There's a lot of talk on this board about our QB's performance. Some of what's being written doesn't match my recollection of the game. So since my 5 month old isn't sleeping well right now, and I'm up anyway, I figured I'd do some rudimentary charting of Meier's passes against Marshall. I'm not promising it's 100% accurate, but my passing yards are within a couple of the official stats, so here it goes.
1st Quarter:
1/4 - 25 yards; 0/1 on 3rd down; 0 knockdowns/pressures.
The completion was a nice one to Jordy. The three incompletions were all overthrows. One was a pretty bad duck out in front of Figurs, which was his worst throw of the game in my opinion, as the Marshall player was really the only one that had a chance to catch the ball. Overall, this was Meier's weakest quarter.
2nd Quarter:
5/8 48 yards; 2/4 on 3rd down; 4 knockdowns/pressures
Our interior OL did a poor job of pass protection in the second quarter. Marshall was getting pressure straight up the middle, none of these were from blitzers coming free. Two of the three incompletions were overthrown balls with Marshall players getting hits on Meier. The other incompletion was thrown into coverage, but wasn't a dangerous throw. Meier got blasted on one completion, and knocked down on two others.
After a disapointing 1st half, Meier led a drive down to the 7, where we had to settle for a FG when he overthrew Nelson in the end zone.
3rd Quarter:
9/17 189 yards 1 INT; 2/4 on 3rd down; 7 knockdowns/pressures
Two of these incompletions were throw aways when Marshall sniffed out screens. One was a drop (the only drop of the game). Two were due to pressure, one underthrown (although Jordy may have had a shot at that one if he hadn't fallen down) and one overthrown. One incompletion happened on a PI call. One was an overthrow (although Jordy looked real slow on that one), and the last one was the pick. I don't think Meier saw the guy sitting in the underneath zone, and he made a pretty good play on the ball to grab the interception.
Another completion was wiped off the books with the offensive PI call.
Meier had a pretty good start to this quarter. At times we gave up on the running game, and those were the times that we moved the ball best in this game. But the one thing that Meier needs to do is not turn the ball over, and he did that here. He had a very good completion percentage going in this quarter before three incompetions to end it.
4th Quarter:
4/8 69 yards 1 TD; 2/3 on 3rd down; 2 knockdowns/pressures
One incompletion again occured on a PI call on Marshall. One was a severely underthown ball when a blitzer came free and popped Meier on release. One was another overthrow, and the final incompletion was caused when he led the TE too far.
The credit for the TD goes mostly to Moreira, but Meier did get popped on the release from a safety on a delayed blitz.
He was only 50% this quarter, but he did pretty well here.
Overall:
Despite what I've read a couple of times on this board, there were only a couple of underthrown balls, and those occured when he was getting hit. Overthrows were far more likely, especially in the first half. Counting "ducks" is harder because that's a pretty subjective term. Certainly that 1st quarter throw to Figurs qualifies, but there was really only one other ball that Marshall had a shot at. Of course they managed to pick it off. He also dropped a snap early in the fourth, that he managed to jump on it.
The OL pass blocked well at times, but really poorly at others. I counted 13 knockdowns/hits on the QB. Marshall managed to get good pressure from their DTs at times. Meier/scheme deserve a fair amount credit for the lack of sacks as he got pressure right as he completed his drop at least 5 times.
I don't know what grade I'd give him for that performance, but I will say that it's higher than the OL/RB. The passing game is pretty clearly ahead of the running game at this point in time. Meier's not a guy we're going to win an NC with, but I believe he is good enough to get us to a bowl game if he gets some help.
Anyway, I don't imagine that this will end any debates or anything, but at least now you guys can use some facts when you argue with each other.
