Actually, I thought the pass was placed so that no one could catch it, maybe even Badet. I thought that Badet made an incredible adjustment on the ball just to catch it.
Evaluate Towles performance last night
- Thread starter dyersburgcatfan
- Start date
Actually, I thought the pass was placed so that no one could catch it, maybe even Badet. I thought that Badet made an incredible adjustment on the ball just to catch it.
I want to do a breakdown of every Towles pass last night. So here it is:
First series:
1. Incomplete. Throw to Baker. Baker drops it. Probably a huge gain and possibly a touchdown.
2. Interception. Swindle gets abused on the play and barely even gets a hand on the defensive end. Towles could have stepped up, but if Williams provides a little chip on the DE then Towles likely hits Charles Walker over the middle for a pretty big gain.
0-2 on the series.
Second series:
1. Forward pitch to Garret Johnson who picks up a solid 10 yards or so.
2. Pass to Baker on the deep post for a pickup of about 15 yards. Excellent throw.
3. Swing pass to Williams who gets some blocking and picks up 10 yards.
4. Incomplete. Slant pass to Baker. This one was a bad throw. Behind Baker and high.
5. Towles is flushed from the pocket due to a fairly decent interior rush (probably could have been a hold call on UK) and Towles dumps it to Horton who picks up four.
6. USC stuffs the box on 4th and 4 and Towles gets solid protection. He goes across the middle to Johnson for a big gain.
We'll drop the first "pass" play and call Towles 4-5 on this drive with 2 downfield completions. Puts him at 4-7 overall.
Third series:
1. Incomplete. Deep pass to Badet. Well overthrown by Towles. No real excuse for this one. Towles just let it sail on him.
2. Swing pass to Williams. Williams bobbles it, but it is a great throw (maybe a bit strong) and Williams picks up a couple yards. Without the bobble he may have gotten a few more.
3. Slant pass on the other side to Badet. Hits Badet in stride for a fairly good sized pickup.
Towles goes 2-3 on this series to give him a total of 6-10.
Fourth series:
1. Flip pass to Johnson. He only picks up a couple this time. We still aren't counting these.
2. Screen pass to Williams. Hero effort from Williams to turn that screen pass into a first down.
3. Incomplete. Pass in the endzone to Conrad. This wasn't a terrible pass. It was where only Conrad could get it, but it was probably ill advised. In fact, I think the entire play was kind of poorly drawn up. You had an underneath route with the fullback, Taco Meat Collins, and then a deeper route with Conrad. The two are really just a couple of yards away from one another. Conrad has about 3 men beat on the play and it is probably a completion if the man covering Collins doesn't come off of his man to get a hand in Conrad's face. The whole play could have been better. Collins could have came out a bit more flat and Collins came out a little deeper in the endzone giving them more separation instead of allowing one man to cover two people. Towles pass could have been further into the back corner allowing Conrad to run into more open space. The play also went to the short side, which doesn't give you much room to work. All around just not a play I like a whole lot, but an excellent effort by Conrad.
4. Swing pass to Kemp. Looks like a designed play to him rather than something down the field. Towles goes to it pretty much immediately. Probably could have gotten more with an open receiver on the left side, but, again, I am not sure this wasn't a designed swing pass. Also of interest was that Williams was in the play and he called a timeout and they subbed him our for Kemp.
This drive was largely a run heavy drive. The running backs did outstanding. Towles had a few passes, but the one big play was a strange one that was not really executed well by anyone. Towles finished the drive at 2-3 giving him a total for the game of 8-13.
Fifth series:
1. Slant to Baker. Probably not the best throw possible as Baker kind of had to slow down for it, but it goes for a pretty good gain.
2. Best throw of the game. The deep fade route to Badet for a huge gain. Lofted it up perfectly and Badet ran under it. I am not really even sure Badet needed to dive for it. I know he did it out of concentration, but it was basically right in his numbers and it was possible he could have just caught it and kept running for the touchdown. Excellent play all around. Note that both of these throws came in the inverse wishbone pistol formation where we had one back behind Towles with Conrad and Collins lined up beside him and just two wideouts. Plenty of protection for Towles on those plays.
Excellent series for Towles when he needed to throw the ball. 2-2 taking his total to 10-15.
SECOND HALF
Sixth series:
1. Third down swing pass to Williams. He picks up a couple of yards. Safe play on third and 18.
11-16 total on the game.
