The Ozone's Jeff Amey gives TP a rather harsh evaluation for the USC game. Let's limit the discussion regarding this article to QB play in this thread.
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As you probably already guessed, this is going to be one of the longer sections. Much of the problems we saw Saturday night were not personnel based, but this position is the exception. It's no secret that Terrelle Pryor played poorly against USC, but the question is why?
Some people seem to feel that he's regressed from last season. I don't agree with that. There are signs of progress from last season. In the first quarter, Pryor's mechanics were decent, better than anything we saw out him last season. He did a pretty good job of finding the open man, stepping into his throw and hitting his receivers for big gains, even with the interception on the third play of the game.
Beginning in the second quarter, however, things started to change. Pryor started hurrying his mechanics and throwing off his back foot. He looked unsure and hesitant in the running game, including a terrible pitch on an option play in the red zone. What happened to him?
I've touched on this in prior By the Numbers articles, but never thought it was going to be as pervasive of a problem as it obviously is now. Ohio State's star quarterback and the nation's top recruit going into the 2008 season really...REALLY doesn't like contact. To the point where he starts looking terrified of taking a hit. I'm not talking about someone getting a hand on him or anything like that. I'm talking about a full on football hit. You know...the kind that quarterbacks have to take sometimes in order to complete passes against blitzes.
I've thought this from the first time I saw him play in a Buckeye uniform, but I always thought it was going to be something he would get through after his freshman year. I know some of you reading this aren't going to believe this, or at least don't think that it's as big of a problem as I'm making it out to be, but take a little time to think about what you've seen out of Pryor since the beginning of last season. He's playing like a guy that's been able to run away from his problems on the football field...literally. I really think that's part of it. He's probably been that much better than everyone else on the field until he started playing at Ohio State.
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Unless he's able to get past this problem, I don't think Pryor is going to be able to progress any further than where he is right now. It affects every phase of his game. Not every team is going to have the same kind of athletes on defense to successfully do what USC was able to do on Saturday, but I know we just watched the blueprint of how to defend OSU and Pryor this season. If nothing is done to address this, I think Pryor will go on looking pretty good against inferior opponents, but will fall flat on his face again against a defense with a pulse.
Grade--D The first quarter is the only thing that keeps this from being a complete fail. There's a world of potential in Pryor, but he has to be the one that realizes it.
Cont'd ...
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