Coaches Cautious with Martinez

[kchusker_chris]

Meh it's half and half. The pass pro was pretty decent last year, atleast compared to the past. But Taylor has a habit of feeling phantom pressure and scrambling when he has plenty of time to go through his progession.

martinez scramble? Scrambling is the one thing that for some reason Taylor doesn't do well. He's downright bad at it. Extending a passing play is very rare. I'd like to see him improve on this - if he could scramble and complete a few passes early, it will open everything up for his run game.

[ZRod]

I beg to differ, he was much better at it last year. Did you watch the CCG? Probably the greatest scramble of all time! He's actually a lot more mobile in the pocket than people give him credit for, he's just not very heady about where he goes. I can remember a pretty nice sideline catch in the bowl game that came off a scramblel.

 

So maybe I agree, but he definitely improved last year compared to years past.

[Warrior]

If all he did was take snaps and work on handoffs this spring then go work on his passing in Cali I would say that's a productive spring. He's a 3 year starter what's he got to prove in Spring Drills..

[Landlord]

Meh it's half and half. The pass pro was pretty decent last year, atleast compared to the past. But Taylor has a habit of feeling phantom pressure and scrambling when he has plenty of time to go through his progession.

martinez scramble? Scrambling is the one thing that for some reason Taylor doesn't do well. He's downright bad at it. Extending a passing play is very rare. I'd like to see him improve on this - if he could scramble and complete a few passes early, it will open everything up for his run game.

 

 

This argument is a year old and no longer valid.

 

Taylor Martinez won us the Northwestern and MSU games with his scrambling playing a huge role.

[HeyBurke]

Meh it's half and half. The pass pro was pretty decent last year, atleast compared to the past. But Taylor has a habit of feeling phantom pressure and scrambling when he has plenty of time to go through his progession.

martinez scramble? Scrambling is the one thing that for some reason Taylor doesn't do well. He's downright bad at it. Extending a passing play is very rare. I'd like to see him improve on this - if he could scramble and complete a few passes early, it will open everything up for his run game.

 

 

This argument is a year old and no longer valid.

 

Taylor Martinez won us the Northwestern and MSU games with his scrambling playing a huge role.

 

Not really. Taylor is great at running when the plays are designed around him running, but he is very inconsistent when he has to make something out of nothing.

[Saunders]

If he shores up his passing numbers just a lil.............

Then I would definitely agree! He will definitely be solid as usual next year!

In order for that to happen, we need to be MUCH better in pass protection, which I am not holding my breathe for lol. I hope will be though.

Meh it's half and half. The pass pro was pretty decent last year, atleast compared to the past. But Taylor has a habit of feeling phantom pressure and scrambling when he has plenty of time to go through his progession.

Our tackles were awful against decent defensive ends. How many times did Taylor get blind sided because the DE wasn't even touch? I'm pretty sure had had 3 or 4 fumbles because he didn't even finish his drop back.

[HuskerNationNick]

Meh it's half and half. The pass pro was pretty decent last year, atleast compared to the past. But Taylor has a habit of feeling phantom pressure and scrambling when he has plenty of time to go through his progession.

Our tackles were awfule against decent defensive ends. How many times did Taylor get blind sided because the DE wasn't even touch?

 

A-rod to be exact. I remember Cotton jumping all over him for letting a guy right by him untouched, not once, but twice on the same drive. You could count down how fast our pocket, lack there of, would fold in on Taylor, causing him to break out and try to complete passes while scrambling. It a lot of cases, like Saunders said, DEs came in untouched, on way to many occasions.

[kchusker_chris]

I beg to differ, he was much better at it last year. Did you watch the CCG? Probably the greatest scramble of all time! He's actually a lot more mobile in the pocket than people give him credit for, he's just not very heady about where he goes. I can remember a pretty nice sideline catch in the bowl game that came off a scramblel.

 

So maybe I agree, but he definitely improved last year compared to years past.