Seventh series:
**I want to note that blocking in the middle was atrocious on this possession. Particularly the blocking of Zach West. The USC DT beat him to the outside on the first play and he was called for a hold. On the next play I believe he is supposed to chip the defensive tackle and then go to the second level. Swindle is to have the primary block on the DT to give a hole. DT goes inside and blows up the play. Next play (2nd down) the DT again beats West to the inside and blows the play up forcing Williams to bounce outside where he is swallowed up for a short gain.
1. We go to a wide receiver screen on 3rd and long. On this play Toth and/or West fail to block the DT and they allow him to cut back to the wide receiver and take him down for almost no gain. If Toth gets to the DT then this one is going a long way. Designed play on a 3rd and very long.
12-17
Eighth series:
1. Towles is turned to on third down. He is hit as he throws and gets a short pass to Bone, who is tackled on the spot. Towles had a wide open receiver deeper, but the backside defensive end was breathing down Towles' neck.
13-18
Ninth series:
1. Plenty of time for Towles to throw and he completes a 5 yard type pass to Bone.
2. Incomplete. Third down and three and Swindle gets beat pretty badly once again. Towles is hit as he throws and the pass is well short of the target. I am not sure where he was going to go with the ball, but if he had more time I think Williams would have been wide open on a wheel route. Really had no way to step up into the pocket on this one. Just too fast and it kind of looked like Swindle might be able to push DE past.
14-20
Tenth series:
1. Towles throws a pretty poor pass to Baker on a slant, but Baker brings it in for about a 16 yard pickup. Baker was pretty well covered and Towles threw it behind him. Just not a great play by Towles all around, but Baker made up for it.
2. Swing pass for a wide receiver screen type play to Baker. Johnson is supposed to block his man, but isn't able to and Baker gets stopped for little to no gain. If Johnson makes the block then Baker probably gets at least 3-4 yards out of it.
3. Incomplete. Towles has plenty of time on this one, and he checks down to Kemp. He puts it too high and too hot and Kemp isn't able to haul it in. Even if it is on target I don't think the play goes very far.
4. Incomplete. I literally have no idea what happened on this play. The protection starts pretty good, but breaks down some and I think Towles just gets kind of antsy in there. He makes a throw, but no one is really in the vicinity. I don't know if there was a miscommunication and someone was supposed to be there, or if he just decided to throw it away.
16-24
Eleventh series:
1. Towles does a forward pitch and it goes for a loss. Not counting this against his total.
2. Swing type pass goes to Johnson and he takes it up field for a very solid gain. Probably about 10 yards or so.
17-25.
Towles completed 68 percent of his passes. A couple he didn't complete due to poor protection and a handful he didn't complete due to poor passes. Still, pretty solid execution for him. One thing I noticed in the second half is that we didn't go back to the inverted wishbone pistol very often if at all, and I definitely don't remember us throwing out of it. Most times we threw in the second half we were doing it out of a multiple wide receiver set rather than just a 2 WR set like we had at the end of the first half.
Anyway, I just wanted to back and look at each play more in depth and figured I would share my thoughts with you all.
First series:
1. Incomplete. Throw to Baker. Baker drops it. Probably a huge gain and possibly a touchdown.
2. Interception. Swindle gets abused on the play and barely even gets a hand on the defensive end. Towles could have stepped up, but if Williams provides a little chip on the DE then Towles likely hits Charles Walker over the middle for a pretty big gain.
0-2 on the series.
Second series:
1. Forward pitch to Garret Johnson who picks up a solid 10 yards or so.
2. Pass to Baker on the deep post for a pickup of about 15 yards. Excellent throw.
3. Swing pass to Williams who gets some blocking and picks up 10 yards.
4. Incomplete. Slant pass to Baker. This one was a bad throw. Behind Baker and high.
5. Towles is flushed from the pocket due to a fairly decent interior rush (probably could have been a hold call on UK) and Towles dumps it to Horton who picks up four.
6. USC stuffs the box on 4th and 4 and Towles gets solid protection. He goes across the middle to Johnson for a big gain.
We'll drop the first "pass" play and call Towles 4-5 on this drive with 2 downfield completions. Puts him at 4-7 overall.
Third series:
1. Incomplete. Deep pass to Badet. Well overthrown by Towles. No real excuse for this one. Towles just let it sail on him.
2. Swing pass to Williams. Williams bobbles it, but it is a great throw (maybe a bit strong) and Williams picks up a couple yards. Without the bobble he may have gotten a few more.
