I agree that Martinez looked bad. I may never forget his "deer in headlights" look. He was in a continuous state of panic on passing plays. How did the coaching staff help him out? They continued to put him in obvious passing situations. Our coaching staff did nothing to help the kid out Saturday. I'm not, particularly, a big Tmart fan but the backlash from this game is asinine. He played like a freshman qb whos coaches left him on an island to get slaughtered. As poorly as he played we could have easily still managed to win if it wasn't for the play calling.
T-tragic was a mess. Freshman or not.
Imo we are in the exact same position we were last year at this time. Needing to find a qb. Tragic's only real skill is his speed, which seems to be negated rather easily vs. athletic defenses. He has no ability to manage a game. Can't hang onto the football and is unable to even find 2nd options much less 3rd and 4th options...
I'm not completely wanting to give up on him. But at the very least, that position needs to be up for grabs again come this spring.
T-Ragic would have been funnier.
I don't blame him-- I think he should have been pulled out, but I don't blame him at all. I think his ankles and feet were probably bound to the point of immobility. I mean, think about if you dinged up your left thumb that you use to play Madden with... it would be like that but more. Athletes get used to being able to perform within and to the extremes of their limits, you move those limits, it can have a catastrophic result. The whole system goes out of whack, he now has to think about his abilities because they aren't exactly the same ones that he had at the start of hte season or during high school or whatever. When all you have (or are defined by) your mobility and suddenly one ankle is taped up nearly cast-like and the other foot... well, I don't know what they do for turf toe, but it probably sucks too.
I wasn't trying to be a smart donkey about the Madden thing, either. I'm sure we've tried to do low-stakes, fairly easy activities like play video games with something as minor as a paper cut on one of our fingers-- it sucks! It throws your game off. I just try to imagine something like that extended to something as major as the lower part of the leg to a runner... that's gotta throw your game way off. The pain screws with concentration, your concentration is even more limited because you have to think about trying to run earlier than your well-trained reflexes are used to telling you to run, and then you're trying to run the game as a freshman.
No, I don't blame him at all... that had to be rough. But I do blame the staff for not taking him out when it seemed that he was struggling-- not because he "sucks" or is "clueless" but because it's like he was playing the game with a different skill set and, essentially, in a different body. It had to be frustrating and sending him down a mental spiral. I think he will be great, but that was just really unfortunate circumstances.
