Originally posted by Jetstream Green
It's called something like that on one of the ESPN stations. It has that crappy ex-steeler QB Mark "I throw only to the other team" Malone, Denny Green and that ex-Raider CB (I forget) and guess what excuse they used for Plummer. He might be playing bad because he was on a loser team like the Cardinals and that is why he might never be good now. ... Yeah right you clowns! Steve Young was sure effected by his stay with the ol' orange Buccaneers...NOT. Face it, they will find any excuse for Jake sucking and this is one of many to come. Poor Jake, he forgot how to play good because the Cardinals effected his brain... What?!!! Gee, Simeon Rice sure is stinking it up too, right? I give up, we spoiled Jake for the rest of the NFL... bad Cardinals, evil Cardinals. How's this, Jake messed up the Cardinals for five years. The Cardinals where snake bit and now the Broncos just got bit. Jake is a great guy but not even a average QB in the NFL.
The claim is Jake is still "shell shocked" from all the losing.
I don't know, I stopped posting but kept reading the Bronco board and yesterday someone was explaining in detail that the Cards WCO failed because it was "watered down", Shanny's WCO(which most Bronco fans deny IS a WCO) has over 1000 plays and formations, trestman had much less. SInce I'm not posting I PM'd him offering him links to articles detailing how the over 800 page playbook kept being shrunk by Trestman because Jake was overwhelmed by the sheer number of plays and formations. No answer yet.
The big comment there is this is a whole new offense to Jake because it's not a WCO, and he's new to it. Why is it not a WCO? BEcause they run more than they pass, Shanny insists it's not a WCO. Never mind that the formations and basic concept of the passing system is the same, because the ratio of run to pass is different, it's a whole new offense and thus Jake has to learn from scratch. Jake is throwing picks because they run so much he's confused? Meanwhile Detroit claims Olandis Gary and he announces he'll be ready to play the opener because "I played in the WCO in Denver for years I know the basic offense I just have to learn THEIR terminology." Yes I know RB has to know far less of an offense than QB but the point is Gary thinks it's a WCO too for the same reasons, the formations and passing scheme is the same.
What Jake struggled with in the WCO is the whole concept, short passing game, series of times routes, if the first isn't open, check down to the 2nd and 3rd and so on. It's timed so if you go through progressions correctly, a route is always "opening" at the time you check to it. If you lock too long on any one option, you won't be ready to throw when the next option opens. That's what killed us for 3 years under Trestman, if the first guy isn't open, Jake loses the rest of the options because he doesn't checkdown. '98 he just dumped the ball to Centers when that happened, after that we didn't have that safety valve who was always open even if he rarely got the first down. When Jake did make the right read, he often didn't put the ball to the guy in stride, thus resulting in a lot of short completions with little yards after catch.
If you read the Denver board you will see the comment over and over about short balls being thrown high, and longer passes being thrown behind receivers. He did this for 6 years here, he did it against the Bengals. sharpe had 1 catch, Jake missed him 3 other times. McCaffrey had a team record streak of 98 games with a catch stopped. Lelie had 0 catches. He basically threw to Rod Smith and Portis and nobody else. In the first half Cincy was in a nickel, Denver ran the ball and threw short passes to counter Cincy's pursuit. When Cincy went out of the nickel to stop the run game(which they did do), the offense totally bogged down because Jake couldn't take the easy pass to portis(it was covered) and forced balls downfield incomplete or intercepted.
I made the comment when they signed him that it reaked of ego from Shanahan, sign the "broken" player and fix him. To some extent there's the built in excuse angle, if Jake fails nobody is going to say Shanahan screwed him up, either Jake is self screwed up, or the Cards did it. The problem for the Broncos is of their core skill guys only Portis and Lelie are likely to be around and good in 2 years when they dump Jake before his contract gets huge, and get a real QB. So they are wasting 2 years on a team that probably only has 2 years left before they need 2 new WR's and a new TE, they also have an old OL(they are addressing this) and they have contract issues with Portis and 2 LB's(Wilson and Gold). So they really should have focussed on winning THIS year, which is why signing Jake was so dumb.
