Marcus Mariota Gets Some Protection
Read this comic ten more times to get the full effect of what happened to Marcus against the Ravens.
Seriously. 11 sacks. Yeah, technically one of those is the “QB ran out of bounds behind the LOS” sacks that honestly feel like it shouldn’t count as a sack but like a QB scramble for negative yards, but even then, still absurd. I saw maybe 3 in there that I would lay at Mariota’s feet, including the rush out of bounds sack. The other two he should have gotten rid of the ball but held it just too long. The rest were absurd pocket breakdowns and excellent defense by the Ravens.
The Titans are weird this year. They lost everyone to injury in week 1’s marathon against the Dolphins. They eeked out a victory over a bad Houston team with special teams trickery. They managed to beat the Jaguars in the world’s ugliest game (the Jaguars also haven’t been the same since). They impressed the nation with a gutsy win over the Eagles. Everyone briefly paid attention to the Titans because this was a team finding ways to win despite not looking like they deserved it. Beating the defending champs with moves straight out of Doug Pederson’s playbook is great stuff and I was all on board the scrappy fighter Titans train. Mariota doesn’t look good, the line looks busted, and people are hurt, but this was still enjoyable football in many ways.
Then they lost to the Bills which is a massive loss of credibility, and then the Ravens completely spanked them. So much for being interesting. The Titans might still be scrappy but they won’t win any new fans this year looking like this. I’m always rooting for Marcus because I think he’s a cool and good dude but I’m starting to wonder about him, he’s not developing as well as he should be. He needs some honest weapons to throw to so that isn’t helping, but he could still improve.
I’m just shocked none of those 11 sacks ended up as roughing the passer calls. That’s the hip new thing. Way to be behind the times, Refs.
Where’s that supermarket? I just gotta get my hands on some squirrel aphrodisiacs. Oh, and take a photo of an aisle full of peanut butter instead of having just two or three brands.
Anyway, to underline how bad the Titans and Mariota were that game… Mariota went 10/15. 10 completions. In other words, HE HAD LESS PASS COMPLETIONS THAN SACKS SUFFERED.
I mean, goddamn, I’ve never heard anything like it. Has something like that ever happened in this league? (only counting QBs who played the entire game, of course).
Also fun fact: despite Mariota’s horrible day, he still got a higher QB rating than Joe Flacco, even though Flacco threw for double the yardage and a better completion percentage. Guess that one INT REALLY counts for these things…
Pro Football Reference posted a stat about this, actually. He’s only the 2nd player to have more sacks taken than completions while having double-digit completions. Warren Moon is the other. There have been several other QB’s to have more sacks than completions, though.
There are a number of instances in which it would be an honor to be compared to Warren Moon, though this is definitely not one of them.
New nickname for Nathan Peterman: The Postman
He always delivers, except on Sundays
We need a Petermeme comic! Also thank God the Bills realized Derek Anderson (or anyone else but Peterman) should start with Josh Allen out
I mean, Mularkey was his head coach for most of his career. Can’t expect too much out of Mariota. Hopefully he’ll develop better now that he has… Vrabel and LaFleur… Good luck Mariota. You’ll need it.
I was expecting Suggs to “Sack” the groceries. Come on Dave.
It seems that this season there are a remarkable number of offensive lines that are truly terrifying for a QB to line up behind. Perhaps I’m just projecting from Houston, where some fans are openly wishing Breno Gioccamini was still on the roster, but it seems like the Titans/Texans/Giants/etc. lines are making average pass rushers look good, good pass rushers look like Grant Wistrom blowing up early Big 12 lines, and great pass rushers look like Godzilla.
Kickers can’t kick. O-lines can’t block. And flags are flying everywhere. NFL 2018?
