Where is Matty??????

[Garthshort]

Put me in the corner with all those who think that ML has lost confidence in himself. I remember something Pete Carroll said about ML. "He improved greatly after being named the starting QB".

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Our first unit is right now, totally without a leader. There is no commanding officer barking orders, and no one is carrying them out. What I saw was but a pitiful shell of what was once a promising, young, bright, competitive, NFL quarterback. Now I see only an empty shell wearing the number 7. There is no heart-----There is no soul.

Exactly what I saw.

Lost all confidence.

When interviewed all he could say was "um" and "I have to watch tape". WTF?

 

[moklerman]

Leinart looked very frustrated to me in general. Not liking his demeanor. Warranted or not, he's just gotta hide it somehow.

I did like his play though. When he had any kind of chance to throw or was in a reasonable down and distance he was just fine.

On the one hand, the playing time issue seems to mirror what happened in '08 with Warner and Leinart. Warner didn't get a whole lot of playing time and it seemed that they were giving Leinart more of a chance. In hindsight, it was more that Warner's job was secure and Leinart was being given an opportunity to dazzle and steal the job. Perhaps that is what is going on now.

Anderson had a couple of early moments but he was unimpressive in the end zone missing on an easy TD, then late on a slant thrown behind the receiver. He also fumbled and overall, pretty much summed up what he is. A guy with a cannon for an arm who just isn't accurate and is probably going to have some turnovers.

BUT, one thing that caught my Dr. Phil was that when Leinart had the apparent miscommunication with #14 on the deep throw on 3rd & 1, he was lobbying Whis to go for it on 4th & 1. For the first time all game Leinart was showing some enthusiasm and he was shot down by Whis. And you could just see it take a toll on Leinart. His head dropped and he really looked defeated to me.

Keep in mind, that I consider Whis' ability to manage players his greatest strength as a coach. But that play really stuck out to me and I think that Whis really undermined Leinart's position as a leader.

What makes all of that worse is that later in the game, he let Anderson go for it on 4th & 1.

I'm still confident that Leinart can play the game but I'm continuing to doubt that it will be in Arizona for too much longer. My faith in Whis tells me that he knows which buttons to push with Leinart and that the last 2+ years of tearing him down and retraining him will pay dividends but Leinart has not looked like a QB who is full of confidence this preseason like I thought he would once Warner was gone.

Maybe it's as simple as "you're my QB" but Leinart seems to be struggling with something, whatever it is. I think he's done a good job of protecting the ball and being sound but it seems that home runs are what he expects of himself or possibly what he thinks is expected of him.

I hope he hangs in there and I hope that Whis "is what I thought he was".

 

[Russ Smith]

I actually thought Matt did well all things considered. My only concern is the Oline. I was watching some of the Bengal/Eagle game and was impressed with how well the Bengal Oline picked up the Eagle blitzes. Hopefully our line will gel soon and start playing somewhere near the Bengal Oline level.

Its pre-season football and we all know how little Whiz places on it. LSH continues to impress with his play. I hope he see the ball about 100 times this season.

Agreed. If you get a chance to re-watch last night ask yourself if Matt had the time to throw that Young did, and Young had the time to throw that Matt did, what conversation would they be having on First Take this morning on ESPN? It wouldn't be Young will have a breakout season, Leinart has no confidence, it would be Leinart is ready to do the job, Young is still not a complete QB.

Or even if they just call the blatant hold where the guy grabbed Dockett's left arm and held him back on the long pass play to the TE. Take that play away and the Titans probably score 3 points with Vince at QB despite him having all day to throw the ball.

Matt hasn't looked great yet but I do think Donald is correct that Whiz believes in Matt more than he does in DA and that's why he's calling the games the way he is.

We'll see but I still think Matt can be a very solid NFL QB, Jaworski said so last night and I have a lot of faith in his opinion. With the starting WR's and TE in there and the OL doing their job I think Matt will be just fine.

If not, then you start hoping we're really bad and that Andrew Luck decides to turn pro after this season and quite frankly I have no interest in rooting for that to happen the next few months.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

I don't get this at all. We have a supposed #1 QB that needs reps and he keeps pulling him after two series and the #2 gets a full half. What the hell is Whiz thinking?

He was thinking he wanted to see how Anderson would do in the exact same circumstances. Save for one beautifully thrown ball, he played about the same.

 

[BigRedFan]

Derek Anderson could be a solid backup long term, but only that, based on his past stats from college and pros. Wed be lucky to get back to 2008 and 2009 levels, and we would like to improve on that. I would have preferred Marc Bulger as someone with better odds to resurrect his career, but only would have been a 2 year stopgap anyway. Matt Leinart has a 91 QB rating so far in preseaon so lets not put all the blame on him and overanalyze his demeanor and saying we dont see the fire in his eyes, a few nice throws to Fitz would shut everyone up on that. Nonetheless, the chance of him playing well enough to justify the big contract is not that high. Even if it is more the O-lines fault, more anemic play will not justify bringing him back next year. Would like to have seen Skelton last night. After his good showing last week, why not let him play a few series, its not like we have much more time to experiment.