To'o To'o third best graded playa, happy for him. Moves quicker laterally. Because of the high tension of the final minutes, completely forgot that AR threw a dart to Bullock that was deflected by our own.
At this point I don't think he will. You can't survive in the NFL just throwing up prayers. He has no short or mid-range game which is going to be his downfall if he doesn't develop some touch on his passes. His footwork is bad too. He has a big arm and is a great runner.
If you have a QB in the NFL that can hurt you with his legs its almost incidental what type of arm he has. In this case AR has a howitzer and will burn you when you have to keep guys closer to the LOS knowing he will take off on you. I agree AR is not much of a tactical passer yet, but it doesnt diminish the impact he has. If the Colts want to sacrifice this guy to the football Gods they could recreate Cam Newtons first few years in the league. NFL defenses still have a problem containing mobile QBs especially guys who can run sub 4.5.
I think the thing about the "chuck it and pray" type QBing is that while he has an arm that can get the ball way downfield, he also is known for not being especially accurate. So if he underthrows some of those deep balls they could turn into interceptions very easily. As irritating as Ward was on Sunday, one of those deep balls he was right there for and just couldn't quite get there, but if it was a tad bit shorter maybe he comes down with it instead of the WR. When 3 of your hail mary deep passes work out and the rest are incomplete, then it looks like a great, viable strategy, but it won't always go that way and just 1 or 2 interceptions can really turn a game significantly (had one of those 3 deep passes been an INT on Sunday then that game is probably a full on blowout by the Texans).
If Jimmie Ward prevents the 3rd and 15 conversion late in the 4th. Good shot the Colts go for it and fail to make it. Leading to a Texans double digit lead. Was the game close? Colts relied on a historically inaccurate passing method and were gifted 7 points on ST. Texans were far superior.
Yup, somehow that game just felt like most of the hail mary passes made by AR were luck of the draw, it was just his night. He only had 9 completions...a team can't win consistently doing stuff like that. Ward is slow af, where was his rah rah he showed during training camp beating up his own recievers?
I guess Im not really seeing a "chuck it and pray" type player. I see a guy who is probably the most athletic specimen the sport has ever seen at the position who is learning how to read and deliver the ball with accuracy. Guys with arms like AR have to learn how to take some juice off the ball. Not everything needs to be thrown 100 mph. If anyone can extract the most from Richardson it will be Steichen who did the same with Jalen Hurts. HOU v INDY matchups will be dogfights regardless of all the 'whatabouts' going on with the game yesterday. I'll just say that I was ecstatic that Nico made that catch late in the game because I had zero confidence we would be able to stop them from going down the field and kicking a field goal to win.
Sting, who released his zone to Ward on that Pierce TD Bomb ALMOST got back in the picture. His close on the ball in the last 10 yards was insane. Guy is almost superhuman. Almost feel like his side of the field in zone includes a 12th man. The only scary part on tape, is if a team leaks a TE late in to his flat later in the year after running a post through his zone. We will almost assuredly get that look later in the year.
You nailed the biggest crux that will always surround mobile QBs. Health. They dont hold up. Can a team capitalize while the player is upright? Baltimore seems to have most of that figured out with 2 time MVP Lamar Jackson, but they cant seem to break through in the playoffs mainly because of ill timed turnovers by Jackson himself. Like it or not mobile QBs are annoying pesky critters that if reeled in and molded can cause headaches for DCs across the league.
I'm not sure if that's what that was. I kinda thought at the time (and still do) that the tap was a signal for Stroud to roll left and hit the option route to Diggs. The blocking scheme shifted, and brought the chip over so Stroud could roll to his left. I could very well be wrong though.
