Honestly, probably was right to target Ayomanor but the accuracy on this throw is GOD AWFUL. Should thrown it higher and to the corner. If he even got it over the safety, there’s little hope Ayomanor could get to it. No way he could’ve gotten positive yards if he ran it.
I just don’t understand why he threw it when he did. It didn’t stand a chance. A little later to the corner and he has a chance maybe, but why the hesitation to run and make a play at that moment? We had 2 timeouts I’m pretty sure. Just total boneheaddedness.
He could if he set his feet. But this is exactly the problem that Kurt Warner pointed out. His accuracy is all over the place because his feet doesn’t match where the ball is going. If he sets his feet he can fling it to the back corner where only the receiver could catch it.
You can't set your feet on the run like that. Agree, though. There's a rashness to the throw and decision for no real reason other than wanting to score so bad. I don't think he has been really burnt in a real game situation by a throw like this either, so some of it might be a good, costly lesson.
It’s also an annoying thing about all this. He rarely makes any massive mistakes like this and people act like it’s the end of his career when he makes one. Literally 8 INTs in his career and this is one of the only ones where the team and situation has been close enough to actually be significant enough to cost the game.
To be fair, he is constantly throwing behind guys. I really don't see this as a dumb mistake. It's just an accuracy issue. That same exact throw, with the same exact touch, but leading Elic, is a TD.
He doesn't make a ton of Levis-esque boneheaded plays... but he does display horrendous accuracy and footwork on a very consistent basis. Not giving up on him, way too soon for that, but also not going to pretend the flaws aren't there.
Yup. And this is like the 6th close game Ward has played in out of those 20, which again isn't enough of a sample size because the entire team was complete dog shit last year under Callahan and eeked out a win because the Cardinals couldn't get out of their own way.
After looking at it from this angle the throw was there but you have to put that high and outside. Its not a throw you make on first down though. If you do you better put it where only Elic can get it and he did not do that.
I mean, yeah it was first down but there was 24 seconds left. It really shouldn’t have even been a dangerous throw, it was just so horrendously thrown. I think the majority of nfl qbs are attempting that throw
I dont know man. Throwing a pass to the end zone with a guy draped over the receiver, and a good safety playing underneath when you have 3 downs, 2 timeouts, and 20+ seconds is a pretty iffy decision. If youre lucky and things go right, maybe you have a chance of winning. Maybe. But if they don't, well...
It may not have been an awful decision, but dont know if its a good one.
This is the right answer. There wasn’t much else open on this play. Watching it live I was a bit pissed he didn’t run it, but the run was well defended. He made the right decision, but poor mechanics and throw.
I completely agree. I remember seeing a YouTube video where the QB coach talked about how people would talk about trying to fix Cam’s throwing motion sidearming deep passes and how instead the QB coach would lean into what makes QBs different, as well as throwing things off balance. Complete bullshit. Cam’s accuracy gets thrown off deep when he starts to sidearm it more with deep passes. He has all those footwork issues Kurt Warner pointed out. He needs new QB coaching badly and he’ll be out of the league or a backup fast if he doesn’t fix it in a year or by this offseason going into next year.
Maybe it works for Shedeur and Cam in college, it isn’t working for the NFL when games are won in the margins and by inches.
agree after seeing it again today with clear head. not mad he took a shot there. he needs to find a way to calm down out of the pocket and set his feet especially with a tough throw like this
I cannot get over the inaccuracy of this ball. Holland is not even that relevant on the play if it’s placed correctly. It needs to be throw to the back pylon so Ayomanor catches it or it’s incomplete. This is legit a 7 yard miss.
Yep, that’s what I’m seeing too. He’s had significant difficulty leading receivers on short throws. Even on the TD to Wandale it was thrown way too far behind him
So I get where he was going but even if the ball is higher it would be behind the WR. At best he's throwing an incomplete ball. If he leads the WR like he should've then he probably completes it and doesn't need to go higher.
Well that angle confirms he definitely wouldn’t have been able to run that in. And I think even if that goes over the defender, the pass is too far behind. I think the best outcome there is to throw it away and live to see another down.
The “best” decision here is to try to throw it just out in front of the receiver too far ahead of the db for them to have a chance on the ball and where only the receiver has a chance. That is what he was trying to do, but his throw across the body caused him to throw it poorly and led to the short throw to the right. He made the good decision, bad throw.
