Baker Mayfield: Fire The Cannons

[Ohio]

2 bad plays (grounding, INT), but otherwise a really good performance from Baker.

He was making throws he hasn't made since 2018. He came out firing and on point...a huge relief. Playing the Bengals helps, but Baker just straight up played way better tonight. Hope he keeps it up!

 

[bob2the2nd]

2 bad plays (grounding, INT), but otherwise a really good performance from Baker.

He was making throws he hasn't made since 2018. He came out firing and on point...a huge relief. Playing the Bengals helps, but Baker just straight up played way better tonight. Hope he keeps it up!

INT was absolutely a bad decision. Had a defender in his face and just completely missed the safety helping over the top. One of the few times it would have been better to take a sack.

That grounding on the screen though.... 1 refs hate calling grounding. 2 ive seen a QB do that exact thing 100 times and the refs never call it. baker was out of the pocket, threw it into a group of guys at their feet, and lived to fight another day. Obviously baker needed to check for the fact that chubb was MIA on the play, but to me the only really bad decision of the night was that INT.

Hell later in the game Burrow while in the pocket just threw the ball straight into the sidelines to avoid a sack. Clear as day grounding. Refs just completely ignored it.

 

[6.19.2016]

He woke up in a huge way.

Only needed to throw 23 times but his precision was 2018 levels. Fantastic.

Zero sacks, and only trailed Burrow in net yardage subtracting sacks by 66 - 219 vs. 285 - despite 3/8 as many pass attempts.

 

[Triplethreat]

A

INT was absolutely a bad decision. Had a defender in his face and just completely missed the safety helping over the top. One of the few times it would have been better to take a sack.

That grounding on the screen though.... 1 refs hate calling grounding. 2 ive seen a QB do that exact thing 100 times and the refs never call it. baker was out of the pocket, threw it into a group of guys at their feet, and lived to fight another day. Obviously baker needed to check for the fact that chubb was MIA on the play, but to me the only really bad decision of the night was that INT.

Hell later in the game Burrow while in the pocket just threw the ball straight into the sidelines to avoid a sack. Clear as day grounding. Refs just completely ignored it.

The pick honestly wasn’t that bad of a read overall.

Sure he missed the back side safety, but if he gets that ball up, and over the second safeties head there I think Bryant is in behind for 6 personally.

Didnt work out but I think we played great last night so I’m happy.

 

[Cassity14]

2 major differences to my untrained eye last night:

He was accurate as hell. Balls were coming in tight right where they needed to be, especially on a lot of those designed rollouts where Baker was so dangerous as a rookie.

He stayed in the pocket and didn't bail nearly as early or as often. This allowed him to hit options 2+ multiple times to keep the ball moving and not stall out for 2nd or 3rd and 10's.

This was the guy we saw in 2018, and it's the guy we expected Stefanski and VanPelt to unlock again. I give both Baker and the coaching staff a lot of credit for the apparent huge turnaround we saw on a short week.

 

[SanduskyCav]

Anyone have pocket pass stats vs rollout stats last night?

 

[Triplethreat]

 

[CBBI]

Went back and charted everydrop back - including penalties, scrambles and sacks - from the first two weeks for Baker Mayfield.

Week 1 at Baltimore
48 dropbacks
40 without play action
8 with play action
13 under center
35 in shotgun

Breakdown
PA Right, Moving Pocket Left: 1
PA Screen: 1
PA 5 Step: 1
PA 7 Step: 5

Under center 3 step: 4
Under center 7 step: 1

Shotgun 3 step: 11
Shotgun 5 step: 17
Shotgun 7 step: 6
Shotgun screen: 1

Week 2 - vs. Cincinnati
24 total dropbacks
14 without play action
10 with play action
11 under center
13 in shotgun

Breakdown
PA Right, Moving Pocket Left: 3
PA Left, Moving Pocket Right: 2
PA Right, Moving Pocket Right: 2
PA 7 Step Drop: 2
PA Screen: 1

5 Step Drop: 1

Shotgun 3 Step: 4
Shotgun 5 Step: 9

A few things stand out immediately.

In week 1, the Browns ran a 3 step drop on 31% of their dropbacks. In week 2, that number was down to just 17% with the 3 step drops from under center being eliminated completely.