3. Slant pass on the other side to Badet. Hits Badet in stride for a fairly good sized pickup.
Towles goes 2-3 on this series to give him a total of 6-10.
Fourth series:
1. Flip pass to Johnson. He only picks up a couple this time. We still aren't counting these.
2. Screen pass to Williams. Hero effort from Williams to turn that screen pass into a first down.
3. Incomplete. Pass in the endzone to Conrad. This wasn't a terrible pass. It was where only Conrad could get it, but it was probably ill advised. In fact, I think the entire play was kind of poorly drawn up. You had an underneath route with the fullback, Taco Meat Collins, and then a deeper route with Conrad. The two are really just a couple of yards away from one another. Conrad has about 3 men beat on the play and it is probably a completion if the man covering Collins doesn't come off of his man to get a hand in Conrad's face. The whole play could have been better. Collins could have came out a bit more flat and Collins came out a little deeper in the endzone giving them more separation instead of allowing one man to cover two people. Towles pass could have been further into the back corner allowing Conrad to run into more open space. The play also went to the short side, which doesn't give you much room to work. All around just not a play I like a whole lot, but an excellent effort by Conrad.
4. Swing pass to Kemp. Looks like a designed play to him rather than something down the field. Towles goes to it pretty much immediately. Probably could have gotten more with an open receiver on the left side, but, again, I am not sure this wasn't a designed swing pass. Also of interest was that Williams was in the play and he called a timeout and they subbed him our for Kemp.
This drive was largely a run heavy drive. The running backs did outstanding. Towles had a few passes, but the one big play was a strange one that was not really executed well by anyone. Towles finished the drive at 2-3 giving him a total for the game of 8-13.
Fifth series:
1. Slant to Baker. Probably not the best throw possible as Baker kind of had to slow down for it, but it goes for a pretty good gain.
2. Best throw of the game. The deep fade route to Badet for a huge gain. Lofted it up perfectly and Badet ran under it. I am not really even sure Badet needed to dive for it. I know he did it out of concentration, but it was basically right in his numbers and it was possible he could have just caught it and kept running for the touchdown. Excellent play all around. Note that both of these throws came in the inverse wishbone pistol formation where we had one back behind Towles with Conrad and Collins lined up beside him and just two wideouts. Plenty of protection for Towles on those plays.
Excellent series for Towles when he needed to throw the ball. 2-2 taking his total to 10-15.
SECOND HALF
Sixth series:
1. Third down swing pass to Williams. He picks up a couple of yards. Safe play on third and 18.
11-16 total on the game.
Seventh series:
**I want to note that blocking in the middle was atrocious on this possession. Particularly the blocking of Zach West. The USC DT beat him to the outside on the first play and he was called for a hold. On the next play I believe he is supposed to chip the defensive tackle and then go to the second level. Swindle is to have the primary block on the DT to give a hole. DT goes inside and blows up the play. Next play (2nd down) the DT again beats West to the inside and blows the play up forcing Williams to bounce outside where he is swallowed up for a short gain.
1. We go to a wide receiver screen on 3rd and long. On this play Toth and/or West fail to block the DT and they allow him to cut back to the wide receiver and take him down for almost no gain. If Toth gets to the DT then this one is going a long way. Designed play on a 3rd and very long.
12-17
Eighth series:
1. Towles is turned to on third down. He is hit as he throws and gets a short pass to Bone, who is tackled on the spot. Towles had a wide open receiver deeper, but the backside defensive end was breathing down Towles' neck.
13-18
Ninth series:
1. Plenty of time for Towles to throw and he completes a 5 yard type pass to Bone.
2. Incomplete. Third down and three and Swindle gets beat pretty badly once again. Towles is hit as he throws and the pass is well short of the target. I am not sure where he was going to go with the ball, but if he had more time I think Williams would have been wide open on a wheel route. Really had no way to step up into the pocket on this one. Just too fast and it kind of looked like Swindle might be able to push DE past.
14-20
Tenth series:
1. Towles throws a pretty poor pass to Baker on a slant, but Baker brings it in for about a 16 yard pickup. Baker was pretty well covered and Towles threw it behind him. Just not a great play by Towles all around, but Baker made up for it.
2. Swing pass for a wide receiver screen type play to Baker. Johnson is supposed to block his man, but isn't able to and Baker gets stopped for little to no gain. If Johnson makes the block then Baker probably gets at least 3-4 yards out of it.
