This is intended to be a running Thread to discuss the rookie QB's play from each game: The good: Showed Borderline elite to elite arm. Decent awareness in the pocket and showed ability to improvise. Good touch on passes to the RBs and TEs. The Bad: Get the damn ball past the line of scrimmage. Poor in the redzone and on 3rd downs. With the game still in doubt had a chance to make a huge gain to Armstrong and threw high and wide. Failed to move around to escape rush and find throwing lanes(this might be on Sherman).
the last point seemed more on the O line than RT's ability to move. he was moving most of the time when he was getting mowed down by their Dlinemen.
Yeah I thought he played well, considering it was his first game. Luck and Weeden threw a bunch of INT's. Peyton Manning did his first game. (But how about RG3? He was amazing.) Now we just need to see him get progressively better, rather than wildly inconsistent like Henne did, where he'd play well two games, then throw 4 bad INTs against a team like the Bills with playoffs still in sight. You want to look at the issues he had and then watch to see if he improves on them. Week 2 might be too soon, but considering its against a possibly weaker opponent than Houston, and at home, we should hopefully see a little improvement. Jets defense will be tough as well, so the Oakland game is fairly important.
I don't like the batted balls. That's concerning. He had some poor passes, namely the one to AA that was just plain overthrown. Also, he needs to work on his eyes and his overall ability to confuse the defense. The staredowns and first read throws will get him burned often.
I thought he looked in control mentally (especially of course in the first half before we started our 2minutes journey in hell....) and was good on a couple of improvisations play, but he was off on execution on some throws (I don't know if that is on the WRs for not creating separation)... but of course this is just a quick impression without even rewatching the game (to see if he missed some open guy o stuff like that)
What stuck out most to me was his play in the final quarter. The defense knew he would be throwing as we were playing behind and he did a decent job. It's important that Tannehill can be a fourth quarter QB like an Eli Manning for example. The three INTS weren't all his fault but he's got to find a way to keep his passes from being batted down. Keep in mind we were playing against an elite defense and a team that is contending for a super bowl this year if they can stay healthy, so not all is lost in my opinion. Mathew Stafford threw three picks today too... I doubt the Lions bench him. I think Tannehill needs to use his feet a little bit more. I'd like to see some throws on the run and I think he's got the wheels to make a play with his feet if he desires to. Tough game for him today and it was expected.
Getting his throws tipped is now becoming a trend and something that we should be worried about. Other than that I thought he played pretty well, but that is something that needs to get fixed.
Wonder how much of the issues down the field stemmed from his not playing with Hartline or Armstrong all preseason. Seemed he and Armstrong weren't quite on the same page.
I also wont get into what Weeden, Luck, Griffin or any of the other rookies did. Each player is different and each player is under different circumstances.
One of the concerns on Tannehill coming out of college was he tended to stare down his intended receiver and this allowed defensive backs to easily read where the ball was going. Today it appeared that the defensive linemen of the Texans were able to watch his eyes and it appeared this was part of the reason so many of his passes were blocked at the line of scrimmage. Overall he played like a rookie, with an offense which unfortunately provided him very little help. Of course based on the fact that RG3 played great today and looked like a future all pro in the making.Tannehill is going to be expected to play much better going forward. Especially when you consider that the Dolphins handily beat the Redskins last season.
I was encouraged. The INTs were not due to bad decisions. The first one I put on Nannee who ran a really poor route and didn't fight for the ball at all ... dude has zero field awareness. The tipped INT passes were a combination of poor O-line pass blocking and Ryan's tendency to stare down his primary target ... something that most rookie QBs do. Other than that, I can only remember one pass to Hartline that was late out to the sideline that was a poor decision .. but even on that one I felt Hartline ran a really poor route. The CB read it pretty easily and broke on the ball
Tannehill needs to learn to step up into the passing lanes. The oline had to create a passing lane. 2 of those tipped INT's were Watt against Martin who didnt open a passing lane and didn't keep the defenders hands down. There are going to be growing pains this year. We just got stuck in some quicksand at the end of the 2nd quarter. Take that away this could have been a really close game. On another note, our needs have been so obviously ignored. Ireland has to go. Things we struggled with today is the same crap we have had problems with for 3 years. No reason we couldn't get a saftey or a receiver in FA or the draft this year. We pick up Marshall in FA, when we needed some new line backers and safties. Doesn't make since.
Sorry, what did you see today screamed elite or borderline elite arm? I'm not down on Tanny at all, think he going to be a very good QB in this league. But seriously, what did he do today to show you that? He looked like a rookie out there today but it's only the first game of his career against an excellent team.
With regards to the tipped passes, it pains me to think that if he does not fix that one thing, his potential takes an abrupt nosedive.
He largely made good decisions, threw the ball well, and had good pocket presence. If he wasn't getting passes batted down at the line, I'd be thrilled. It's really difficult to write those batted passes off though when it's been such an issue.
Showed lots of zip on some of the completions to Bess. Threw the Hell out of that deep post to Armstrong, just was not accurate.
