Reviewing McElroy's Performance

With all the hoopla over Greg McElroy's performance, I figured I'd watch the replay and really look at what was going on.  These are recaps of of the passing attempts.

Interception on the first pass-  good protection for a couple of secs, then hurried.  This was either a horrible pass thrown behind upchurch or a miscommunication.  McElroy places the ball as if he was expecting a curl route by Upchurch, but he ran an out.

Dump off to Ingram-  1st & 10 after a couple of big runs McElroy drops back.  Superb protection.  The TE on the right was wide open, but ME doesn't see him, decides to dump it off.  Throw is right on the money, but minimal gain.

Incompletion (deep shot)-  1st & 10 after getting 15 yards on a personal foul.  Again, superb protection.  Receivers well covered by SC.  Ingram was only person that was really open.  McElroy just took a chance on the deep route for the kill shot.  Throw was okay, but almost intercepted because of tight coverage.  A little under thrown, and it needed to be perfect. 

Interception #2-  1st &10 from SC 32 following 10+ yard run.  Bootleg, end didn't buy it.  McElroy was pressured as soon as he turned around.  Threw it up, probably trying to throw it away.  Julio saves us with the forced fumble. 

Peek rec-  2nd and 8 from SC 44.  Julio double covered, leaving hanks open on left.  Again, good protection.  Peek open on an out route, ME throws a nice ball for a 6 yard completion. 

Incompletion-  1st & 10 on SC 25.  not really sure what to make of this one.  ME isn't exactly rushed, but the pocket was tiny and with Richardson in there looking for someone to block, ME didn't have much room.  He throws a quick pass, but Hanks was well covered by Norwood and a corner.  Could have been picked off.  I this is an instance where ME needs to pull the ball down, and scramble to throw.  This play was followed by the bobbled snap/fumble. 

Incompletion-   1st & 10 from AL 24.  This was a designed screen to Maze.  It was actually a really good looking play, with Ingram running a flat route to the other side.  SC DE Matthews just made a great play and was able to tip up the pass.  Can't really fault McE 'cause puttting more air under the ball would have allowed the defense time to react to the play.  Bad break for 'Bama. 

Screen to Upchurch-  Ist & 10 from AL 36.  Short screen to Upchurch.  Excellent throw by McElroy.  He splits two defenders and puts the ball on the money (though it was a short pass).  Play gets15 yards. 

Dump to Richardson-  2nd and 7 from SC 47.  SC rushes 4, looks like good downfield coverage.  Richardson is open in the flat.  McE dumps it to him.  Great pass, right out in front of richardson in stride.  Play makes 9 yards and a first down. 

Ref trip-  3rd & 8 from SC 37.  This is the play where the ref trips our guys up.  We had a double crossing route with the back running a route up the middle as well.  Peek and Julio clear the DB's with deep routes.  Play should have worked since the crossing routes froze the linebackers, but McE doesn't make the best decision.  Hanks was open on the left and probably gets the first down if McE makes the throw.  He wasn't really pressured, but decided to hit Upchurch.  Throw is off a bit.  Upchurch makes nice 1handed grab, but trips on ref.  Julio actually could have been called for a block in the back on this one.  He somehow hustled and got back to the area of play. 

Incompletion (jump pass)-  2rd & 10 from SC 18.  This is following the 50 yard run near the end of the second quarter.  This was a complete protection breakdown.  SC showed blitz, but ended up rushing 4.  3 of those get through with little to no resistance.  It may have been a designed screen, but the pressure was not part of that design.  The pass was off, but it's hard to fault McE too much when he's having to jump backwards to avoid incoming defenders. 

Incompletion (Julio Drop)-  3rd & 10 from SC 18.  All out blitz by SC.  McE makes a perfect throw to Julio under LOADS of pressure.  Julio bobbles and drops the pass while being tackled.  If he doesn't bobble, I think has a chance to break that tackle and it would have been a TD.  Still, a great pass by Greg.

HALFTIME...

1st half Summary:  Looking back, the protection given to McElroy was pretty good.  He wasn't often able to sit back there all day with nobody around him, but he wasn't getting sacked or knocked down either.  The biggest problem was the turnovers, and I'm not sure what to make of those.  Was the first pick just a bad throw or a wrong route by Upchurch?  The decision to throw up the ball on the bootleg was bad, but that's not a play we've been running.  I'm sure that's a tough position to be put in when you turn around and someone is bearing down on you.  Lesson learned I hope.  The bobbled snap may have been the fault of the center.  We had a few bad snaps earlier this year, but it seemed to get better in the last few games.  These things (bobbled snaps) are going to happen every now and again though.

There were a couple of instances where McE could have picked to a better option, but he wasn't throwing into bad situations either.  The down field coverage seemed to be pretty good.  It's hard to tell on the tv replay because almost all the throws were short dump offs or out routes which were open all day.  As far as accuracy, I think he did an alright job to be honest. 

All in all, I feel more confident in McElroy after looking back at the first half.  The results weren't good for sure, but I honestly think that the SC defense deserves a lot of the credit for that.  I didn't really see anything to make me question whether Gmac can get it done in the future.  McElroy had a bad start, but got into a decent rhythm with some screens and dumps-- taking what they gave him.  Then we get in a 3rd and long after two unsuccessful runs, and Gmac hits the 2nd best option.  The play comes up short due to ref tripping and the drive ends.  We only ran 2 more passes in the half, one incomplete because of (uncharacteristically) porous protection and the other a dropped pass. 

second half coming tomorrow.