I’ll post quickies when I make it home. Recall that AR is on about a dozen starts now. AR has been slower getting through reads all year in this offense. On nice early throw to Fraziers he actually missed him wide open in the first window. 11 personnel makes two-man routes more effective as it’s tougher to figure out if it’s run or not and of course there is an extra route. Had a nice screen setup early but TAM LB timed the snap and blew it up coming through the A gap. High throw and too early (out of necessity) shut it down. Douglas ran wide open for TD on play to out for +7. Missed read, OR that was window dressing. Either way, it’s on film. On Pearsall hit, wide WR runs a post instead of a go, that side cover 3 CB was able to pass him off and gwt back into the play. If we run a go instead, maybe that CB can’t get back in on RP late. Good play but route selection seems not optimal. TAM DB’s don’t want a dose of AR on the TD keep. Best game so far for regarding on-field body language, positive emotion, etc. Engaged from start to finish. Pearsall makes nice read on jet sweep, Odom gets his block. Odom great block on AR big run turned it into a TD. Another weird screen with a bunch of doom components. PA for no reason, left the near guy unblocked, WR running backwards to ball, etc. Torrence and White both had rough games. WR’s winning versus M2M. ETN eats up LB on wheel route for TD but AR gets some early pressure, hits Henderson with an inaccurate pass for positive yards but a lot of yards left on this play. AR throws one right to defender after hitching because he saw it wasn’t there. Dropped. Sweet 4th down adlib was actually a missed wide open dig route early. But AR and MJ work some magic and everyone is fired up. Screen that makes sense. 3v2, proper blocking, no PA, Douglas runs pop route instead of retreating, ball is fast and accurate, but Douglass misses the seam for a TD. Still a first down, and Douglas will learn. But quick game is functional and effective. Aaand then right back to another bad screen. 3v3, only block one, basically MJ versus 2/3. Smothered. Burke miss in EZ was another missed mesh route TD when AR bails on the pocket early. Almost made it work but required a pin point pass, it was slightly behind. ETN makes another wackadoodle move on 3rd and long and almost pulls off a caper. He’s just getting nastier. Another missed read on the ball AR zooms into the stands. James takes a moment to defend AR. Basically says what we are seeing here are young QB mistakes. And AR is a young QB. Pump your Twitter brakes. Miss RP toasting C1 man, AR appears to be looking at at but instead bails into spy and has to throw it away. EOH shutdown: All TO’s, minute-ish left. False start, 1 and 15. A play where we bust all over the field, 2 and 15. Then the shutdown. James hates it. He admits it isn’t a no-brainer and he’s personally ultra-aggressive. But he believes most teams undervalue these times in games. Drops a “scared money” barb. RP runs nice “wake” route, two DB’s go with deep route, all alone on an out, AR times it right. AR’s “best throw ever” to Fraziers. NFL quality. AR gives Fraziers the credit post-game (and that was obviously a nice catch too.) Appreciate the chunk runs. Not long ago we could NOT do it. Now, routine. MJ does it, takes D for 10 more yards after contact. ETN makes another ludicrous escape, James highlights and clowns multiple bewildered TAM players. ETN’s feet are magical. AR climbs the pocket under duress, Payday twists the DB into knots, AR finds him for TD. AR stays on deep route versus C3 too long, misses RP wide open at 12 yards, but DOES hit the check down for +8. Positive play but more was there. RPO executed for 1st down. AR shows the ceiling talent again with a missile to RP under C3 that’s on him so fast he can make a move and convert 2 and 20. Back to 12. MJ has a TD but gets his feet a little sped up and snipes himself at last guy. AR misses behind consistently. Does it again on C0 RP slant, although DB does play it well. Still a miss. MJ murders LB on stop and go but AR locked in on Fraziers 1v1 on other side. TAM also knew it. CB sits on it, another just stood in the lane and tried to deflect it. Incomplete. Quick game works for 1st down. 12 on 4G from the 1 puts all 11 defenders in the box, they all out blitz, blow it up for a huge loss. 12 again, but this time they add a little counter action, Tarquin seals the backside with a crafty block and MJ mans it in. 11 personnel looked great. BN’s base philosophy 12 still just doesn’t. AR has a good game but left a lot on the field. More spread, RPO, quick game. Lots of good stuff flu/suspensions or not. If you’re looking for progress it’s there. If you’re looking for lingering issues, also there. But 41 points and another 10-14 within easy reach.
