Originally posted by dj43:Originally posted by Joecool:You only read the first sentence. I said he did adjust eventually but Philly took away some stuff after the first drive for which Johnson did not have an immediate counter. As I said, part of that is experience and part of it is how much the staff helps.Originally posted by dj43:
While I would give him a passing grade last night, the bigger question to me is; is he improving.
The answer to me is 'yes.' The first game he had almost no time to prepare anything different than the Raye offense. Last night he put in a lot more variety and had more players involved.
There were two problems last night as I saw it.
1. Johnson did not make any adjustments after the first drive. This was the same thing as the Atlanta game. I put a great deal of that on inexperience and lack of support in the rest of the staff to look for the ways to adjust. Eventually he did make some adjustments that worked well. (I wonder how many of the plays in those last two TD drives were his calls and how many were Smith's. In a number of cases it looked like Alex was calling his own plays. He certainly audibled on what appeared to be about 1/3 of the plays.)
2. It takes players time to adjust to the change in play design and their own responsibilities and assignments. Johnson's biggest hurdle right now is trying to "change horses in the middle of the stream." Players spent all of OTAs and TC learning to think and play one way and now Johnson is trying to get them to change that mindset and those playing patterns to a very different way of playing and thinking. That is going to take time.
#1 is completely false. We were moving the ball. We had nearly a 100 yard receiver in the 1st half. This caused the defense to adjust in the second half and Ginn and Vernon ended up being open deep on multiple plays. This means the defense focused on Crabtree's routes more.
Johnson called a very good game.
One of the great contributions to the Walsh/Seifert success was the high level of communication and understanding between the OL and receiver coaches and the OC. When Philly adjusted last night the staff did not have an good response. That is not all on Johnson.
Overall, I would likely give him a C for last night but a higher grade for the progress he has made under very difficult circumstances of taking over a row boat in the middle of the lake and trying to turn it into a blown fuel hydro.
Did either of you catch Cris Cillingsworth's comment about this game was the first game since the J.Raye era that they actually [listen carefully now] 'Game Planned"???
If there's truth to that, then that could explain why the coachs never seem to make adjustments during the games.[/list]
