SMU_Alum11 wrote:I will say I'm shocked at the people that assume TCU will whoop us. I think 3 games in TM looks better but still a work in progress. I think like JasonB said the Oline is doing good on pass protection. As long as Riley doesn't call stupid plays, I think this offense will take advantage of TCUs not great secondary.
Conversely, it appears TCU is run focus and much like 2019, I want them to be one dimensional and force their QB to throw it and let our S and CB make a play and force some turnovers.
I really believe this team will be ready and I think we have the weapons to compete with them. Cal is not a good team and they struggled at home with them. This will be a rivalry game and we will be psyched up.
The oline is doing fine in pass protection. But we haven't seen a DL like this yet. In order to have success, we are going to have to hit the safeties when you have a limited time to throw. That means anticipating that receivers get open instead of waiting for them to actually be open.
Remember, in these modern offenses, there are a lot of option routes. The receiver and QB have to read a play the same way. It looks to me that Tanner is holding the ball and watching those deeper receivers to see if they actually run the route he expects them to, and then wait for them to get open. That is why he takes so long to release (remember him getting blown up just as he threw the ball against ACU), and why it takes so long before he checks down (which is why he ends up scrambling the last two games).
The scrambling is actually an indication that he is starting to get a clock in is head, so after so many seconds he knows the rush is coming, which is a good sign of growth. But the next sign is when he starts to actually throw the ball before the break, because he knows what the receiver will do, and where they will be.
Tanner has been awesome the first three games. I'm not trying to rip him or say that he isn't going to get better. Just that he still has some development to do, and when you play against a good defense like TCU it can hurt you if you wait too long.
I think you guys are being too harsh on the OC. A lot of these option calls are on the QB, even in the running game. Tanner is in his first year as a starter and as expected needs to improve with pre-snap reads. It sucks that it isn't there yet, but hey, we have some inexperienced QBs. When SB and GG came in, they had already been starters at UT and gone through these growing pains.
And I get that it is silly to talk about growing pains after 16 TDs in 3 games
. I'm just expecting him to hit some significant challenges this week.
