CoachChuckDickerson Posted January 20, 2006 Posted January 20, 2006 at the very least, surely the new staff couldnt mis-handle the young quarterback any worse. Kinda like a horse with potential that was handled by bad trainers.......(seabiscuit, a prime example) time will tell and i will continue to tell time 574646[/snapback] What exactly is the right way to handle a young QB?
tennesseeboy Posted January 20, 2006 Posted January 20, 2006 I suspect Losman will be the one to save Losman's career. The new coach will have to fix the obvious gaps in the o-line, and after that JP either sinks or swims. I suspect he will swim and be a good quarterback next year. Time will tell.
Fake-Fat Sunny Posted January 20, 2006 Posted January 20, 2006 He was on staff but he was the TE coach at the time, so he had nothing to do with the QB's.I agree that props go to Clements for the work he did there, but it's probably also no co-incidence that those awful Stillers QB's finally started playing well for the only time in their careers as soon as Mularkey took over as the O-Coordinator. Cya 574852[/snapback] In addition to the props you give Clements for his work in Steelers land, he also deserves props for good work he did here: 1. Last year squeezing more production out of a Bledsoe who was downright horrible the year before and also out of the devastated Kevin Killdrive offense. Being better than Killdrive is not saying much, but I was impresed with some specific facets and choices of the Bills O under Clements last year. Specifically, A. He recognized that just because no one would mistake Bledsoe for being a running threat at all for a big gain, this does not mean you NEVER use him as a runner. In fact, I think that it was Bills playcalling which showed a willingess to run Bledsoe on the QB draw for 6-7 yards that actually stopped the LBs from selling out on the all out blitz which sacked Bledsoe so many times the two years before. I think the reduction in Bledsoe sacks came in part because the outside threat McGahee presented kept the LBs at home, and the OL though still bad improved over the Vinky/Ruel performance, Clements as OC effectively used what running Bledsoe could do. B. The OC also realized that Bledsoe for all his failings could do some things well. His ability to handle tosses and his good hands save us when Teague was learning shotgun snaps, Clements used this ball handling ability as a weapon as he employed play action hand-offs to WM who turned and pitched it back to Bledsoe who used his rocket arm to hit Evans and Moulds going downfield for easy TDs after the hand-off sucked in the coverage. C. In addition, Clements did some great playcalling playing around Bledsoe's failings but toward his skills by using his ability to fake and go on plays like his fake QB sneak on a 4th and and pitch back to WM who scampered 40+ yards for a TD last year. 2. Its the NFL though and the rule is what have you done for me lately (hence Clements is gone). Its hard to say much good about his mediocre work this year. However, it is not able that though even his buddy MM jerked the playcalling duties away from toward the end of the season (it now appears apparently by force as Ralph or TD were not pleased and MM had to make a change in the O). However, this switch away from Clements to former successful OC MM doing playcalling did not make a difference. Even more interesting, whn Clements got back the playcalling for the last two games the O was very effective against a good Cincy team and had a not bad plan poorly executed with some tipped INTs in the final game. Was Clements a good OC this year? No. Is he a talentless bum who cannot run an offense in this league? No to that as well. He did a good job last year and made a showing this year that though pitiful showed that last year was not a fluke. Certainly with TD and MM gone he deserves to be gone, but not because he can't run an O successfully.
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