First things first, Ben's injury is not acute. It is an overuse injury. There are always signs leading up to overuse injuries. I thought Ben didn't look right in the Patriots game, but I convinced myself it was the Patriots defense that made him look that way. That wouldn't be a stretch considering how thoroughly the Pats have outcoached us in previous years. After re-watching the six quarters Ben played there was a glaring issue. There were very few intermediate routes over the middle of the field. Also his reluctance to throw for the sticks on longer third downs. These have been historically some of Ben's best throws, but they have to be hard throws. They weren't completely missing, and I admit the times they did run them the coverage was good, but when did that ever stop Ben from throwing the ball anyway. Especially in games where we were trailing. These route were missing by design. They were calling a game attempting to mask a limitation that they were aware of but no one else was. I'm sure we all remember how many times he ripped it into triple coverage against the Jags two years ago. One thing you could never say about Ben was he was not confident in his arm. There was clearly hesitation on his part. He also took a lot of days off in training camp, in a year when he had several new and second year targets that would be occupying expanded roles in the offense. Then there was the trip to the locker room during the Seahawks game after the injury. I immediately noticed that when he came back onto the field he did not have an ice pack on his elbow. We also know he didn't get an MRI in the locker room. Why wasn't it treated like any other acute injury i.e. iced and in a compression wrap? It wasn't because they already knew what it was. They had been managing this for a while. I could be wearing a tin foil hat right now, but if those intermediate routes over the middle are prominently featured in next weeks game plan then I'm right. It also wasn't a coincidence that the offense started moving when Rudolph entered the game. What really happened was the play book opened back up and gave the defense more grass to cover. Guys didn't just start getting open all of sudden because the QB changed. Running lanes got bigger too, which is contrary to what typically happens when a backup enters the game. Especially when it is the backup's very first actual NFL game action. Teams usually over play the run expecting the offense to attempt to limit the new guys exposure to negativity by running the ball. I can't wait until next week to see if my suspicions are accurate. Even if the offense still sucks, that unwrapped elbow is a smoking gun. Someone in that building knew he had an elbow issue well before any of this became public.
Theres already been people reporting that they knew Ben had an elbow injury after the Patriots game. Rudolph even said that. Was he injured before that? Possible, but his camp schedule has been par for the course the past few seasons. Of course people knew before it was public, that was never disputed.
And yeah, defenses tend to loosen up when they have a 2 TD lead, which also helped Rudolph move the ball more effectively and cause running lanes to get bigger. They knew the passes would be coming and if they tried to run their way back in, they’d run out of time.
Yeah that sounds good but Seattle never had a two TD lead and the only 3 and out of the second half was the interception (which clearly wasn't Rudolph's fault and should have been a first down), which happened on the first possession of the second half. Did you actually watch the game?
Yeah I did, I thought we were down 2 scores, but that was just at the end. My bad, before that the largest deficit was 8, which is still 1 score. And it may not have been a 3 and out, but the drive before the fumble ended in a punt on 4th and 10. Sure not the drive you want down 9 late in the game. Not knocking Rudolph, he played well, and ultimately this game was lost because of the defense. His INT may have spelled the end of Donte Moncrief in Pittsburgh. Honestly the run game was pretty good most of day, even the announcers said that. Actually happy with how Samuels came in, and Snell even had a big run. Rudolph was clearly more accurate when he came in, which does show Ben came in hurt.
I think Samuels might be better than Conner. Seems to have better vision in the run game and is all round better in the passing game. He makes us more difficult to defend. I haven't been impressed with Conner at all thus far. This coaching staff needs to stop with the senseless loyalty and start playing the more talented players. If Moncreif sets foot on the field in San Fran I am going to lose my sh!t.
Honestly I’m willing to give Moncrief a chance to show as well as he did in camp before the finger injury. He was getting rave reviews, and he’s getting open. But one more uncontested drop and I’ll be where you are with him now. I mean if they cut him today and signed Rogers, or any receiver for that matter, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Idk if I would say Samuels is better than Conner at this point, but I would definitely agree he’s closer than he was last season. He looked good against the Pats last season and he looked good last week. I was impressed with Conner last season, he’s been a little banged up so far but he’s made plays in the passing game. The one area where Conner has been better is pass protection. Last season Samuels was not very good at that, and I honestly have not noticed if he’s been asked to do it much this season, which might actually mean he’s improved. At this point, not looking like a Super season, but it will be nice to get an extended look at Rudolph this season. Really if he hit McDonald on the 2 point try, they tie the game up and who knows if that changes the outcome. Based on how the defense let them march down the field in the last drive, probably not, but that was really the only mistake I really saw from Rudolph.
Ben had the same issues when he opened the 2018 season. Arm strength clearly wasn't there. Mechanics went to shit trying to compensate and the performance spoke for itself. He seemed to get his strength back 5-6 weeks in to the season. When he opened this season with the same issues I surmised his arm simply can't hold up for a full season and this was their way to manage it. Similar to how MLB brings along younger pitchers they weren't going to burn him out by having him do all the off-season work and excepted that he probably wouldn't be the Ben they were accustomed to til mid-season. And in the end the same bad mechanics that led to his poor performance likely led to the injury because he was winding up and chucking the ball in New England to get it 40yds downfield. Which begs the question... Why the phuque were they so damn eager to give him a new contract this off-season? I hated it then. I despise it now. One of the worst blunders of Colbert's tenure.
Hard to argue this without evidence to the contrary and it sounds like most on the thread have some bits and pieces to support you. If you're right, having Rudolph start might be what they need.
