After seeing what I thought was a surprise in PFF giving Siemian a 75.2 grade, since like most, I felt it was a pretty rough start, especially the first couple drives, I decided to take a deeper dive into Siemian's performance on Saturday against GB.
To put the PFF grade of 75.1 in perspective, I looked at PFF ratings for the two games from 2016 that most consider Siemian's best games, Cincy and the first KC game, and his grades were 69.5 and 81.8. So, as you can see, the 75.1 is a good grade.
Tyler Polumbus said Siemian played good, efficient and had one bad throw, the INT, which he said the offensive line would take the blame for due to allowing pressure in Siemian's face. He said, Siemian will also take blame, because you have to protect the ball, but he said the line has to do better and they know it.
So, in order to better understand, I went back and reviewed each passing play and made notes for each.QB TREVOR SIEMIAN, 75.2 OVERALL GRADE
Siemian had an efficient game overall, finishing with a grade of 75.2. However, he struggled while under pressure, completing only 3 of 8 passes for 9 yards while also throwing an interception. Siemian and his receiving corps will hope to be in better sync Week 1 of the regular season, as they dropped four of his passes on the evening.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/new...bay-packers-17
To summarize what I found:
Pass plays with pressure and/or QB hits: 11 of 24 passing plays.
Bad Throws: 5 with 2 being really bad (INT and second Sanders overthrow)
Inclused in the "bad throws" above are "just missed" throws, which is a slight overlead of Sanders on drag route and throwing a bit/low behind of Green on short pass over the middle. Both hit receivers hands, but better throws would have been completions.
Here's a detailed breakdown of each passing play, with whether there was pressure and what the result was based on my eyes and hitting rewind multiple times on each play. Unfortunately there is no all-22 film in preseason, so on some of these I would love to have seen some of the high angles.
1st Drive:
2 10 -- delayed blitz, completion to CJ 4.
3 6 -- Good pocket, completion to DT for first down.
1 10 -- Max Garcia knocked on to his butt, Charles makes good play to cut rusher, but Siemian still hit while throwing and short hops Sanders
3 3 -- Quick hitter thrown to Charles outside shoulder, which was clearly a designed play for Charles to turn out on, which is evidence by Studesville spending several minutes going through pictures with Charles right after the play. As mentioned, DT eventually came open 10 yards past the sticks and Sanders was running a shallow cross at the first down markers, but the ball was released almost immediately, making it very obvious that this was intended to be Charles all along on a short out and Charles wasn't on the same page. Maybe Siemian should changed the play or held the ball and seen if something else developed (such as the DT/Sanders routes that we saw open up after the throw), rather than throwing the quick hit type pass.
2nd drive
1 10 -- Pass rusher comes in untouched between LT and LG. Throw was about 10' over Sanders head and out of bounds. Was that highly innacurate rushed throw or throw away to avoid sack? Could have been either. Looked like throw away, but hard to know.
2 10 -- Pass rusher bull rushes Paradis and gets buy him. Bad throw. Because rusher was coming through at his lower leg, he didn't follow through on the throw, which might have effected his accuracy, but if you make the throw (vs. holding and taking the sack), you can't throw it into the safties arms.
3rd drive
1 10 -- clean pocket, bad over throw of Sanders w/ball landing out of bounds, about 44 yards in the air.
2 10 -- Max Garcia badly beat on bull rush, Siemian scrambles for first down.
2 8 -- clean pocket, 11 yard completion to Sanders for first down
1 10 -- clean pocket, RB picks up blitzer, pass to Sanders on drag route incomplete. While it hit his hands, it looked like Siemian led him too much, but the only angle they showed was a sideline view and it's impossible to say. I'm going to assume it was slightly off target and on Siemian, since we don't have any other view to show otherwise.
2 10 -- pocket immediately collapses (maybe part of the play fake), WR screen to taylor, completed for no gain. Based on design of play and routes not run by other receivers, it's clear that Taylor was only intended receiver on that play.
3 10 -- Clean pocket, back shoulder throw to Taylor. Appeared to be designed back shoulder throw like with TD, might have been slightly off target, great catch by Siemian. Nearly identical throw and catch as TD from week before.
4th Drive
2 7 -- Clean pocket. ONLY viable receiver is Green. Narrow window with defenders trailing and coming off Taylor, throw a little low, hits Green in hands. Probably on stat sheet as a drop, but if Siemian puts the ball a few feet higher, it's much easier catch for Green.
3 7 -- Both tackles beat. Siemian hit in 2.1 seconds. No receivers open to throw it to, even attempting to throw away would have risked strip sack. Sack was only possibility.
5th Drive
1 10 -- Clean pocket, Siemian throws ball 44 yards with perfect placement hitting Sanders in stride. Dropped.
1 10 -- Leary beat, Siemian with short completion to Sanders who runs and slides short of first down.
6th drive
1 10 -- Semi clean pocket, LG was struggling with rusher, noboy open, Siemian scrambles for a few yards
2 7 -- Pocket unstable, so he scrambled out to right, and hits Green on sideline for first down.
1 10 -- Pocket collapsing quickly, mirror image of miscue with Charles earlier, this time Charles looks over shoulder and makes reception for short gain.
2 5 -- pocket clean, hits Taylor on short slant for 10 yard or so gain.
1 10 -- pocket clean, hits charles over middle for 11 yards
1 10 -- pocket cleanish, hits derby over the middle for 6 yards.
2 4 -- pocket starts to break down, Siemian scrambles left throws on run, very good throw on run, better play by leaping defender to get finger on it and deflect it and Sanders doesn't catch.
2 4 -- pocket cleanish, rusher beats Watson and Siemian wanted receiver on right, but had to step up and then hits CJ for short gain well short of TD (due to time on clock, needed a throw to endzeon, but pocket wouldn't allow that).