Bledsoe shows some of his old fire...

[Gunzlingr]

I just ran across this at ESPN, I don't know if anybody else has seen it or not, so I thought I would post it.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2002/0809/1416387.html

The home unis look sharp in the picture IMO.

[mybills]

Price was surrounded by three Bengals' defensive backs, but Bledsoe dropped in an exquisite pass, a piece requiring touch that brought the sparse crowd to its feet.

This is what I don't like about him. Sure he got the ball to him, but I'll bet someone was wide open. THREE Bangels covering him, and he gambled. We gambled on RJ and look what happened. We don't need any more gambling!

[Earthquake Enyart]

When it's a TD, it wasn't a gamble...

[mybills]

Originally posted by Earthquake Enyart
When it's a TD, it wasn't a gamble...

3 man coverage in that case was either a TD or an INT.
50-50 gamble.
He got lucky.

[Earthquake Enyart]

I'd rather be lucky than good.

[casdhf]

I'm glad to be both.

[HenryRules]

Originally posted by mybills

This is what I don't like about him. Sure he got the ball to him, but I'll bet someone was wide open. THREE Bangels covering him, and he gambled. We gambled on RJ and look what happened. We don't need any more gambling!

Name one top-level QB that wouldn't make that throw. Three recent examples of top-level QB's that come to my mind (Favre, Manning, Marino) would all have made that throw.
If you know that you can put the ball in there, why not throw it? What's the point of having a great arm that can make any throw if you don't want the guy to use that arm? We might as well have gone out and seen if we could get Neil O'Donnell off of Tennessee if that's the type of QB you wanted.

[mybills]

Again...

Sure he got the ball to him, but I'll bet someone else was wide open.

[HenryRules]

3 more points mybills.

First, considering that the reporter has mentioned some of Bledsoe's mistakes - of which there are few in a 9-for-11 game, its not unlikely that if the pass were stupid and he could have hit someone else for a TD, then the reporter would have mentioned so.

Second, the fact that there were three people on Price does not necessarily imply that someone else was open. As with you, I did not see the play, but if the Bengals were using 5 DBs and a zone defense, then its quite likely that almost everyone would have had at least one person covering them - at least enough to be on the ball when it gets to the receiver. Then there's the fact that the Bills were getting into the red zone area, so its not as easy to spread the defense. Finally the pass was 20 yards, that's a lot of closing time for a DB to get to where the ball is going, remember the DB doesn't have to be anywhere near the receiver when the ball is thrown to be able to defend the pass - just look at Bledsoe's interception for proof of that.

Third point, without knowing where any of the defenders were when the ball was caught or anything like that, its impossible to tell if Drew threw the ball in a way where either the receiver catches it or no one catches it or in the way that you describe where either the receiver catches it or a defender does (i.e. in first case - a lob dropping down just beyond where the receiver is; in the second case - a frozen rope through 3 people to get the receiver). I know the reported says Price was surrounded, but it wouldn't be the first time that a reporter exagerrated - perhaps they were all on one side of him and the side line was on the other (quite reasonable when you consider how the pass has been described) and the ball would have landed out-of-bounds if it had not been caught by Price (quite possible considering the description says he "dropped" the ball in there). In this instance, the options are TD or incomplete pass as there's no way that a defender could have intercepted it. That makes the percentages much different than you describe. Instead of your 50-50-0 (TD-INT-INC), as I described, it could have been 50-0-50.

[Sabre Ally]

Originally posted by HenryRules
3 more points mybills.

Third point, without knowing where any of the defenders were when the ball was caught or anything like that, its impossible to tell if Drew threw the ball in a way where either the receiver catches it or no one catches it or in the way that you describe where either the receiver catches it or a defender does (i.e. in first case - a lob dropping down just beyond where the receiver is; in the second case - a frozen rope through 3 people to get the receiver).

I was there in the EZ. Drew floated it over the defenders' heads and right into Price's stretched out fingers.....if Peerless misses it the play is an incompletion. There was no way one of the defenders could have picked it off.

Good post, HenryRules.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by Sabre Ally


I was there in the EZ. Drew floated it over the defenders' heads and right into Price's stretched out fingers.....if Peerless misses it the play is an incompletion. There was no way one of the defenders could have picked it off.

Good post, HenryRules.

It looked just like that drill they used to do when the QB practices throwing the ball into a garbage can in the corner of the end zone. That throw was so on the money!

[mybills]

Henry -
you are probably right about everything. I wish I could have seen the game...damned non televised crap rules :)
I guess I am just leary of Drew since he's known for doing what I mentioned. He has always picked one target and stuck to it, without looking for other options. It scares me to think he's going to do that for the Bills like he always did with the Pats. That's all!

When I catch a few regular season games at my local sports bar, I'll be able to tell if he's improved any. They don't have the Satelite until (reg season) I found out last night

I just wasn't crazy about his style with the Pats, and I hope he's a different QB now! So until he proves me wrong, I don't care for him at all. We'll see...

[northernbillfan]

The preseason is all about trying those triple coverage passes, and other impossible plays. If it was a regular season game and he did have guys open, I'm sure he would have looked for them.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by mybills
Henry -
you are probably right about everything. I wish I could have seen the game...damned non televised crap rules :)
I guess I am just leary of Drew since he's known for doing what I mentioned. He has always picked one target and stuck to it, without looking for other options. It scares me to think he's going to do that for the Bills like he always did with the Pats. That's all!

When I catch a few regular season games at my local sports bar, I'll be able to tell if he's improved any. They don't have the Satelite until (reg season) I found out last night

I just wasn't crazy about his style with the Pats, and I hope he's a different QB now! So until he proves me wrong, I don't care for him at all. We'll see...

To be honest, I wasn't that thrilled with the idea of picking him up at first...then we did and I love it. He's easily three times as good a QB than anyone we've had in here since Kelly retired.

[Captain gameboy]

Got to agree with Alley here. Two possible conclusions, a TD to Price or a ball that falls incomplete out of the end zone. Fortunately, skill makes the play. We used to have a guy who was much less prudent about putting it up into coverage, and he ended up in the HOF. It was a perfect pass, executed by an experienced, talented QB, and the downside was a harmless incompletion. I think it sends a statement, and I like it.