In week 1, the Browns moved the pocket just 2% of the time (1/48). In week 2, they moved the pocket 29% of the time (7/24).

Score and situation obviously play a big factor in this, but the Browns ran play action just 17% of the time in week 1, compared to 42% of the time in week 2.

The Browns have not been a heavy screen team yet this year, running just 3 in 72 dropbacks.

The Browns have not run a single play action out of the shotgun in two games.

The Browns have only run the ball out of shotgun 18% of the time and have gained 4.4 YPC on those runs. They're gaining 6.6 YPC on runs from under center.

 

[shoes22]

Today was a little bit of a step back for Baker overall, but it was his first time in nine games where he didn’t throw an INT, so that’s progress.

 

[MGMT]

Still looks pretty anxious in the pocket; still flushing a bit prematurely or just because he needs to due to holding the ball too long; still has a tendency to chuck it down the middle of the field into good coverage.

that INT streak ending is bullshit; OBJ made one of the best efforts I’ve seen a WR make at preventing an INT. It was almost as if he wanted to win the game.

I’m not saying there weren’t any positives, but his tendencies are still relatively prevalent. This was an excellent defensive line that was going to bring it; he did enough to get past it.

get in another week of practice and film review and see what you can do again. He finds some nice open spots against zones still, he has things off of which he can build for sure.

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

This is pretty much what I thought this offense would be this year

Baker is going to be a game manager in an extremely run heavy system

he had his chance to be the young prodigy QB last year who gets to throw 40 times a game and he absolutely butchered it. Now he’s going to be treated like a young QB that has a great run blocking line and the best RB duo in years

In our best weeks Baker will struggle to hit 200 yards, like today. On the season I wouldn’t expect more than 1 or 2 300 yard games and I expect he’ll be quite a bit closer to 3000 than 4000 yards this year

And I’m.... very happy with that. So many examples of QBs leaning on strong running games and playing off hard play action their first few years so they can develop where the whole world isn’t asked of them. Then they progressively take more and more on their plates and actually develop at a healthy level.

What was asked of Baker last year is orders of magnitude more than what will be asked of him this year. He’s a game manager. And I hope it benefits him in the long run to take this step back in role on the team

 

[shoes22]

This is pretty much what I thought this offense would be this year

Baker is going to be a game manager in an extremely run heavy system

he had his chance to be the young prodigy QB last year who gets to throw 40 times a game and he absolutely butchered it. Now he’s going to be treated like a young QB that has a great run blocking line and the best RB duo in years

In our best weeks Baker will struggle to hit 200 yards, like today. On the season I wouldn’t expect more than 1 or 2 300 yard games and I expect he’ll be quite a bit closer to 3000 than 4000 yards this year

And I’m.... very happy with that. So many examples of QBs leaning on strong running games and playing off hard play action their first few years so they can develop where the whole world isn’t asked of them. Then they progressively take more and more on their plates and actually develop at a healthy level.

What was asked of Baker last year is orders of magnitude more than what will be asked of him this year. He’s a game manager. And I hope it benefits him in the long run to take this step back in role on the team

This is it.

We have way too much talent offensively to ever ask for “hero ball” from Baker again. And that is a good thing, because for every 1 gun-slinger, highlight-reel pass he makes, he also has 3-4 fucking terrible, reckless throws as well. And that’s not a ratio anyone should be comfortable with.

I do think after Week 1, Baker has largely bought into the gameplan Stefanski and Van Pelt have designed for him. So good on his part.

I also hope that Stefanski pulls a change-up every now and then and calls a play that can make use of Baker’s unique downfield talents, just to keep defenses honest.

 

[Deezus]

I just feel like this offense finally has an identity. We're a smash mouth, run-heavy team with elite backs and an above-average O-line. I like it!

 

[MGMT]

delete wrong thread

 

[Vee-Rex]

that INT streak ending is bullshit; OBJ made of the best efforts I’ve seen a WR make at preventing an INT. It was almost as if he wanted to win the game.

I get it, but I don't think this is a fair way to look at it. How many times did he have an INT off the hands of a receiver or something that wasn't his fault? No one was questioning the validity of the streak the other way around.

I think Baker played a great game today. There were some bad throws and some other times where he got happy feet in the pocket, but overall it wasn't too bad given the fact that Washington's d-line pretty much dominated our o-line through most of the game until the end.