Old School

Call me boring. Call me a antiquated. Call me old school. Whenever I watch college football these days, it makes me cringe every time I see a "dual threat" quarterback, a 6'7" point guard, or better yet, a 6'4" 230lb safety. My problem isn't with the athlete that I'm watching. They're hardly to blame for using their athletic gifts.

The blame lies solely on the shoulders of the college and high school coaches who misguide their student-athletes. Are these coaches doing their due diligence or are they just trying to be progressive in their respective sports at the expense of their athletes?

Naturally, every sports fan will fire back at me with shots like "what's wrong with being progressive?" or "Isn't a dual threat QB a good thing?". My response is that there's nothing wrong with being progressive and yes, a dual threat QB is a great thing...when they happen to be a pocket passer with wheels and can score in the double digits of a Wonderlic test and by being progressive, it actually means improving an already functional system.

Let me ask you this: Can you name more than one dual threat QB to win a Super Bowl or a National Championship? There are three names that come to mind: Former Texas QB, Vince Young in 2005, current University Florida QB, Tim Tebow, and former 49er great, Steve Young, have been the most successful dual threat quarterbacks in football. Tebow and Vince Young have electrified fans with their play-making ability and carried their respective teams to NCAA titles. Steve Young didn't exactly electrify with his feet as much as he did with his laser-guided left arm, but he did rack up 4,239 career rushing yards.

Now, let me ask you this: How many athletic quarterbacks were highly regarded in college, but failed to win championships, and were high draft picks in the NFL and yet again, failed to win Super Bowls? I can name at least eight: Michael Vick (1st Overall Pick), Donovan McNabb (2nd Overall), Alex Smith (1st Overall), Charlie Ward (played in the NBA), Eric Crouch (Played 1 season as WR in the NFL), Randall Cunningham (2nd Round), Kordell Stewart (Played WR/RB/QB/P in the NFL), and Steve McNair (lost in the Super Bowl).

Suppose you were a coach and a statistician came up to you with a breakdown of the previous two paragraphs that looked like this -

Probability that your "dual threat" quarterback will win an NCAA championship - 1/20 (There have been four to six that have ever done this by my count, and Eric Crouch is a stretch)

Probability that your "athletic" quarterback will win a Super Bowl in the NFL - 1/43 (only one Super Bowl win by Steve Young)

No coach in their right mind would set up their own players for failure in their future professions for the sake of padding their own coaching resume, right? One would like to think so, but then there's Urban Meyer. He's at the head of the class when it comes to coaching quarterbacks with "upside" that eventually crumble in the NFL. Meyer's list includes the aforementioned Tebow, Josh Harris, Chris Leak, and Alex Smith. Each were utilized in his "progressive" spread offense that has won Meyer two national championships, two Mountain West Conference championships, and two Southeastern Conference championships. (Honorable mention for the coach who's most likely to kill a quarterback's chances in the NFL would have to be Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech - Michael Vick, Marcus Vick, Bryan Randall, and Tyrod Taylor to name a few)

Not surprisingly, Meyer's version of the spread has produced some of the most prolific individual rushing and passing seasons by a college quarterback in the history of college football. This is great for Meyer and even better for his quarterbacks...while they're still in school anyways. What is surprising is the lack of translation those numbers have when it comes to the NFL.

Meyer's spread offense demands athleticism and a strong arm. His quarterbacks rely on the scheme and their instincts. The occasional Cover 2 read or blitz read is needed, but for the most part, the plays are designed so well that it doesn't matter what defense they're facing. This may win his quarterbacks a Heisman Trophy or two, but it does them no justice when it comes to preparation for the NFL. My fear is that as long as sports fans and the media are obsessed with statistics, Meyer will always be judged as one of the best coaches in our era and continue to ruin the professional-potential of his quarterbacks.

The very thought of college football turning into nothing more than a high scoring track meet doesn't interest me one bit. There's a reason why track-and-field is only televised once every four years and that the Arena Football League quit for a season to "reorganize". I'll take a 20-17 chess match of field position, defensive adjustments, and a handful of play-action passes any day of the week. The day college football returns to it's glory of decades past, I'll consider myself a fan.

