Very pleased with Whitmer

[buckley503]

Tough crowd. It was nice to not have a wink and prayer feeling on every 3 and 5+ like we have for the past several years.

We have a kid who can throw the ball and more importantly a stable of legit receivers. It's a nice change.

Now let's see how they perform with much tougher competition.

 

[businesslawyer]

The two things I'll say about Chandler before I get to do 241 later:

1. It was the best first game a QB has had for us, by far, since Tyler's debut against Duke in '07. I'll take it, and I don't get anyone not believing that, overall, it was a positive start.

2. You could see he has the basic tools. He has a lot of learning to do, but with Johnny Mc and even Zach, you never thought that they had the tools to complete 60% of their passes with more experience. I think Whitmer does. He will need to get better at ball security and going through his reads. I'm sure he will over three years. The question is how quickly.

 

[cohenzone]

The first interception, while granted it should have been thrown further OB, was still a great play by the first DB. The second interception, for all you weeping willows out there, is a ball that either Manning brother, Brady and every other great NFL QB throws on occasion. The kid was just fine, and I have zero idea why anyone can be so pass by pass critical of his game last night. On the other hand, folks, this was UMass who we badly outplayed. Unlikely to happen that way again this year.

I am totally not a fan of the wildcat, even though I know why PP is using it. I'm not convinced that he will veer away from the overuse like he did last night. If his wildcat QB is never going to throw, he won;t be effective against better teams. I understand that McCummings gives us a run option, but he is a strong back, not a speed demon. Let the other kid get in rhythm,

It does seem that they plan to use Williams a lot more in the scheme of things, a very good thing. The receivers all looked good, but I hope we throw to either of the TEs more as the season goes on. Finally, and again it was game one, but the opponent might not matter so much, but Chad Christien seems like a more than adequate as a place kicker.

I really dislike the new kickoff rule. It is potentially taking one of football's more exciting plays away and I wonder if there are not more injuries on punt returns than on kickoffs. I think kickers should practice high short kicks. With the gunners starting at the 35, the returners will hardly ever get past the 25.

 

[businesslawyer]

The first interception, while granted it should have been thrown further OB, was still a great play by the first DB. The second interception, for all you weeping willows out there, is a ball that either Manning brother, Brady and every other great NFL QB throws on occasion. The kid was just fine, and I have zero idea why anyone can be so pass by pass critical of his game last night. On the other hand, folks, this was UMass who we badly outplayed. Unlikely to happen that way again this year.

I am totally not a fan of the wildcat, even though I know why PP is using it. I'm not convinced that he will veer away from the overuse like he did last night. If his wildcat QB is never going to throw, he won;t be effective against better teams. I understand that McCummings gives us a run option, but he is a strong back, not a speed demon. Let the other kid get in rhythm,

It does seem that they plan to use Williams a lot more in the scheme of things, a very good thing. The receivers all looked good, but I hope we throw to either of the TEs more as the season goes on. Finally, and again it was game one, but the opponent might not matter so much, but Chad Christien seems like a more than adequate as a place kicker.

I really dislike the new kickoff rule. It is potentially taking one of football's more exciting plays away and I wonder if there are not more injuries on punt returns than on kickoffs. I think kickers should practice high short kicks. With the gunners starting at the 35, the returners will hardly ever get past the 25.

It looked to me like Christen's first two kickoffs were purposely kicked to the goal line, and not further, with a little more height, to try to contain the returner inside the 25 (which they did both times). I think once they got ahead, they just told him to kick away.

If kickers are trying to kick it higher and shorter on purpose, you have to think it will increase the injury rate.

 

[Brochacho]

If kickers are trying to kick it higher and shorter on purpose, you have to think it will increase the injury rate.

This is what I thought. After the SNY guy said it was done to increase player safety, I thought to myself geez wouldn't this propel them to kick it short more often to keep them inside the 25 and possibly create more contact than normal?

 

[UCername]

The two things I'll say about Chandler before I get to do 241 later:

1. It was the best first game a QB has had for us, by far, since Tyler's debut against Duke in '07. I'll take it, and I don't get anyone not believing that, overall, it was a positive start.

2. You could see he has the basic tools. He has a lot of learning to do, but with Johnny Mc and even Zach, you never thought that they had the tools to complete 60% of their passes with more experience. I think Whitmer does. He will need to get better at ball security and going through his reads. I'm sure he will over three years. The question is how quickly.

When JMac threw the last pass off his back foot at a slow rate of speed into a crowd of 2 teams I started praying for a healthy 2012 season for Chandler. I'll take the occasional dumb interception any day for a 25% improvement in completion %.

 

[HuskyBlue08]

In past years converting on 3rd and 6, 7, 8 yards was nearly impossible. In 2011 we were 108 out of 120 teams in 3rd down conversions.

Last night we were 8-16 on 3rd down. 6 of those conversions came in 3rd and long situations.

It's nice to know that we at least have a chance of making a first down in most situations.

 

[HuskyBlue08]

Actually we were 115 out of 120 in 3rd down conversions last year.

Worse than I thought.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

The two things I'll say about Chandler before I get to do 241 later:

1. It was the best first game a QB has had for us, by far, since Tyler's debut against Duke in '07. I'll take it, and I don't get anyone not believing that, overall, it was a positive start.

2. You could see he has the basic tools. He has a lot of learning to do, but with Johnny Mc and even Zach, you never thought that they had the tools to complete 60% of their passes with more experience. I think Whitmer does. He will need to get better at ball security and going through his reads. I'm sure he will over three years. The question is how quickly.

This. Exactly this.

 

[noeynox]

In past years converting on 3rd and 6, 7, 8 yards was nearly impossible. In 2011 we were 108 out of 120 teams in 3rd down conversions.

Last night we were 8-16 on 3rd down. 6 of those conversions came in 3rd and long situations.

It's nice to know that we at least have a chance of making a first down in most situations.

This point cannot be made enough. Like I stated earlier in this thread, a drop regardless of what down it happened on usually killed a drive for us. This usually required us to be near perfect on offense. It is tough to consistently be perfect on drives as the quality of opponent increases.

We will find out so much more about this team next week, but if this defense is as legit as it seems, and Whitmer completes passes at a near sixty percent clip, were in for a he'll of a year.

 

[Jimmy Serrano]

When JMac threw the last pass off his back foot at a slow rate of speed into a crowd of 2 teams I started praying for a healthy 2012 season for Chandler. I'll take the occasional dumb interception any day for a 25% improvement in completion %.

I like Johnny. He's a great kid. But after seeing that play last night it's almost amazing that we won 5 games last year (and should've won more).

 

[Adios]

All I can say is, about time we got a QB who can pass! Hopefully he doesn't fail any drug tests...

 

[cohenzone]

It looked to me like Christen's first two kickoffs were purposely kicked to the goal line, and not further, with a little more height, to try to contain the returner inside the 25 (which they did both times). I think once they got ahead, they just told him to kick away.

If kickers are trying to kick it higher and shorter on purpose, you have to think it will increase the injury rate.

Hard to tell if Christen was trying to kick short, only because they were so close to the goal line, I don't think he can be that precise. But anyway, those first two kicks showed why kicking short makes sense under the new rule.