Much was made last year about Rodgers’ failings in “crunch time” and some of that is fair. Rodgers had three big interceptions that positively killed games against Tampa, Carolina, and Jacksonville. He also had a devastating interception on a 3rd and 19 with 4:40 remaining in the Atlanta game. (How the offense put itself in a 3rd and 19 hole is a whole other issue *cough, penalties, cough*).
What do they all have in common? Rodgers refusing to read ‘low’.
Quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, read the field high to low – in other words, deep patterns first and then shorter, shallow patterns. Of course, some plays are designed with shallow routes as their primary reads, but most plays, QBs are taught to read high to low. And throughout the course of any given game, Rodgers does a pretty excellent job of this. But for whatever reason, whether it’s the Ghost of Favre hovering over him, a youthful impatience, or just a natural anxiety, Rodgers completely throws out the ‘low’ option when the game is on the line. Now, yes, sometimes the team needs big chunks of yardage and time is quickly running out. But too often last year Rodgers was throwing deep with plenty of time on the clock. Look at the Jacksonville game. The clip above shows the final throw that was intercepted – what it doesn’t show is the throw before it, a throw meant for Greg Jennings nearly 20 yards downfield that was also almost intercepted, when Rodgers has two options breaking open underneath. Look at the throw that is picked at the end of the Carolina game – he has a receiver (I think it’s Ruvell Martin) practically right in front of him, all he needs to do is toss it and let him run for the first down, get out of bounds and move on the the next play. Rodgers doesn’t even look at him, instead chucking a 40+ yard throw to a bracketed Donald Driver.
Dale Z of PackersLounge fame (infamy?) commented in my earlier Rodgers post that Rodgers did a good job of “tucking and running” last year. I tend to think he did too much of it most of the time and not enough of it at the end of games. Almost every one of the downs in question above, maybe save for the Tampa game, Rodgers would have been better served tucking and running. For whatever reason, he felt he needed to throw, and throw deep at that.
I could go on, but you get the point. Rodgers needs to learn that at the end of games, things are not as hurried as they might feel. You can still live to run another play. What you can’t live through are sacks and, most of all, interceptions. My hunch is this is mostly a “young quarterback” thing that he will improve on as the years go by. I also don’t completely discount the fact that he was and might still this year, feel the whole ‘pressure of Brett Favre’ thing. I would normally scoff at such things, but Favre was so huge and created more than a bit of a legend coming back late in games (the Monday night Bronco game in 2007 being the latest and most dramatic) that I have no doubt that Rodgers feels, if even subconsciously, the pressure to keep that magic alive.
He should do no such thing. All he needs to do is play within himself and the system and live to fight another play. The wins will come. He needs to let the game come to him and stop trying to be something he’s not.
jeremiah said in April 13th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
PackOne said in April 13th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
bomdad said in April 14th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Chicago Hooligan said in April 14th, 2009 at 11:53 am