Side Note: While writing this, I was watching the SEC Championship game between Florida and Alabama. Here's what I came away with about Tebow and Alabama's pocket-passer, Greg McElroy:

• Perhaps this was Tebow's only game of his career against an NFL type defense...he didn't look comfortable at all. He still holds the football too low during his drop backs and his accuracy leaves a lot to be desired.
  

• Greg McElroy (Southlake Carroll HS, Texas), looked like Joe Montana in this game. He made every subtle play that a pocket-passer is expected to make to lead his team to a victory. His decision making was sharp and the execution of his throws was phenomenal.

Check back tomorrow for my NFL picks!

Ochocinco's next deodorant victim...the Lions!

At first glance, the score of 32-20 looks like a pretty good victory for the Seattle Seahawks. Every NFL fan would be happy with their team after a home win of 32-20 and everything in the box score suggests that Seattle was the dominant team…except for the 17-0 first quarter Detroit lead. Something like this jumps off the page to Detroit Lions fans trying to figure out what in the hell went wrong on Sunday. How can you give up a 17-0 lead against an inferior offense that has had trouble finding the end zone all season long?

Look no further than Matthew Stafford’s stat line: 22-42, 209 yds, 2 TD 5 INT

Now before you start pointing fingers at Matthew Stafford, let’s try to figure out why the Lions would even consider throwing the ball 42 times in a game where that held a 17-0 lead after one quarter of play. My initial thought was that Seattle had fought their way back into the game and Detroit needed to throw the ball in order to keep up. Wrong. My next guess was that the Lions had too many penalties on first and second down. Wrong.

When I went back over the play-by-play breakdown, I primarily focused on the first down play calling of Lions Offensive Coordinator, Scott Linehan. I must admit that I was thinking to myself “surely this guy would run the ball at least 70% of the time on first down with a lead…and a ROOKIE playing quarterback.” Wrong again. The breakdown went like this:

First Down Plays

Penalties – 2 false start penalties

Run – 12 att, 84 yds, 7.0 yds/att

Pass – 6 -11, 45 yds, 1 TD, 1 sack (-8), 3.8 yds/play (This doesn’t include spiking to stop the clock)

The Lions offense appeared to have everything going it’s way in the first quarter. Coach Linehan scripted the first 15 plays strategically enough to mix up the run and the pass that translated into four straight possessions with an opportunity to score. They cashed in on three of these four possessions, which led to a 17-0 lead.

What happened after that? To some it may not come as a surprise, but the Seahawks proceeded to outscore the Lions 32-3 over the final three quarters. Failure to make adjustments at halftime and not taking advantage of Seattle’s shoddy run defense proved to be the difference in the game.

As I mentioned earlier, many people would like to pin this loss on Stafford and his five costly interceptions. Let’s not be hasty, we should instead attempt to understand the game situations in which his mistakes were made. All but one of his interceptions came on third and long situations. One interception was essentially a punt with 4:34 left in the fourth quarter. On 3^rd and 9 from the DET 24 yard line, Stafford went deep down the right side to Calvin Johnson and was picked off by Marcus Trufant at the SEA 40. Stafford’s other three 3^rd down interceptions came on distances of 16, 10, and 9 yards.

I understand that there’s a learning process for rookie quarterbacks in the NFL and at times it can be a lengthy one (just ask Washington and San Francisco). Quarterbacks are such easy scapegoats in this league and in most cases it’s validated. However, Stafford wasn’t the main reason the Lions lost on Sunday.

The coaching staff of Detroit needs to put Stafford in situations where he doesn’t have to be the reason they win or lose. Never underestimate the importance of not going backwards on first down. Balance the playbook to a 70-30 run/pass ratio on first down to give Stafford a chance to get to 3^rd down and manageable. Also, consider the fact that your playbook opens up quite a bit more on 2^nd and 6 than it does on 2^nd and 10.

Stafford should never attempt more than 30 passes per game this season. At this point in his young six game career, he’s averaging over 35 attempts per game. That’s absurd. When the Dallas Cowboys started Troy Aikman as a rookie and finished 1-15, he averaged only 26 attempts per game. You know you’re team is going to struggle, so why, as a coaching staff, make it harder than it has to be. Go back to the basics and run between the tackles, make a few first downs, and play a little field position. You never know what kind of bounces that funny shaped pigskin can take sometimes.