Six on 8 Week 3: Jimmy Clausen vs.the Seattle Seahawks

Up front, I need to tell you all something. I wasn't going to write this column.

You see, it's generally called Six on 6, and so by definition, I didn't really have anything to write about Jay Cutler, given he didn't play. So then I figured I was generally solid this week and would take Wednesday off so I could get ready for s2e2 of Empire.

But then enough people asked me if I was going to do Eight on 8 that I felt like I needed to do something, so I acquiesced and decided I'd write Six on 8. I can't honestly say that I could come up with eight different ways to say Pickles sucked, so we'll do the half dozen and deal. Seriously though, re-watching this just makes you even more sad and upset than you were when you were watching it live. Ugh, let's get this over with.

The Stats

9 completions.
17 attempts.

52% completion.

63 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions (yay?) But keep in mind, two sacks for -15 yards (We'll get there). So a net 48 yards out of your quarterback.

Exactly the stat line you'd expect to see from a team that doesn't trust their quarterback to do anything. Keep in mind, Gase and Fox used TIM FREAKING TEBOW with more trust than they installed for Jimmy Clausen.  This is legitimately a formation they used at one point:

"But Kev," I can hear you saying. "That's a common formation for when you need to pick up a short gain. You need to give the game situation to have better context as to what's going on."

Oh, I can do that for you, here you go:

1st & 10 on your own 18 yard line. With nearly 10 minutes left to go in the first quarter. 

This is nuts to me. Absolutely nuts. Seattle is kind here, they only have seven guys in the box. They barely even pretend to adjust when Miller runs over to the left end, only to come back offset right before the snap. I won't blame Clausen for the playcalling, other than the fact that it was largely driven by his (in)abilities on the field.

The First Sack

Lester already talked about these in the always great Sackwatch he posted, so I won't spend too much time on the blame. The blocking wasn't great, but let's look at each play from an outside view.

Sack 1:

The Seahawks send six guys, and Clausen either never guessed it or trusted his blocking, both of which were foolish on his part.  Besides both ends collapsing, they missed what seems like an invisible linebacker on a slight delay and Forte got completely punked by the linebacker Wagner. Put another way:

The routes on this play end up being long - with seemingly no identification of the blitz, no adjustment looks made to get a hot route out there. Take a look from the all-22:

This is the end of his dropback - Given that blitz that's coming, something should have been adjusted to so that the ball can come out of his hands at this precise moment. There's a slant coming over the middle, perhaps that's it. Go back and watch the gif, though. When Pickles gets to the back of it, he hesitates, and tries to climb, but by then the tackles are completely beaten. He must flat out not see Wagner because he goes down for a big loss.

The Other Sack

Let's take a look at the second sack, which is on Kyle Long - he lost his man entirely. But what could Clausen do to help?

Well, for starters, it was an almost fumble. But negating that, look at this taken as he hit the back of his drop:

In reality, not much he could do here, short of immediately tucking and trying to run through the gap Rodgers goes through. Sometimes a QB can't do much when their tackle gets beat. Sacks happen.

The big miss

This one hurts. it hurts bad.

This is about as close a home run as you can get, especially against the tight Seattle secondary. You've got to drop this one in, and he overthrows it.

Keep in mind-this is the third quarter, with about 9 minutes left. It's still 13-0 at this point, and a big completion here would change at least part of the dynamic of the game.  But this incomplete also comes in this series of plays:

• 1st & 10, Chi 29 - Forte rushes for no gain, offensive holding on Ducasse
• 1st & 20, Chi 19 - Penalty on Jimmy Clausen, delay of game, 5 yards
• 1st & 25, Chi 14 - Incomplete Pass
• 2nd & 25, Chi 14 - This over throw
• 3rd & 25, Chi 14 - Forte 1 yard gain
• 4th & 24, Chi 15 - O'Donnell 60 yard punt

Plenty of quarterbacks make that throw.  Really good ones do it as second nature. Clausen didn't.

Something Positive

So that it doesn't seem 100% negative, he did tuck it and run a few times. 1 of them was even good.

Please throw the ball downfield

Here's a list of how far the intended receiver was away from the line of scrimmage for each of the 17 attempts:

Att #	Int. Receiver Distance
1	3.5 yards (incomplete)
2	0.5 yards (complete)
3	5 yards (complete)
4	9 yards (complete)
5	0.5 yards (complete)
6	Throwaway
7	-3.5 yards (complete, no gain)
8	3 yards (incomplete)
9	3 yards (incomplete)
10	19 yards (complete, Zach Miller)
11	Throwaway
12	9 (tipped)
13	36 yards (Bellamy miss)
14	5 yards (complete)
15	30 yards (incomplete, Bennett)
16	5 yards (complete)
17	-5 yards (complete, 10 yard gain)

So a whopping 3 attempts where the target was over 10 yards from the line of scrimmage, one complete.  Let's say we take out the two throwaways. His average target was about 8 yards from the line of scrimmage.However,  10 targets where five yards or less from the line of scrimmage - for a team finding themselves in a lot of longs. I don't care what Marc Trestman's playbook says, you're not winning many games that way.

I got you this present, a bonus one on 6 because I like you

Jay's hair game was on point:

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What did you guys see that we didn't talk about? What frustrated you most? Did you, like some, gain a newfound respect for #6?  Or was it just more of the same for you?