Andrew Luck with BA's offense

**jj28west** · 01-01-2013, 09:40 AM

I had the Steeler game streamed on my Laptop and the Colts/Texans game on TV. Did anyone else see how quick many of his release were before JJ got to him?

Maybe because he is a rook but I always perceiced BA having a scheme that took a long time for the WR's to run their patterns. If you were to time his dropbacks it was not like the OL was giving him 5 seconds to throw.

I know Luck was aggresive and had as many Int's as TD's but it was impressive how in sync he was with the WR's timewise and he was not just managing the game.

He does have Wayne but the rest of the WR corp appeared to be very inexperienced but yet effective.

My point is I never saw BA's philosophy working at all with a rook QB and am trying to figure out what changed, if anything, for Luck to be more than just efficient.

**SidSmythe** · 01-01-2013, 09:52 AM

BEN is a backyard QB. He's looking for things to open up downfield. Just the way he plays.

I've watched guys release in the flat with no one covering them and BEN will look at them and then look back downfield.
Ben also loves the pump fake...he's a patient guy who loves high risk, high reward. That's just the way he is.

**Oviedo** · 01-01-2013, 10:50 AM

Don't underestimate the impact of where they went to college. Luck came from a Pro style offense on a major team with high level talent coached by a former NFL QB. Ben came from a second tier league with much less talent and he had to develop a "playground" style to make things happen.

Not surprising that Luck is a more successful "system QB"

**feltdizz** · 01-01-2013, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by Oviedo

Don't underestimate the impact of where they went to college. Luck came from a Pro style offense on a major team with high level talent coached by a former NFL QB. Ben came from a second tier league with much less talent and he had to develop a "playground" style to make things happen.

Not surprising that Luck is a more successful "system QB"

Is Luck really a better system QB? He has a bunch of INT's, his QB rating and passing efficiency arent that great and he's benefiter from ST's TD's and a team running on pure emotion.

Ben is sandlot because that is what he prefers. When Ben checks down he is more successful.

I can admit I didnt expect Luck to will his team to the playoffs but we have to remember this Colts team is similar to the Steelerd team when Ben arrived. They arent used to losing and they tanked because they lost their franchise QB. This isnt the Browns or the Bills.

**Steelhere10** · 01-01-2013, 11:02 AM

Maybe when BA gave Ben the freedom to choose the plays that he liked maybe it was a Ben who got rid of all the quick stuff.

**feltdizz** · 01-01-2013, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by Steelhere10

Maybe when BA gave Ben the freedom to choose the plays that he liked maybe it was a Ben who got rid of all the quick stuff.

Ben loves going deep... it hurts his arm to throw short passes. Throwing touch passes isnt high on Ben's priority list and I dont think he practices these throws as much as he should nor does he respect the footwork and form needed to complete these passes.

Reminds me of Cam Newton. Not saying Cam is on Bens level but I watch Cam a ton and he can make all the throws in the 12 to 40 yard range on a rope but anything underneath or in the flat is a crap shoot.

**jj28west** · 01-01-2013, 08:27 PM

I have never seen a live game so I could only see the small window on TV. I hear how Ben has a tendency to wait until the WR breaks open instead of throwing to a spot. This takes time but as we have seen Ben is willing to pay the price for this. Its easy for me to be critical but a 4 yard completion is still a positive.

Like you said it would be great if Ben practiced on this touch. I am in Pats country so I see this all the time with Wes.

Originally Posted by feltdizz

Ben loves going deep... it hurts his arm to throw short passes. Throwing touch passes isnt high on Ben's priority list and I dont think he practices these throws as much as he should nor does he respect the footwork and form needed to complete these passes.

Reminds me of Cam Newton. Not saying Cam is on Bens level but I watch Cam a ton and he can make all the throws in the 12 to 40 yard range on a rope but anything underneath or in the flat is a crap shoot.

**NorthCoast** · 01-01-2013, 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by jj28west

I have never seen a live game so I could only see the small window on TV. I hear how Ben has a tendency to wait until the WR breaks open instead of throwing to a spot. This takes time but as we have seen Ben is willing to pay the price for this. Its easy for me to be critical but a 4 yard completion is still a positive.

Like you said it would be great if Ben practiced on this touch. I am in Pats country so I see this all the time with Wes.

I don't think anyone who watches Ben play would mistake him for a timing QB. Whether this is because he dislikes it, doesn't trust his WRs, or he can't read a pre-snap defense well enough to know where to throw I can't really say. But we have plenty of evidence that Ben doesn't throw many timing passes.

**jj28west** · 01-01-2013, 09:39 PM

If you even look at his deep balls to Wallace when they were beginning to connect. It took some time for BB to gage Wallace but then again so would many other QBs.

Originally Posted by NorthCoast

I don't think anyone who watches Ben play would mistake him for a timing QB. Whether this is because he dislikes it, doesn't trust his WRs, or he can't read a pre-snap defense well enough to know where to throw I can't really say. But we have plenty of evidence that Ben doesn't throw many timing passes.

**DBR96A** · 01-01-2013, 09:59 PM

Originally Posted by NorthCoast

I don't think anyone who watches Ben play would mistake him for a timing QB. Whether this is because he dislikes it, doesn't trust his WRs, or he can't read a pre-snap defense well enough to know where to throw I can't really say. But we have plenty of evidence that Ben doesn't throw many timing passes.

As far as I'm concerned, if he couldn't read a defense, then he wouldn't have had less than 2% of his passes intercepted in two of the last three seasons.

I know he's been burnt by "throwing to a spot" in the past. When the Steelers played the Bengals in Cincinnati in 2009, Santonio Holmes was supposed to be Ben's hot read in the event of a blitz (which there was), and Ben threw it to where Holmes was supposed to be, but the only person there was Johnathan Joseph, who intercepted it for a TD in a game the Steelers ultimately lost by three. You gotta remember that the Steelers have had plenty of mental midgets at WR since Ben's been with the team, so maybe he'd rather just wait for them to get open before he throws it. Besides, even if it's the WR's fault, everybody's just gonna blame Ben if he throws an INT.