I did, and that's not scrambling. He escaped and runs - almost exclusively when the pocket breaks down. It's not the same. I bet I can count on one hand the number of times he extended a pass play with his feet last season. That's his issue - pocket breaks down, he's going to tuck and run. He's no longer a threat down-field. The fact that he's elusive could make him very, very dangerous if he didn't get flustered as the pocket breaks down...if he could better maintain his composure and allow our WRs to get open. You know he doesn't do that - because you never see him throw the ball away. How many times have we seen him run out of bounds 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage? If he's scrambling, he's no longer thinking pass.

[Landlord]

I beg to differ, he was much better at it last year. Did you watch the CCG? Probably the greatest scramble of all time! He's actually a lot more mobile in the pocket than people give him credit for, he's just not very heady about where he goes. I can remember a pretty nice sideline catch in the bowl game that came off a scramblel.

 

So maybe I agree, but he definitely improved last year compared to years past.

I did, and that's not scrambling. He escaped and runs - almost exclusively when the pocket breaks down. It's not the same. I bet I can count on one hand the number of times he extended a pass play with his feet last season. That's his issue - pocket breaks down, he's going to tuck and run. He's no longer a threat down-field. The fact that he's elusive could make him very, very dangerous if he didn't get flustered as the pocket breaks down...if he could better maintain his composure and allow our WRs to get open. You know he doesn't do that - because you never see him throw the ball away. How many times have we seen him run out of bounds 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage? If he's scrambling, he's no longer thinking pass.

 

 

What on earth is your definition of scrambling then?

[kchusker_chris]

I beg to differ, he was much better at it last year. Did you watch the CCG? Probably the greatest scramble of all time! He's actually a lot more mobile in the pocket than people give him credit for, he's just not very heady about where he goes. I can remember a pretty nice sideline catch in the bowl game that came off a scramblel.

 

So maybe I agree, but he definitely improved last year compared to years past.

I did, and that's not scrambling. He escaped and runs - almost exclusively when the pocket breaks down. It's not the same. I bet I can count on one hand the number of times he extended a pass play with his feet last season. That's his issue - pocket breaks down, he's going to tuck and run. He's no longer a threat down-field. The fact that he's elusive could make him very, very dangerous if he didn't get flustered as the pocket breaks down...if he could better maintain his composure and allow our WRs to get open. You know he doesn't do that - because you never see him throw the ball away. How many times have we seen him run out of bounds 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage? If he's scrambling, he's no longer thinking pass.

 

 

What on earth is your definition of scrambling then?

Not this - but it's the typical Martinez scramble:

 

 

Even the announcer describes it as "Martinez being chased" - because at that point the play was already a run. He was looking downfield - but he wasn't going to throw it...if he was, he would have thrown it out of bounds and saved us 3 yards, and himself a hit.

[Landlord]

I beg to differ, he was much better at it last year. Did you watch the CCG? Probably the greatest scramble of all time! He's actually a lot more mobile in the pocket than people give him credit for, he's just not very heady about where he goes. I can remember a pretty nice sideline catch in the bowl game that came off a scramblel.

 

So maybe I agree, but he definitely improved last year compared to years past.

I did, and that's not scrambling. He escaped and runs - almost exclusively when the pocket breaks down. It's not the same. I bet I can count on one hand the number of times he extended a pass play with his feet last season. That's his issue - pocket breaks down, he's going to tuck and run. He's no longer a threat down-field. The fact that he's elusive could make him very, very dangerous if he didn't get flustered as the pocket breaks down...if he could better maintain his composure and allow our WRs to get open. You know he doesn't do that - because you never see him throw the ball away. How many times have we seen him run out of bounds 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage? If he's scrambling, he's no longer thinking pass.

 

 

What on earth is your definition of scrambling then?

Not this - but it's the typical Martinez scramble:

 

 

Even the announcer describes it as "Martinez being chased" - because at that point the play was already a run. He was looking downfield - but he wasn't going to throw it...if he was he would have thrown it out of bounds and saved us 3 yards.

