Re: TNET: Quarterback: Battle for starting spot heads into final week of fall camp

Rw43

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Re: TNET: even Tom Brady (long)

Aug 19, 2018, 9:52 PM [ in reply to Re: TNET: Quarterback: Battle for starting spot heads into final week of fall camp ]

You're wrong.

Deshaun would have led us to victory, which might seem like an unrealistic expectation for Kelly, but illustrates that a top notch QB could have made the difference.

Let me compare, but stress that the areas where Kelly supposedly is improving are just as important as downfield accuracy, so I'm glad to hear this discussed by Dabo and TE.

First, responding to physical play. A great QB, like DW4, might be rattled by late hits, personal fouls, ferocious shots including a clothesline, but he will regain his equilibrium and make you pay. The Bama defenses that rattled Deshaun were great defenses, yet he rallied to throw for over 400 apiece against them. With one pick, total, on an incredible play. The defense that swarmed Kelly didn't resort to cheap shots, yet he was overwhelmed just by the variety of looks in coverage and pass rush. They did play physical with our WRs, but since the ball wasn't delivered accurately very often the refs didn't care. And he threw 2 regrettable picks.

Second, protection. You can complain all you want about the OL, but who is it that takes a sack? Always the QB. So who is supposed to make sure the center has called the protections correctly? Oh yeah, Tom Brady. Kelly's problem was he didn't know the protections, even if he correctly identified the rushers (which he didn't). So he didn't move his RB into position to pick up free rushers, nor did he ever check out of bad plays or even bad formations. (For instance, Todd Blackledge made a big deal about their DE using explosive power to blow through a block and tackle our RB, then backpedaled when the replay showed our tackle pulled and left the guy unblocked. It was reminiscent of Clowney v. Michigan. We ran that play from that formation 3 times, resulting in 3 TFLs by that DE. Not only did we call the play 3 times, Kelly actually ran that play 3 times. Neither DW4 nor Brady would have run it a second time without checking out of it.)

Third, recognizing coverages. Similar to recognizing protection. Kelly had several opportunities to make throws into one-on,-one coverage but failed to recognize them. Of course, Bama was trying to bait him with disguised coverages, and they succeeded. They usually tried to front our guys in coverage so Kelly had to throw over the top, not his best throw. Our guys are not dummies (in spite of that one playcall issue), so our WRs went into formations and routes that exposed the coverage. Within 3 steps, every WR coverage is exposed except for the safetys playing over the top. On some plays, the safety doesn't matter--but Kelly has to have thorough knowledge of our playbook and route tree to know where his opportunities are. DW4 and Tom Brady would have done this. (This was a controllable factor; Kelly was simply unprepared, either by immaturity, inadequate coaching, or inexperience v. an elite defense. But this failure was all on Kelly.)

But the fourth, and most annoying failure on Kelly's part (IMHO), was how frequently he took his eye off the play just to field the snap. Falcinelli was getting eaten up by Daron Payne (see, i agree with your basic point re. the OL underperforming), so maybe a bad snap or two is understandable; but when it happens the QB must let the Center know. Falcinelli had at least 4 snaps below KB's knees. DW4 and Tom Brady wouldn't tolerate that. Additionally, KB bent over to field thigh-high snaps with both hands another 12-15 times. This should be unnecessary. After taking thousands of shotgun snaps in his career, and having large athletic hands, he should not need to stoop to field a waist- or thigh-high snap. Every stoop takes his eyes off the play in front of him. When disguised coverages and blitzes were being exposed on the first 3 steps of a play, Kelly was still carefully looking the ball into both hands and then trying to identify what had just changed. The game was too fast, and he wasn't willing to adjust. This is not the play of a winner like DW4 or Tom Brady. This is the play of an overwhelmed game manager, whose attitude is "I'm just doing the best i can."

So all I'm trying to say is that KB still has lots of room for improvement even in leadership and game management, and anybody who thinks Alabama is gonna make it easier on Kelly the second time needs their head examined. If he lost his will to win the first time they did it to him, they will certainly try the same game plan again.

Would TL16 need to do all this in a CFP game? It depends if 1) a DC gets extra time to prepare his team like Bama did and 2) a DC thinks he can get away with that level of aggressiveness. If a QB, like DW4, makes the defense pay for crowding the LoS, they will stop doing it--unless that's the only way they can win.

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TNET: Quarterback: Battle for starting spot heads into final week of fall camp

Production was average, at best, last year...Good is an

I'll give it a good. Take away Bama and

Re: I'll give it a good. Take away Bama and

Re: I'll give it a good. Take away Bama and

Largely because we got into some shootouts.

Re: I'll give it a good. Take away Bama and***

Re: I'll give it a good. Take away Bama and

He stated QB play overall not just the passing game.

Very good is a stretch IMO. Good is probably reasonable.***

Re: He stated QB play overall not just the passing game.

Re: He stated QB play overall not just the passing game.