On the surface, Speight played poorly. 11/25...44%...inaccurate.
But after rewatching and looking a little closer there were 2 really bad passes. One when a defender flashed in his face and he was high throwing an out pass to Perry for a probable first down. It sailed and a defender peeled off his receiver and returned it for a TD. The other was the wide open wheel route to Crawford that was wide open.
He completed 11, including 2 of 40 yards plus. He had 3 drops...2 by Crawford and one by Black. He threw 2 in the turf when nothing was available, and was hit on another throw. He threw 5 balls out of bounds, mostly on covered receivers where it would either be a completion or OOB. They were not good throws, but they were smart throws. They were all downfield throws of 20+ yards.
I don't think I'm a Speight apologist...if there was a clearly better option, I'm all for it. We definitely need improvement from the QB position. I think he could have thrown a better ball 5 out of the 25 attempts. But there were 2 Bad Passes. Against the SEC East Champion that is built on defense. (I don't know how good Florida will be...somebody else mentioned they look a lot like Hoke teams and I can't disagree). I think O'Korn did okay. Threw an excellent pass on the sideline. He also took 2 sacks on 2 series (Speight, took 3 sacks but also avoided a couple and had a nice run to pick up a first down early). So I'm not ready to give the ball to JOK, yet.
2 Bad Passes...
But after rewatching and looking a little closer there were 2 really bad passes. One when a defender flashed in his face and he was high throwing an out pass to Perry for a probable first down. It sailed and a defender peeled off his receiver and returned it for a TD. The other was the wide open wheel route to Crawford that was wide open.
He completed 11, including 2 of 40 yards plus. He had 3 drops...2 by Crawford and one by Black. He threw 2 in the turf when nothing was available, and was hit on another throw. He threw 5 balls out of bounds, mostly on covered receivers where it would either be a completion or OOB. They were not good throws, but they were smart throws. They were all downfield throws of 20+ yards.
I don't think I'm a Speight apologist...if there was a clearly better option, I'm all for it. We definitely need improvement from the QB position. I think he could have thrown a better ball 5 out of the 25 attempts. But there were 2 Bad Passes. Against the SEC East Champion that is built on defense. (I don't know how good Florida will be...somebody else mentioned they look a lot like Hoke teams and I can't disagree). I think O'Korn did okay. Threw an excellent pass on the sideline. He also took 2 sacks on 2 series (Speight, took 3 sacks but also avoided a couple and had a nice run to pick up a first down early). So I'm not ready to give the ball to JOK, yet.
2 Bad Passes...
