Sundiego
09-30-2009, 11:33 AM
[/URL] Armed & laborious
Rivers has become master of going long
By [URL="http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/"]Nick Canepa (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/sports/chargers/archive/stories/2009/09/)
Union-Tribune Columnist
2:00 a.m. September 29, 2009
http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2009/09/28/UTI1472838_t350.JPG?1640fae913a1dac1b26c7eb88806b9 f9b0341305 Chargers QB Philip Rivers, according to coach Norv Turner, has worked hard to learn how to throw the deep pass. K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune -
http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/staff/2008/nick_canepa.gif (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/)
Contact Nick:
619-293-1033 E-mail (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/contact/)
RSS feed (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/rss/authors/nick-canepa/) | Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/sdutsullivan) | Bio, archive (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/)
Contrary to opinion among those who do not worship evil, Al Davis has a heart, so he has to be noshing on his own ticker when he sees Philip Rivers these days. This comes after Big Al watches his favorite biographical film, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”
Davis is enthralled with the long pass, the deep ball, the vertical game, the stretching of defenses until they snap. Always has been. He learned it as a Chargers assistant under Sid Gillman and took it to a crazy level when he developed Daryle “The Mad Bomber” Lamonica in Oakland during the 1960s.
But, as a frustrated Davis has discovered, it's easier to find a molecule in a stack of molecules than a bombardier. Not every quarterback, no matter how strong his arm — just look at Al's JaMarcus Russell, who can throw a ball from Jack London Square to Sausalito — is an effective, consistent, accurate long-ball thrower.
This, under Chargers head coach Norv Turner, the best quarterback teacher at work today, Rivers has become. The caliber of gun doesn't matter. It's how you use it.
Guns don't kill defensive backfields, quarterbacks do. Few QBs are playing at Rivers' level, and certainly no one is better throwing the deep pass.
Of course it helps to have big, fast, physical receivers who can get off the ground and are fearless, such as the Chargers' Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd. It also helps to have a thrower capable of getting the ball where they are, in the right spot, and trusting them to get to it.
In Sunday's 23-13 victory over Miami, Rivers made good on 18 passes and averaged 16.9 yards per completion. Jackson averaged 24 yards on his five catches, Floyd 32.5 on his two. These are backbreaking plays, demoralizing football events.
Most NFL cornerbacks aren't that big and don't have great hands, or they'd be receivers. At 6-2, 203, San Diego's Antonio Cromartie is an enormous corner (who also can catch), but he's rare. I doubt I'll be around to see many 6-5, 230-pound corners. Until then, there will be mismatches, so until then, exploit weaknesses where they are.
And that's just what the Chargers have done this year — despite an inability to run the ball, which normally would make it more difficult for a quarterback to have time to try the deep stuff.
But Rivers has become adept with the long ball, and while he always was decent at it, whatever charts there are, he's gone off of them. Turner will give all the credit to Rivers, as he should, but it isn't an accident he has improved quarterback play in most ports he's visited. Troy Aikman, who studied under Turner in Dallas and became one of the great long-ball throwers, doesn't love Norv merely for his stylish wardrobe.
“No question, it comes from work, and Philip saying, ‘I'm going to be a great deep-ball thrower,’ ” Turner says. “Some of it's understanding the angles, where to put the ball. He's doing a great job of bending guys inside, and it's hard to do. Whatever makes a quarterback accurate is visualization. Some deep throws only happen because he stands in there.
“Everyone thinks it has to do with arm strength. Your arm has to be strong enough to carry to the receiver.”
Thing is, just practicing it isn't enough.
“Troy, like Philip, got better at it, the more opportunities he had to do it,” says Turner, Cowboys offensive coordinator during their 1993 and '95 Super Bowl wins.
When you get that good at it, you can earn enough money to become a minority owner of the Padres, which Aikman is.
“You have to do it in games,” Turner says.
It will be interesting to follow the path Turner is taking. His team, with a makeshift offensive line and minus injured tailback LaDainian Tomlinson for nearly three full games, has had trouble running the ball. But history tells us that, when you can stretch a defense, opponents can't lock in on the run. The Chargers' big guys are difficult to defend and Rivers, who plays without fear, can find them, even when pressured.
“Last year, the last month of the season, people started playing more pass defense against us,” Turner says, “and we went on a streak running the ball. A lot of it depends on how people defend us. Baltimore and Miami are always going to have more people up on the line of scrimmage.
“I think Vincent will start getting a lot more double coverage — it happened around 10 times (vs. Miami). When they play us that way, we're going to have more running opportunities.”
You still have to block people and it will help when LT returns, because Turner doesn't want to overwork diminutive tailback Darren Sproles, as he probably has been doing.
“We're all looking forward to getting LT back,” Turner says. “I wouldn't try to do this with Darren for 16 weeks. I don't think he could handle it.”
Norv, listen to Al. Just throw it long, baby.
-------------------------------------------
Rivers, a guy who people thought could only throw it short, under Norv has become one of the best long bombers. Imagine if he didn't have the pressure his blocking provides...
No matter what you think of Norv, few haters think he is a bad QB coach and a bad OC.
