- Aug 28, 2014
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After awhile you realize he's always right.Gotta hand it to Ox, he had it right on Mertz since the spring.
After awhile you realize he's always right.Gotta hand it to Ox, he had it right on Mertz since the spring.
What is lost in his stats (but everyone sees it) is that he is a BALLER and a leader... he gets hit all the damn time and balls on. It elevates other players, they buy into him, and they are willing to do everything they can to contribute. Also love the way he constantly pumps up the D (yeah, i said "pumps up the D"!!!) on the sidelines... he's just flat out a baller and leader... he's having the time of his life and I'm happy for him.Mertz is on track to throw for around 3,400 yards assuming he plays in a bowl game. He's currently 4th in the SEC and 14th in the nation in passing yards, while having the 3rd best completion percentage in the nation (1st in SEC). A year ago he finished 10th in the Big 10 and 81st in the nation in passing yards. He's a little less than 300 yards shy of passing his season total for yards last year, which was his career high.
I'd say he's far exceeded everyone's expectations, even those who were high on him.
He has exceeded my VERY low expectations. He is tough and doesn't make huge mistakes. But he is still a one-read, check down QB. This last game was, in fact, no exception. If that translates into wins, as it did this last weekend, I am happy. But I will assume I am not the only one that sees this as there are a few decent DCs we are about to face.
Only because he finally hired a prostituteGotta hand it to Ox, he had it right on Mertz since the spring.
It’s what I like most about him. His toughness and leadership. We need someone with those attributes to step up on defense.What is lost in his stats (but everyone sees it) is that he is a BALLER and a leader... he gets hit all the damn time and balls on. It elevates other players, they buy into him, and they are willing to do everything they can to contribute. Also love the way he constantly pumps up the D (yeah, i said "pumps up the D"!!!) on the sidelines... he's just flat out a baller and leader... he's having the time of his life and I'm happy for him.
Rewatching the game, he threw left in this game a lot more than you think/he has in the past.I think he's got room to improve from here but we've got to get him some time on straight drop back passes so he can work both sides of the field. In the Vandy game he had a few chances to stand in there and hit some deep balls but didn't seem to get his feet set right. Hopefully this bye week will gives us a chance to put our best oline together for the next couple of games.
Perspective
I'll bet if you went back through the season you'd see that we've probably had 80% of our successful pass plays OF MORE THAN 10 yards to the right side of the field.....I'm not taking into account WR/RB screens that aren't even across the LOS....Even the design of our pass plays looks different going into the left hash mark toward the sideline.Rewatching the game, he threw left in this game a lot more than you think/he has in the past.
As for his straight drop back, some of us talked about this the other day and hopefully it gets addressed with MERTZ (and I think it did in the 4th Qtr after one such play). He drops so far back that he's way out of an otherwise fantastic "horseshoe" pocket and when our tackles give an end a final push away because they think "he can't be back this far!", there Mertz is... when this happens, and he takes three steps back up into that pocket, he delivered most of the time.
that's why i said THIS game!I'll bet if you went back through the season you'd see that we've probably had 80% of our successful pass plays OF MORE THAN 10 yards to the right side of the field.....I'm not taking into account WR/RB screens that aren't even across the LOS....Even the design of our pass plays looks different going into the left hash mark toward the sideline.
In fact I have video of Karl Dinardo and staff last week when they finally discovered it was legal to throw more than 10 yards downfield...I'm guessing that MAYBE that was part of our actual gameplan, but we wouldn't want to give "tater and crew" too much credit, would we?
For his sake and the team's, that needs to stop. I remember Herbstreit saying our big guys looked slow. I believe it was Utah and he was talking about our DL/LBs. But our OL has to start moving and handling business.What is lost in his stats (but everyone sees it) is that he is a BALLER and a leader... he gets hit all the damn time and balls on. It elevates other players, they buy into him, and they are willing to do everything they can to contribute. Also love the way he constantly pumps up the D (yeah, i said "pumps up the D"!!!) on the sidelines... he's just flat out a baller and leader... he's having the time of his life and I'm happy for him.
@Detroitgator I'm not sure I'm clear on your leading indicators for Mertz. It's it because he's a baller? A leader? That he pumps up more D than T's mom? You're being coy with your opinions.
It's why he gets up so slow a lot of times... there's no cup on the planet big enough to cover those huge balls.It’s because he leads with his balls. Deet loves that.