Agreed about the batted passes. I give credit to the Houston D, though. The blame falls on Tanny and the O-line for those. I thought he looked OK too, for the record, considering the chicken **** he has to work with at receiver
Is the tipped pass thing mechanical or based on him staring down receivers? Either way, that is disconcerting.
The one big thing...to me... He never looked like ..he didnt belong at the helm of this team. He never looked flustered...or....llike a deer in head lights.....I saw enough in this game to say making him the starting QB was teh right decision
The Dolphins were much better than the Colts last year and therefore Luck was expected to have a tougher time than Tannehill. Personally I wanted the Dolphins to move up and draft RG3, because I thought he was the best QB in the entire draft. I think that if RG3 continues to play like he did today, there is going to be a lot more pressure on Luck to progress more quickly also. I am not down on Tannehill because I think he has a very substandard offensive unit around him. I just pointed out how well RG3 played today because he went into New Orleans and played a great game, for a rookie QB starting his first game ever in the NFL. The fact that the Dolphins defeated the Redskins last year without RG3, just shows how much he means to the Redskins organization. I think that when Luck and Tannehill get some quality talent around them on offense, they will both be quality QB's in the NFL. I just think that RG3 will be a great QB in the NFL for years to come and he will prove to be the best player and best QB taken in the 2012, IMO.
I disagree, if you listen to the experts, Luck was the one who would most likely look the most ready. Luck has weapons...to use.....
If that were a fluke occurrence, and didn't happen in the pre-season, and Tannehill didn't have like 17 tipped passes at the line in college I'd be willing to write it off as just good defensive play.
Maybe that might be the case. I do not think the coaching staff of either team are going to pressure their respective quarterback more. There might be more pressure from the fans, however I do not think players respect the fans opinions much. RG3 had a great game today that is for sure.
Is that 17 tipped passes in two years or one? I do think it is something to work on, however I do think it is something that is correctable. Honestly I am surprised by the lack of play action passes, especially when the running game was so effective.
I think it is a combination of both these problems. The knock on him coming out of college was that he didn't look off his intended receiver and defensive backs could easily see where he was going to throw the ball because he stared down his receiver before delivering the pass. This is certainly something he needs to continue to work on because NFL defensive players are much faster to react to passes than the players at the college level.
I agree that the pressure isn't going to come from the coaching staff, but from the fan base. Tannehill will be given more time because he wasn't drafted before RG3. Luck on the other hand not only replaced Manning with the Colts. He also was selected before RG3. Luck may end up being a great QB in the future, but I think he has a lot of pressure on himself to succeed very quickly. I would rather be in Tannehill's position right now, than be in Luck's position.
Just his last season, I believe. It always comes up in the context of Russell Wilson discussions. In terms of the play action, I agree, but I think they compensated reasonably well for the tipped passes by going heavily shotgun in the second half. You would think that between shotgun and play action/bootleg, you can work around the batted ball issues in the short-term.
In addition to staring down receivers, Tannehill also pats the ball before going into his throwing motion which the d-line can key on and did key on for at least one of the batted balls today.
Now here's a question: If Tannehill's tipped passes do what tipped passes normally do and don't fall into the hands of the opposing team for interceptions that blow a game wide open, are we talking about them anywhere near as much?
I would like to see Tannehill spread out the offense.... Pump fake the pass cause you know everybody is going to be jumping now. Pump fake and run. If he has the threat of running off the pump fake that keeps the defenders down.
To the OP: Tannehill DOES NOT have a "borderline elite/elite" arm. Sure, he looked very good early in camp, but whether from fatigue, or learning the old/new offense, his zip has been average. Not bad, but average. Which is fine by me. But the guy by any stretch of the imagination does not have the zip of a Vick, Cutler, or even Eli Manning. I posted this way back that I thought his arm zip/strength looked similar to say, a Matt Ryan, which is fine by me. Henne had cannon, but could not make that turn as an NFL QB. Saying this, he MUST get his timing and accuracy down. I thought he did some nice things today, though. He also did some very poor things. He is a rookie. Talk to me in three years.
No, and there's an decent argument that batted passes converted into interceptions are not that common. Football Outsiders had the league leader in 2011 with 4 tipped pass interceptions by Ryan Fitzpatrick. They don't have the total, but PFF has him at 10 total. The highest number of batted passes they've got from 2008-present is Fitzpatrick with 19 in 2008.
As much? No. Would we still be talking about them? I think so because it was an issue in preseason. I just read that the Texans led the league in tipped passes last year though and JJ Watt has got to be one of the best in the NFL at that.
LOL here come the trolls guys. I thought Tannehill did alright for a first game against a nasty defense. I won't be ringing any panic alarms unless we see the same **** after week 8.
The fact is that they did fall into the hands of the opposing team and that is WHY the problem is being discussed in the first place. If the Dolphins had won and Tannehill had played a great game, I am sure that is what everyone would be discussing on here. That isn't what happened, therefore the discussion is about what did actually happen in the game.
Will say if MMoore were playing, we have a far better chance of winning the ball game. 3 straight int's? Come on man, the folks who wanted that Qb to be drafted with a #1 pick, got him, now live with it.
Someone posted the tipped pass totals in 2011 for all the QBs in this past draft. RT had by far the most. Wilson had something like 2, as I recall.