Quick Thoughts - Week 3

[ChaosTheory]

1. First win of the season. First win for AR, right? At least that he finished. Hopefully that's a monkey off his back so he can continue to progress.

2. It was the Bears, so pump the brakes... but they did play the Texans tough a week ago and held them to 19 points.

3. Sticking with AR... another 50% completion day because of some, frankly, just shitty passes. I think Downs dropped that early one. His good throws are difficult to catch, his bad throws are bye bye.

4. I think I said this in another thread... Our receivers are having the inverse issue this year compared to last year. Last year we couldn't get it deep, everything was tight, Pittman feasted. This year, we threaten deep, miss the easy stuff, and Pierce has been our leading receiver all three games (not that he's been a superstar, though).

5. JT looked like '21 again. Plugging away and then busted a few really crucial explosives. The second long run, not the TD, was really awesome vision. Back to back very good weeks.

6. What AR lacks in refinement, he at least makes up for in fire. The Sermon TD, AR was the first one pushing. Just before that, be blasted a DB on a short run. Then he had one of the most important plays of the game with that 13 yard run to the goal line when he smashed a guy again.

7. ^^ As cool as that is, it's scary as shit. We'll see how sore he is this week.

8. Latu is going to be good. He wins a lot and that strip sack was the play of the game.

9. Run D was solid for the most part. Putting EJ Speed on the line to establish until they can back him off.

10. Pass D was frustrating at times. In particular, the third down conversions where we'd have the guy before the sticks, but couldn't get him down. Have to tackle in this defense. Surprised to see the Bears were only 9 for 21 on third down.

11. TOP was an issue again. Better this week, 25-35. But we allow sustained drives and also don't have our own sustained drives. Double whammy.

12. I thought the Pass D was ok overall, though. Took advantage when INT's were available. Almost 100 passing yards were on the Hail Mary (too close) and that long catch by Odunze which was a great play that's hard to defend. But again, this defense only works if you tackle every time.

13. Pass rush continues to look strong. 4 sacks, 6 QB hits, and 7 TFL's. Curious to see their win rates and total pressures because there were some missed ones, too.

14. Franklin looked like himself, finally. Flying around thumping guys. Speed looked better, too.

15. OL also looks solid to me. I know some were complaining, but I don't see it. Most time people only notice the OL when they fuck up, but that's going to happen. This has been our most solid unit on the team thus far.

16. Injuries suck. Flowers and Paye, first glance, seem bad. Glad Moore didn't die.

17. Ultimately, I didn't expect AR to struggle so much with the easy stuff this season. This year is looking more and more like a defacto rookie season for him. Kind of expected, but again, thought he would be further along with some basic stuff. Once (if) that element clicks, things will look way prettier.

Mini debate in the gameday thread about moving on from him... way too early. The concerns are there for sure. Some are the same as they were pre-draft. But there's too much potential and examples like Josh Allen to bail on him.

18. Two weeks in a row I haven't been impressed with Steichen, which is surprising. He adjusted later in the game for some key plays (the PA screen to JT), but he can do a lot to help AR out.

[Hoopsdoc]

I thought the OLine was fine.

AR was really really REALLY bad today. There’s no sugar coating it. He’s going to have to be better than that.

What happened to the RPO heavy offense from last year? Steichen seems DETERMINED to make Richardson a pocket passer and that’s not his strength.

The int in the red zone and the one on the first play of the second half were just absolute garbage. Sub par throws to say the least. The one in the end zone should have been thrown out the back of the end zone or not at all. The one in the second half was a good 15 yards to deep.

That throw was stop and say “wait, what the hell was THAT” bad.

Latu had himself a game. He was making life miserable for the Bears all day.

Nice to see Raekwon Davis make a play.

Cross had a good day.

I hope Paye and Kenny aren’t hurt to bad.

The Bears are legitimately bad. I didn’t feel like they threatened to score all day. I felt like if they did, it would be due to fuck ups by the Colts.

Anyway, a win is a win. Got a 3-0 Pittsburgh team coming in next week and they won’t beat themselves like Chicago did.

I don’t see us winning that game unless AR is a LOT better.

[Racehorse]

Good synopsis by both of you guys. We are on to the Steelers...with a win.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc

I thought the OLine was fine.

What happened to the RPO heavy offense from last year? Steichen seems DETERMINED to make Richardson a pocket passer and that’s not his strength.

Listened to AR post game. He was asked about the lack of running in situations where there is clean space and yards to be had but he instead stays in the pocket and tries to complete the pass.

He gave a very diplomatic response about being focused on the great weapons he has and wanting to make sure they get their chances. That to me is 100% coach speak- and an indication he is being coached that he must be learn to play the traditional QB position before being allowed to improvise at his discretion even when that improvisation might be the difference between winning and losing right now.

He was also VERY candid about the misses. He said he just had to play better. Spoke to seeing his guys wide open and just feeling so excited to get the ball to them and he is just throwing bad balls. Said it hurts and he hates it! Said he just needs to calm down and focus on delivering the ball.

