maryland-bills-fan Posted December 1, 2008 Posted December 1, 2008 TE throws short passes to people who are running at a constant speed in one direction. It really helps if it is early in the pattern, so he has memorized where the defenders are and can go thu his reads & options quickly. He is good there- his quick release and short range accuracy is very good. If Evans is the primary receiver on a suprise fly pattern and has beat his man, he can throw a long rainbow pass and drop it right into Evans hands. Works sometimes. He becomes inaccurate when the early throws aren't there and he has to pick up and try to throw to people who he hasn't been tracking. He has trouble gauging their speed and direction. Hence all the throws high and behind on even fairly simple crossing routes. He often can't figure out where the defenders are and defenders out of his cone of vision surprise him. He is pretty poor on the medium range passes, throwing on the break. He has to lock onto that guy and that guy only and his ball doesn't have a lot of zip on it, which allows the defender or someone watching his eyes to break on the ball. He knows this and we don't seem many attempts. If the play lasts that many seconds, he rather check down. Unfortunately, these short passes are not of the Jimbo-to-T.Thomas type. They are late and a DE, LB or safety has reacted to the RB or TE standing around patiently, so there's not much running room after the catch. With Jimbo, TT snuck out of the backfield, caught the ball as he was accelerating downfield and had some open air in front of him. ... What has happened is the other teams have taken away the short stuff and have extra defenders watching him, breaking on the ball and popping up in strange (to him) places. The novelty is gone and the defense against his limited play-making is simple to implement and very effective. He knows it and is NFL toast. Its not that he suddenly lacks confidence in his ability (a favorate TE groupie excuse), its that he knows he is not good enough to be successful with what he does and the other stuff (that requires more downfield stuff) is (at least right now) beyond him. Some approximately accurate quotes: "We didn't practice against that this week" ....."sometimes what you see is not really what's there".. suggest he is a unused to doing the downfield stuff. At least Losman, for all his faults and shortcomings expects to work there. I would be surprised if can develop his skills out of where he is now and get to the next level. I have been doubting that the dink&dunk would be a viable offense ever since last year. I was hoping it was an early phase and the offense & TE's comfort level beyond that would improve. Guess not.
extrahammer Posted December 1, 2008 Posted December 1, 2008 All I saw from Losman yesterday was deer in headlights. He looked worse than Ryan Leaf. He actually ran into the defenders hands 4 or 5 times! Trent seems to exude major confidence at times and not at others, and I'm beginning to wonder if the coaches are teaching him anything.
Lofton80 Posted December 1, 2008 Posted December 1, 2008 Losman takes his eyes away from the receivers as soon as he senses pressure and typically runs right into a stack of players or better yet runs right where the outside rushers are being pushed. He is not good.
Captain Hindsight Posted December 1, 2008 Posted December 1, 2008 Trent has not been anticipating routes for a number of weeks now and instead waits until a player is open. It moves the ball but it takes away the big play and is costing us wins
Endzone Animal Posted December 1, 2008 Posted December 1, 2008 Edwards can't handle pressure in the pocket or inclimate weather. Hit him in the mouth once or twice and he's shot the rest of the day. Mix in cold, windy, snowy or rainy weather and he's worthless. More than anything, he lacks toughness.
BuffaloRebound Posted December 1, 2008 Posted December 1, 2008 I think his arm strength is an issue in Buffalo. I like everything else about his game, but he struggles once it gets windy and cold. It doesn't help that he has no safety valve in the middle of the field and most of the Bills pass plays are to smallish WR's to the sideline.
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