The Tape Doesn’t Lie

October 29, 2008 - Merril Hoge

Packers-Vikings Rematch
You know, after watching the tape from the first matchup of the Packer O and Viking D, aside from a pass that Aaron Rodgers just threw up in the air and Donald Driver came down with, and one big 4th QT run, the Packer offense did not do that much. In fact, I even thought Chad Clifton, the Packers LFT tackle took care of Jared Allen. The Vikings got good pressure with the blitz packages. The thing that killed the Vikings is they had no passing attack for most of the game and they do have that now.

Jets D
All you hear out of NYC is Brett, Brett and Brett. Well do not sleep on this Jets D, they are slowly getting better, Kris Jenkins is an absolute beast. He is doing things in the passing game as far as getting after the QB that Albert Haynesworth is not doing. Kris is a much better pass rusher than Albert. Last week, the Jets secondary worked as well together as I have seen a secondary work this year, and it was against a Buffalo team that has many different ways to attack you on the ground and through the air.

Bills O
Marshawn Lynch is a physical runner and breaks tackles and most of the time lives up to his nickname, “The Beast.” But lately what I see on tape is a guy trying to hit a home run every time he gets the ball instead of hitting the hole and getting a yard or 2 or breaking a tackle. This is what happens to young runners once they get a few big runs, they make their mind up in the huddle and predetermine the run before it happens, he needs to gets back to his style. And Trent Edwards made more bad throws than I have seen him make in any other game this year. Now some of that was due to pressure, and before I forget the pick 6 he threw, Roscoe Parrish fell down or worst case, it would have just been an incompletion not a pick 6.

Raiders O – Falcons D
I’m telling you, I have never seen a more one-sided affair in 22 years of playing and studying the NFL on tape, but the Atlanta Falcons D looked like they knew the Raiders’ offense better than the Raiders knew it. One thing is very clear; the Raiders have no true weapons at the skill positions so it’s very hard to evaluate JaMarcus Russell.

Black Team
My little league team finished 9-0, and our last game was canceled so the season is over. Check out the SportsCenter hit I did, and if you have a little league or high school play, upload it to Sportscenter.com and hopefully I will be able to breakdown your play.

Cleveland D
This defense was supposed to take the next step when it got Shaun Rogers from Detroit and after watching and studying this defense for the last couple of months, I can tell you they are so inconsistent up front — one play they look like world beaters and the next they look disinterested in playing. Shaun Rogers at times is unstoppable and then other times he gets manhandled. I can speak from experience that this about attitude and a mental commitment. Playing hard and fighting every play is about desire, not athletic ability.

I’m glad they benched Derek Anderson because now the defense will play harder, smarter and with consistent intensity??? Yes I’m kidding. I could find 5 guys on defense that need to see the pine of a bench for a while, and you could find a few guys on the offensive line that need to join Derek. In fact, I would argue they need to be benched before he was. Two other observations: everyone probably knows that if Braylon Edwards catches that perfect pass, Cleveland probably wins that game, and the pick 6 he threw the back stopped on the screen route. You never stop on a route even if you think you’re covered, which he did. Why? Because the QB has already committed to the throw and the ball is already in the air, but benching Derek will help these mental and physical errors.

I had a chance to visit with Brady Quinn this summer as we were on a flight together heading to a golf outing for Walmart. When he sat down beside me, it was the first time I had the chance to visit with him and get to know him as person. I got off the plane a Brady Quinn fan, in the sense of pulling for him to do well when he gets the chance. Now why this could have been very uncomfortable is that when he was coming out of college, I studied him and other QBs, and I liked several others better than him. One was Trent Edwards with Buffalo and the other was JaMarcus Russell. Both guys, I felt, had a better command of the game mentally and they were more athletic and much more accurate.

Now Trent has lived up to and even exceeded expectations but his big knock was he was hurt. Well I can tell you if you saw his offensive line at Stanford you would wonder how he survived. JaMarcus has looked very bad this season and last week was one of the worst performances I have ever seen in 22 years of playing and studying this game. JaMarcus has zero weapons around him. So here is what I’m getting at, it’s an awful lot to ask a guy in his first start to overcome all the weakness the Browns have. Oh I know you say that’s not fair and they don’t expect him to do that, you’re right but the fan does!! When you do this, the perception is it’s the QB fault so if we switch that position we will win. I would like to see Brady do well but an O line that has been awful this year had better get it’s act together. One plus, the Denver D can be manhandled in the running game so I would expect Cleveland to attack with their run the majority of the time.

Cowboys D
Can it get any worse? Oh yes it can and it did. I watch 50 to 70 hours of tape a week and I see one defense after another so you get a lot of cross-referencing from all that tape, so when something is really good it stands out, and when something is really bad it’s like a sore thumb. Well what I saw late in the game against the Giants made my stomach turn and there is no excuse for what happened, and I mean NO excuse. If you remember the Giants RB Ward’s TD run late in the 4th QT, as he came through the line, No. 31 Mike Jenkins the Cowboys rookie corner had a great shot at Ward and could have stopped him, but stopped and backed up to let Ward score. It was one of the biggest coward moves I have seen since we showed Randy Moss standing around doing nothing on dozens of plays every week when he played for the Vikings early in his career.

Do the Cowboys have issues? Yes. Can some of them be corrected? Yes! But what I saw from Mike Jenkins tells you they have guys quitting and I only say that when I see this on tape. It’s one thing to physically get beat and lose, but it is another thing to quit and on tape there is evidence some Cowboy players are quitting when things are tough and clearly one of those guys is Mike Jenkins!!!

Miami O
Miami is making its move. Each week I study an offense that adds different phases to their offensive playbook. The wild cat has become one of those phases that teams must spend time preparing for but what I really like is they have 2 backs that run hard and one that has the ability to hit home runs in Ronnie Brown. Ricky Williams has been impressive on tape with his ability to run hard and break tackles and Chad Pennington has been asked to make some bigtime throws late in games and he has done it. One area of concern that must get better for this team is the offensive line, too many errors mentally and physically in the running game and passing game, if this group gets better, Miami will win this division.

Ravens O
When I first watched tape on Joe Flacco the first thing that stood out was his big arm. You knew that he would be able to challenge the entire field when he got to the NFL and there was no throw more evident of that than when he threw his first TD against the Cleveland Browns to Derek Mason on a very deep post route. I can think of only Jay Cutler of the Denver Broncos that could have made that throw. The Ravens did a lot of shotgun and no huddle and it’s what Joe did in college, so we are starting to see them open it up. And Ray Rice was a tackle breaking machine in college and those types of backs always translate well to the NFL. He plays well out of the shotgun, in fact, all of his big runs came from that formation.

For more NFL analysis, check out my Web site: MerrilHoge.com.

– Merril