Why All of the Drops with the Catchable Passes?

Because Smith's passes are inconsistent. Sometimes high, sometimes wide, sometimes hard ... the receivers just never know where the ball will be exactly. No rhythm to how they arrive. That is why you see drops when they hit the receiver in the hands, surprises them.

Originally posted by ChaunceyGardner:
Because Smith's passes are inconsistent. Sometimes high, sometimes wide, sometimes hard ... the receivers just never know where the ball will be exactly. No rhythm to how they arrive. That is why you see drops when they hit the receiver in the hands, surprises them.

Oh man, c'mon... is this for real? Pro receivers can't simply track a catchable football?

I guess I was right...sounds of crickets. LOL.

It's one thing to say Smith's passes aren't buttery smooth to allow for great RAC or an excellent visual on television.....

But if it hits you in the hands, you're supposed to catch it. And BTW a "drop" is not a hard catch to make that isn't made, but an easy catch that was missed due to looking down the field too soon -- see Victor Cruz week 1 this year.

Drops are due to one thing and one thing only. INATTENTION. ie, not paying attn , or if you wish, lack of concentration as noted on 1st page and thruout. Man, how you improve that tho is tough. Repeititon is proabably the only way to beat it, with a coach standing right by the receiver saying, "Concentrate on the ball, concentrate on the ball". What is bothersome is that it happens way, way too often, and it almost seems across the board. Coach obviously knows it and whatever he is doing to correct it, isn't enough. I see an awful lot of football games where the drops are few and far between. Sure alex throws a bad pass. Well , guess what? So does Brady, Brees, Rivers...ummmm, ROMO (as in 5 last nite). It happens. But you go back and relook at the catchable passes, and it is the receivers, 95 times out of a hundred. CONCENTRATION.

There's a lot of drops, and I want to say it's about 50/50 blame between Alex and his pass-catchers. Not the most terrible thing, but Alex doesn't take a lot of shots past 10 yards, so catching every ball that comes is absolutely critical for the passing game.

Originally posted by NineFourNiner:

Um, seriously.

I forgot one other thing. We don't have Wes Welker catching 9 or 10 passes every game. When each receiver may only get 2 or 3 chances all game the concentration kinda wears off.. If we pass 10 times to vernon, each and every game, he will concentrate more than if he gets just one pass. And we got 7 guys catching the ball. Hence the inattention.

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
I forgot one other thing. We don't have Wes Welker catching 9 or 10 passes every game. When each receiver may only get 2 or 3 chances all game the concentration kinda wears off.. If we pass 10 times to vernon, each and every game, he will concentrate more than if he gets just one pass. And we got 7 guys catching the ball. Hence the inattention.

Yep. Good point and it has been mentioned. Our receivers can play this "for the team" mentality all day for the media... some may even subscribe to it.. but receivers WANT that ball thrown to them. When a team like ours... who doesn't pass much to begin with... also spreads passes around to many targets? Yeah... it can cause many o receivers to lose focus.. interest..

A. Smith


Attempts -- 113
Completions -- 76
Incomplete -- 37
Drops -- 12
Throw Aways -- 5
Bad Passes -- 20

Bad Pass % -- 17.7%

Throw Away Breakdown
GB - 2 (end of half before Akers 63 yarder)
Detroit - 1 (50 seconds to go in the 1st quarter)
Minnesota - 1 (1:15 to go in the 2nd quarter)
NYJ - 1 (15:00 to go in the 2nd quarter)

Originally posted by Bootlegger:
A. Smith


Attempts -- 113
Completions -- 76
Incomplete -- 37
Drops -- 12
Throw Aways -- 5
Bad Passes -- 20

Bad Pass % -- 17.7%

Throw Away Breakdown
GB - 2 (end of half before Akers 63 yarder)
Detroit - 1 (50 seconds to go in the 1st quarter)
Minnesota - 1 (1:15 to go in the 2nd quarter)
NYJ - 1 (15:00 to go in the 2nd quarter)

5 bad passes a game really isn't that big of a number. Say take 1 pass per game that had some kind of circumstance...like a PI not getting called (Ham last week) he isnt in the "bad" category IMO.

A couple of 5 yard drops aren't as damaging as 4+ overthrows down field, two for TDs.

Originally posted by Bootlegger:
A. Smith


Attempts -- 113
Completions -- 76
Incomplete -- 37
Drops -- 12
Throw Aways -- 5
Bad Passes -- 20

Bad Pass % -- 17.7%

Throw Away Breakdown
GB - 2 (end of half before Akers 63 yarder)
Detroit - 1 (50 seconds to go in the 1st quarter)
Minnesota - 1 (1:15 to go in the 2nd quarter)
NYJ - 1 (15:00 to go in the 2nd quarter)

I'm sorry but your math is based on a false assumption.

Just because a ball is not dropped, completed, or thrown away does not make it a bad pass.

You're not accounting for PDs and INTs (which can happen on good passes) and you're also not accounting for passes that are not counted as drops but the greator onus was on the wr. (Drops are only counted against the WR when the fault is 100% on the WR)

Wonder how many

Originally posted by Bootlegger:
A. Smith


Attempts -- 113
Completions -- 76
Incomplete -- 37
Drops -- 12
Throw Aways -- 5
Bad Passes -- 20

Bad Pass % -- 17.7%

Throw Away Breakdown
GB - 2 (end of half before Akers 63 yarder)
Detroit - 1 (50 seconds to go in the 1st quarter)
Minnesota - 1 (1:15 to go in the 2nd quarter)
NYJ - 1 (15:00 to go in the 2nd quarter)

Matt Ryan

Attempts - 147
Completions - 102
Incomplete = 45
Drops - 9
throw aways (as a % of bad passes based on Smith's 20% calc.) - 7
BAD PASSES = 29

Bad pass % = 19.72%


What have we learned?