Remember Nick Foles? The quarterback for the Arizona Wildcats who completed nearly 70 percent of over 46 pass attempts per game, double Russell Wilson’s pass attempts per game? If not, you are probably not aware of “Foles Fever” in Philadelphia. After Michael Vick was disabled by injury, Foles has put-up impressive numbers in the preseason—so much so that a great portion of Eagles’ fans have shifted their partisanship in favor of Foles replacing Vick at the starting quarterback position. While a few local commentators have questioned if this is an actual “fever” or merely hypochondria (re Kevin Kolb), there is no doubt that Foles has looked good, completing 36 of 57 passes for 507 yards and 6 touchdown passes. Foles, however, has not received the kind of affection from the national media that has followed Wilson. During the preseason for the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson has put-up comparable numbers—35-52, 464 yards and 5 touchdown passes, although he has the added attraction of taking off running for substantial chunks of yards at time. But history has still shown that dedicated pocket passers like Foles win Super Bowls, while “all-purpose” quarterbacks like Wilson rarely make it that far.
However, you cannot ignore the fact that with Wilson in the game, the Seahawks have outscored their opponents 82-14. BS or not? Common sense says the former, but I suppose for a fan-base that has had little to cheer about lately, there is nothing wrong with imbibing in spirits now and again. And I’m not going to tell you that Wilson’s performance against the Kansas City Chiefs was a “fluke.” It wasn’t. He took advantage of everything that the Chiefs gave him, which was plenty. The Chiefs’ defense, frankly, played as if they had just met. Seattle’s three offensive touchdown drives combined covered 222 yards on only 14 plays; the Seahawks also scored on a 75-yard interception return for touchdown, and a 92-yard punt return in route to a 44-14 romp. Matt Flynn did not play, supposedly due to a sore shoulder. Tarvaris Jackson relieved Wilson in the fourth quarter, and perhaps not surprisingly was perfectly ineffective.
The local media will, of course, go gaga over Wilson. Ever seen vintage film footage of teenybopper girls going crazy over the Beatles? Someone old enough to remember told me that when she was young she was taken to see the film “A Hard Day’s Night,” and never could hear a single syllable because the girls in the audience screamed during the entire course of the movie. Well, that’s how some of these local commentators with a “man-crush” over Wilson behave, or at least sounds to me. But how did the Kansas City sports media respond to Wilson? For one thing, few could understand how the Chiefs ‘ defense—overrated or not—could possibly allow a quarterback a mere 5-feet-11 make them look ridiculous. Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star wrote
“As bad as the Chiefs were defensively against the Rams, they were even worse against the Seahawks…The Chiefs made Seattle rookie quarterback Russell Wilson look like the second coming of Michael Vick. Outside linebacker Tamba Hali was called for two roughing-the-passer penalties on the Seahawks’ scoring drive at the end of the first half. Cornerback Jalil Brown had a rough series in the first quarter, drawing a pass-interference penalty and getting beaten for a 32-yard gain on a heck of a catch by Braylon Edwards, though Brown did break up a pass intended for Sidney Rice. Nickel back Javier Arenas was unable to corral tight end Anthony McCoy, who stepped through him for a 25-yard catch-and-run….Safety Abram Elam, starting in place of injured Kendrick Lewis, picked up a costly pass-interference call during the Seahawks’ third-quarter touchdown drive. Outside linebacker Andy Studebaker whiffed on a tackle and allowed Robert Turbin to rush for 8 yards on the first play of the second half.”
According to Kent Babb,
“There wasn’t much Friday night at Arrowhead Stadium that wasn’t gag-inducing. The Chiefs were blown out again in a preseason game, to what should be an inferior group of talent, with an opposing quarterback who shouldn’t have had his way with a talented defense, with little fight from a defense that’s supposed to be one of the NFL’s more skilled groups. Stand behind the ‘these-games-don’t-matter’ mantra if you choose, and rest knowing that’s true. But what’s also true is that in these past two tune-ups, the Chiefs’ first-team defense has shown nothing but a lack of focus and motivation and an inability to slow two offenses they should’ve dominated…Safety Eric Berry was out of position when Wilson found tight end Kellen Winslow on an uncontested 21-yard touchdown. Outside linebacker Andy Studebaker, who looked bad in a preview of what’s to come when Hali will be absent because of a drug suspension in two weeks, whiffed and couldn’t correct his mistake when running back Robert Turbin ran right at him. And after a third-down personal foul on Hali in the second quarter, the Chiefs couldn’t shake it off and watched Wilson complete a 22-yard pass to Anthony McCoy — a play that led to another touchdown.”
So you see, fans, opposing team commentators don’t necessarily see a potential elite quarterback chewing-up the scenery, but inept defense that should be chewing this guy up alive. I suspect that opposing defensive coordinators have not properly game planned for a quarterback of Wilson’s particular skill set; what harm could a rookie quarterback of his size actually do? If Wilson does become the starting quarterback—as some local commentators who feel less shame in their unabashed cheerleading for him will call for, making the pressure for such a decision more or less a self-fulfilling prophecy—game-planning for him will be taken more seriously by opposing teams. The upcoming games against offensive powerhouses with two of the game’s best quarterbacks—New England and Green Bay—will be rather interesting affairs, to say the least.
As for Matt Flynn, he is being increasingly shunted-off to the side, which is a sad testimony to groupie-think. Flynn paid his dues for four years and played outstandingly in his opportunities to start in the regular season, and had a right to be given an honest opportunity to be the starting quarterback on this team. It is clear to me and the few erudite observers that Flynn was not given the best opportunity to succeed by Pete Carroll; for the first time last Friday, it was Wilson who was allowed to play with all of the receivers on the team. I’m not saying that Flynn should be the starter if he was inefficient, but he has shown himself to be more effective in the regular season than the preseason; this is true of most established quarterbacks as well, and their back-ups have also over-awed fans (Charlie Whitehurst, Seahawk fans?).
Only time will tell if the way the quarterback "competition" was played-out in Seattle will actually allow the "best man" to win out. Flynn certainly was not helped by the process, and we may have only seen what the athletic abilities of Wilson can do to cover inefficiencies that may not be readily apparent when facing inept defenses.
No comments:
Post a Comment