Big Ben as a rookie had to go into the second game of the season to replace an injured Tommy Maddox. He looked like a pro qb. He came back to start his first NFL game a week later in post hurricane Miami. The wind was gusting over 50 mph throughout the game. Ben made plays at the end of the game to win. Again he was a rookie.
Last year Teddy Bridgewater, a 2nd round pick was made the Vikings starter going into week 3 to replace an ineffective Matt Cassell. It was evident pretty early that he belonged.
Former NFL qb Kurt Warner has stated as well as other former NFL qb's that all NFL playbooks contain the same basic plays and principles. It's just the language is slightly different, so that the OC can believe that he reinvented the wheel.
So I don't see why an NFL veteran of over 10 seasons who has been on the team for over 5 weeks has to have the offense "dumbed down" to virtual high school level? I don't see why an NFL veteran of over ten seasons spent much of the night looking as though he was a teenage girl the first time behind the wheel of a car on a busy interstate?
Look we all want this to work. And yes he wasn't as terrible as some feared. The turnovers thankfully didn't happen. But 2-15 converting 3rd and 4th downs. 33 passing yards from the start of the second half to the end of OT.(Browns drop occured in the first half) Less than 100 net passing yards (against a shit secondary) for a team with the weapons to produce that in a quarter isn't even NFL back up standards. The Ravens tried to give us that game. We couldn't take it.
Ok now find me the post where anyone says Mike Vick was exclusively to blame. It doesn't exist. No one is even saying he was primarily to blame. We all know Scobee was villain number one. Most place the next most blame on Tomlin and or Haley. ( I don't) the crappy tackling, Cam Thomas etc...
But this one is history. We don't get a do over. So it really doesn't matter anymore about Scobee. Tomlin and Haley are mostly known quantities. While they might piss us off we know they can do the job. (or at least most of us do
) But what we (me anyway) saw from Vick wasn't encouraging. I'm not buying the new to the system excuse for reasons already cited on this post. I honestly thought he had more game left. I thought his being unemployed was some sort of aberration that came about due to his age, personal history, and just bad luck. But what I saw the other night has me scared that the rest of the league had it right. That Vick is washed up physically, and mentally he is so below the line that he's not one of the league's top 75 qb's. Which if that's the case we're in for a pretty rocky ride until Ben returns.
I hope I'm wrong.
He gets some much needed time to work things out between now and the kickoff in San Diego. He needs to function at a much higher level in every aspect of qb play starting next week. We really want to see that! Every single one of us. I promise.