I was dreading coming to this board if we lost. I was ready for everyone asking for his and Miles's heads on a platter. We win and it is the same anyway. I believe that Tenn is better than Arky and we will still win if he has the same kind of performance because he sticks with it and doesnt give up. He gives us the best chance to win.
Russell is not an innacurate passer. I often marvel at his ability to hit his spot. The winning TD would have hit Bowe right in the stomach. I just watched it again in slow-mo - Bowe had slowed to a near stop and a defender was coming from the other direction (however, Russell didn't see the wide-open Doucet in the middle of the end zone, who should have been the intended receiver). That said, he throws a terrible deep ball. He puts way too much air under the ball, pretty much negating the advantage his arm strength gives him. Someone needs to tell him to throw those balls hard, and not try to loft them in perfectly. I don't know if he is poor at reading defenses, or if the receivers aren't getting open, or if the play calling is to blame, but things often look too difficult in the passing game. He is definitely prone to mistakes that I would blame on his thought process (e.g. don't throw the ball high in traffic, throw the ball away on first down or when in field goal range, etc.).
First, "another subpar effort?" Let's see. Completed 24 of 36 attempts for 247 yards for three TDs including the game-winning score. Ran for 71 yards and was the leading rusher in the game. Had a net total of 318 yards. Had three interceptions - two of which was his fault - but bounced back, kept his composure and led to team to a come-from-behind victory against a tough, top ten team in front of 100,00 Tennessee fans screaming at him in what is certainly one of the toughest stadiums in the nation to win in. Yea, you're right. Definately a subpar effort. We won because of the three touchdown passes he made. Perhaps you missed that. If he made mistakes, he also overcame them which is a hallmark of a champion. Inaccurate? He is the #5 quarterback in the nation in terms of passing efficiency. He has a 69.43 completion percentage. It is absolutely ridiculous to claim that his effectiveness is only because of the receivers. The game-winning pass to Bowe was not poorly thrown. Bowe was standing by himself in the endzone and the pass was right at him. Doucet simply did not realize Bowe was there, and made the catch instead. The fact is that JR is putting the ball where the receivers are able to come up with it. Russell puts the in what I call the "catch zone" far more than he fails to do that. As far as his instincts are concerned, the one area he can be criticized for is having too much self-confidence often causing him to throw a ill conceived pass. But self-confidence is a two-edged sword. Give me a quarterback who is a little over-self-confident than one who is not sure about his abilities any day. As far as the run you mentioned, he knew he was close to the edge and would have liked to have been further inside the sideline, but the Volunteers had something to do with his position. "Can't read defenses?" Apparently you have not been noticing how many times in a game he changes a play at the line of scrimmage. He reads defenses very well, thank you.
First off I want to say great game Tigers, it was a classic SEC football game, coming down to the last play. I was hoping the Vols would win, but certainly the Tigers played better the entire game and deserved the win. I don't want to sound like sour grapes at all, but as a Vols fan in the stadium without the benefit of TV and replays, I couldn't agree more with this comment. It seemed to me the game would have been an LSU blowout if not for Russell keeping us in it. I know I wasn't alone in the stadium wishing Russell would have kept throwing the ball more often.
