Jon Gruden didn’t bat an eye or produce his patented smirk when he told everyone he’d take Darren Waller over other fellow tight ends Travis Kelce and George Kittle. Many may have laughed at the Las Vegas Raiders head coach’s perceived “troll job,” but after Monday night, the only one laughing is Gruden. On a
Darren Waller has Bill Belichick’s undivided attention
If you are the Raiders, you might have well assume that Waller will be chipped the line of scrimmage and bracketed by double teams. Belichick takes away your best player. He will also go Cover 2, making Carr hold the ball longer and hoping he makes a mistake against zone coverage.
It’s now incumbent on the other players to make plays – Renfrow, Ruggs, Edwards, and others.
Agree. Our other weapons need to be able to make the Patriots pay for their double teams. We’re built to do that….now we just need to go execute.
@Ghost
I would restate that – It’s incumbent on Gruden and Carr to make use of these other targets. It’s not like they were targeted and didn’t deliver, it’s the other way around – they weren’t targeted enough.
Edwards was targeted just once against the Panthers and twice against the Saints and caught all 3 passes for 52 yards and, on top of that, had a 20-yards PI called against the CB covering him which was as good as a 20-yard catch – he run his routes quite well, was open numerous times, was exceptional in blocking downfield, what more could you ask from the guy – it’s not his fault that he wasn’t targeted more. It appears that that one is on Gruden rather than Carr, although one can’t say for certain.
Similarly, Renfrow caught all 5 balls thrown his way for 58 yards, 2 against the Panthers and 3 against the Saints. He was open in another 2-3 occasions in each game as well, but no balls were thrown to him. Again, it’s not his fault he wasn’t targeted more. Since Carr is in general comfortable throwing to him, I would have to assume the reason for too few throws his way was Gruden’s play-calling.
On the other hand, Carr clearly has trouble connecting with Ruggs on deep balls, either overthrowing him or underthrowing him – he was 0-for-2 on deep throws to him against the Saints and 1-for-3 against the Panthers, so it’s 1-for-5 for the season. As Ted Nguyen of Athletic pointed out – Ruggs was open on a number of occasions, but no throws came his way.
I think Belichick is sending out a smokescreen. He’s probably going to try to stop Jacobs first. Making Jacobs ineffective impacts the passing game and Carr.