- Jun 12, 2014
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@Theologator posted this in the game thread and it has a pretty good breakdown of Mertz's performance.
www.readandreaction.com
Of the five sacks, it points out two Mertz should have made the play:
The offensive line has its assignments right here. Utah brings its two linebackers on a blitz, leaving right tackle Damieon George (#76) and tight end Jonathan Odom (#87) matched up against Utah’s two defensive ends. George gets beat to the outside, but there is a clear pocket for Mertz to step up into and he has a man (Caleb Douglas, #4) coming open across the middle. But Mertz slips on the turf as he works his way up into the pocket. At that point, Odom’s man races to secure the sack.
This one’s on Mertz. Utah brings six rushers and Florida only has five blockers. When the tight end goes out into a route, the defensive end (Logan Fano, #0) has a free run at Mertz. But this also means Mertz has man coverage across the board. Montrell Johnson (#2) comes open across the middle but Mertz pumps and pulls the ball down, creating the sack.
It also has an overall assessment of Mertz's performance (although I'd add in the free play Mertz wasted by running out of bounds):
Heismertz
I don’t want to be too negative about Graham Mertz because he did exactly what we should have expected given his track record. While his counting stats (333 yards, 70.5% completions) look great, his efficiency numbers do not.
Mertz’ 333 yards required 44 passes to achieve. That puts him at 7.6 yards per attempt. The average in college football last year was 7.6. Last season Mertz averaged 7.5. With his one TD and one INT, the result is a QB rating of 137.7, which is a below average performance.
But that isn’t the only part of Mertz’ performance. We also have the sacks discussed in the previous section. Yes, some of those were on the offensive line, but a more mobile QB would be able to pick up his offensive line when they didn’t come through, and Mertz doesn’t have that skill.
Using my proprietary stat, Yards Above Replacement (YAR), which takes into account a QBs rushing and passing contributions and where zero is average, -1.0 is bad, +1.0 is really good and +2.0 is Heisman-level, Mertz was at -0.95. For his career at Wisconsin, Mertz had a YAR of -1.02.
The most concerning thing to me was that Mertz only averaged 10.7 yards per completion. Considering he had 37-yard pass to Marcus Burke and a 40-yard pass to Ricky Pearsall, he only averaged 8.8 yards per completion on the other 29 completions. That suggests he was throwing into traffic quite a bit.
Here’s an example. There is 5:34 left in the game and Florida is at mid-field down 13 points. There is still time to make a run at it, but time conservation is critical. Utah is threatening at the line of scrimmage, but you’d expect the Utes to drop into a zone here because they want Florida to run clock. That’s exactly what they do.
Except they completely forget to pick up Eugene Wilson (#3) as he comes across the formation. Mertz fits the ball into Caleb Douglas (#4) for a 12-yard gain, but it was in a tight space where Douglas had zero chance to run after the catch. Had Mertz swung the ball out to Wilson he would have likely picked up 10 yards minimum, and he also would have had the ability to make a big play if he could make someone miss.
Here’s another example. On the telecast, Kirk Herbstreit was begging Mertz to throw the ball to Ricky Pearsall (#1). You can see why as Pearsall has a 10-yard cushion versus Douglas (#4), who has the DB playing right up on him.
Again, Mertz completes the pass. But Douglas isn’t going anywhere after the catch whereas Pearsall would have had a chance to pick up significant yards after the catch if he could have made one man miss with a running start.
Florida got first downs on both of these plays. But they also started this drive with 5:59 left on the clock and finally turned it over on downs with 1:39 left. Even if they had scored, the game was essentially over and a big part of that was not getting the ball to their players with space to run.
Florida looks unprepared, overmatched in 24-11 loss to Utah - Read & Reaction
Florida looks unprepared - The Gators lost to Utah in catastrophic fashion, casting doubt on the entire season and on Billy Napier.
www.readandreaction.com
Of the five sacks, it points out two Mertz should have made the play:
The offensive line has its assignments right here. Utah brings its two linebackers on a blitz, leaving right tackle Damieon George (#76) and tight end Jonathan Odom (#87) matched up against Utah’s two defensive ends. George gets beat to the outside, but there is a clear pocket for Mertz to step up into and he has a man (Caleb Douglas, #4) coming open across the middle. But Mertz slips on the turf as he works his way up into the pocket. At that point, Odom’s man races to secure the sack.
This one’s on Mertz. Utah brings six rushers and Florida only has five blockers. When the tight end goes out into a route, the defensive end (Logan Fano, #0) has a free run at Mertz. But this also means Mertz has man coverage across the board. Montrell Johnson (#2) comes open across the middle but Mertz pumps and pulls the ball down, creating the sack.
It also has an overall assessment of Mertz's performance (although I'd add in the free play Mertz wasted by running out of bounds):
Heismertz
I don’t want to be too negative about Graham Mertz because he did exactly what we should have expected given his track record. While his counting stats (333 yards, 70.5% completions) look great, his efficiency numbers do not.
Mertz’ 333 yards required 44 passes to achieve. That puts him at 7.6 yards per attempt. The average in college football last year was 7.6. Last season Mertz averaged 7.5. With his one TD and one INT, the result is a QB rating of 137.7, which is a below average performance.
But that isn’t the only part of Mertz’ performance. We also have the sacks discussed in the previous section. Yes, some of those were on the offensive line, but a more mobile QB would be able to pick up his offensive line when they didn’t come through, and Mertz doesn’t have that skill.
Using my proprietary stat, Yards Above Replacement (YAR), which takes into account a QBs rushing and passing contributions and where zero is average, -1.0 is bad, +1.0 is really good and +2.0 is Heisman-level, Mertz was at -0.95. For his career at Wisconsin, Mertz had a YAR of -1.02.
The most concerning thing to me was that Mertz only averaged 10.7 yards per completion. Considering he had 37-yard pass to Marcus Burke and a 40-yard pass to Ricky Pearsall, he only averaged 8.8 yards per completion on the other 29 completions. That suggests he was throwing into traffic quite a bit.
Here’s an example. There is 5:34 left in the game and Florida is at mid-field down 13 points. There is still time to make a run at it, but time conservation is critical. Utah is threatening at the line of scrimmage, but you’d expect the Utes to drop into a zone here because they want Florida to run clock. That’s exactly what they do.
Except they completely forget to pick up Eugene Wilson (#3) as he comes across the formation. Mertz fits the ball into Caleb Douglas (#4) for a 12-yard gain, but it was in a tight space where Douglas had zero chance to run after the catch. Had Mertz swung the ball out to Wilson he would have likely picked up 10 yards minimum, and he also would have had the ability to make a big play if he could make someone miss.
Here’s another example. On the telecast, Kirk Herbstreit was begging Mertz to throw the ball to Ricky Pearsall (#1). You can see why as Pearsall has a 10-yard cushion versus Douglas (#4), who has the DB playing right up on him.
Again, Mertz completes the pass. But Douglas isn’t going anywhere after the catch whereas Pearsall would have had a chance to pick up significant yards after the catch if he could have made one man miss with a running start.
Florida got first downs on both of these plays. But they also started this drive with 5:59 left on the clock and finally turned it over on downs with 1:39 left. Even if they had scored, the game was essentially over and a big part of that was not getting the ball to their players with space to run.
