Kolb should have hit the TE

[1DS]

On the play he got hurt. The saints sent more men than we could block, this is true. But when they do that, they are leaving someone open. The TE (heap?) ran to the left flat and was wide open. Per usual, .5 seconds after the ball was snapped he begins scrambling right. If Kolb didn't roll to the right away from the open person, he probably would have been able to see the open dude and get rid of the ball way before the pressure got to him. Nah, Kolb still would have missed him and thrown into triple coverage somewhere else.

 

[THESMEL]

When you have 5 recievers it doesn't take many to be more than we can block. Of couse it is all on Levi how dare him not block everybody every down! ha Ha

We need to establish our offense before we atttack from our own endzone, fundementally.

 

[JeffGollin]

On the play he got hurt. The saints sent more men than we could block, this is true. But when they do that, they are leaving someone open. The TE (heap?) ran to the left flat and was wide open. Per usual, .5 seconds after the ball was snapped he begins scrambling right. If Kolb didn't roll to the right away from the open person, he probably would have been able to see the open dude and get rid of the ball way before the pressure got to him. Nah, Kolb still would have missed him and thrown into triple coverage somewhere else.

Remember that Kolb was running for his life to his right and probably couldn't see the TE in the left flat anyway.

But it still leaves open a couple of questions:

1. In that scheme for that play, under those circumstances, did Kolb have better options. Could he have stepped up in the pocket? Could he have rolled in a different direction? Did he have other receiving options? Should he have thrown it away earlier in order to avoid the hit? Or would he have simply rolled right into an avalanche of tacklers?

2. If he really "knew" the ins and outs of the playbook, shouldn't he have sensed that the TE would be open in the left flat without having to look?

Dunno. Just asking.

Oh yeah, final thought: That play looked like a typical roll out we could expect to see 35 - 50 times during a season. My concern is that it's a matter of time before Kevin got nailed again. Clearly, he'll have to change the way he rolls out, when he rolls out and how he absorbs hits - or he'll never be on the field long enough to become our full-time starter.

 

[Russ Smith]

Remember that Kolb was running for his life to his right and probably couldn't see the TE in the left flat anyway.

But it still leaves open a couple of questions:

1. In that scheme for that play, under those circumstances, did Kolb have better options. Could he have stepped up in the pocket? Could he have rolled in a different direction? Did he have other receiving options? Should he have thrown it away earlier in order to avoid the hit? Or would he have simply rolled right into an avalanche of tacklers?

2. If he really "knew" the ins and outs of the playbook, shouldn't he have sensed that the TE would be open in the left flat without having to look?

Dunno. Just asking.

Oh yeah, final thought: That play looked like a typical roll out we could expect to see 35 - 50 times during a season. My concern is that it's a matter of time before Kevin got nailed again. Clearly, he'll have to change the way he rolls out, when he rolls out and how he absorbs hits - or he'll be toast sooner than later.

The only way he had to go was right. NFL.com has a closeup of the play Will Smith is coming free from the left, that's who Hyphen picks up. Cameron Jordan on a stunt is coming free up the middle, that's who runs by Kolb as he rolls right. The problem is Ellis was also free by that point and he was looping to his left or Kolb's right so Kevin ran right into him and predictably went back trying to run around him and we all know the result.

Did he have time to hit Heap in the flat I don't know. I couldn't see Sherman on the NFL tape but others have said he's open early too. So yes it's possible if Kolb really knows the offense he should have looked to either one of those as soon as he realized the protection was completely broken down.

But he had no option to step up or roll another way, the question is did he have time to hit the open man before he started running and I can't answer that it's not visible on the replays I've seen.