Ryan Mallett did a lot of good things in his first ever NFL start. He showed command of the offense and had no issues with running things with tempo at the line of scrimmage. He consistently called out the defensive looks for his blockers and aside from the play we’ll look at below, really only had only a handful of poor throws, even fewer poor decisions.
Let’s take a look at the interception that Mallett threw late in the first quarter on a third and one play from the Browns 29 yard line. The captions below the pictures describe the action.
Mallett freezes safety, linebacker with play-action to Blue.
Hopkins over the middle and Fiedorowicz outside the hashes both start to break open from their defenders.
Mallett ready to release pass, both Hopkins and Fiedorowicz appear open, though clearly there will be no help for linebacker covering CJF.
Ball in flight, Hopkins begins slowing down slightly as Haden closes the gap.
Ball arrives and Hopkins not only slowed down, but now has to reach back to try and keep Haden from collecting the interception.
Not an overwhelming mistake, but far more risky with far less margin for error. Only two options were given for Mallett with the play call which is pretty interesting. It’s a pretty good play call and execution since both targets appear to be reasonable choices. Both were available, though he appeared to have mind made up in advance he’d be going to Hopkins. A better throw to Hopkins might even get them a touchdown.
By the way this was only the 15th pass of Mallett’s career.
Ironic that rifle-armed Mallett floated that ball a little too much. If he had flattened the trajectory and thrown it a little harder Haden wouldn’t have caught up with it. Zero complaints about Mallett’s performance though. Most impressive was his mental presence and command of the offense, which bodes well for growth.