Something Kaep has to work on.

[yossarian]

This is from Clayton's column:


ESPN Stats & Information came up with an interesting comparison. Kaepernick has shown some difficulty completing passes under pressure. Opposing defenses have rushed him with five or more defenders 40.9 percent of the time. Against those blitzes, Kaepernick is completing 55.6 percent of his passes for 7.6 yards an attempt. Smith handles those situations better. He's completed 72.2 percent of his passes against five or more rushers with an 8.5-yard-per-attempt average.

Stats can say anything you want, and I think all young quarterbacks have to work on this, but he needs to have a higher learning curve, because New England and Seattle have good defenses and smart coordinators.

 

[shouldakepowens]

New England has a good defense?

 

[yossarian]

New England has a good defense?

Stupid me, no they don't, I guess I still think that Bill can cause problems for young quarterbacks, but that's probably wrong too.

 

[shouldakepowens]

I have only seen a few patriots games and their defense did not look good. I know a few games is a small sample size but that is what I've seen. I'm not sure how they do against young qbs so I can't say.

 

[Bemular]

This is from Clayton's column:


ESPN Stats & Information came up with an interesting comparison. Kaepernick has shown some difficulty completing passes under pressure. Opposing defenses have rushed him with five or more defenders 40.9 percent of the time. Against those blitzes, Kaepernick is completing 55.6 percent of his passes for 7.6 yards an attempt. Smith handles those situations better. He's completed 72.2 percent of his passes against five or more rushers with an 8.5-yard-per-attempt average.

Stats can say anything you want, and I think all young quarterbacks have to work on this, but he needs to have a higher learning curve, because New England and Seattle have good defenses and smart coordinators.

If Smith were blitzed as much as Kap - he would be in a coffin. One reason and perhaps the biggest reason Smith looks better on paper is because Smith took sacks at the highest rate in the NFL. Kap tends to try and beat pressure with his passes while Smith often beat pressure by taking a sack.

I would love to know what Smith's blitz rate was and how many passes he has actually thrown under pressure and what exactly defines pressure because as I have stated before pressure for one QB is not necessarily pressure for another QB.

And finally, I would like to know how many rushing yards each QB has produced as a result of scrambling away from pressure. Don't misunderstand my post - Kap has his "needs to work on's", but these stats really don't say too much about what they are.

 

[DoobieKeebler]

New England has a good defense?

They do. New England has a good defense by means of Brady & the offense averaging 35.5 points per game.

 

[yossarian]

I have only seen a few patriots games and their defense did not look good. I know a few games is a small sample size but that is what I've seen. I'm not sure how they do against young qbs so I can't say.

Yeah, you're probably right, I'm going to just edit that part out.

 

[ChrisPozz]

This is from Clayton's column:


ESPN Stats & Information came up with an interesting comparison. Kaepernick has shown some difficulty completing passes under pressure. Opposing defenses have rushed him with five or more defenders 40.9 percent of the time. Against those blitzes, Kaepernick is completing 55.6 percent of his passes for 7.6 yards an attempt. Smith handles those situations better. He's completed 72.2 percent of his passes against five or more rushers with an 8.5-yard-per-attempt average.

Stats can say anything you want, and I think all young quarterbacks have to work on this, but he needs to have a higher learning curve, because New England and Seattle have good defenses and smart coordinators.

Something similar to add to this. Versus total pressure, not just 5 or more rushers, Smith has completed only 50% of his passes (20/40) for 5.0 yards/attempt. Last season was worse as he completed only 41.5% of his passes (68/164 = 41.5%) with a 5.6 yards/attempt average.

 

[yossarian]

If Smith were blitzed as much as Kap - he would be in a coffin. One reason and perhaps the biggest reason Smith looks better on paper is because Smith took sacks at the highest rate in the NFL. Kap tends to try and beat pressure with his passes while Smith often beat pressure by taking a sack.

I would love to know what Smith's blitz rate was and how many passes he has actually thrown under pressure and what exactly defines pressure because as I have stated before pressure for one QB is not necessarily pressure for another QB.

And finally, I would like to know how many rushing yards each QB has produced as a result of scrambling away from pressure. Don't misunderstand my post - Kap has his "needs to work on's", but these stats really don't say too much about what they are.

I think Smith was on pace to take a huge number of sacks this year, which is ironic since we supposedly have one of the best o-lines in football, and that isn't reflected in Clayton's quoted stats. But I think Clayton is very grudging about the 49ers, last year he was basically saying on Seattle radio that Smith was no better than Tavaris Jackson, now he's saying Harbaugh is making a mistake by taking out Smith for Kaep.

 

[Bemular]

I think Smith was on pace to take a huge number of sacks this year, which is ironic since we supposedly have one of the best o-lines in football, and that isn't reflected in Clayton's quoted stats. But I think Clayton is very grudging about the 49ers, last year he was basically saying on Seattle radio that Smith was no better than Tavaris Jackson, now he's saying Harbaugh is making a mistake by taking out Smith for Kaep.

I agreee with you on Clayton.