 

 

 

Watch the very next play on that video:

 

[kchusker_chris]

I beg to differ, he was much better at it last year. Did you watch the CCG? Probably the greatest scramble of all time! He's actually a lot more mobile in the pocket than people give him credit for, he's just not very heady about where he goes. I can remember a pretty nice sideline catch in the bowl game that came off a scramblel.

 

So maybe I agree, but he definitely improved last year compared to years past.

I did, and that's not scrambling. He escaped and runs - almost exclusively when the pocket breaks down. It's not the same. I bet I can count on one hand the number of times he extended a pass play with his feet last season. That's his issue - pocket breaks down, he's going to tuck and run. He's no longer a threat down-field. The fact that he's elusive could make him very, very dangerous if he didn't get flustered as the pocket breaks down...if he could better maintain his composure and allow our WRs to get open. You know he doesn't do that - because you never see him throw the ball away. How many times have we seen him run out of bounds 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage? If he's scrambling, he's no longer thinking pass.

 

 

What on earth is your definition of scrambling then?

Not this - but it's the typical Martinez scramble:

 

 

Even the announcer describes it as "Martinez being chased" - because at that point the play was already a run. He was looking downfield - but he wasn't going to throw it...if he was he would have thrown it out of bounds and saved us 3 yards.

 

 

 

Watch the very next play on that video:

 

When he missed the open receiver (Ben Cotton) and drags the play out to the sideline? He completes that pass 1 in a 50 times, or he could have thrown the 80 percenter and hit the rollout 5 steps into that scramble.

[ZRod]

Those are exactly what I'm talking about, he can scramble. Scrambling is evading pressure while attempting to pass. It doesn't matter if you run it or throw it or get sacked, once you become mobile you are scrambling. Like I said Taylor isn't very heady at it, that's something that just comes with maturity (trust in your blockers) and experience. He's light years ahead of his stumbling around stuff from his first two years, but like you see in chris' video he felt a phantom pressure that was picked up by Rex. He needs to trust that his guys will do the job. Which with the aformention OL palyer it can be pretty hard to do...

[ZRod]

When he missed the open receiver (Ben Cotton) and drags the play out to the sideline? He completes that pass 1 in a 50 times, or he could have thrown the 80 percenter and hit the rollout 5 steps into that scramble.

It was 3rd and 13 you either make a play more than 5 yards down field or your going to the sideline. Furthermore who did he pass it to? Ben Cotton, when he turned up field into open space to get the first down yardage.

[kchusker_chris]

Those are exactly what I'm talking about, he can scramble. Scrambling is evading pressure while attempting to pass. It doesn't matter if you run it or throw it or get sacked, once you become mobile you are scrambling. Like I said Taylor isn't very heady at it, that's something that just comes with maturity (trust in your blockers) and experience. He's light years ahead of his stumbling around stuff from his first two years, but like you see in chris' video he felt a phantom pressure that was picked up by Rex. He needs to trust that his guys will do the job. Which with the aformention OL palyer it can be pretty hard to do...

Right. We were talking about in the context of his passing so I was specifically talking in those regards. I think he could hit that upper 60% completion percentage, open up the running game, and add 500 yards to his completions if he does 2 things better next year. 1) Hits the check down in Abdullah 2-3 times I game. He started to do that with Rex at the beginning of last year but abandoned it in the middle. 2) Extend a pass play another 2-3 seconds. He doesn't have to get clear to the sideline and make a spectacular throw. He can throw it away. But we have superior athletes in our WRs over their CBs 9 out of 10 times. Add in the fact that Martinez is such a threat to break one for a TD and if he can get himself composed and outside the pocket, scramble for a few seconds and see what opens up...he could be deadly. Colter did it to us a couple years ago. Russel Wilson as well. Martinez is faster than both, but both are better about turning a broken pass play into a 15 yard gain. Martinez frequently turns it into a 3 yard loss bolting for the sideline.