Tau837
Footballguy
If you watch the 2nd half of that game you'll see that it's not exaggerated in the slightest.ok sure I get that - but in this specific game, the WRs were blanketed and Eke was wide open again and again. In one laughable sequence they were 2nd & 5, then 3rd and 5, and Eke had easy 1st downs but Herbert opted to throw deep into double coverage both times.Yeah, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.Thought the same thing. Ekeler should have had close to 10 catches. WAY too many forces downfield. Same problem last week too.the regression is real.
Really thought the new OC was going to unlock Herbert.
Dude had Eke wide open in the flat about 14 times in the 3rd/4th today, and just literally never looked his way.
Defenders were letting Ekeler run free because they knew the ball wasn’t going there.
Just absolutely bizarre.
And isn't this the exact reasoning for Dallas giving Kellen Moore the boot? He doesn't try to control the clock with the running game and likes to "take shots" instead of moving the sticks.
Outside of one long run by Kelley, the Chargers struggled to run the ball. But on those passing plays, Herbert ignored Ekeler in the flat at least a dozen+ times. He glanced at him once briefly, then chucked it into double coverage downfield.
Eke was open like a 7-11 for much of the day. He had 2 targets witn 1 reception.
Moore never ignited Pollard like that.
Last season, Pollard had 56 targets in 18 games - 3.1 targets per game. This season, Ekeler has 11 targets in 3 games - 3.7 targets per game.
It was foreseeable that Ekeler's targets would come down in 2023. I posted this in August:
New OC Moore has not typically targeted his RBs much.
Dallas targeted its RBs:
2022 - 90 times (~15% of targets)
2021 - 120 times (~18%)
2020 - 107 times (~18%)
Ekeler himself had 126 targets last season (~18%), and Chargers RBs collectively had ~26% of the targets. I can see the argument that Ekeler is a better receiving RB than the Cowboys RBs Moore had, though Pollard is pretty good. But I am expecting more of a vertical passing game from the Chargers in 2023, which implies fewer targets to Ekeler. Fewer targets could also contribute to fewer receiving TDs.
That's not on the coach. That's on Herbert.
I think it is being exaggerated a bit in this thread.
Herbert was 17/30. Remove Ekeler's 2 targets, and he was 16/28. Was Ekeler open on every one of those incompletions? I doubt it. For one thing, according to PFF, Ekeler had 2 pass blocking snaps. Unless those both resulted in sacks or scrambles, he couldn't have been targeted on those snaps.
I haven't had time to watch the entire game again, but I watched the first series. Herbert dropped back 4 times:
In that series, Herbert had an opportunity to target Ekeler once, and he did. There was no other opportunity due to coaching and playcalling, not Herbert.
- Completed pass to Ekeler
- Targeted Palmer; DPI called; Ekeler was pass blocking
- Herbert scrambled for 6 yards; Ekeler was not on the field, Kelley was at RB
- On 3rd and 2, Herbert was sacked; Ekeler leaked out to the left flat, but Herbert's read started off on the right, and he was sacked before he could go through his progression and get to Ekeler, who wasn't ever even in Herbert's sightline
I'm sure Herbert missed a few opportunities where he arguably should have targeted Ekeler, but I doubt I will see as many as some of you posting here when I watch the rest of the game again.
I will revisit this once I can watch the entire game. I feel 100% confident that I will not come away believing that Herbert should have thrown to Ekeler 12 more times, which has been implied here.