But I mean, we are averaging 28 points per game the last 8 games. I don’t think we need to blame anyone on offense, they are doing great. It’s not perfect, plenty of room to improve. Goff said exactly that in his press conference. We should have scored 50, he said and he’s right.
The defense is and remains my main concern.
I’d love to see Goff more accurate on deep balls, I’d love to see Hock play better. But, we gotta look at the team as a whole. Special teams and offense are far outplaying the defense so far.
I see the same thing. I don’t mean to be one of those body language experts but everything from Hard Knocks to their huddles to post game celebrations (he looked very disinterested during the MCDC skip skip skip speech) looks like a player who just doesn’t seem to be buying in or is a little off mentally for whatever reason.
Who knows, I’m probably wrong but he just doesn’t seem like the more joyous Hock of yesteryear. Maybe not happy with not getting as many targets? Something personal? I don’t know, he just seems “off”.
Yea, they are doing great, but the more the ball is spread on offense, the harder it is for defenses to shut it down. If they get Chark and TJ more involved, it’s that much tougher for defenses to stop the Lions.
Some of the problems are drops by TJ, but some are JG locking onto his safety nets and Ben not utilizing his full playbook (or Goff not trusting Ben). If Goff can get away from his safety nets, the offense will be even more explosive.
At this point i dont think it matters what the reason is for the lack of production by Hockenson.
Let’s say it’s all of the above. The bottom line is if Hockenson, or the TE position overall, is not going to be a primary focus of this offense then investing large amounts of cap resources in the position would be foolish, whether it’s Hockenson or any other TE.
100% agreed brother! You are watching the same games I am. Goff has been decent, he could be great if he hits those ones. The offense is rolling without Chark and Hock doing much. And Can’t wait for Jamo.
So… I started watching this video… and within a few plays I noticed that the narrator has a narrative. He is only looking at the plays from a perspective of where players are positioned down the field… and doesn’t seem to realize he needs to look at the play from the QB’s lens.
The 1st play he shows… where they show 5 man rush (and rush 5 as well)… he was talking about throwing Hock a 5-yard out into cover-2… and the Commies weren’t even in cover-2 on the play.
it was a 5 man pass rush against a 5 man route… leaving a single high safety. Goff read that… and expected Swift to have his man cover him deep… and knew he needed to get the ball out quick… so he opted for the quick out. The DB that jumped the route did a heck of a job reading Goff planting his back leg… and drove on it.
In an ideal world… Goff pump fakes and hits Swift deep… but he probably would have been sacked instead.
The play play he shows… the throw would certainly had been easier for Hock to catch if the ball was out in front of him. But… Goff had a potential broken thumb waiting for him (or a batted ball) if he went for that throw…
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Next play…… narrator is bitching that Goff throws to Swift instead of Hock… because he sees that Hock is “wide” open.
Cool story bro.
The problem with this guy’s anal-cyst…. is that Swift was the primary read on a designed clear out… and Swift was open wnough that the pass hit him in the hands… so Goff made the right read.
Tale a look at how there are 2 deep routes designed to create open field for Swift… and Hock’s route is a designed “rub” route meant to make the LB go “over” top to help Swift get open.
Then… the 4th play.
The narrator fully admits Hock should have caught the ball.
His issue with the play was that Hock didn’t get to run a vertical route… and he mentions it is “2nd and 10”.
Thing is…… no Lion ran a vertical route… and it was a 1st and 10 play where they just wanted to get a short gain to stay ahead of the sticks. The narrator then laments that he doesn’t think Hock is “having fun” in this scheme…. which is ridiculous because why would a QB throw a guy a deeper pass he doesn’t catch the 3-yarder???
Next play… narrator blames Goff for Hock drop on a “ comeback route as he calls it… though it is technically a “stop” route.
But… look where Hock is on the hash when he stops… and then he drifts inside… even though the safety has inside leverage. Goff threw the ball where Hock was LESS likely to get blown up… even though the narrator repeatedly claimed the scheme was putting him in position to get hit.
