Next Man Up: Big Uno Edition

[W.E.D 11,070]

43 minutes ago, VicTree said:

A QB who can't run and receivers who can't get open.  Bad combination.

Our OL also had our worst pass protection grade of the year vs USC.  Shame we tried to throw so much.  Feel like Tank should have gotten 25-30, Hunter 10-15 and reduce TJ's passes down to ~20 and we would have won.

 

I don't think TJ was the sole reason why we lost.  He made some good plays, but also struggled at times and (if ppl are accurate) missed some open WRs in his progressions.  I think he has talent, but just needs more time developing the mental side of the game.  He was pretty raw coming out of HS.  Most HS kids are and need to sit/learn for 2-3 years.

Edited November 22, 2021 by W.E.D

[au302 2,669]

I watched TJ a good bit last year at LSU. Imo, it does seem like he's developed considering he doesn't have many reps. Do I think he's the future? As of right now, probably not. Do I think he's got major potential? Yes.

To me, he maneuvers in the pocket extremely well. He is way more mobile this year. He looks a good bit slimmer from last year. Where he struggled last game imo was that he was hesitant to put the ball in the middle of the field at times and missed some open targets. Also needs to work on his touch and deep ball more. 

Supposedly, the hitches were open all night. I said before the game that should have go under center with play-action more with the TE's involved. That is the type of QB TJ is imo. I want him to just let it rip against Bama. If he throws some picks, so be it, we're probably getting killed anyways. Long story short, he was decent. Not what AU needs, but it's his first game folks. The narrative that he's a major statue is overblown imo

[Win4AU 4,054]

TJ actually looked better than I was expecting.  Biggest issue to me was the numerous fumbled snaps.  I thought he threw some great passes but USCe’s dbs were smothering our WRs for much of the game.  Thought there definitely could have been some PIs but they were letting them play. 

[TigerPAC 967]

35 minutes ago, au302 said:

I watched TJ a good bit last year at LSU. Imo, it does seem like he's developed considering he doesn't have many reps. Do I think he's the future? As of right now, probably not. Do I think he's got major potential? Yes.

To me, he maneuvers in the pocket extremely well. He is way more mobile this year. He looks a good bit slimmer from last year. Where he struggled last game imo was that he was hesitant to put the ball in the middle of the field at times and missed some open targets. Also needs to work on his touch and deep ball more. 

Supposedly, the hitches were open all night. I said before the game that should have go under center with play-action more with the TE's involved. That is the type of QB TJ is imo. I want him to just let it rip against Bama. If he throws some picks, so be it, we're probably getting killed anyways. Long story short, he was decent. Not what AU needs, but it's his first game folks. The narrative that he's a major statue is overblown imo

TJ was not going to win that game or light it up.  3 things...

1--hesitant to put ball in middle, missed some open targets, needs to work on touch and deep ball-->this is NOT what you want to hear about QB, even if 2nd string

2--he never even looked at or targeted a TE the entire game

3--why do other teams backups look like Heisman winners against us?

[Hank2020 3,210]

1 hour ago, TigerPAC said:

TJ was not going to win that game or light it up.  3 things...

1--hesitant to put ball in middle, missed some open targets, needs to work on touch and deep ball-->this is NOT what you want to hear about QB, even if 2nd string

2--he never even looked at or targeted a TE the entire game

3--why do other teams backups look like Heisman winners against us?

I thought the 4th and 1 was a TE but may be wrong.

[AuburnEagle79 2,169]

I thought he did alright with the exception of deciding who he was throwing to before the play no matter what a couple times. He played well enough to win us the game, unfortunately the play calling did not put us in that position. 

[TigerPAC 967]

31 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

I thought the 4th and 1 was a TE but may be wrong.

you are correct, my bad, but geez what a call there (also, probable a designated one route play)

Edited November 22, 2021 by TigerPAC

[Hank2020 3,210]

Just now, TigerPAC said:

you are correct, my bad, but geez what a call there

True, that’s probably why I noticed. We definitely did not get many to them, one of our pluses this year.

[cbo 7,859]

8 hours ago, W.E.D said:

Our OL also had our worst pass protection grade of the year vs USC. 

Yet only one sack. Some on here were too hasty in their assessment of TJ in this area. 

[Malcolm_FleX48 1,869]

If we're going to play the comparison game, I think we at least need to be genuine in saying that comparing TJ and Bo would have to happen at equal years and stages in their development. TJ has had a half of season of play at LSU and will be coming in on the back end to complete a half of season of play for AU in the meat of an SEC schedule. In equivalent play experience, he's a freshman still. Especially when looking at this new offense.

That being said, there's a lot of things that it takes a season to develop as we saw with Bo:

1. Chemistry with WRs & TEs (Backup QB takes Backup snaps with the 2s normally or scout team.)

2. Understanding of Game Speed

3. Awareness of WR & TE route tendencies

4. Play-Calling tendencies of the OC (For the sake of checking in and out of bad plays based on specific rationale behind the plays and situation.)

 

A lot of this he will only have an abbreviated time to learn these so I don't think we can have these "TJ is the guy" or "Bo is the guy" type convos when the competition is already lopsided. That being said, I think there will be lows with TJ's play but there were also abysmal lows with Bo's play too. One of the things Bo improved on which boosted his floor was his ability to take care of the ball. FAR LESS PICKS.

I think this won't ever be solved because even with TJ being the guy, he's going to need to have an average of absolutely FANTASTIC PLAY over a short window to really convince people. And some he will never convince. 

[AuburnNTexas 7,154]

Considering the position he was put in TJ was not bad, he also was not great. He made a few great throws into tight windows. O-Line/Backs did a really bad job of picking up Blitz's. With Bo we moved the pocket which helps in pass blocking but that is not ideal for TJ. Bo and TJ each have different strength's.  Either we didn't utilize the TE's or TJ has not had enough Reps with 1st team so did not get to them in his progressions. He did seem to have the same issue Bo has had in past years where he locks in on a single receiver again lack of Reps. 

As everybody else has mentioned we should have relied on the run game more than we did especially since it was working so well. I did like the 2 long passes near beginning of  the game even though he over threw them in both cases the WR's had beaten their man. I know some of our fans complained about how much contact their DB's had on our receivers. I will are DB's had done the same. Most of the time we were not close enough to touch their receivers.

We have very talented LB's but for last 2 years we have been burned when other teams passes to backs out of backfield or RB's getting to Edge on runs. Edge on runs could be on LB or end depending on the defense we are in but back out of backfield is on LB or Safety.  It is so important to set the Edge and force plays back to inside where you should have help coming.

One play probably bothered me the most in the game when SC ran an end around. One of our Players not sure if it was end or LB diagnosed it and forced the WR to go deeper and wider. When I saw that I was thinking great play is taking to long to develop and we will swarm to the ball and they will lose 8 or 10 yards but nobody else came up so he got to the outside and had a big gain. 

Getting back to TJ I expect he will be better this week because he has had another week with 1st team reps but this is a very good team and even if our O is better than last week I am afraid our D will get toasted. We couldn't stop Vann from USC last week who is a solid receiver but not anywhere as good as the top 2 bama receivers and Young is a mobile accurate QB against USC we were playing against their third string QB and and a good o-line but bama's o-line is much better than USC's.