Rivers has become master of going long
By [URL="http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/"]Nick Canepa (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/sports/chargers/archive/stories/2009/09/)
Union-Tribune Columnist
2:00 a.m. September 29, 2009
http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2009/09/28/UTI1472838_t350.JPG?1640fae913a1dac1b26c7eb88806b9 f9b0341305 Chargers QB Philip Rivers, according to coach Norv Turner, has worked hard to learn how to throw the deep pass. K.C. Alfred / Union-Tribune -
http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/staff/2008/nick_canepa.gif (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/)
Contact Nick:
619-293-1033 E-mail (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/contact/)
RSS feed (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/rss/authors/nick-canepa/) | Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/sdutsullivan) | Bio, archive (http://www3.signonsandiego.com/staff/nick-canepa/)
Contrary to opinion among those who do not worship evil, Al Davis has a heart, so he has to be noshing on his own ticker when he sees Philip Rivers these days. This comes after Big Al watches his favorite biographical film, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”
Davis is enthralled with the long pass, the deep ball, the vertical game, the stretching of defenses until they snap. Always has been. He learned it as a Chargers assistant under Sid Gillman and took it to a crazy level when he developed Daryle “The Mad Bomber” Lamonica in Oakland during the 1960s.
But, as a frustrated Davis has discovered, it's easier to find a molecule in a stack of molecules than a bombardier. Not every quarterback, no matter how strong his arm — just look at Al's JaMarcus Russell, who can throw a ball from Jack London Square to Sausalito — is an effective, consistent, accurate long-ball thrower.
This, under Chargers head coach Norv Turner, the best quarterback teacher at work today, Rivers has become. The caliber of gun doesn't matter. It's how you use it.
Guns don't kill defensive backfields, quarterbacks do. Few QBs are playing at Rivers' level, and certainly no one is better throwing the deep pass.
Of course it helps to have big, fast, physical receivers who can get off the ground and are fearless, such as the Chargers' Vincent Jackson and Malcom Floyd. It also helps to have a thrower capable of getting the ball where they are, in the right spot, and trusting them to get to it.
In Sunday's 23-13 victory over Miami, Rivers made good on 18 passes and averaged 16.9 yards per completion. Jackson averaged 24 yards on his five catches, Floyd 32.5 on his two. These are backbreaking plays, demoralizing football events.
Most NFL cornerbacks aren't that big and don't have great hands, or they'd be receivers. At 6-2, 203, San Diego's Antonio Cromartie is an enormous corner (who also can catch), but he's rare. I doubt I'll be around to see many 6-5, 230-pound corners. Until then, there will be mismatches, so until then, exploit weaknesses where they are.
And that's just what the Chargers have done this year — despite an inability to run the ball, which normally would make it more difficult for a quarterback to have time to try the deep stuff.
But Rivers has become adept with the long ball, and while he always was decent at it, whatever charts there are, he's gone off of them. Turner will give all the credit to Rivers, as he should, but it isn't an accident he has improved quarterback play in most ports he's visited. Troy Aikman, who studied under Turner in Dallas and became one of the great long-ball throwers, doesn't love Norv merely for his stylish wardrobe.
“No question, it comes from work, and Philip saying, ‘I'm going to be a great deep-ball thrower,’ ” Turner says. “Some of it's understanding the angles, where to put the ball. He's doing a great job of bending guys inside, and it's hard to do. Whatever makes a quarterback accurate is visualization. Some deep throws only happen because he stands in there.
“Everyone thinks it has to do with arm strength. Your arm has to be strong enough to carry to the receiver.”
Thing is, just practicing it isn't enough.
“Troy, like Philip, got better at it, the more opportunities he had to do it,” says Turner, Cowboys offensive coordinator during their 1993 and '95 Super Bowl wins.
When you get that good at it, you can earn enough money to become a minority owner of the Padres, which Aikman is.
“You have to do it in games,” Turner says.
It will be interesting to follow the path Turner is taking. His team, with a makeshift offensive line and minus injured tailback LaDainian Tomlinson for nearly three full games, has had trouble running the ball. But history tells us that, when you can stretch a defense, opponents can't lock in on the run. The Chargers' big guys are difficult to defend and Rivers, who plays without fear, can find them, even when pressured.
“Last year, the last month of the season, people started playing more pass defense against us,” Turner says, “and we went on a streak running the ball. A lot of it depends on how people defend us. Baltimore and Miami are always going to have more people up on the line of scrimmage.
“I think Vincent will start getting a lot more double coverage — it happened around 10 times (vs. Miami). When they play us that way, we're going to have more running opportunities.”
You still have to block people and it will help when LT returns, because Turner doesn't want to overwork diminutive tailback Darren Sproles, as he probably has been doing.
“We're all looking forward to getting LT back,” Turner says. “I wouldn't try to do this with Darren for 16 weeks. I don't think he could handle it.”
Norv, listen to Al. Just throw it long, baby.
-------------------------------------------
Rivers, a guy who people thought could only throw it short, under Norv has become one of the best long bombers. Imagine if he didn't have the pressure his blocking provides...
No matter what you think of Norv, few haters think he is a bad QB coach and a bad OC.