You are right on many perspectives. A good QB plays to their strengths and minimizes their weaknesses -- with the help of the QB coach. MJ is not a great athlete from the waist down...he does not pose a threat as a runner like JH. But he is a great QB from the waist up...particularly his accuracy and mind. He reminds me of a young Tom Brady...excited for him to keep developing his ability to focus in difficult situations.
Jimbo isn't stupid and I can reasonably see a coach getting burnt on two bombs. But you combine the two long td's with other throws Jones made and it was obvious he wasn't a fluke. Which made what Jimbo and staff continued to do even more head scratching.
He's not as good as Tua. Hopefully he's more durable. But he's not as good as Tua.
Texas and Baylor fans will tell you that your IQ drops by ⅓ when you move to College Station. Seriously, did they watch any film on MJ? He made every pass in the book against AU, UM and Missouri...Other than 1 fluke play that resulted in an int his passing was flawless. Their stubbornness bordered on stupidity.
It was the same with LSU against Mississippi St. the week before. Some coaches get stubborn and refuse to change. UGA's defense will provide us more of a challenge in a few weeks. Ole Miss's offense will give us some challenges this week, so I hope we are tuned up nicely after that. Playing a league game every week is going to really challenge every team.
I think Gary Danielson was pointing this out without coming out and saying it. He made several commits regarding the safeties continuing to play up throughout the game. If we were sitting in a bar watching the game with Gary his comment would be more like "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING JIMBO?!?!"
If you mean as a passer - totally agree. Tua is the best pure passer I have ever seen at any level. But if you are talking about other things, like reading defenses, the Mac is better. I was stunned last year to read how little Tua really understood about reading defenses. Because of the RPO scheme that you run, he had to make one or two pre-snap reads and then throw the ball. If the pre-snap reads were disguised, he had to let the play develop and just look for an open guy. He did not understand route trees or complicated defensive coverages at all. But his arm talent was so extraordinary that he still put up amazing stats.
I get excited, but experience through observation unfortunately tells me to pump the brakes right now. I'm also not very good at manufacturing insincere excitement.
I want to see your run defense tested. It has been great the first two games. If it holds up as well against teams with better running attacks, I think you will win out. aTm has a great o-line and you stuffed their run game. But they don't have a great RB. That is why they had to move Smith from receiver to RB. And Mizzou never even got their running game going.
The run defense doesn't bother me as much as the breakdowns I'm seeing in the passing game. It appears, whether it is the DC, the players or both. that we make quicker and more efficient adjustments to the run game than the passing. The three problems that I THINK I'm seeing are:
Tua's inability to adjust if the pre-snaps reads weren't there were the biggest reason Clemson did what they did to him. His ability to throw so well gave him the chance to make some plays, but overall Clemson dissected him, that pick six in the 1st quarter most notably. And when we got in the red zone, where reading a defense is more necessary, he couldn't do it.
If I remember correctly, I think it was Wright...early, had a busted coverage....then later on baits Mond into a pick 6.
You're making a generic assessment that doesn't give to an actual comparison of the two. There are things that Jones does that are superior to Tua and the more you watch Jones it becomes very obvious . One of the most important things Jones does that is FAAAAAR superior and more helpful to his team is the ability to create more time in the pocket with subtle side steps that extend the play without cutting off half the field by rolling out too wide. I watched him do it to perfection in the bowl game against Michigan and have watched him do it several times just in the first two games. He also has the patience and maturity to not try and do too much when there's nothing there. Where as Tua had a bad habit of keeping an already dead play alive which if I remember correctly is how his two major injuries happened. I could list more but they are different quarterbacks with different strengths. But Jones does things that are superior to Tua and from what I've seen so far, can flip a scoreboard just as quick.
Great stats. Even more impressive when put into context of the competition faced.
I'm not talking about the down linemen. I figured we'd use a mush rush approach with them. But when we did send blitzes by non down linemen they were consistently 1 1/2 steps late, even when they were untouched. Not sure if this was due to lining up a few steps too deep, not anticipating/timing the snap well enough or Mond was just quicker at recognizes his hot read.
He brings different strengths to the table than Tua, but the stats and scoreboard look very similar.
