line tends to perform worse when on the road. This reduces the time that Henne has to get rid of the ball since the defensive line gets off the ball more quickly than the offensive line.

So the evaluation of a QB playing on the road goes like this:

• Does the QB complete his progression more quickly than the average NFL QB?
• Does the QB have a tendency to hold onto the ball too long?
• Has the QB demonstrated problems identifying the blitz in presnap reads?
• Does the QB panic when a blitz is coming?

The answer is yes to three of these questions, so an analyst would be foolish not to expect Henne to have problems in a big road game.

You come up with interesting points but nothing to back your statement.

1. I have yet to see much of a problem with Henne's progression in the NFL. Of the 3 picks he has thrown only one of them was a telegraphed pass (San Diego). If this was a bigger problem you can bet he would have more int's (kind of like Dirty Sanchez-he is horrible at this). He has done much better with not starting down his receivers than he has done in the past which is due to better pregression of reading the play and finding another WR in his reads.

2. I would definitely agree Henne tends to hold on to the ball to long. He did it in college and it still doing it today.

3. Henne has done a good job in identiying the pre-snap blitz. The problem is the linemen and RB's have not always done a good job picking it up. Also it is tough to say he doesn't do well picking up the blitz when I have yet to see him audible to a different play to attack the weakness of the blitz. This probably has more to do with the OC and HC actually not allowing him to make these audibles at the line. I have always disagreed with this philosophy but many QB's arent allowed to audible in the NFL.

4. Henne definitely does not panic. He doesn't get happy feet in the pocket or tuck it down and run when not warranted. He is about as calm as you can actually be in the middle of an NFL pocket.

So to look at your four points in distinguishing on weather or not a QB will struggle on the road. I basically only see Henne struggling in 1 area. Looks like to me he will be fine.

You also forget experience is one of the key factors in playing well on the road in big games, and if playing in the Horse Shoe at Ohio State, Playing USC at the Rose Bowl, and Florida in Orlando don't give you experience I don't know what does, because these are more hostile environments then you will ever see at an NFL game.

 

[X-Pacolypse]

He will have his bumps, but henne is going to be just fine.

Just think of how much more comfortable you feel with henne behind center as opposed to:

Jay Fiedler
Ray Lucas
Brian Griese
A.J. Feeley
Sage Rosenfels
Gus Frerotte
Daunte Culpepper,
Joey Harrington
Cleo Lemon
Trent Green,
John Beck

Beck sucks.