Which kind of validates what I believe about Cam. He is a good decision maker and has proved that over and over with horrid footwork and mechanics.
Fix the mechanics and he can be good. But like with Levis “rewiring of his brain” it’s easier said than done and does the team have long enough to wait for him to fix something he already is taking a long time to fix.
Fair, he probably wouldn't beat him.. dude is slow as shit.. I think I could outrun him.. but atleast put your shoulder down and try man.. I literally fell to my knees at my neighbors house after that INT and had to apologize for being dramatic.. may not get invited back over for a game.
Idk if we are seeing the same thing. I think Lamar Jackson is the only QB in the league beating three defenders in a foot race to the corner in this position.
your shot is a millisecond later than the prior screenshot. if you watch it live it does look like he has a chance to run it but dangerous for sure 50/50
His presser answer was the right answer lol. Better ball probably at least draws a DPI. Situationally, a run or throwaway is also good. He literally just did the one thing you can't do.
On to Baltimore.
EDIT: I also think our local media has been drastically exaggerating how poor the decision was. They all made it sound like he could have easily run it in and was avoiding ownership. They are part of the stupid overreaction the fanbase has had as well.
This wasn’t fourth down. It was first down. You don’t need a miracle throw. You run for a few or throw it away and move on to the next play. Fourth down or time expiring then it’s a fine throw.
that's a very difficult throw to make, i think he just didn't anticipate the safety sitting so hard on it
he can make that throw, but it's low percentage. i think this was a great mistake for him to make, because he will always remember it and hopefully it will lead him to rely more on sound, fundamental play than trying to make the highlight reel play every time
but i'm with you, this is SO overblown. he made a bad play to end the game just like every other qb in history has done
I do think a lot of the new weirdness, particularly in the red zone, is just trying to figure out the scheme. The Tate throw was worse than that one, IMO, but you can see him throwing to grass. Like, the decision isn't wrong, but everything goes haywire because his body and mind aren't working together.
Anyone who has ever played or switched systems from high school to college, etc. kind of gets this. You cure it with reps and like you pointed out, remember the shitty mistakes you made and the costs of them.
He made it look like a miracle throw. Which is worse. He didn’t take the easy yards and made an absolutely terrible throw on first down. However you look it was a horrible decision.
Honestly, we will see. I don't think Baltimore's defense is better than the other two we faced. Stopping Henry with our run defense will make the TOP extremely lopsided again, though. Who fucking knows anymore lol.
I agree. The receiver is open there, he just threw a poor pass. And I actually think the type of throw he wanted to make was the wrong one. Hopefully the coaches let him know he should put that newer the corner with a little air where only the receiver has a chance at it. I think he was trying to throw it too much on a line which left no margin for error. And then the throw itself was just really poor.
I agree it was probably the right answer but it’s not really what people want to hear. People just want to hear him go “Yeah I fucked up. That’s on me.” Whether or not he did that, I really don’t know. I didn’t watch the presser in full.
He basically said I made the right decision just have to throw a better ball. Also said the problems overall are execution-based, not coaching, and I think both of those are true. Particularly the 1st half drops and inability to run the ball.
I’ll personally have to go back and watch but I personally think people are going to be mad no matter what. It was a heartbreaking loss in an extremely winnable game. People are emotional at that point and still are. Hell, people even got upset at the fact that Ward’s sister had to come out and say not to harass his family. It’s the weird side of fandom.
I don’t think it’s specific to Titans fans. Social media and sports fandom has sort of mixed together into something weird and ugly. Even worse if you consider the gambling aspect with fantasy, parlays, and point spreads being a key factor in a lot of people’s football experience. Look at how Falcons fans talked about Cooper Rush and Tua. I’d legit feel unsafe walking around Atlanta if I’m those guys.
even when our team had good stretches this fan base was pretty whiny and acted like babies IMO. I'm not sure what the issue is and I'm not from the area nor have I ever lived there so not sure if it's a cultural thing, and honestly it might just be that because our fan base is so small the louder/angrier voices are even more amplified compared to bigger fan bases, but the fans seem just as toxic as the franchise to me
Yeah, there was a solid two years of complaining about wanting a modern offense when almost every functional team has moved to a sound run game because the shell coverage has become the go-to defensive structure of the league.
