November 17th, 2007 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
Add another talking head to the mix of pundits who have found a flaw in Tennesee Titans quarterback Vince Young’s game: ESPN’s Monday Night Football analyst and former NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski. Jaworski offered his analysis, after watching game tape of Young, as he told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, “One statistic that is a little troubling to me: The fact that he has not been very successful in the play-action passing game.”
Jaworski further added, “For most young quarterbacks it is an area where you should be very proficient if you have a good running game. And there is no question that the Titans are a run-first football team.” Basically, play-action works like this: the QB fakes like he is going to hand the ball off to the running back, but instead drops back to pass. Because it looks like a run, it is designed to provide a better chance for wide receivers to get open.
Jaworski stated this, as well – and I agree with Jaws on this one: “Clearly, Vince has struggled in play-action. Those are troubling numbers to me because I think a quarterback who is going to be a movement guy like Vince is, he has to be much more productive out of the play-action, especially with a run-first offense. I don’t think there is anything that jumps out that is glaring, I think it is just a matter of more repetition and being better mechanically and doing the little things week in and week out. He has to improve.”
This is Young’s 2nd year in the league. If he is to become a more successful QB – meaning learning all the skills a successful NFL QB has to learn in order to stay in the league – he and probably the QB coach, Craig Johnson, need to refine Young’s passing game as soon as possible. The rest of the league has caught up to what makes Young go – if they haven’t done so already – and Young needs to add to his skill set. Otherwide he is just a latter-day version of former Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kordell Stewart.
Good article Stephen, but at Texas it took the guy four years to play the play-action correctly. He has to become able to disguise every play like it is the same play. This is what it took Vince four years to do. The reason why he struggles so much throughout his college career. We all know of his Wunderlich scores and what that could signify. But Vince is intelligent because of the skills he obtained at Texas. I’ve seen Vince’s play action problems, but I think if he had a better running game that D’s would respect (Vince being a 2nd year and a poor thrower is had to respect as well), then the play action could be executed. He’s got great coaches and a learning team. Just give him two years and I bet vince is conVincing all of us he’s HOF worthy. Once again good article, that went off. Jaws better not be acting like Hoge (http://youtube.com/watch?v=BDahCWm0oVg).
[...] while on the run, which has risks associated with that style. Earlier in the week, I had posted a story in which Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski had taken issue with Young’s style of [...]
[...] while on the run, which has risks associated with that style. Earlier in the week, I had posted a story in which Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski had taken issue with Young’s style of [...]
[...] while on the run, which has risks associated with that style. Earlier in the week, I had posted a story in which Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski had taken issue with Young’s style of [...]
[...] while on the run, which has risks associated with that style. Earlier in the week, I had posted a story in which Monday Night Football analyst Ron Jaworski had taken issue with Young’s style of [...]