Thoughts on the Temple game

[JasonB]

I'm not going to spend too much time on this, because it was a huge blowout as expected. Awesome to see the shutout, and if anyone didn't see the stats, it is the first time in the past 25 years that a team had a shutout, won by 50, had more than 5 sacks, and kept a team from converting a 3rd or 4th down. Awesome performance, just keep in mind that Temple had no QB and freshman all over the OL and DL. They were outmanned from the start. That said, there are two important things I want to focus on.

- This is the Preston Stone we have seen at practice and rave about. Quickly assessing the defense, staying in the pocket, running through progressions and quick passes. Leading the team, running the ball aggressively. This was a Preston Stone lead offense, really for the first time all season. His Time To Throw number was great - 2.37, best it has been. Back in the opener against LT it was 2.53. Since then it has been 2.92, 2.98, 3.48, 3.05, and 3.52. To my eyes, the offense changed completely. We went from a run-first + RPO approach and spending early downs running against a heavy front to a lot of pure pass plays. I *think* this allowed Preston to focus his pre-snap read on anticipating the run through progressions rather than trying to figure out if he should run or pass and then getting locked into a deep receiver. Yes, Temple is a bad football team, but that was a pass-first approach and Preston was way more confident running through options, making quick decisions than we have seen this year. And hitting the short and intermediate routes. This week we went 13/18 on passes from 0-10 yards. Last week it was 7/9. This week he attempted 10 passes of over 20 yards, last week 17. Completely different approach and you saw the QB that everyone raves about. And of course Jennings looked great with it as well. I am hopeful that this is what we see the rest of the season.

- The second thing that stood out is that we have been asking for a receiver to step up all season. The receivers were "alive" in this game, maybe they were just into the pass-first approach knowing that they would get thrown the ball. No, we didn't have a 100 yard guy. But this was the first time all season we saw players going up with their hands and playing physically on a consistent basis. Bailey had a really nice game, and I think he is the "tell" on whether Preston is making good quick decisions, because he will be the beneficiary of a lot of the short to intermediate stuff. Brinson I think took a big step forward tonight with his physicality, and that is great to see and really important. But the biggest thing was Jordan Hudson. 6 targets, 6 receptions, and all 6 resulted in either a first down or touchdown. He forced two missed tackles, had YAC. His yards per route was only 4.32 and average depth of target only 8, which makes the 6 first down/TD stat even more impressive. Perfect NFL rating of 158.3 when the ball was thrown in his direction.

That may end up being the breakout Stone/Receiver performance we have been waiting for all season.

[dalpony]

Thank you JasonB

[Charleston Pony]

This game might be the healthiest Jordan Hudson we've seen all year, too. Makes a big difference.