I was addressing us not hitting our receivers in stride, as he pointed out, and it certainly does. If a receiver has to stop for the ball to hit him in his palms, for one thing, he's likely thinking about the hit he's about to get, too. When a QB can't hit their mark it makes receivers second guess themselves on routes...tendencies.
I would also add that Auburns WRs were very impressive in down field blocking. Our guys - not so much. Hitting in stride is important and JL does a better job than JJ. I think another issue is how long it takes for JJs passes to arive. Once he starts the pass motion and the DB keys in on where he's going it's long time before the ball arives. Slow windup, so release, and long flight time. That a contributor to WRs getting hard shots. RR should have had it but he could have been getting nervous about how long it was taking.
The physicality of AU's receivers was very impressive. There were several times where they just mauled our secondary and opened up the field for Cam and AU's RB's. I watched the game again and I'm sticking with my initial assessment. This loss can be attributed heavily on the receivers. There were no less than 7 dropped passes. They may not have been thrown perfect, but elite receivers make those catches. AU's receivers were making the very same catches our receivers weren't, and the one to TT that was all but giftwrapped would have changed the game. The game changed in the 2nd half when AU figured out that our WR's weren't going to catch the balls no matter how well they were thrown. They then stacked the box on run plays and then blitzed 6 on passing plays. It was a gamble on their part that they won. elite receivers, if the ball hits them in the hands whether a little behind, over the head, or a little in front they make those catches. Our receivers weren't being put in tough positions being hung out to get popped, they just simply couldn't hold onto the ball.
The other thing we should have done was stuck with the game plan of a heavy dose of running JJ and Ridley. JJ was getting 4.63 yd/ carry. It may not have been the 20 yd gashes that Cam was rolling on, but it was effective enough to move the chaines and eat up the clock. When we got away from that and tried to attach their supposed weakness, their passing D is when we started to fall apart. We may not have been beating them at their own game, but we certainly were hanging tough. We should have stuck with it rather than coming out throwing in the 2nd half. Like it or not JJ actually probably gave us a better chance to win than JL in this one.
