*** What Did We Learn ***

[Count 'Bility]

We also learned that our pass protection looks a lot better when we have a QB with pocket presence.

I will somewhat agree with this. I think the big difference is the normalcy of TA's pocket presence and movement around the pocket. I think he is more traditional, and that it makes it more predictable and easier for the OL to block accordingly. I think Taylor has pretty good "presence," but his footwork and movement isn't traditional. Reminds me of playing basketball with a guy who would run the correct plays, but his footwork or timing were just a little off from what the rest of the team was used to seeing.

This is interesting. You guys bring up an intriging point. I think the two's pocket movement is totall reflective on their respective running styles. Taylor being more straight line and gashing while Tommy has more shake and bake, which is seemingly better in the pocket when trying to maneuver around pressure.

 

Agree. I don't think Taylor's problem is that he gets happy feet too quickly, I think it's that he stays flatfooted too long. Sometimes you just need to take a couple steps to buy you that extra second in the pocket, staying mobile but not yet scrambling. The good quarterbacks all do this. Taylor's not bad when he's forced to roll out, but otherwise he stays frozen too long. It's interesting to hear the great QB coaches talking about what young QBs need to work on most. It's rarely the arm, or even the vision. It's the footwork.

And, lastly, that's something that just comes naturally as part of the skillset of a quarterback. It's safe to say in an honest way that Taylor is not a natural qb. Imagine how great he'd be if he was.

[Knoxville Husker]

We also learned that our pass protection looks a lot better when we have a QB with pocket presence.

+1 - that is one thing I noticed as well. It seems that TA can feel and see the pressure in ways TM can't & moves to avoid it. TM can get happy feet a bit to quick.

 

I was wondering about Turner's drop pass - perfectly thrown into his hands. Didn't look like Turner stretched out for it - he was later out of uniform - what kind of injury does he have and I wondered if that contributed to that dropped TD pass.

 

I think that was the most grievous drop that hurt TA's day, and the Enunwa drop was pretty ugly too after Tommy bought time and found him. Overall those two drops turned a potentially dominant performance on offense into an average one. The 3 TA picks were pretty awful too, but fortunately did not harm us too badly due to the defense's stellar day. Hopefully he will learn a lot from those, and perhaps he had a couple "stored up" after clicking so well with the WRs the prior 2 games.

 

RKIII is a very nice steady hand and insurance policy, but perhaps the slowest QB I have seen in a long time.

 

Agree that the Purdue run defense was not shabby, though perhaps a little more creativity in the run game (e.g. more option) could have been attempted. Or that play action off the option that used to work so well.

[ZRod]

RKIII is a very nice steady hand and insurance policy, but perhaps the slowest QB I have seen in a long time.

I actually don't think he's that slow, he surprised me with a scramble or two and was quicker than I thought he'd be. He's at least as fast and maybe faster than Zac Lee was, which isn't saying much but he's the "slowest" we've had since Zac Taylor. Ron just doesn't glide like Taylor and Tommy do, he's got that pounding style of similar to Andrew Luck so he looks even slower than he is.