Warner's interception--WR thoughts

[moklerman]

Warner's pick in the 2nd quarter was a huge momentum shift but I had a hard time trying to figure out what the right option would have been on the play. The tv coverage seemed to favor really tight shots most of the day and on that play, I couldn't really tell if he had an outlet(on the fumble he clearly had Hightower in the flat and either got tunnel vision or got greedy).

What I could tell though, is that Urban fell down and once again seemed to be involved in a negative play. Not every play he's in is negative but he has been a very weak link in the WR corps. I'm not sure what he excels at but it doesn't seem to be route running, hands, speed, staying onside, etc.

Which makes me wonder whatever happened to Early Doucet? I thought he was dinged, not injured. I don't remember seeing him in the last couple of games though and I just can't imagine him being any worse than Urban. As silly as it sounds, the 4th receiver is going to have to start contributing with the attention that Breaston is getting. Pope(it's sad to think that Warner might be able to actually outrun Pope in a footrace) and Urban are not cutting it in my opinion.

Hopefully Patrick can come back or start practicing better or whatever's keeping him out of the lineup and excluding that, I'd like to see if JJ could line up in the slot as the 4th or come out of the backfield running downfield routes. I don't know how well he runs routes but it would be a great benefit if he could start morphing into a Marshall Faulk-like role.

 

[mrbyte]

I don't think Urban 'fell' down I think he went to ground, I've watched this a number of times and to me he seems to fold his legs under him and intended to catch the ball sliding on his knees and miss the hit. I'm not sure he would have caught it anyway (Even if he didn't chose to slide on his knees) but he would have at least been in a position to attempt a tackle.
The pass didn't look bad from KW (well no more risky than 5 or 6 others he threwinto tight coverage)
Urban has gone to ground before rather than try to catch the pass on the run..Its a confidence thing I think

 

[Spielman]

What I could tell though, is that Urban fell down and once again seemed to be involved in a negative play. Not every play he's in is negative but he has been a very weak link in the WR corps. I'm not sure what he excels at but it doesn't seem to be route running, hands, speed, staying onside, etc.

Didn't look to me like his falling down had anything to do with the ball being intercepted. It was a bad throw, period. Throw the ball 40+ times in a game, and there will be some bad throws in there.

And just last week, Urban made a very nice grab on a high fastball over the middle that could easily have been tipped and intercepted. I dunno if he's as bad as you think.

Also, if Breaston is getting attention, the solution isn't for the the 4th receiver to step up, the solution is for Fitzgerald and Boldin to have big games. And whaddaya know... they had monster games. It'd be nice to see a TE being productive, but I'd far rather see a running game.

 

[moklerman]

I guess I could see that but haven't noticed it before. I really couldn't tell if the DB undercut the route, if Urban rounded of his route or could have come back for the ball if he'd stayed on his feet or a combination of all of the above. With all of tight coverage and some risky passes today Warner was probably lucky to have just one INT.

I was really bummed when the pass blocking didn't hold up on the 40 yarder to Boldin. That was the same play that worked against Miami and Warner had to scramble around in the pocket and wound up throwing it later than it should have been. It was short but Boldin was so wide open that he could wait for it and still have a big gainer. If it was on time though, it would have been 6.

Seattle's a monkey on the Card's back though so it's not a surprise that nothing broke loose. Most of the close plays remained in the Card's favor though which was a shift from how it's gone in the previous 5 games so maybe next time, the TD's will come.

 

[Spielman]

Seattle's a monkey on the Card's back though so it's not a surprise that nothing broke loose. Most of the close plays remained in the Card's favor though which was a shift from how it's gone in the previous 5 games so maybe next time, the TD's will come.

Road game, divisional opponent. Even without the monkey, this is a case where a win's a win. I was never sanguine about this game.

 

[moklerman]

Didn't look to me like his falling down had anything to do with the ball being intercepted. It was a bad throw, period. Throw the ball 40+ times in a game, and there will be some bad throws in there.

True, and it's a testament to how efficient the offense has been.

I just thought that the throw itself looked accurate which made me think that it had something to do with the route/timing. I mean, it wasn't behind Urban or anything like that. Overall, I was more interested in if it was the right read by Warner. It looked like Urban had one-on-one coverage so I'm assuming it wasn't a "bad" read.

Not really a big deal, just curiosity. Urban has made a couple of good catches so hopefully he continues to do more good than not. I still wonder what's going on with Doucet though.

 

[moklerman]

Road game, divisional opponent. Even without the monkey, this is a case where a win's a win. I was never sanguine about this game.

I agree. The W trumps all. I'm not disappointed in the win and have grown to expect this type of thing from Whis...for now. He is, and has, played road games relatively conservative and the 2nd half coronaries aren't a surprise for me anymore.

Overall though, I think that wildcard option on offense is going to be critical for the Card's really soon and I'm not sure that I'm confident in Urban or Pope being that guy. I really think JJ is the answer but I admit it's just a guess. Someone is going to have 1-on-1 coverage though with Fitz, Q and Breaston getting all of the attention. I think JJ would exploit those matchups much better than either Urban or Pope. He might even block better than either of them too.