I’ve read that O-line play is diminishing due to the college game de-emphasising pocket passing (with a seven-step release, e.g.), so oline guys aren’t trained for the nfl game, as well as players in general getting stronger. If your left tackles weighs 350, but he’s being rushed by a guy who can press twice that…
The season describes the Titans perfectly. Which is to say, you don’t really know how to describe them. Mariota is broke I think. Like RG3 broke. He still looks like he’s playing in his rookie season out there. Flashes some potential a few times a season to make people think he’s putting it together, then falls apart. The talent around him has been pretty crappy most of the time. But it’s the coaching staffs that have been the biggest duds I think. When you can say Mike Mularkey has been one of your best head coaches in the last, what…..decade(?), that’s pretty bad.
If only Chip Kelly had pulled off that 20 draft picks for Mariota, last year could have been avoided.
In retrospect, those Weisenhunt/Malarky days probably hurt him a ton from a development standpoint. Why did everyone suddenly think Weisenhunt was an offensive genius? I saw those Cardinal teams, his only good one employed the “throw it deep to Fitzgerald and hope he catches it” offense. And as someone who watched a ton of Marlarkey when he was the Offensive coordinator for the Falcons, his offenses all looked like a straight throwback and Matt Ryan, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez had to save his ass a ton. I mean even with that group of players it took them 4 years to throw for more than 4000 yards…
At least it wasn’t a brand of body spray that attracts goblins.
That is Suggs sacking him, don’t be so sure
cmon, he’s more of an uruk-hai
Because I have no time on my hands and I’m bored at work, I listed the # of results I got for each team name tag! (I combined Bucs/Buccaneers and Jags/Jaguars, I don’t think there’s any other that’d be potentially doubled up like that). Won’t be perfect obviously but should give a good idea! Titans are in the middle! There’s only 6 Packers comics!?
Patriots – 47
Giants – 36
Browns – 33
Eagles – 32
Cowboys – 27
Jets – 24
Bills – 24
Seahawks – 24
Steelers – 23
49ers – 23
Dolphins – 21
Broncos – 20
Vikings – 20
Jags/Jaguars – 20
Washington – 20
Chargers – 18
Raiders – 17
Titans – 17
Chiefs – 17
Bears – 17
Saints – 17
Bucs/Buccaneers – 17
Lions – 16
Falcons – 16
Colts – 15
Ravens – 15
Texans – 15
Rams – 14
Panthers – 13
Bengals – 13
Cardinals – 12
Packers – 6
This is interesting to me, but it likely isn’t the most accurate. I’m pretty bad and inconsistent about tagging. I also tend to make a lot of comics that are more about certain individuals than teams. This comic is more about the team, for example. My comic last week about Mason Crosby isn’t really a packers comic, but it is about a Packers player.
I’ve made a lot of comics featuring Aaron Rodgers and I’d wager I’ve made more comics with Rogers than Cardinals comics. But it does surprise me to see the Pack that low. I find the Packers boring but maybe I should give them a bit more love.
Giving them more love? That deserves a Discount Double Check, right?
goddammit
Dave I just thought of this yesterday and I’m still thinking about it today.
You are the coach of a team and have 2 QBs. Those QBs are Christian Hackenberg and Nathan Peterman. Who do you start?
Honestly probably Hackenberg. Peterman has proven to be a complete failure, may as well try the devil we haven’t seen yet.
To be fair we still haven’t seen Hackenberg in the regular season yet, so I actually agree with you for once. Idk, maybe Hack would be the anti-Peterman: horrid in the preseason, godlike in the regular season
I know there isn’t a big sample size, but if you exclude the game against the Saints where the bills were getting blown out and the Saints had the 5th string D on the field, Peterman has an Interception % of 14%. He throws a pick every 7 throws!!!
The most impressive thing is that he didn’t fumble once.
He did have it stripped once but it bounced right back into his hands
At least it wasn’t bleach.
I agree. If a RB gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage it’s not tick as a sack, so why should a QB running out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage be a sack?
He often gets chased out of bounds by a defender or is getting hit as he gets out of bounds. QBs don’t run out of bounds and lose yards willingly.
Somewhere Dan Orvlosky is shaking is head.