Like chucking it over the heads of guys sitting on the bench throwing it away. One time, he even avoided a sack, rolled out of the pocket, and heaved it about half way between the sideline and the gold fence in front of the stands. Nobody in the field of play could have picked them unless they had a rocket up their ass. At least 3-4 of his incompletions were intentionally thrown away because nothing was there. The crowd booed him after one that I thought was a good play. Yeah, it was 4th down, but seriously I'd rather him toss it into the 3rd row than into double or triple coverage. It was a heads up play. I think Byrd getting yanked for a while after his drop in the endzone helped spark something. That should have been a TD. No excuses, and that is too many drops in key situations. When your QB is struggling, you ABSOLUTELY MUST catch the ones that hit you in both freaking hands. Brandon LaFell had a hell of a game. Lee started hitting him in stride with room to run, and he MADE plays after wards. He more than anyone put this team on his back for at least 2 drives in the 4th. He was breaking tackles and making people miss. This guy gets a game ball every bit as much as Lee does. As was said earlier, once he caught fire, Lee couldn't miss. He was hitting everything, slants, deep crosses, long passes down the sideline, etc. Yes it was only Troy, but we've had open receivers in every game, and he wasn't hitting them. Last night he was. Don't know if the light switch in his head clicked on (still has much to prove), but if so and this is the QB hiding inside of him, we're going to be a solid team with him at the helm. Dude is tough. He's been through more in his 1st 10 games than most QBs experience in 4 years (comeback @ Auburn, the Swamp, shootout with UGA, OT with the #1 team in country, biggest comeback in school history, etc.). Once (if) the game slows down a bit for him, watch the phuck out. He has got the physical tools to be a damn good SEC QB. Just have to get his head right now. That will be Crowton's primary objective in the offseason.
This is how I've felt most of the season. This is what I've been talking about. Thank you, Nootch, for articulating it so well. That being said, I believe he needs more of a leadership presence in the pocket and the huddle. He has seemed so scared sometimes and so introverted that it doesn't surprise me that the offensive talent hasn't completely played up to its potential. Speaking of leadership...there was a thread concerning just that earlier this week, and I have to say that LaFell will rise up and take that role going into next season. And yes, I believe he will be back, as I've he's been noted to mention how the team is planting the seeds for next year. I think Rahim Alem and his brother will both step up and take that role for the D next season with PP and we'll see an entirely new effort and focus from them. Make no mistake...we have everything short of a DC in place to be next year's Florida. And I'm almost ready to say we should give them (the DC's) another chance for their massive adjustments in the Troy game.
That's what i've been saying for weeks... after after all the jabs he took for the Bama game... and everyone said I was nuts. He's obviously not as mature as Flynn or has the brute physical ability of Russell... but this kid is special and I see awesome ability in him every so often. I think once he starts to figure things out and they work with him more... he's going to be unstoppable. He's very young and got thrown to the wolves with no prep... and we all know the SEC defenses are the hungriest in the country, but I think he's done fairly well considering. I look for him and whoever to be unstoppable next year.
Correct me if I am wrong here but once he did catch fire...He had a horrible series did he not. We went 3 and out and on 3rd down he missed a wide ass open Tolliver by 10 yards.
Either Toliver or LaFell, but yes. Then they flubbed the punt and we were back in bidness. Lee was hot and cold all night, just a LOT hotter later in the game.
dude, he was 18 for 26 in the 2nd half. At least 3 (possibly 4, but I may be thinking of one from the 1st half) of those incompletions were intentionally thrown away. That puts him at 18-23 (better than 78%). NO quarterback is going to hit every open guy. It's not going to happen, so I ain't gonna complain about 1 bad series in the middle of one hellacious run. He was money. If that Jarrett Lee would have showed up vs UGA, we win that game. Vs Bama, we run away with that game turing their turnover fest in the 1st half. Period!
At this point, I'm getting more than a little frustrated with Byrd. I realize that the QB situation stinks for him, but I'm not seeing the effort being put on by him, either. On the play in question here, Byrd pulled WAY up, and then the perfectly-thrown ball was still on his fingertips. Then, he did his usual--looking disgustedly at his QB. Enough of that noise! Lafell and Toliver stepped up--Byrd can ride the bench if his attitude is going to continue to be bad. I was angry at him several times in the 1st half.
Lee's stats from the game: 20 of 34 for 58.8%. 6.4 ypa. 216 total yards. 1 INT, 1 TD. 116.02 QB Rating. It was a very crappy 1st half. That's for sure. Hopefully more than stats, this game will serve as a means for Lee AND the entire team to springboard forward. It certainly appears that Lee showed some leadership (one of the few times this season) and finally after hitting rock bottom starting coming back up. At least, I hope he hit rock bottom in that first half. In the words of Austin Powers, "You gotta get your mojo, baby. Yeah." I think Lee had lost his after the fans booing, and throwing INT's and feeling like he was the cause of LSU losing their games. It's not how I would have wanted LSU to win, but maybe it worked out best for Lee and other young players. It allowed them to feel like they lead this team back from the depths and maybe they'll start clicking now. One thing I'd like to address however is people saying "all Lee needed was some competition." I don't think that was the case. Remember earlier in the season Lee played WORSE when he was competing against Hatch for the starting spot. I think he played too cautious because he was worried about giving it up. More than that, I think JJ coming in didn't give Lee competion, but a break. Maybe Lee might know how to use the internet *gasp* and he has been seeing all the fans calling for JJ (either through the paper or internet or however) and by JJ coming into the game and playing some, he might have felt some of the pressure get lifted off of him. Like "I can't be blamed for the entire loss now, JJ played." Or maybe seeing JJ go 1 - 6 and Lee not having to worry about losing his starting spot, allowed Lee to play like he did in the Auburn come back. Either way, I think this game was good not only for Lee but JJ. JJ got to run that 4th down in for the TD and feel like he actually did something productive, while Lee can still feel like "HE" lead LSU back.