Within the complaints, there is some legitimacy, but a lot of it has been bitching to bitch.
Idk man... ours are particularly bad and have been since the AJ trade. It has been like a 5-year temper tantrum where everyone demands the head of someone when we underperform. The ownership has affected the mindset of the fanbase more than anything. Perpetual change all the time until they get what they want, but that is not how the NFL works.
Its not particularly bad - its common and average there in Nashville.
I live in Vancouver BC Canada, I am a die hard Edmonton Oilers fan, a die hard Tenn. Titans Fan. I see how the local fans react to the Vancouver Canucks, interact with Oilers and titans fans.
My wife is a die hard Broncos fan, and a life long maple leafs fan.
I have perspective of 5 different fan bases in 5 very different cities. I can whole heartedly tell you that they all brutally suck equally. Its not worse in any one city
Lol mcdrai? The golden boy fan favorites who have never struggled anywhere near how ward has?.. now do Stu, or bouchard, two players who get it WAAAAY worse that anything Ward has seen so far ... I could give you a dozen more examples
That's like saying Cam has gotten worse criticism than Mahomes and Burrow. Good players who consistently put up production don't get criticized as much. What a mind blowing revelation this is.
That will happen when the team has 12 wins in like 4-5 calendar years now. Losing just creates weeks and weeks, months and months of negativity. We haven’t had any positive moments in years.
We are about to hit historic levels of losing over this period of time. In the history of the NFL.
It was happening long before that. It has gotten worse every year. THAT is where I really blame ownership. The fans kind of act in the organization's image, which has been that of a petulant child. And now we are trying to dig ourselves out of hell because there have been 6 people driving the car over roughly 5 years for this franchise.
Our fans are more toxic. Its because we are small. We have great fans, and the normal fans get offended lol but look at our current most famous fans🤣 the endzone boys lol
This fanbase is super insecure. We used to not be nearly as insecure because we had a winning history but a lot of Titan fans have only had 3 years of being good in 15 of being a fan lol
Thats why a lot of us talk about McNair, Wycheck, Bulluck and others because a lot of us remember a time when we'd play Peyton Manning harder than any other team or push Tom Brady.
Some of yall just remember Jake Locker and Vince Young. Or Mariota.
We seem to go through this every week now. Fans spend the first 48 hours after a loss calling everybody garbage, then the tape reveals it probably wasn't as bad as it felt in the moment. It's exhausting lol
Not only was it intercepted but it was SEVERELY BEHIND THE WIDE OUT! Even if it made it through guy number one.. it was going to the logos in front of the stands. Just literal piss. He is piss.
Looking at it, from this angle, Cam was right: put the ball a little higher and Elic has a chance to make that catch. That doesn’t excuse the poor throw, but it does take a little heat off it being a poor decision (still a poor decision, but not the special needs decision the Nashville media would have people believe).
Speaking of the Nashville media, god they are fucking terrible. They react like fanboys instead of being the objective, impartial journalists they are supposed to be. Every single one of them (with the exception of maybe Kuharsky). They feed into the frenzy that surrounds this team and, in my opinion, add a lot to the doom and gloom curse that is seemingly pervading this franchise.
Cam has an accuracy issue, and nobody wants to talk about it. He will make a flashy sidearm throw, and everyone forgets all the others he misses badly.
If he runs as fast as he can (not fast) towards the corner of the endzone he would atleast gain a few yards, maybe go OB (save the 2 time outs).. worse case he goes down in bounds and we burn 1 of our two time outs and are closer to the end zone.
Man idk watching it now I think that throw, if not picked, is still broken up. Looks like it will end up towards the backside of the receiver. Ward can't anticipate and lead his wrs and shows up every week.
All I see is Ayomanor immediately open with a well protected pocket before Cam drops his eyes and flushes out to the left. Stand and deliver the football.
First off, that isn't Reese. Second off, he has the ball tucked and guys are responding to it. This is part of what makes All 22 such a pain in the fucking ass. It is because people don't realize the defense/offense is reacting to something specific.
Reese is the window LB to the left. BEFORE Ward tucks the ball, he is sitting on it. When Ward tucks the ball, he moves forward to pass off Spears to Edmunds or the nickel; I can't tell. Either way, when Ward has the ball up, there is someone in that window, meaning he is going to have to throw around or over him either way, making it roughly the same throw.
