Early miscue or sign of things to come?

The running game will not be consistent if JJ is no run threat.

JJ was definitely forcing it. If he'd had just kneeled down instead of forcing the ball into triple coverage, the game would have been a blow out. We got an extra week to fix our shite on offense, and recuperate from dings and I think we will be solid. Defense looked solid at the start, on Monty's forced fumble, he was in the backfield before the OLine was out of their stances. Him and Lawson will be unstoppable if lawson stays 100%.

i actually feel really good about where we are at despite the, more or less, bad QB play.

Defense played good overall. That Lamar Jackson dude is a gamer. He would have been tough for a lot of defenses today.

Running backs looked good. feels nice to have what is essentially our 3rd string running back looking as strong as he has.

JJ not only looked shaky throwing the ball, but it looks like he really won't be a huge run threat. he has enough speed to be a threat i think, i'm just not sure how good he is at running the read option, which is what marshall and of course cam was great at. we were banking on his arm, which was... hit or miss today to put it nicely.

to be fair to JJ though, he was bound to have some issues early on. I think he played so solid against arkansas last year because he knew it was temporary anyway, so he probably felt like he had nothing to lose, which kept him loose. Now that the team is on his shoulders, it will take some time to adjust to that fact.

I think it might be both. JJ might not be able to read a defense. A 3rd year player should know to throw it away instead of forcing it down field. But that will come with experience.

He has a cannon for an arm but he has tunnel vision. You can call it jitters or whatever, but the amount of passes he threw into a crowd or had a defender undercut tells me he doesn't see the field very well.

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Early miscue. 

2013 opener we beat freaking Washington state by the same exact score

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But that was Gus first game here. This is his 3rd year with a qb in the system 3 years.

If we can clean up the run game we will be fine. We need safetys to cheat down to open passing lanes. But don't need to go for the homerun on every pass. No doubt JJ has an NFL arm, but he needs to take the best throw possible.


I did like seeing that 10 yard sideline out. That play to Darvin Adams was money when Gus first arrived. Cam used it to help win the 2010 iron bowl.

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This is his 3rd year with a qb in the system 3 years.

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This is what bothers me about Johnson's performance. I expected more from a guy with his talent who has been in the system as long as he has.

Early miscues for now. It could become a sign of things to come. Some thoughts that come to mind.

1. We have useful film. A lot of teams are playing cupcakes and won't really know where they stand and where to improve. It's nice that we do.

2. The 2nd half D was a huge step down from the 1st Half. Yes, that QB made a huge difference, but we were missing Lawson and Matthews. Our two best players and leaders. We need them back.

3. It seemed to me that we were not prepared at all for the type of running game the offered 2nd half. My guess is we didn't prepare for it since that is not typical Petrino. That film will help us for teams like Ole Miss and Miss St.

4. I don't think Malzahn called a bad game. I think he felt pigeon holed by a QB who was trying to make the big play every throw. With our running game, the underneath routes should be wide open.

5. Where was Duke? Not many targets.

JJ is still a new starter, breaking in 3 new RBs, 2 new FBs, 2 new TEs, and the only WR with any real experience didn't get much time. The only known commodity on our offense was the O-Line.

I'll chalk this up to first game jitter. JJ made some god awful decisions and reads, but like you said he showed plenty of flashes of the NFL arm that got him the preseason hype. I think he'll settle in and be fine.

Luckily we are so loaded at RB that we could focus on the run and IMO put up just as good rushing numbers as 2013. That may be the way to go for the next weeks so we can slowly get JJ more comfortable and build his confidence back.