If Darrell Jackson feels the need to beat himself up over a recent episode of dropped passes, the Seattle Seahawks’ wide receiver can take solace in the fact that even Hall of Famers go through slumps.
“There would be a practice where I might drop two or three passes in one practice,” Seahawks legend Steve Largent said Tuesday. “For me, it was like falling off the horse. You’ve got to get right back on. I’d stay after practice and wear a quarterback out just catching any kind of balls I was having difficulty with.”
Two or three drops in a practice? OK, so maybe Largent can’t totally identify with what Jackson is going through – the 24-year-old Seahawks receiver has dropped eight passes over the past three weeks – but the Hall of Fame receiver does know what it takes to get out of a slump.
“What you have to do is, you have to spend more time on the field,” Largent said. “I will tell you that 99 percent of the problem of dropped balls is in your head. And the only way to alleviate that is to spend additional time on the field rebuilding the confidence that you lose when you start dropping a bunch of passes.
“That’s the only thing you can do. If you don’t do that, you can go right in the tank.”
Jackson’s teammate, Koren Robinson, went through a similar bout with the drops during training camp and stayed after practices to correct it. The extra work seems to have had its desired effect, as Robinson has been fairly consistent during the regular season.
Jackson has worked with quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, has tried to improve on his focus and concentration, and even took another step this week when he sat down with coach Mike Holmgren to watch tapes of his dropped balls.
Holmgren and Jackson are trying just about everything to correct the problems. Everything, that is, short of benching Jackson or having one of those Mike Ditka-like moments on the sideline.
“There is the idea that you show negative reinforcement, and to me that just compounds the problem,” Holmgren said Monday. “I’ve never coached that way. If a guy makes a mistake, we are going to talk about it and see if we can fix it.”
Holmgren and Largent would both agree that Jackson’s main problem is confidence. No matter what kind of advice he garners, the only way to find consistency is within Jackson himself.
“There’s not a lot anybody else can do,” Largent said, speaking generally about receivers who go through slumps.
“The more you have people going, ‘Hey, it’s all right, you’ll be OK,’ and that kind of stuff, the more you worry about it. And the more you realize everybody else is noticing the same thing you are, that you’re having difficulty with your confidence. That elevates the anxiety more than it relieves it.”
That would explain Hasselbeck’s solution, which is to keep throwing the ball to Jackson rather than to avoid him.
“I haven’t lost confidence in him, and I hope he hasn’t lost confidence in himself,” Hasselbeck said. “As a receiver, you’re going to have dropped balls, and I think his have come in a row.”
Jackson seems more perplexed than anyone about the problem, but he likes Hasselbeck’s solution.
“You’ve got to throw me the ball,” Jackson said with a big grin Monday.
Like a shooter in basketball or a hitter in baseball, the only way a player can work his way out of a slump is through repetition.
Even if your slump only lasts the span of a few minutes during practice.
“Sure, the quarterback could put the ball a little bit better here or there,” Largent said. “But for the most part, if you can reach it, you should catch it.”
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