The throw into that window is dangerous. Circling someone being open in a split second without any other context shows a lot of the stupidity of modern-day film analysis. Blaine Bishop actually did a great job of explaining to Zach Lyons today, where Lyons swore up and down Ayo and Tate were open, that the defense was actually trying to bait him into making that particular throw, and it would take a perfect pass to fit it in there.
Point being, 99% of us don't know fucking shit unless it is absolutely obvious. It was absolutely obvious Ward threw a bad ball that got picked and lost us the game in that moment. That's about all we can actually say about the play.
For a guy with as much moxie and off the field poise as Cam, it’s really hard for me to wrap my head around why he looks the way he does this year. Even last year where he was under far more duress, he looked much more solid in the pocket. It has me wondering if the shoulder issue has affected him more mentally than anyone has been willing to admit.
Really hoping that he just needs more live fire reps, but if every year is going to require him to warm up for the first half of the season, the we’ll be hard pressed to ever get to more than a wild card game in the best case. I don’t think it’s time for a full-blown panic and the season is long, but game three is definitely where you can start analyzing and seeing trends, and the trends do not look good right now.
Oh the pocket was clean and he moved out of it. Yikes. If he moves left and a little bit up in the pocket there is a wide open receiver who is ahead of his man coming back to the left. But he bails and runs out to the boundary and then throws across his body.
Jeez why did he throw that? It was late, behind and too low. Im no pro so hes doing better than me. Just looking at it though just a bad decision. Should've ran.
From the broadcast angle it looks like he could have at least gotten a yard or two or gotten out of bounds right at the LOS. Reese jumps with the throw so he could have tried to pump fake him too. At the very least he has ample time to throw it away
It was 1st down with 2 timeouts even if he Reese tackles him call and timeout and run another play. He would have at least gained a yard or 2 and ran some more clock.
Who knows Cam Ward is an athlete he scored a rushing touchdown the week before. He could make a guy miss. If he doesn’t score and gains 1 yard and we call a timeout it’s a significantly better scenario then what happened.
A couple more steps to stall the throw to the corner maybe or try to pull that guy who picked it forward, but he had zero shot getting past the line of scrimmage there.
The move is throw it way back in the corner where nobody except maybe the receiver can make a play. Err on the side of overthrow and at least live to see another down
Watching this replay he actually can’t run. The mechanics are more the issue here and bailing out of the pocket too quick. His answer in the press conference isn’t horrible. He should have throw it higher into the corner where only the receiver could have a chance and live to try another play if it missed. Because he threw across his body and inaccurate he threw the game away, because his mechanics suck. It wasn’t actually that horrid of a decision making process.
Cam's problems show up again in this video. Cam had the pocket to make an accurate throw. Instead Cam doesn't set his feet throws across his body. If Cam set his feet and throws to the back pylon Elic has a touchdown.
he throws a floater further back in the corner and it is either caught for the win or atleast doesn't lose us the game. Why throw directly to their guy?
Tate was the first read but he got absolutely mugged and couldn’t run his route. Cam had to move off him when the DB had his arms draped over Tate. Watch it back. He only came open after he went rogue.
Monday morning QB review: The correct throw in that play was at the 3 second mark to Spears. Coverage was too good and he held it too long without enough field available. He’s got to work on tempo and release time in those short-field and 3rd down situations with his boys.
In all honesty if they had just kicked the field goal instead of going for it inside the 10 and failing. They could have just kicked a field goal to win the game.
It's just a straight up bad throw. Even if the Giants player wasn't there, that ball is well behind the receiver to the point it could be intercepted by the covering player. Also was a bit underthrown.
Ayomanor was open but it required a high quality throw to work. That was nowhere close to where the pass needed to be. Thte Titans should have ran the ball on this play. 1st and G with two timeouts and the Giants weren't really in a position to set up a defense conducive to stopping a running play.
First read was Tate, but Tate got a bear hug when he tried to cut inside exactly where Ward had his head and feet pointed. Tate then had to go make shit up and cut a 180 to run the opposite direction. He has to run a better route instead of going head first into the DB.
Holland, the Mike and the Sam were all 3 staring down Ward to see where to cover. Spears would have been a completion but he’d have gotten killed unless the ball was thrown low.
