JeffGollin
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Obviously this topic will become an obsession if not a full-time profession both in the Valley and among national media people.
I thought I'd try to give it a shot at sorting out what we might want to look for this evening:
- I'm guessing that there will be an overemphasis on boxcar numbers (i.e. did we win or lose? How many TD passes did he throw? What about his other stats)? But let's not forget this is our first preseason game - and all the parts of the overall offensive machine might not quite be in total synch, with the result that it could impair or cloud Leinart's performance. So while overall production (i.e. scoring TD's/winning games) becomes increasingly important as preseason moves along, I'd be more interested in how good Matt is at taking advantage of various game-situations:
- Is he throwing a nice ball?
- Is he making good reads and picking up open receivers quickly?
- Is his decision-making not too slow, not hurried - but "just right."
- Is he hitting open receivers?
- Is he hitting them in the right place?
- Does he look smooth dropping back from under center?
- Does his ball-handling look slick? Or does it seem like more of an adventure?
- Ditto screen pass execution - Smooth? Or an adventure?
- How's his "sixth sense" vis a vis "feeling the pass rush?"
- Does he look comfortable or jittery moving out of the pocket?
- How productive is he in the Red Zone?
- Is he throwing well (accurately/with right amount of touch or mustard) on the run?
- When there are opportunities to make plays, is he capitalizing on them.
- Is he doing all of this consistently?
Other than that...nothing.
I thought I'd try to give it a shot at sorting out what we might want to look for this evening:
- I'm guessing that there will be an overemphasis on boxcar numbers (i.e. did we win or lose? How many TD passes did he throw? What about his other stats)? But let's not forget this is our first preseason game - and all the parts of the overall offensive machine might not quite be in total synch, with the result that it could impair or cloud Leinart's performance. So while overall production (i.e. scoring TD's/winning games) becomes increasingly important as preseason moves along, I'd be more interested in how good Matt is at taking advantage of various game-situations:
- Is he throwing a nice ball?
- Is he making good reads and picking up open receivers quickly?
- Is his decision-making not too slow, not hurried - but "just right."
- Is he hitting open receivers?
- Is he hitting them in the right place?
- Does he look smooth dropping back from under center?
- Does his ball-handling look slick? Or does it seem like more of an adventure?
- Ditto screen pass execution - Smooth? Or an adventure?
- How's his "sixth sense" vis a vis "feeling the pass rush?"
- Does he look comfortable or jittery moving out of the pocket?
- How productive is he in the Red Zone?
- Is he throwing well (accurately/with right amount of touch or mustard) on the run?
- When there are opportunities to make plays, is he capitalizing on them.
- Is he doing all of this consistently?
Other than that...nothing.
will be destroying him tonight, but as long as he isn't downright putrid I will be satisfied.