3. Incomplete. Towles has plenty of time on this one, and he checks down to Kemp. He puts it too high and too hot and Kemp isn't able to haul it in. Even if it is on target I don't think the play goes very far.
4. Incomplete. I literally have no idea what happened on this play. The protection starts pretty good, but breaks down some and I think Towles just gets kind of antsy in there. He makes a throw, but no one is really in the vicinity. I don't know if there was a miscommunication and someone was supposed to be there, or if he just decided to throw it away.
16-24
Eleventh series:
1. Towles does a forward pitch and it goes for a loss. Not counting this against his total.
2. Swing type pass goes to Johnson and he takes it up field for a very solid gain. Probably about 10 yards or so.
17-25.
Towles completed 68 percent of his passes. A couple he didn't complete due to poor protection and a handful he didn't complete due to poor passes. Still, pretty solid execution for him. One thing I noticed in the second half is that we didn't go back to the inverted wishbone pistol very often if at all, and I definitely don't remember us throwing out of it. Most times we threw in the second half we were doing it out of a multiple wide receiver set rather than just a 2 WR set like we had at the end of the first half.
Anyway, I just wanted to back and look at each play more in depth and figured I would share my thoughts with you all.
Gentlemen, with all due respect, if you take away his jet sweeps, be great if you could provide the data for these 4, the completion percentage is still the same... 74%
Math is math.
What completion percentage do you want? The highest career completion percentage in the NFL is only 66%...[/QUOTE]
What I want, is the QB with first round potential to play better. Completion percentage looks good. But he threw for 192 yards. We're 7th in the league in pass efficiency, a much more accurate illustration of the performance rather than only completion percentage.
Thats serviceable. Yet given the talent, we should be better.
What I want, is the QB with first round potential to play better. Completion percentage looks good. But he threw for 192 yards. We're 7th in the league in pass efficiency, a much more accurate illustration of the performance rather than only completion percentage.
Thats serviceable. Yet given the talent, we should be better.[/QUOTE]
Again, who cares what people preseason thought his NFL projection might be. He may not be a first rounder...
Yes the total stats are a better judge, usually, but it is only two games and he wasn't very good the first game. I always appreciate a player getting better.
192 yards, if he hits 3 out 4 receivers what does that matter, as long as they are not all dump offs or in the flat? What % do you expect? How many yards do you expect?
Read the post above ComebackCatz just gave you every pass play the kid made.
No QB is perfect, according to the previous post he threw 3 "bad throw" incompletions and one of them may have been a throw away to avoid a sack.
I am still not getting what you are trying to say, unless you are Drew's dad or something.
By the way, also consider that if Baker makes the first catch he may very well take that to the house. If that's the case you can add another 95 yards or so to Towles' number of yards. That puts him at around 287 and it takes away an interception and gives him a touchdown. With those numbers would those complaining be happy?
It's so laughable to listen to some of the moronic comments from the Towles haters on this board. The guy had a solid game...led us to a victory on the road against a decent opponent...completed 70% of his passes and ran over a defender for a critical touchdown. Yet, he's a bum in the eyes of a couple members of the peanut gallery on this board. Trust me on this....there are at least 7 SEC teams that would trade their starter for Towles in a heartbeat. Pretty much every team not named Alabama, Ole Miss, A&M, and Miss State would probably make that trade....maybe Saban would too. Go on SEC boards and you'll see PLENTY of respect for Patrick and UK's skill players in general.
I just don't get it. What some of you have been watching. The quarterback position is pretty much the most important position. And let's go back to this 72 percent completion nonsense. How could you possibly give him a B? How many points did Towles' "great effort" contribute to the win? He was responsible for 0 points in the second half. The defense was a huge surprise...way to go D, but the offense is still nothing. It's beyond nothing. The only points scored in the second half were 2, by the defense, but Towles is considered outstanding by some of you? No offensive points in the second half. Baffling. I take that back, there were some offensive throws.
Who is saying PT is outstanding?
"the offense is still nothing. It's beyond nothing"
That nothing offense has scored 64 points in two games. Jumped on two opponents 48-14 in the first half.
QB did throw for 73% you cannot argue math, although I can tell you think you can.
Did you just become a UK football fan this year?
We just won our first SEC road game. The offense knocked the cowboy piss out of USC in the first half and the defense made great plays in the second.