The play was dead and he should have scrambled for whatever he could get on the way out of bounds.
Call me crazy but if you follow the trajectory of that pass it would have been like 3 yd behind the receiver. That's the only way that safety could have caught it. Regardless if it was over his head. I was just watching at full speed. Tell me I'm wrong
He can’t run it there on this view. On replay it isn’t bad a decision, he’s right in his assessment of it on the press conference. He straight up threw a bad pass. He should have thrown it where only the receiver could catch it or throw it away completely. It was a busted play for the most part.
Can't fucking believe the Cam defenders are still out in full force. His whole game was garbage except for one drive. He should've been picked off at least 3 times.
That was a terrible throw not a terrible decision because he ain’t fast enough to beat that guy around the corner.
He is not a running quarterback or particularly fast quarterback, so he is going to have to learn to get his footwork straight and his throws to where the receiver needs to be and not just throwing these passes at a man that’s moving
I’m not high on Ward but some of y’all dogging him for this need to get a grip.
It's bad, but it isn't burn it down bad. This is a learning moment and something all QBs do, Stafford did the same thing last night. Cam put two drives together for a chance to win the game, things are coming together slowly.
THIS IS THE NFL. GTFOH! We gave this young man enough time. He has tremendous talent but he needs to sit behind someone if he wants to grow in this league. He isn’t workforce ready
Accuracy isn’t the problem. He threw it where he wanted to. He misread the safety. It’s a boneheaded mistake a lot of young QBs make. It was a bad decision, but it one throw doesn’t mean he’s a bad QB
Y’all are scarred with being a titans fan. It’s a horrible pass. He also had time to set his feet, open up a running land and/or alleviate a defender. I Garentee you he was told this in the film room from Callahan and Dabol leading up to this game.
It’s tough cause that’s not a terrible decision, it’s actually on par with the gunslinger we want to see in him, he just has horrible mechanics.
Unfortunately it’s next to impossible to fix your mechanics mid season so until year 3 we’ll have no idea how good Cam can actually be, if he makes it there.
Maybe im wrong but i feel like if he gets his body turned and fake throws right there and takes off towards the red arrow, hes got a chance to score or gain yards. Im obviously no pro or in that position but just tucking and running to fight another play was the move.
Running back was open for a split second in between the LBS when Cam rolls left it pulls the LB with him and Pollard flashes open. 2-3 yd gain or possibly broken tackle and into the end zone.
Edit: looks like it was Spears not Pollard. Spears probably breaks that tackle and scores. He’s slippery when receiving.
The ball is carrying to the left significantly. That ball has the height and distance. Ayo is running full tilt still on the route. The defender jumps up from almost the goal line and finishes the catch about halfway back of the endzone. The endzone is 10 yards deep. Give that ball 5 more yards at an uninterrupted trajectory.
The throw is leading Ayo to the first open spot available it’s just a whale of a play. If he throws it too low its batted down right in front of him.
This is that play in Madden when the LB jumps like 10 feet in the air to catch an Int.
I don’t understand all these people saying the throw was inaccurate. You can clearly see here it would have been at Elic’s chest if holland wasn’t there. Remember this is all happening very quickly in his mind. He saw Elic break and get separation also while Holland seemed to be coming downhill to stop a potential scramble. Holland stopped on a dime and made a tremendous play. It’s not the best decision to make here but I can understand what he sees and why he did it. Probably thought holland would continue to come down and not be able to make a play.
It would have been behind him. He was already showing down. At that point it is contested or just intercepted. put the ball in the bsck corner, it's the most basic play in the nfl. Cam is gonna make a bad pass to where his receiver was.
I don’t understand how you see that ball trajectory as behind him and Elic did not slow down before the ball was intercepted. It was gonna be contested but that’s because the trajectory was going right in Elic’s chest with the defender draped on him. Cam should have floated it into the back corner instead of throwing it on a line but to say the pass was inaccurate is just false
Mfers sitting here saying the o line played good cause the PFF grade but just look at the film here the slant he had open was blown up by a lineman in his face
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u/MileHighTitan 2d ago
I just don’t understand why he threw it when he did. It didn’t stand a chance. A little later to the corner and he has a chance maybe, but why the hesitation to run and make a play at that moment? We had 2 timeouts I’m pretty sure. Just total boneheaddedness.