There were marked improvements by those who found themselves at the bottom last week, making ranking them very difficult indeed. As ever I'm looking past the basic stat lines and even the scoreline to try and guage just how well they played. Having sat down and watched all these games I've got to say that this was an impressive week for all the rookies, even in defeat for some of them.
Brandon Weeden remains the only one without a win, but that can hardly be a surprise. Still, Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson and Ryan Tannehill were all able to pick up their first wins in their home openers which will have been a welcome sight for their fan bases, and one can only imagine how crazy Washington is going to be next week when RG3-mania comes home for the first time to face the Bengals. But until then, here's my week 2 rankings and break down. Enjoy.
1: Andrew Luck: Indianapolis
Colts vs. Minnesota
Vikings
A great home opener for Luck. Showed a lot of poise
throughout the game and did really well despite another poor day for the ground
game.
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Luck's fancy footwork prevented a safety, while his rocket arm worked the Colts into game-winning position. |
Luck must have a proximity sensor in the back of his head
because he feels pressure fantastically well, which is very useful when Jared
Allen is terrorizing your left tackle all day. Luck’s mobility is a blessing
behind that offensive line, He was mobile enough to avoid an almost certain
safety in the 3rd quarter. His quick feet did get him into trouble
once when on a 3rd and 5 at the end of the game he tucked and
scrambled in the face of pressure instead of just throwing it away. He ended up
taking a sack for a 22 yard loss and gave great field position over to the Vikings,
who turned that into a game tying touchdown.
But other than that, and one or two throws that were almost
picked off, Andrew Luck’s 2nd game at the helm of the Indianapolis
Colts was a great success. He orchestrated a beautiful 2 minute drill at the
end of the 1st half, which ended with a 30 yard strike to Reggie
Wayne for 6. He also made 2 great throws in the dying seconds to move the Colts
up to field goal range and have the ice cold Adam Vinatieri seal the win.
There was a tendency for Luck’s throws to get a little high
when he’s hurried or trying to speed the play up due to a bad snap, so it’s not
all positives for the young #12, but it was a performance that would have
greatly pleased the home crowd in the 1st showing of the
post-Manning era.
2: Brandon Weeden: Cleveland
Browns vs. Cincinnati
Bengals
Wow, life is lot easier when you have Trent Richardson
behind you making all kinds of plays.
It was a good day for Bradon Weeden after a rather
unfortunate sack on his first drop back when he tripped over the leg of Cincy’s
DE Michael Johnson. Weeden’s throws down field were far more accurate than last
week and had much better touch on them. His feel in the pocket was good and the
playcalling (a heavy dose of Richardson
with a lot of screens and short, high percentage passes) really helped him out
too.
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Brandon Weeden got great support from fellow rookie Trent Richardson |
Cleveland
did a good job of protecting him, and his 1st career TD pass came on
a nice and patient read, finding his checkdown man Richardson who then made
Cincy look silly with 4 broken tackles before he went into the endzone.
Weeden’s second TD came on a good pass to a wide open Greg
Little. He climbed the pocket well and delivered a strike to Little despite
having to cut off his follow through due to Alex Mack holding his block in
front and needing to loft it in between the 2nd and 3rd level of the defense.
There were some issues with Weeden though, his 2nd
pass of the day really should have been picked off when he horribly underthrew
an open Little in the end zone. But all in all there were good signs there, and
not all of them were the monster at running back. If Weeden really can be a viable option at QB it will allow the Browns, finally, to address some of the other holes in their roster.
3: Robert Griffin III: Washington
Redskins vs. St. Louis
Rams
Separating the play from the hype is a hard thing to do with
Robert Griffin III. His week 1 performance was great, and the NFL talking heads
exploded in near Tebow-levels of gushing praise. Here at The Pulling Linemen though, we
try our best to avoid the hype and look purely at on the field performance.
For RG3’s legs it was another fine day, 2 rushing touchdowns
and multiple broken ankles for Rams players, but for his arm, it maybe wasn’t
so great.
That pretty much sums up Griffin's 1st career interception |
He was the only rookie QB to throw a pick this week, and boy
was it ugly. Pressure came off his right side with Chris Long bull rushing his
way into the pocket, but RG3’s feet suddenly seemed to fail him and he stays
put rather than stepping up. He threw a weird little jump ball over the middle
that was an easy pick for Cortland Finnegan. Griffin also had 2 other balls go in and out
of defenders hands which was disappointing to see.
