is the guy off Street Fighter with the extending arms, there is no chance he makes that play.

Bowe will probably miss it by 10 feet but at least he can say “I gave it an effort” – in this world “perception is reality” and it looked like Bowe didnt give a shit. The D – all 5 of them – weren’t going to kill Bowe (surprisingly so), so that’s why he should have tried.

Bowe is the best player not on IR, and has made some incredible effort-catches before, yet this one time, when the ball was way over his head, is enough evidence to show he doesn’t care and that we shouldn’t re-sign him? Look at that catch against Indy. Is that a player who doesn’t care?

Besides, I would imagine a you’d coach him not to go for a ball thrown that high. You have almost no chance of catching it, and tipping it would almost always result in an interception. If anything Bowe made the right move by letting it go and hoping it would simply be incomplete.

Been re-watching that play a lot. The more I watch it, the more I’m inclined to agree that Collinsworth’s analysis was completely wrong. And unfortunately, the vast majority of people watching heard his words and just started repeating them instead of really looking for themselves. (Not an uncommon trait these days, but that’s another discussion).

Here’s the video replay:
Link

It looks a lot like bad chemistry as well as inaccuracy. Bowe has no feel for Palko due to a lack of reps with the guy. Palko and Bowe can’t anticipate each other very well through nobody’s fault but fate. Palko also just is badly inaccurate beyond about 10 yards. So miscommunication plus a bad throw doomed this play top to bottom.

There are plenty around who scoff at chemistry and think QB and WR don’t need a rapport. For those who think that, I present this play:

Link

When the play breaks down, Branch and Brady know each other well enough to anticipate each other’s abilities and tendencies to do a quick backyard football style adjustment and turn a busted play into a huge gain. That’s chemistry. That’s rapport. Plus having a QB that can make an accurate throw 20 yards downfield. It’s not even a great throw. It’s a good throw with great anticipation by the WR and the QB.

It’s that understanding of each other that makes Brady to Branch, Brady to Welker, Brady to Hernandez / Gronk (already) such great combinations. On timing routes, Brady knows exactly where his receiving targets will be. His receivers / TE’s know exactly where the throw is going to be, and when.

Even when things break down on a play for those guys, communication can be a finger point, a wink or a nod away, and the other guy just knows what to do.

With our situation, there’s just no rapport between the QB and the receivers. Bowe is a better receiver than Branch. Breaston is probably almost (but not quite) as good. Our QB is pretty bad. Cassel lacks the overall accuracy to really develop that kind of rapport as well, but nowhere near the deficiency that Palko has.

Getting that kind of adaptability requires a lot of reps for the QB and receiving targets to really know each other, coupled with ability. Honestly, Palko doesn’t have enough ability to make me want to get him enough reps to develop that rapport.

So the media blasting of Bowe for that is short-sighted in my opinion. It looks like Bowe thinks the throw is going to someone else, or was just so far off the mark that he was baffled. Maybe Bowe ran his route a little differently than Palko anticipated as well. As are most things in life, it’s probably a combination of things. But a good throw there leads Bowe and hits him in stride as he’s cutting back toward the middle.

So at the very worst, it was a miscommunication with Bowe and a bad throw. And that’s a worst case scenario (looking at Bowe).

Thats whats wrong with the media and ex players that are bent out of shape cuz they never made it… they talk out of thier asses cuz they have a mic..

In looking at the play again, it really did seem like Bowe was putting his arms down to protect himself.

Could he have possibly touched, tipped, caught the ball? Not a chance.

Should he have tried? Yes.

Did he think there was another Chiefs receiver that the ball was going to? No way. He knew he was the furthest man downfield.

Did Bowe signal that he was going deep by raising his arm? Yes.

Is that why Palko threw it where he did? Kind of – Palko was obviously not expecting Bowe to cut and turn where he did, but if Palko was expecting him to keep going deep, Palko actually underthrew the ball. Palko needs to use his shakeweight more to increase his armstrength.

Is Collinsworth completely annoying? Absolutely.