Sometimes it takes both sides of the ball to win a game. A QB will never be perfect. Kid had 3 incompletions the 2nd half. Pretty good by EVERY standard out there except yours and a couple others who think UK should have All American performances across the board.
We are not Alabama or Ohio State, if you expect that type of production in year 3 from the depths we have come from then you are just stupid about how big boy football works.
Our coaches need to be better, our QB needs to be better, our oline/dline, lbers, wr's te's, kickers, db's all need to be better. Some of us appreciate the effort because we can see the advancement. Some of you can't.
Guess what? We play some really good teams coming up. QB will struggle, defense will struggle at times, the oline and dline, dbacks will get burnt. But the players are better.
IT IS FOOTBALL.
I know you mostly participate on the bball board, this requires much more time and we are not remotely close to being a program of that stature in this sport.
Some of you will never be pleased. Many of us long timers have seen so much, we know when the product on the field is getting better.
You others that want over 80% passing accuracy and more yards and more stops and better coaching while we are winning, it simply is not going to happen with perfect consistency, we are too young and have little depth compared to others this year.
Tougher times are coming up on the schedule, might as well consider jumping off of a building if you cannot take the growing pains. If you are too big a sissy to jump I will push you if necessary, I will be your guy.
Despite what Stoops said in the post game, he was on the sidelines yelling at Dawson, even in the first half to "keep running the ball". We ran the ball effectively in the first half because we also passed the ball effectively, this team has to keep a " balance" and can't just milk something time after time when the defense makes adjustments, this isn't high school football and is "Jokeresque" IMO. Stoops needs to learn to be less of a micromanager and let his guys coach. It's obvious that DJ Elliot is a puppet on a string, and that is somewhat understandable being that he is a defensive coach, but I don't like him constantly telling Dawson what to do. If that continues to be the case this O won't improve much and Dawson will be gone first chance he gets.
Was Stoops yelling that? I missed it. Maybe the 2nd half last week had Stoops a little on edge? I agree with you, let Dawson have some wiggle room.
When there is one on one man coverage across the board and we continue to run the ball, only to get 92 yards in the second half, I'd say it's glaringly obvious they don't have much faith in the qb to consistently execute. At this point it is obvious they only turn to him to make plays if there is no other option or it is easy pickins let us hope towles continues to make plays in those situations and they keep giving him more chances as he improves.
Yes, even in the first half of the game, watch the replay with the leach picoro sync, they even comment on it. I understand him making a comment like that to ice the game, but micromanaging throughout is not effective leadership
???? Sounds like you're saying Dusty Bonner was a better qb.. Dusty was a good , serviceable qb but obviously did not have the arm to lead the team to any higher level than he did (6-5). He did what he did well but was limited. Mumme saw that. Didn't he name J L the starter even before spring practice? Towles clearly has a higher upside.
Actually I am saying Mumme made a mistake, he won more games per year with Bonner, Bonner would have even been better as a junior, perfect quarterback for Mumme's spread run or pass offense, but instead he put in the gunslinger freshman who never lead them to 6 wins, the loses piled up and his program unraveled. that's the truth.
Actually I am saying Mumme made a mistake, he won more games per year with Bonner, Bonner would have even been better as a junior, perfect quarterback for Mumme's spread run or pass offense, but instead he put in the gunslinger freshman who never lead them to 6 wins, the loses piled up and his program unraveled. that's the truth.
Anyone who reads lips saw what Dawson said to Stoops on the last play of the first half. We were in a situation where we should have been taking a couple shots into the end zone with throws. We had no timeouts. If Towles doesn't get in on that scramble play we probably lose. I actually like Towles, but he just needs to get better at understanding situations.
I think I was dreaming about ice fishing or something, and was somehow wearing wallabees when I posted last night. That's actually more like a nightmare.....wow. Do those shoes still exist? Hopefully no pictures documented me wearing those kicks.
Back to your question brianpoe. We had no timeouts left. If he didn't get lucky and get into the end zone, the clock runs out, and we end up with nothing. He makes bad decisions consistently. A lot more than a guy with four years of experience should be making.
Back to your question brianpoe. We had no timeouts left. If he didn't get lucky and get into the end zone, the clock runs out, and we end up with nothing. He makes bad decisions consistently. A lot more than a guy with four years of experience should be making.
So you are saying running it with no timeouts was the bad decision? If he didn't score it would look bad, but he did, so there is that - he showed a lot of determination on that play.
What other bad decisions has he made this season?