Not a glowing review of AR. But CBN has few options at this point. Winning the next 3 games would be really big. End the season 8-4 on a 4 game win streak and beat ref$u. So the decision: what’s the best chance of doing that — to rely on ARs slowly developing skill set and slowly growing confidence, or shake things up by playing Kitna - a true rookie? The decision is easy from my perspective - there isn’t a team left on our schedule we can’t beat with a functioning AR at QB. Now is not the time to swap out AR for Kitna. Of course, if we lose one of those games then it gets stickier.
I don’t see any valid argument for going to QB2. The UK meltdown is history. He misses reads and his accuracy needs work in off-season repathons. And although my big gripe was him throwing directly to defenders and he did it again, that is now rare enough to be acceptable. As James said, he’s basically flashing the NFL ceiling people are ga-ga about AND making the mistakes a guy in his 12th or so college start makes. That’s a pretty good spot. He also gets out of a LOT of bad spots I sincerely doubt any other QB we have will. While he misses 40 yards but still gets 8, some of those plays are -10 with anyone else. Basically he’s down to two struggles: missing some monster plays and throws that are behind. But he also breaks off 50 and 80 yard runs, throws dimes like the one to Fraziers, and avoids catastrophe (both legit and self-created.) I still think the NFL is close to silly. I don’t know what team would take him to play now and frankly doubt many if any at all will take him on as a project. However, I am saying “close to silly” now as opposed to just outright goofy like I was earlier this year. He is basically right on track as a sophomore who hardly played the previous THREE years (he apparently only played like four games as a HS senior), and oh yeah makes at least some people call him a R1 NFL pick despite mostly ho-hum numbers. The number of college teams who have a 12 game starter that might also go early in the draft is a pretty short list. Recruit over him if you can, but good luck with that. And if he can continue on the trajectory he’s been on since I suppose UT, then he may very well go nuclear one day and never come back.
Hmmmm Last 3 games for AR 835 yards 9 touchdowns 0 interceptions I think James has to know these numbers. Maybe some don’t. Numbers don’t lie.
Where did the 12 total starts thing come from? I thought he had one (UGA) last year plus the nine so far this year. Did I miss something?
This was great. Thanks for it. Forgive my ignorance, but what does “11 personnel looked great. BN’s base philosophy 12 still just doesn’t” mean?
11 personnel means 1 RB and 1 TE . . . and so 3 WRs. 12 personnel means 1 RB and 2 TE . . . and so 2 WRs.
He repeatedly made the point in his video that he wasn't criticizing AR, just looking at the film and giving input on what he saw. I would imagine in most film sessions after a game, there is a refrain of... you had this open here, even though you had a successful play.
I agree. Even at the beginning of the video, he explains that AR had a good game...he's just showing what the optimal decisions could have been. Critiquing is different from criticism. Folks think saying anything negative about AR is bad. It's not, AR needs to improve his pocket presence, decision, and touch. That is beyond argument.
Yep. I was at tamu and when AR threw behind the wr on the slant at the goal line and then we missed the fg on 4th, you could see the tamu crowd get a new life. It wasn't a horrible throw. But it cost us a td and a chance to finish them off. Those mistakes add up over the course of a game....and our defense isn't good enough to give away points. We need continued progress
Yeah man all you gotta do is look at Joe Burrow in his last 2 seasons. The lights came on - could work the same for AR
Yes, he is becoming a servicable SEC QB. Of course AR is no where near good enough to make up for shortcomings at other position groups. For UF to "win-out" will take execution and good play at all position groups. FSU is doubtful but not impossible. But if I was the staff, I would be looking no further than S Carolina. They have a better record than UF and kicked our tails last time.
