What should we expect to see from David Greene? Well, despite the prevailing sentiment that he is nothing but a failure, I would expect to see something at least approaching what he has shown the last three times he has been thrown into game scenarios.
In Greene’s two extended appearances in the preseason last year, he went 7 of 11 for 53 yards with no turnovers against the Cowboys, and then 13 of 19 for 144 yards with no turnovers against the Raiders. Completing 20 of 30 (67%) for 197 yards without turning the ball over is pretty impressive for someone that is supposedly such a failure.
Greene was also impressive during the Seahawks Scrimmage against the first team defense. He went 8 of 9 (89%) for 61 yards. His only incompletion came when Maurice Morris stepped in front of him as he threw, and his hand hit Morris’ helmet as he released the ball.
But David Greene doesn’t need to complete 89% of his passes to be successful on Saturday, or even 67%. He just needs to show he can run the offense, move the chains a little bit, and avoid making costly turnovers. He will only have a half to do that, but hopefully he does better than what we saw from Seneca Wallace.
Seneca Wallace finished 17 of 25 for 191 yards with a touchdown and two turnovers, but he didn’t look so impressive in his first half of work (the amount of time David Greene will get). In his first three possessions, Wallace went 0 of 2 with an interception and a fumble. By the end of the first half, he had managed to improve to 2 of 5 for 46 yards, and did not turn the ball over for a third time.
His numbers weren’t much better even if you want to include his first possession of the second half (he didn’t play the first possession of the game). He complete 3 passes for 10 yards, but one of them was a ricochet to Tom Ashworth for -2 yards. Wallace was able to work himself out of it after a rough start to finish with some pretty decent numbers, but Greene will not have that opportunity if he struggles. It would be yet another example of how limited David Greene has been in his opportunities to develop as a quarterback.
Greene might throw an ill-advised pass that gets picked off or make some bad throws if the piecemeal offensive line allows a lot of pressure, but I expect to see him out there leading the team and completing passes. Ben Obomanu, Logan Payne, Joe Fernandez, and Chris Jones should give him some pretty decent options, although he won’t necessarily have a reliable safety valve at tight end.
If Greene attempts 15 passes, then 8 or 9 completions for 90 yards would be a decent outing, especially if he can avoid turning the ball over and/or lead a scoring drive. Asking much more of him in his first half of play since last August with a bunch of backups wouldn't be fair. Although, we shouldn't be afraid to get down on him if he turns in a real stinker of a half like Seneca Wallace did.
And all of the David Greene haters out there shouldn't bother to point out that Seneca Wallace only looked bad against the starters in San Diego. The interception and fumble were entirely Wallace's fault and would have happened no matter who was in on defense. And the same is probably true of the pass batted at the line, and the weak attempt to hit Leonard Weaver in the flat. San Diego was also playing their second and third team defenders pretty early in that game.
0 comments:
Post a Comment