My Kingdom for a True Drop Back Passer

[jever4321]

The arm punts worked against ND. What does that say about their secondary?

 

[bdtay71]

I just saw replays of his 4 TD passes on the BTN... almost all were jump balls the receiver came back to. I don't think those are by design, and could've easily been picks. He threw three of them, and two were just like that... short.

He and Borges have a lot of work to do.

Exactly. But, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

 

[bamf16]

Denard really only threw two balls last night that he never should have thrown. The jump ball to Hemingway for the big gain was into double coverage. That's no good. His second pick was the same thing, a jump ball into double coverage. No good. The last pick was a jump ball in man to man coverage. Those aren't necessarily bad. At times, you do that by design. The only time QBs are coached not to throw jump balls in man coverage is if they read a deep safety over the top. If Cover 2, Cover 3 or Cover 4, no jump balls. If Cover 1, you have to be careful the safety isn't rolling over to the side you're throwing to. So if you're rolling out against Cover 1, no jump ball. If the safeties are up, tossing it up isn't necessarily bad; it depends more on the game situation than anything. I'd prefer not to see many jump balls for 5'8" Gallon.

Even the first pick on the screen wasn't a dumb decision; it was just a bad throw.

Denard Robinson doesn't have the skillset to be a traditional 3 or 5 step drop and throw timing routes all day like we had with Henne, Navarre, Brady, Henson, Griese, Dreisbach, and Grbac. Asking him to consistently do this and then criticizing him when he doesn't excel is like asking those guys to run a zone read, keep it, and get 6-8 yards, then bitch when they can't consistently do it.

The problem Borges has right now is that Denard is so damn good in an offense he doesn't know. Denard is so much better in the shotgun spread that Borges has to run it more than I think he'd like. What is going to help Denard the most is getting RBs to do SOMETHING to take some attention off Denard and to keep defenses honest. Play action won't work if the defense doesn't give two shits about the RB getting the ball.

Where the fuck was Toussaint last night?!

 

[dubbsco]

In college or pro, unless the CB is a freak, the WR will win the battle 9 times out of 10. If you have a tall guy like Hemingway, underthrowing the ball works perfectly. The CB is concerned with keeping up with the player. If the WR stops, comes back to the ball, and the ball is underthrown, he's going to win. His deep ball has no touch, but I have no problem with his medium range throws.

 

[doinwork83]

Some of the passes are back shoulder fades, like the one to roundtree. An unstoppable play. Some are jump balls. He knows his WR's are bigger, and the better athlete, He throws it up, lets them use their height advantage and make a play.

 

[Michchamp]

jump balls DO NOT work all season; that shit isn't going to fly against every opponent.

they have plenty of film to work with, and if we keep doing it, they're going to make us pay.

I kinda agree w/MichQB_U. A lot of times last night, I was thinking to myself: if we had Henne back there, this 3rd and 7, 3rd and 12 would be a piece of cake.

Still... great game, I'm happy we won; but as we've seen two seasons in a row now, the broken-play, desperation shit is exciting, but eventually it catches up to you. Borges needs to find a way to grind out yards, without relying on crazy comebacks and big plays

 

[cmrlily]

bamf touched on this, but part of the problem is that we do not have an effective ground attack. We saw some sparks with Touissant, but I'm guessing he was dinged up again.

Combine this with the fact that he is not a natural drop back passer, and at times he looks worse than he actually is.

I agree with champ on the third down thing too, particularly with Henne. Not so confident with Denard in obvious passing situations.

 

[dubbsco]

If you put Hemingway against any average Big 10 CB, he will win that battle. No, it's not a way to live, but there's a reason being a corner back is one of the toughest positions in football; the WR has such a huge advantage. Play to your strengths with that guy's height. I think he's a major key to having a great season.

 

[deathroh]

We know one is coming, so why bitch

 

[Mich_QB_U]

Yeah, I complained about it in the heat of the first half of the game when Denard couldn't even complete a screen pass. I just hope that other people on offense step up and the defense improves by the time we get into conference play, otherwise we can have a repeat of last year.