His fakes were still well executed, and his deep ball is
right on the money almost every time. But he was a little wayward in this game
with some of the underneath stuff, forcing some tougher catches than were
really necessary.
All in all it wasn’t a bad day for Griffin, not the 500
yards & 6 total TD’s that the week 1 hype would have had you believing he was
a dead-cert to get, but a good performance on the road in a loud dome. Perhaps
the big issue was that in the 2nd half the Redskins offense really
sputtered, flags didn’t help but the only score came on a perfect long-bomb to
Leonard Hankerson (admittedly there would have been another if Aldrick Robinson
could have caught a bomb that hit him square on the shoulder). When you’re +2
in turnovers for the day and have a 21-6 lead midway through the 2nd
quarter you really ought to be coming away with a comfortable win. The ‘Skins
were just 4-13 on 3rd down, which is rather a surprise given Griffin’s mobility.
4: Ryan Tannehill: Miami
Dolphins vs. Oakland
Raiders
A day of firsts for Ryan Tannehill; first rushing touchdown,
first passing touchdown and first win.
It wasn’t particularly pretty early on. His first throw over
the middle was high in the face of pressure and nearly picked off. While he
scored on a nice bootleg at the goal line, for most of the 1st half
he found himself running for his life from both real and imagined pressure.
Early blitzes, and poor play from Jake Long, meant Tannehill was often flushed
from the pocket. But soon he was flying out of there from his own accord too
and it was worrying to see.
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Tannehill barely broke a sweat as he jogged into the endzone on a well crafted bootleg |
Halftime couldn’t come quickly enough and it did wonders for
Tannehill, he was able to settle down and through the 2nd half he
did a good job staying in under what pressure the Raiders could mount. Tannehill’s arm was good, especially
throwing outside
the numbers to Brian Hartline who he hit on pretty much every route
imaginable.
Passes over the middle weren’t quite as successful but he did a good job
at clearing the line of scrimmage and his decision making was largely
good.
I'm still
worried about his head when things start to go wrong though, there will
be times when the Dolphins can't dominate on the ground like they could
against the Raiders, and that will lead to more pressure being put on
him.
5: Russell Wilson: Seattle
Seahawks vs. Dallas
Cowboys
This game was over before Russell Wilson really got going. Dallas fumbled the
opening kick off which only served to fire up an always noisy Century Link
Field. Then, after the Seahawks kicked a field goal & forced a 3 and out
they blocked the punt and took it in for a touchdown.
The Seahawks defense & run game really controlled this
one, but Wilson
was pretty impressive too. Outside of his 2nd throw of the day,
which should have been picked by Bruce Carter. It’s likely that Wilson simply didn’t see
him behind the scrum the mass of bodies fighting at the line of scrimmage but
that’s the kind of thing people were worried about with his height, and he’ll
need to do a better job of identifying those pesky linebackers when in close at
the goal line.
After that though, Wilson
was a picture of calm composure. He completed 75% of his passes, mostly shorter,
safer routes. But he did show great poise again and a fantastically calm head.
In obvious passing situations the Seahawks line really struggled to keep Wilson clean but his feet
saved him on a few occasions, and he kept his eyes down field, completing passes
where others might have just thrown it away.
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"Dunno what all the fuss is about, i can see over this just fine" |
His 22 yard touchdown pass to Antony McCoy was a beautiful
throw and he had other great passes on intermediate routes to Sidney Rice and Golden Tate.
Once again though the plays were very conservative, and
given the situation they didn’t really need to open it up and let Wilson pass a lot. Next
week might be a different matter though as the high-powered Green Bay Packers
come to town on Monday Night Football. If they can crack the Seahawks defense
we might just see Wilson
being forced into a shootout, which will tell us a lot more about his NFL
credentials.
I'm going to struggle to be able to rank Wilson highly, no matter how well he does, until Pete Carroll truly opens up the offense. Wilson is having, and is being asked. to do far less than the other rookies, and while he is excelling in the role asked of him, it would be good to see him doing more on a sunday.
- The Pulling Linemen
I think Weeden was made to look better than he is by a combination of a really effective running game and a Bengals defense that has really slipped since last year. I expect regression from this performance, probably not as far as week 1, I remain unconvinced that he is a professinal quaterback.
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