Now- here is where you have to look at this kid and think about the overall player and how hard he will probably work to do that. They asked about the Trey Sermon push and he said- and I am probably not going to be 100% with this but close:

"Well you just have to do the things to help the team. When you aren't throwing the ball well enough to help, just looking for other ways to make positive things happen for the team". That response is a player that is way ahead of his 22 year, 2nd year (more like half of one year) self.

I think Steichen is emphasizing to him how critical it is that he develop NFL level QB skills in order to fully unleash the insane potential that is AR. It's not going to be a painless process, and it MAY NOT ever work, but I don't think it will fail for a lack of willingness. If it DOES happen, we have a weapon that may be able to carry us back to prominence in the league.

[YDFL Commish]

Not concerned with AR yet. A couple of well respected former NFL execs, in Gil Brandt and I believe Parcells said it takes 20 games to be evaluated. Richardson has played 7 games. It took PM 11 games to show improvement, and year 2 to shine.

We had WR's open all over the field for most of the day. Richardson either missed on throws or didn't see them.

Agree about RPOs and running Richardson run a little more.

Stricken may not have been good today. But Eberflus should be fired for every tactical move he made today. He has no business being a HC in the NFL.

Latu is going to be a star and the O-Line played well. They should've had more sacks though, against a terrible Bears O-line.

Still really concerned about the secondary though.

[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by ChoppedWood

Listened to AR post game. He was asked about the lack of running in situations where there is clean space and yards to be had but he instead stays in the pocket and tries to complete the pass.

He gave a very diplomatic response about being focused on the great weapons he has and wanting to make sure they get their chances. That to me is 100% coach speak- and an indication he is being coached that he must be learn to play the traditional QB position before being allowed to improvise at his discretion even when that improvisation might be the difference between winning and losing right now.

He was also VERY candid about the misses. He said he just had to play better. Spoke to seeing his guys wide open and just feeling so excited to get the ball to them and he is just throwing bad balls. Said it hurts and he hates it! Said he just needs to calm down and focus on delivering the ball.

Now- here is where you have to look at this kid and think about the overall player and how hard he will probably work to do that. They asked about the Trey Sermon push and he said- and I am probably not going to be 100% with this but close:

"Well you just have to do the things to help the team. When you aren't throwing the ball well enough to help, just looking for other ways to make positive things happen for the team". That response is a player that is way ahead of his 22 year, 2nd year (more like half of one year) self.

I think Steichen is emphasizing to him how critical it is that he develop NFL level QB skills in order to fully unleash the insane potential that is AR. It's not going to be a painless process, and it MAY NOT ever work, but I don't think it will fail for a lack of willingness. If it DOES happen, we have a weapon that may be able to carry us back to prominence in the league.

He is easy to root for, and I think he will work as hard as anyone to get his errors fixed. It will probably take the rest of this season, and a good off-season to get it to the scary good level. I think that is why they are keeping him to the pocket passer stuff. It makes him more one-dimensional now, but as he gets comfortable with that aspect of the position, the rest will come back quickly and make him a Steve McNair/Michael Vick type of QB.

[Chromeburn]

He knows

https://x.com/rickstevens63/status/1...L8ardaxv32vrGQ

[IndyNorm]

Originally Posted by Hoopsdoc

I thought the OLine was fine.


The int in the red zone and the one on the first play of the second half were just absolute garbage. Sub par throws to say the least. The one in the end zone should have been thrown out the back of the end zone or not at all. The one in the second half was a good 15 yards to deep.

Actually the one in the end zone should (or at least could) have been a TD if he had thrown to Ogletree instead of holding and then inexplicably lobbing the ball into quadruple coverage. That along w/ the int to start the 2nd half and the Downs overthrow were pee wee football level bad.

It's concerning that AR has been nothing shy of god awful 2 weeks in a row now. I know we have to be patient and stick w/ him, but man I hope he starts to improve here soon.

[ChoppedWood]

Originally Posted by Chromeburn

He knows

https://x.com/rickstevens63/status/1...L8ardaxv32vrGQ

So far- zero accountability issues or any word salad passing the blame. That alone speaks to his dedication to get it right. If I was hearing any mealy mouthed bullshit I would be concerned. Right now, very early, and he HAS TO IMPROVE and he appears to be 100% invested in that. I can't recall who it was but I heard an interview this week with someone from another town's news source that got to meet with him during camp and they said they were very impressed with his obsession with wanting to be great. He said in the presser something to the effect of "you know how critical I am of myself" to the reporter. That is awesome!

The great news- we've been commenting about the wide open receivers he is missing- we SEE them running wide open. So we seem to have the play caller we need to set him up for some easy confidence builders, it is seeming there for the taking, which again is great vs having nobody open and having to just fire it into traffic and hoping for a miracle like so many young QB's on bad teams face.

To come out of today, regardless of the competition, was a big win. Just getting the W has to do something for the overall confidence of the squad. Hopefully this is all part of building a rock strong base.

[omahacolt]

AR was pretty terrible. i mean i get it to a degree but man he is just soooo bad at the easy stuff.


that said, i knew a large part of the success of the team this season would be weathering those mistakes. the run game and the defense were going to have to carry him. they did that today but shit that was painful to watch at times.