Windfall
Arkansas Writeup
These things are considerably more fun to write after we win. They’re most fun to write after we win big against a big rival. SC is way down that list but the presence of Spurrier bumps them up a couple of spots.
Anyway, good win. Who bet the under?
On to Arkansas. Time to call the Dawgs.
Here’s this week’s writeup…
jody,
I think you missed a host of quarterbacking snafus that joe had against usc. you did mention the pick 6, and that was an obvious one. and yes he did get one ball tipped, but luckily mike moore caught it. what you didn’t mention is how often he underthrew aj green. he also had at least two occasions where he led orson charles too much instead of hitting him in stride. those two would likely have gone for scores as the safety was beaten. he also had a very ill advised grounding call to put us even further away from the goal line. it’s not always about making turnovers, which joe has had plenty of. it’s also about game management. did he do better against usc? yes. am I confident he can compete against any opponent we’ll face? no way. he has a long way to go and a short time to get there (thank you jerry reed). i’m sorry but a 5th senior who can “make all of the throws according to our coaching staff” cannot take half the season as on the job training. Cox has to quit turning the ball over and start helping us win.
We’ll just have to disagree on a few of those. QBs aren’t going to be perfect. I know Cox underthrew Green on one play (it drew a pass intereference). On our opening offensive play of the game, if anything, Cox overthrew Green and he had to dive to break it up. In fact, looking at the play-by-play, Cox threw to Green 8 times and completed 5 of them, not counting the pass interference. The incomplete passes intended for Green were the opening pass and two passes from inside our 20 right before the TD pass to end the first half. The pass interference throw was underthrown but he had single coverage and I’d take that every day of the week over an overthrow. Green isn’t going to get outjumped by a DB 6 inches shorter than him.
Can he get better about turnovers, absolutely, and it’s hard to understand the pick 6 as he was staring down the receiver. As to his passes to Charles, even the announcers pointed out that as Charles gets more comfortable he’d be willing to catch one of those in stride rather than going down for it. Neither one missed by much.
Cox wasn’t perfect, but he was way better than he was in the opener, and if we as a team can stop turning the ball over our offense should be fine.
Jody, thanks again for the weekly fix.
The award for most improved from week 1 has to go to Richard Samuel. He ran like someone had lit a fire under him, at times it was almost Moreno-like. If he can maintain that type of effort throughout the year I feel really good about what our running game can do.
I would also like to give our defense some credit, and David Hale provided a great stat to validate what I was thinking. Of the 65 points given up so far this season, 42 come from opponents drives of less than 32 yards. I am too lazy to go back through the game logs to see if that include the pick 6 and the safety given up last week. Regardless, OSU had some pretty good offensive weapons and Garcia played out of his mind and our D held their own pretty well.
Anyone have any color on what was going on between Cox and Ben Jones, on three different occasions it looked like they weren’t in agreement on the timing of shotgun snaps. The first time I thought Jones screwed up, the next two it appeared to be Cox.
Thanks…
I posted a link to your blog on Facebook. Not sure if you’ve got a page posted already, but it might be worth the viewership. You always have good insights. I make this a weekly read.
I’ve resisted the urge to join Facebook. My wife does it and enjoys seeing other folks’ pictures, I just haven’t. As a non-participant, it’s interesting to see some folks run the gamut from joining, to being obsessed, to having it fall by the wayside completely. I’ve already got too many hobbies and I know I’d get into it way too much.
Yeah, I saw a couple of miscues there. One snap was luckily dead on waist level because Cox wasn’t looking and it hit him square in the hands. I have no idea whose fault those are but I’m thinking if we as fans are picking up on that then the coaches are drilling them on it. I hope so anyway.
Wow, some pretty foolish sounding folks afterweek 3. Way to support the team! Love the work you do Jodi. Could do without the critics that write in. Thanks.
Quick question for you Jody – when you watch the game, do you notice that our defense rarely seems to be in position more than a few seconds before the play? Is the scheme signalled in every down? Players always seem lost, the D-ends always seem to be running to the other side of the line right before the snap, and often times the d-line is set up a full yard off the ball. I can’t comment on the D-backs, but they don’t seem to be near the ball when it’s thrown, so I have to assume that they’re out of position when it’s snapped as well. Last issue – when we blitz, our LBs just seem to run right at the other teams linemen, who in the world is teaching them how to apply pressure?