I think many of us, myself included, think we know a decent amount about football. We've watched alot of it, probably played some, maybe even coached a little ball or read some of the scheme books / breakdowns that are now out there on the internet. When things like QB play come up, we typically think we know the answer.
The truth of the matter, though, is that none of us really know what is driving an offense's success, or lack thereof, when watching a game. If we had the All-22 film and gameplan / checks, maybe some of us would be able to reverse engineer what the likely issues were, but even then, we can't get into why certain calls were selected and how the coaches' confidence in a player or his skillset in that specific situation led to that playcall. There are an infinite number of interconnected aspects to everything that we're really so in the dark, more so than any other sport when it pertains to how everything comes together on the field, and this makes it impossible to definitively say what an offense's issues are.
However, I don't know the first thing about playing an instrument (well), but I know good music (like Florida Georgia Line) when I hear it. I don't know why the guitarist went off on this solo or why the singer changed this note, but I know when it works well and when it doesn't. We can all tell when the key selections and rhythm decisions and whatever else artists do to come up with a song work, and that's sort of how I feel with good offense.
DJ didn't play horribly last night. He made some decent throws, some of which were dropped by our less than stellar pass-catchers. He was more mobile. He was more decisive. He's gotten better; it would be hard to argue otherwise, but it's still not good music. As I said, I don't know how much of the issues were on him vs his OL vs his receivers vs the playcalls, I really don't. I just know it doesn't work. That may sound overly simplistic, but it's the truth. We've got too good of a defense for this to be what they're paired with.
When you compare it to Cade's series, it's so night and day. There's such a fit between skillset and player and execution. I feel for DJ as you can tell he's working at it, but he's just not a good fit in this offense. He should be playing 20 years ago in a Byron Leftwich type of offense, not a zone read offense. He's gotten more willing to run, and good on him for that, but he's so unnatural at the zone read. You can tell he doesn't have the feel for it, not even close, and that's something that's so hard to master and so critical for this offense's success. Cade brings that element, and that element alone is almost enough to tip the scales, given how important it is to this offense's success.
And it doesn't mean Cade is without flaws. That drive he led was awesome; it really was, but it would've ended really quickly against an elite defense. That first rollout throw he made on the smash concept would've been intercepted by any upper echelon CB who would've sank underneath it. That's a concept teams used to catch Deshaun on all the time, and they sunk under it a number of times for picks. Had a more skilled CB be in that situation, it's a pick. It's going to happen with Cade; you can already see it, but his willingness to make the throw without hesitation instantly changes all aspects of the offense.
Without Cade, we're once again an offense that will struggle to make explosive plays, and you simply have to have those to win big boy college football these days. Defenses are too good for us to routinely be executing 10 play drives. He's gonna miss some notes and sing offkey from time to time, but if we want to be playing good music by the time the real games come along, the only option is Cade.
The truth of the matter, though, is that none of us really know what is driving an offense's success, or lack thereof, when watching a game. If we had the All-22 film and gameplan / checks, maybe some of us would be able to reverse engineer what the likely issues were, but even then, we can't get into why certain calls were selected and how the coaches' confidence in a player or his skillset in that specific situation led to that playcall. There are an infinite number of interconnected aspects to everything that we're really so in the dark, more so than any other sport when it pertains to how everything comes together on the field, and this makes it impossible to definitively say what an offense's issues are.
However, I don't know the first thing about playing an instrument (well), but I know good music (like Florida Georgia Line) when I hear it. I don't know why the guitarist went off on this solo or why the singer changed this note, but I know when it works well and when it doesn't. We can all tell when the key selections and rhythm decisions and whatever else artists do to come up with a song work, and that's sort of how I feel with good offense.
DJ didn't play horribly last night. He made some decent throws, some of which were dropped by our less than stellar pass-catchers. He was more mobile. He was more decisive. He's gotten better; it would be hard to argue otherwise, but it's still not good music. As I said, I don't know how much of the issues were on him vs his OL vs his receivers vs the playcalls, I really don't. I just know it doesn't work. That may sound overly simplistic, but it's the truth. We've got too good of a defense for this to be what they're paired with.
When you compare it to Cade's series, it's so night and day. There's such a fit between skillset and player and execution. I feel for DJ as you can tell he's working at it, but he's just not a good fit in this offense. He should be playing 20 years ago in a Byron Leftwich type of offense, not a zone read offense. He's gotten more willing to run, and good on him for that, but he's so unnatural at the zone read. You can tell he doesn't have the feel for it, not even close, and that's something that's so hard to master and so critical for this offense's success. Cade brings that element, and that element alone is almost enough to tip the scales, given how important it is to this offense's success.
And it doesn't mean Cade is without flaws. That drive he led was awesome; it really was, but it would've ended really quickly against an elite defense. That first rollout throw he made on the smash concept would've been intercepted by any upper echelon CB who would've sank underneath it. That's a concept teams used to catch Deshaun on all the time, and they sunk under it a number of times for picks. Had a more skilled CB be in that situation, it's a pick. It's going to happen with Cade; you can already see it, but his willingness to make the throw without hesitation instantly changes all aspects of the offense.
Without Cade, we're once again an offense that will struggle to make explosive plays, and you simply have to have those to win big boy college football these days. Defenses are too good for us to routinely be executing 10 play drives. He's gonna miss some notes and sing offkey from time to time, but if we want to be playing good music by the time the real games come along, the only option is Cade.
