Burrow's decision making has been terrible

[CJD]

You know, when Dalton was our QB, I held my breath every time he dropped back because you never knew how open the receiver he was targeting actually was. Dalton seemed to favor Green even when he was triple covered, meaning each time he let go of the ball you, the viewer, had no idea if the person he was targeting was open or if Dalton was just throwing caution to the wind and hoping Green beat his man.

I loved that in Burrow's rookie year, he didn't play favorites, he just threw to the open man. In 404 attempts, he only threw 5 interceptions. I began to stop worrying so much every time our QB dropped back to pass. I knew that if that ball was coming out of Joe's hands, the odds were high the receiver he was throwing to was open and just had to make the catch. And, in hindsight, maybe this was because he didn't intrinsically trust his receivers to, against all odds and any coverage, win every time he threw to them.

I am beginning to worry Burrow is forcing the ball to Chase like Dalton forced it to Green. That may be the cause of his incredibly high interception rate. The interception against the Ravens is a perfect example. Burrow had no reason to throw that pick in the end zone but, for whatever reason, he said "Chase will win if I put it up to him." Chase was covered and, due to the arc of the ball, became double covered as the other defender came off of Perine once the ball was in the air...and it was picked.

I know that Burrow trusts Chase to get open and I know Chase has an uncanny ability to win with the ball in the air, but that doesn't mean you have to force the ball to him.

Obviously, you can take pretty much any stat from the last 2 weeks and create a negative narrative around it, but he has been targeted 22 times in the last 2 games and only has 9 receptions. That's a 41% completion percentage when targeting Chase.

In the first 7 weeks, he was targeted 51 times and had 35 receptions, or a 69% completion percentage.

His averages in the last 2 weeks have been 8.2 ypc and 10.7 ypc, compared to his formerly NFL leading 21.5 ypc in the first 7 weeks.

Chase is obviously the most explosive receiver on the team and I appreciate that, but you should still only throw to him when he's actually open. I really hope Joe gets his head right and starts throwing to the open receiver again.