You are right, it was not totally Early's fault for dropping that pass . . . it was thrown behind him, off target. Understand I don't blame JR either, he is young and will correct that kind of thing in time. Who would have thought Cambell could make that game winning TD pass? In those hard situations, in the past, he has thrown an INT. Today he nailed the open WR by throwing a bean over coverage.
No actually the pass should have been caught. That's why I referred to Early keeping his head up. Next time he will catch that pass, it's growing pains, unfortunately it came at too crucial of a time. The pass was thrown where it was supposed to be thrown, where it's taught to be thrown when a defender is close in the vacinity coming towards the receiver. The defender was coming towards Early from the left and had JR thrown it perfectly leading the receiver it would have been knocked down or intercepted. It was actually thrown in the right location, unfortunately he wasn't throwing it to Micheal Clayton.
When I re-watch the tape later tonight I'll look for that and where the pass was thrown. I know what you are talking about, and I didn't mean that Russell should have lead the WR, it seemed to me that the pass was thrown behind the WR . . . outside of the range you are talking about. Can't say for sure, considering you are so positive the ball was thrown perfectly, so I'll have to check it out for myself paying closer attention.
Check it out and send me a pvt msg in case I don't see your post somewhere. There will be approximately 1 million posts between now and the time you watch the game.
LOL, you are right. I'll post it here, I want to check out that fumble as well. When they replayed it on TV, I thought for sure we were out of bounds, but on another thread a poster swears that he was in bounds. I do want to say that even if Russell's pass was too far behind the WR, it wasn't the only play that lost us the game. He is a talented guy and bound to make some mistakes along the way, even costly ones . . . look at what happened in FL last season. The QB thing tore that team and fan support apart. I'm also curious about Randell, if he was injuried after that sack. He didn't come back into the game after that hit, so when I saw Russell take over the enitre 4th, I figured it was because Randell was hurt.
The left foot was down on that fumble...unfortunately it was too damn close and the ref got it wrong. Can't really complain too much on that one, but it could just as easily gone our way.
I would be a lot more dejected had that last drive resulted in 4 really BAD passes by Russell and we went 4 and out. The fact that he stood up there in the pocket under immense pressure and delivered gives me all the hope I need for the rest of this season. No more losses.....no more losses.
Since I have the tape in, I'll check out that throw now . . . The situation was 3rd and 1 with 16 seconds left on the clock. Early was the WR running a tight slant into zone coverage. The ball, to me, seems way behind Early. It could be the angle, which about press box level, but the pass seems way behind the WR. Early barely gets his left hand on the ball which perfectly tips it to the defender running at him. The ball certainly could have been caught, but the dropping LB wasn't as close to Early as I had thought . . . basically Russell could have lead Early or thrown it in front of him, without having to worry about the ball being tipped or an INT. The reason I feel it was way behind Early, is because he had to completely turn around to handle the pass. I just went through the play, frame for frame. If anyone sees anything different, or has a better angle from a replay, share it with us. I don't think this one play lost us the game, I just don't think Russell threw a perfect pass.
Me too, Russell hung tough in there and drove us down the field. He actually made the correct read, I assume, since he threw the ball when the outside defender moved to the flats and the LB was starting to turn to the inside, leaving the passing lane open. We can second guess this play forever, and it doesn't mean a thing, but I don't think this one game will tank our season. Both Randell and Russell will continue to play, and hopefully we can get our O together next week against MissSt.