 

[jstadvl]

This is a HOF candidate QB. Stupidity on his part, at this point of the season is inexcusable. He gets too comfortable. The pick, bad juju, the fumble, his fault. Both at inopportune times. Very costly. the game should never have been this close.
I like Kurt, but, even he walked away,both times, with his head down. He knew it was on him. Underthrows, behind the receiver throws.
Then the int. and fumble on our part!
But again, a win is a win. We have over come adversity a number of times this year. THAT'S what good teams do.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

It was a timing route. Either Warner threw it to the wrong spot, or Urban didn't get to the spot quick enough. The ball was behind Urban, which leads me to believe that Warner threw badly.

 

[moklerman]

This is a HOF candidate QB. Stupidity on his part, at this point of the season is inexcusable.

Well, I think stupidity may be the wrong term. From what I've read, Warner waited for Urban to come out of his break because he didn't trust that he would be there and that split second of timing gave the DB a chance to break on the ball. It was the right read but Warner was trying to be too careful with it.

The fumble play came down to a split second as well. Just a tiny hair longer and he would have got the pass away. He was on his secondary reads at that point so although it was a bad play, I wouldn't count it the same as throwing into double/triple coverage, holding the ball loosely and getting stripped or those types of things that would certainly be classified as stupidity.

 

[WisconsinCard]

Road game, divisional opponent. Even without the monkey, this is a case where a win's a win. I was never sanguine about this game.

All of these, and add the short week, after the Monday night game. Were the big concerns for me going into this game.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't think Urban 'fell' down I think he went to ground, I've watched this a number of times and to me he seems to fold his legs under him and intended to catch the ball sliding on his knees and miss the hit. I'm not sure he would have caught it anyway (Even if he didn't chose to slide on his knees) but he would have at least been in a position to attempt a tackle.
The pass didn't look bad from KW (well no more risky than 5 or 6 others he threwinto tight coverage)
Urban has gone to ground before rather than try to catch the pass on the run..Its a confidence thing I think

That's what I thought too, Urban was sliding to make the catch not expecting the DB to undercut the route and pick it like that. Great play by Wilson.

Probably the one bad decision Kurt made that he didn't get away with(had a couple of near picks that he got a bit lucky on). One of those we don't need to push it downfield at that time moments but he played so well otherwise hard to be mad at him.

 

[Russ Smith]

It was a timing route. Either Warner threw it to the wrong spot, or Urban didn't get to the spot quick enough. The ball was behind Urban, which leads me to believe that Warner threw badly.

HArd to tell from the angle I saw(watching streamed on internet) but it looked to me like the throw was on line, Wilson just jumped the route and got there. He made a good play and Kurt forced a bal downfield to a guy that wasn't as open as he thought.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

HArd to tell from the angle I saw(watching streamed on internet) but it looked to me like the throw was on line, Wilson just jumped the route and got there. He made a good play and Kurt forced a bal downfield to a guy that wasn't as open as he thought.

Not from the angle I saw. Urban slipped as he tried to come back to the ball thrown behind him. Wilson also jumped the route.

I'm willing to live with one KW mistake. Two is borderline. (yesterday) Three is inexcusable.

 

[SuperSpck]

Urban brings a lot of physical skills to the table. He's one of the faster receivers on a team not known for it. He's tall, and he can make some difficult catches.

The reason he's the 4th receiver is because he deals with issues of consistency and his skill set still needs lots of polish. He has made some very good progress over this season though.

I used to cringe when I saw him on the field, now I barely wince.

As for the pick? Like others have said, it was a matter of bad timing. I'm also think the field played a factor, there was a lot of very careful stepping the whole game.

Like molkler, I also wonder why we don't see Doucet more, if not as a rotational, why not in a 5 wide?

 

[CaptTurbo]

Wanrer is on target 99.9% of the time you cant complain if he throws behind a wr once every 300 throws.

 

[Russ Smith]

Wanrer is on target 99.9% of the time you cant complain if he throws behind a wr once every 300 throws.

Agreed. My only issue there was field position and time in the half, he probably should have been more careful, but he was so hot the whole game you can understand why he thought he could get that ball in there.

There were 3 plays in the game where you say if he doesn't do that, it's a no contest game. The first was the INT. The 2nd was Dansby taking the pick out and fumbling. The last was Kurt's fumble.

But we won and that's all that matters.

 

[Totally_Red]

Agreed. My only issue there was field position and time in the half, he probably should have been more careful, but he was so hot the whole game you can understand why he thought he could get that ball in there.

There were 3 plays in the game where you say if he doesn't do that, it's a no contest game. The first was the INT. The 2nd was Dansby taking the pick out and fumbling. The last was Kurt's fumble.

But we won and that's all that matters.

I was OK with the pick. But not the fumble. Kurt has Timmy open at the right sideline, but got greedy in that situation. And he stepped into the hit. Overall, he had another solid performance.

One thing we do have to improve is red zone TD percentage. Convert a couple of those field goals to TDs, and my heart will thank you.

 

[CaptTurbo]

I was OK with the pick. But not the fumble. Kurt has Timmy open at the right sideline, but got greedy in that situation. And he stepped into the hit. Overall, he had another solid performance.

One thing we do have to improve is red zone TD percentage. Convert a couple of those field goals to TDs, and my heart will thank you.

We never ever through the outlet pass unless its a designed screen. Frustrates me.

 

[Cheesebeef]

the turnovers yesterday were bad but great players have bad games sometimes, and even with the turnovers, it was more of an uneven game than a bad one for Kurt. No one's perfect. As long as yesterday doesn't become a trend (and at this point this year Kurt should be given the benefit of the doubt it won't become a trend) it ain't a problem.