Quote Originally Posted by Shawn View Post
Don't get me wrong, I want Ben to throw the rock downfield. But, I just don't want it to be a crutch or his bread n butter. You need a deep ball to take the top off. If you are running the ball well, and able to make the opposition respect your deep ball...you become very difficult to stop.
I think you need the threat of the longball but you don't have to use it that often. I think you do much more waering down a defense but a consistent and effective short passing game which gets the LBs turning their backs to the LOS. This in turn keeps them off your QB and opens up lanes for the running game.

The longball is a low percentage play and while your WR is coming all the way back up field the defense gets time to reset and sub. Much harder to do when you are running a high tempo short passing attack.