On the next play…. narrator again whines about “how Hock is being utilized”…. even though the play was designed to creat space for Hock on a clear out concept. As I showed above… the Lions did a similar thing to clear out for Swift… and the narrator whined because Hock didn’t get the pass (despite not being the intended target)… but now he complains simply because the play didn’t find success.
In the image below… it is obvious that the free rusher altered the passing lane… thus affecting the trajectory of the throw and even Hock’s route path…. and ruining the play.
But…. look at well the concept worked to creat YAC potential if it had not been impeded.
And… the real kicker… is that for all the bitching the dude does about Amon-Ra being the “darling” of the offense… that play used ARSB in motion as the decoy to draw the eyes of defense away from Hock’s slip route!!!
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So… this dude tries to show a few plays to make a statement about how the scheme and Goff are holding Hock back…
and really just makes himself look like a jackass.
But… I could be wrong….
Thank you - this is what I was trying to say. Even though I could not do the analysis you did I felt it obvious he was doing a lazy job pushing his narrative. As I said - he may be a great guy - but I found his video to be lacking.
Sorry… but the ball was half way to Hock while he was still standing on the has and hadn’t even fully turned his shoulders back to Goff…
so I can’t buy that the throw was late.
I also don’t think it is a coincidence that Hock made a direct line to the hash mark at the top of his route… and am convinced he was supposed to simply stop and turn for the ball….
he started out well outside the hash…. and went straight to it…
Goff was either late and behind Hockenson or he was in front of Chark. Either way, it was a bad throw by Goff. There is no way it was where it needed to be.
I usually agree with mostly everything you post but this just comes off as you have a bone to pick with this YouTuber for some reason and it feels like you’re willfully letting Goff off the hook for some reason just to prove this guy wrong.
I don’t think we needed this YouTube analyst’s snippet to see that Hockenson has been M.I.A. And that Goff’s accuracy hasn’t been the best.
His body language is something mentioned by myself and many people here. What do you think is the reason TJ has been M.I.A? Are you suggesting he just runs poor routes and we need to let him go?
Are we disagreeing over his tone or his words? ARSB is absolutely Goff’s darling. Just like Reynolds was before he emerged. He needs to get his confidence up.
I think TJ is trying hard… and I thought mk his body language is just a sign of frustration that he isn’t having the level of success he wants to achieve. I don’t know if he is “pressing” or “thinking” too much much… but there just seem to be some mental lapses pop up occasionally. I’m not advocating that tje Lions trade Hock or even bench him… I just think he can step his game up.
I mostly posted my response to show that the Youtuber was only looking at the result of the play to fit his narrative. The guy was talking about the wrong coverage (cover 2) on 1 play, didn’t recognize that 1 play was a designed play to get Swift the ball, didn’t see that another play was designed to scheme Hock open, didn’t account for the Goff having to throw a ball with a D-lineman in his path, and then flat admitted that Hock needed to catch a dropped ball on a play he called as wrong down and distance.
His analysis was terrible.
As for ARSB and Swift being “favored” by Goff as the Youtuber laments… why wouldn’t they be his favored targets?
ARSB is exactly where Goff expects him to be on almost every route, and has about the lowest drop rate in the NFL in the time he has played.
Swift offers more after the catch than just about anyone… and most of his touches have been designed to get him the ball.
And… one last thing… is that the Youtuber was focusing on Hock being “made a punching bag” because they weren’t running him on more vertical routes. His ADOT (average depth of target) was 7.6 in the 2nd game. In his career… his ADOT was 7.5 in 2019 (mostly due to his 1st game), then 7.0 in 2020, and 7.4 in 2021. It really has changed with Goff and the new staff.
Even after TJ had several drops… Ben Johnson called his number as the primary target on a play action pass 16 yards downfield with a 1 score lead on a critical series. This play really disputes the narrative of that Youtuber….
