Lombardi Interviewed with Texans for HC

[Steve]

I do not have a quibble with the Saints offensive scheme and have always understood the 49ers style west coast offense versus the Air Coryell offense. (What else could happen with my father being a die hard 49ers fan and me being a die hard Chargers fan?) What I do have an issue with is Lombardi's play calling within that scheme.

And the focus on all the pick 6s being on throws that went wide is simply to highlight that that is an increased risk with those kinds of throws. Not a coincidence that all three happened on throws outside of the numbers. INTs happen with poor execution, but not all INTs are pick 6s. Pick 6s can happen in other areas of the field than outside the numbers, but I do seem to see them more outside the numbers, which is my point.

It was also not a coincidence that 2 INTs happened when plays called for Allen to run deeper crossing type patterns. Allen frequently gets open with sudden moves immediately off the snap. He is not going to create separation by running across the field and away from defenders who are as fast or faster than he is. Tyreek Hill is the best at those plays. When the first such INT happened against DAL, I predicted that it would happen again if we had Allen running those types of patterns. We did and it did.

Now, neither throw was perfect, of course, but the point is that the margin of error is greatly reduced when we are using the wrong personnel to execute certain plays, resulting in little or no separation.

Just lots of things I thought were off about the plays Lombardi was calling. I think Herbert being great covered for a lot of it and people have concluded that Lombardi is great and he deserves a HC interview (and I am hoping he gets hired by HOU, but I doubt it will happen), but the frustrating thing is that the offense with Herbert and our weapons could be so much better. It has the potential to be the best in the NFL, but I think Lombardi is effectively holding it back. However, because he produced better results than those produced by the Anthony Lynn clown car, he is somehow deemed to be good.

In reaching my own conclusions, I try to assess what I think we have and see if Lombardi is getting enough out of it. So far, the answer for me is "no".

The conventional wisdom with throwing outside is that for YEARS, NFL teams favor outside throws. An outside throw is indeed a higher risk throw, but it is also higher reward. If a WR catches the ball, typically there is a big play to be made, maybe even a game changing play because there is less help, and any mistake by the D leads to a TD.

The problem with all those throws has nothing to do with risk or reward. Every one of them was some combination of a bad route or throw or both (it's hard to tell on all 3).

As far as throwing inside, while the throws may have somewhat less risk in terms of the ball being in the air, they are higher risk in terms of more defenders, the QB not always being able to see them, and the windows are smaller, plus a higher percentage of tips lead to int. The vast majority of int overall are inside the numbers.

To me, the problem in the O this season was Allen being forced to play in the slot so much. When Guyton and Palmer were used, even when they aligned in the slot, they were often running "outside" routes, being tagged so Allen could work inside. Allen is effective inside, but I think he is at his best doing combinations of inside or outside alignment and route combinations.

I would like to see using Ekeler more as a slot receiver. None of the receivers we have, except for Bandy, have anything but average quickness. Guyton has great straight-line speed, but he is not quick that quick. Ekeler has that explosive quickness, and he can make DB look foolish. Line him up like Steichen used to, in the slot as well as using him out of the backfield, and it will attack the D more effectively, but we need another RB to make it happen. Our lack of RB depth really would not have allowed it, even if Lombardi would have been up for it.

[richpjr]

I would like to see using Ekeler more as a slot receiver. None of the receivers we have, except for Bandy, have anything but average quickness. Guyton has great straight-line speed, but he is not quick that quick. Ekeler has that explosive quickness, and he can make DB look foolish. Line him up like Steichen used to, in the slot as well as using him out of the backfield, and it will attack the D more effectively, but we need another RB to make it happen. Our lack of RB depth really would not have allowed it, even if Lombardi would have been up for it.

I really agree with this. Ekeler is the only explosive player we have on O.

[equivocation]

A deflected pass over the middle has a much greater chance to be intercepted than one toward the sideline.

[Xenos]

Prevent defense means it prevents a victory

Interesting how the dynamics played out in both games yesterday. Bowles decided to blitz both times and got burned, leading to the loss. Frazier did the opposite and did the same thing.

[equivocation]

Interesting how the dynamics played out in both games yesterday. Bowles decided to blitz both times and got burned, leading to the loss. Frazier did the opposite and did the same thing.

It's almost like players matter.

[Xenos]

It's almost like players matter.

[jamrock]

I wonder if the Saints will put in a call to Lombardi?

[Boltjolt]

I wonder if the Saints will put in a call to Lombardi?

I Saw that Dennis Allen is the front runner

[FoutsFan]

Interesting how the dynamics played out in both games yesterday. Bowles decided to blitz both times and got burned, leading to the loss. Frazier did the opposite and did the same thing.

There is a time and place for the prevent defense. Both of those were the time and place, when you know the other team has no time outs, a very small amount of time on the clock and needs to go a long way. Cover deep and the sidelines, let them get 15 yards or so over the middle and burn that clock. Both cases the D coordinator chose to pull out a loaded pistol in the booth and unload the magazine into their foot. Like my grandma used to say, you can't fix stupid and both of those guys were stuck on stupid.

[Guest]

A deflected pass over the middle has a much greater chance to be intercepted than one toward the sideline.

I have no issue with that, but the one picked off on the sideline is more likely to result in a pick 6.

[Guest]

There is a time and place for the prevent defense. Both of those were the time and place, when you know the other team has no time outs, a very small amount of time on the clock and needs to go a long way. Cover deep and the sidelines, let them get 15 yards or so over the middle and burn that clock. Both cases the D coordinator chose to pull out a loaded pistol in the booth and unload the magazine into their foot. Like my grandma used to say, you can't fix stupid and both of those guys were stuck on stupid.

Players do not matter when they are not put into the proper position to win. That is what the end of the game events on Sunday showed us, especially in the BUF/KC game where stupid coaching took place on three consecutive plays to wipe away a win for the Bills.

The Bills were #3 in yards per kickoff return allowed (18 yards per return with a longest return allowed of 33 yards all season) and #1 in pass defense, which makes the decision not to allow either unit to play in the final 13 seconds that much more idiotic.

BTW, KC had timeouts, so the sidelines did not matter. What they needed to do was to account for the deep pass, but otherwise play their regular known passing situation defense, not send multiple players into another zip code as if each plays was a Hail Mary.

Had they done a short kickoff, they also would have wanted to rush at least 4 players (maybe even 5). With 5-7 seconds left (all that would have been left after a short kickoff (just short of the end zone) and return), that is the one time they should not have minded Mahomes escaping the pocket because one extended play would have been the end of the game with no chance for a FG.

[RTPbolt]

I agree the squib kick or just short was THE right decision to either chew up precious seconds or they down it deep to keep the time. With their ST unit it was the wrong call they made.

Those last two plays were just awful on the D. They will never live that down in Buffalo. They had the game.