Just a word about sacks. Keep in mind that sacks are the result of broken down protection not a broken down o'line. It is not at all uncommon to have 30-40% of sacks owned by players who are not members of the o'line.

 

[MHSL82]

I think Smith was on pace to take a huge number of sacks this year, which is ironic since we supposedly have one of the best o-lines in football, and that isn't reflected in Clayton's quoted stats. But I think Clayton is very grudging about the 49ers, last year he was basically saying on Seattle radio that Smith was no better than Tavaris Jackson, now he's saying Harbaugh is making a mistake by taking out Smith for Kaep.

Smith takes a lot of sacks that are not really on the oline and our strength in the oline is for rushing, not pass protection. I won't say anything negative about the pass protection, I'll leave that for someone else here.

 

[imac_21]

Sample size is an important part of this. I believe I read before the StL game that Kaep would have had the best numbers in the league vs 5 or more rushers if he had enough attempts to qualify. One rough game against the blitz had a significant effect on him.

 

[yossarian]

Sample size is an important part of this. I believe I read before the StL game that Kaep would have had the best numbers in the league vs 5 or more rushers if he had enough attempts to qualify. One rough game against the blitz had a significant effect on him.

Yes, that's true as well. I think he'll improve, by all accounts he's a real student of the game and wants to learn. The original post wasn't meant to bash him, just something to watch.

 

[wartyOne]

If Smith were blitzed as much as Kap - he would be in a coffin. One reason and perhaps the biggest reason Smith looks better on paper is because Smith took sacks at the highest rate in the NFL. Kap tends to try and beat pressure with his passes while Smith often beat pressure by taking a sack.

I would love to know what Smith's blitz rate was and how many passes he has actually thrown under pressure and what exactly defines pressure because as I have stated before pressure for one QB is not necessarily pressure for another QB.

And finally, I would like to know how many rushing yards each QB has produced as a result of scrambling away from pressure. Don't misunderstand my post - Kap has his "needs to work on's", but these stats really don't say too much about what they are.

Yep. Sacks is the big one. Kaep gets rid of the ball. Smith loses 15 yards. This isn't hidden information. Anybody who actually watches the games can see this.

 

[Kinzu]

Well Kaep can probably be pretty sure he is going to see a lot of what the Rams did to him until he proves he can beat it.

Play Zone coverage across the field while flushing Kaep out of the pocket to the right or left, and then rotate your coverage to that side. If teams keep doing that successfully Kaep will have long days until he starts looking for the short quick passes more often to beat it.

 

[Bemular]

Well Kaep can probably be pretty sure he is going to see a lot of what the Rams did to him until he proves he can beat it.

Play Zone coverage across the field while flushing Kaep out of the pocket to the right or left, and then rotate your coverage to that side. If teams keep doing that successfully Kaep will have long days until he starts looking for the short quick passes more often to beat it.

I think all we need to do is improve protection and he will be fine. Kap reads and reacts so much quicker than Alex - he will eventually, sooner rather than later, make a blitzing team pay dearly for doing what Fisher did to us last Sunday. Book it!

 

[Kinzu]

I actually think he is a lot slower right now which is why pressure gets to him more often. He drops back and looks for the big pass play which is what allows the blitz to get to him and flush him out of the pocket. Alex was quicker at picking out the blitz and dumping the ball off or changing into a quick pass. Alex took sacks more often either by not picking it up in his pre-snap or because the Defense guessed right and took away his quick reads.

Now when Kaep gets faster at seeing the blitz, then yeah, he will start to make teams pay for it. Kaep has the ability to escape pressure when he guesses wrong or they take away his quick outs. He also has the arm strength to zip passes into tight spots on short to medium routes when facing the blitz. He can't be successful though if he is always having to escape the pressure. He needs to learn to beat it before the snap.

 

[Bemular]

I actually think he is a lot slower right now which is why pressure gets to him more often. He drops back and looks for the big pass play which is what allows the blitz to get to him and flush him out of the pocket. Alex was quicker at picking out the blitz and dumping the ball off or changing into a quick pass. Alex took sacks more often either by not picking it up in his pre-snap or because the Defense guessed right and took away his quick reads.

Now when Kaep gets faster at seeing the blitz, then yeah, he will start to make teams pay for it.

Wow - 100% wrong!

 

[yossarian]

I think it is just something that traditionally defensive coordinators do to a starting qb, harass them and don't let them get comfortable in the pocket and force them to make quick decisions. It seems like we saw that more against the Rams than against Chicago, but I think he will get better at making the quick decision with people in his face.

 

[Bemular]

I think it is just something that traditionally defensive coordinators do to a starting qb, harass them and don't let them get comfortable in the pocket and force them to make quick decisions. It seems like we saw that more against the Rams than against Chicago, but I think he will get better at making the quick decision with people in his face.

Fisher pressured Kap much in the same way you would defend Vick - from the edges and up the middle. In addition to his reading the blitz the receivers also need to read the blitz and sight adjust. Once that starts happening DC's will have to devise a different plan.