kn1f3party said:
I understand you're reiterating what Tressel has said. But Zwick has fumbled 6 and threw 6 interceptions. To me, Smith may not have been great but he certainly took care of the ball. If Smith continues to take care of it maybe the offensive line has gotten better or we're seeing Zwick struggling to live up to his reputation--too early and too difficult to say at this juncture.
Agreed, and I added that caveat because I don't really buy the line he gave the media. I mean, whether it be because you don't think he's performing well enough, or if you want to take him out as an act of mercy lest you fry the kid, few people would argue against Smith getting a shot at this point in the season. Whether or not it will end up being a permanent change, I think this break for Justin can be as advantageous for him as it can be for Smith. It would be hard to say Zwick was progressing much in the face of all our problems during the last few games, and sometimes it can do a QB good to catch a few games from the sidelines. I hope that if and when we see him return to the starting job (and I'll reiterate the 'if', lest some lurker make assumptions about my message here), we'll see a player who has been able to combine his game experience with his sideline experience watching a peer, and turn that into some personal changes that might improve his performance.
I don't know if that made sense, and it's a horrific sentence, but I'm tired. Lol. Totally agree on the "too early and too difficult" theme. Time is going to be the only thing that answers all the questions we have.
I still have a hard time buying into the "but Smith took care of the ball" issue,
where it's suggestive that he went above and beyond Zwick's level of performance on the same issue. He didn't have any INTs, but not because he did something special, or made great reads and throws all day -- rather because the Hoosier D is inept, and his WRs made some great plays on the ball. He (Smith) made some of the same decisions and throws that have led to INTs when Zwick was just getting started as well.
The thing is, and the thing that seems to differentiate me from many others, is that I accept turnovers, mistakes and growing pains as part of a young QB's progression. So I don't think less of Smith as a QB for the mistakes he made today, and I don't think less of Zwick because of his struggles in the face of offensive problems that, while he was a part of, were certainly much greater than himself. At the same time, I'm also not awed by the things they do right in individual games. It's more a big picture issue for me, and while I understand that others (not necessarily talking about you, or anyone else I've talked with today) get caught up in the extreme highs and lows of individual game or play performances -- I just don't see any merit in it. At all. I've seen a game where Brett Favre imploded and threw 6 or more picks. I've seen games where he responded the same way, but instead of leading to an implosion, he tore a defensive secondary to shreds with throws that shouldn't really be physically possible? Which is representative of him as a QB? The answer is neither really, but both of these rolled into the big picture starts to tell a story relative to all the other games he's played.
But I digress.
As far as 6 and 6, that's misleading I think, given the number of those that were in Zwick's first 2 games, the gross disparity between some of the defenses JZ has faced, and the one TS did today. It's also effectively impossible to compare 5 1/2 games played, to 1 1/2. In fact, I still maintain that trying to draw direct parallels between two players at the same position against different teams under different circumstances, is a bit pointless. But we've got to go on what we've got, so here we all are. Smith's completion % doesn't stand out against Zwick's, his decision making/pass selection didn't either. He too overthrew some wide open receivers. Maybe he won't next week, looking forward to finding out. Where Smith did look better, I thought, were in terms of how "pretty" the passes were, the velocity on them while still having some touch when he needed it, and certainly his ability to scramble.
Anyway, I'm off to sleep, and am done with the Smith/Zwick issue for this week.
