Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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20 NOV. 21, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED E valuating quarterbacks can be one of the hardest things to do for fans and analysts. Far too of- ten the go-to for evaluating quarter- backs is to go with stats, but that often does not even begin to tell the story. For example, Notre Dame junior quarterback DeShone Kizer com- pleted 70.4 percent of his passes in the team's 28-27 loss to Navy. Kizer finished with 223 passing yards, rushed for 52 yards and had three touchdowns passes against no turn- overs. On the surface those numbers are impressive, but a deeper evalua- tion into Kizer's play showed he was inconsistent and missed a number of key opportunities that could have helped the Irish win the game. There is a lot that goes into evaluat- ing a quarterback, and determining how effective his play is and how it im- pacted a team's ability to win games. PRE-SNAP WORK Being successful as a quarterback requires making good decisions be- fore the ball is snapped. This is es- pecially true for the quarterbacks at Notre Dame, who have a great deal of responsibility before the snap. Kizer is responsible for setting the protection on pass plays, which is why there are times when a sack has more to do with him than it does the offensive line. He has to evaluate the personnel and alignment of the defense, which could result in him checking into a run play, checking out of a run play or adjusting the route of a receiver. Kizer, like all quarterbacks, has to evaluate the defensive look to deter- mine what read he is going to make after the snap. For example, the alignment of the defense will tell him whether or not he is reading the cor- nerback or safety on a pass play, and who the secondary read defender is on that play. This has been an area where Kizer has had major troubles this season. Teams have been able to use their pre-snap alignment to force Kizer to check out of run plays. POST-SNAP READS AND DECISIONS Evaluating a quarterback's post-snap decisions can be difficult, but vitally important. A quarterback completing a pass, even for good yardage, does not mean he made the correct decision. The pre-snap alignment a defense shows will determine who the quar- terback looks at in the pass game once the ball is snapped. A quarterback has to know the depth of the routes being run by his receivers, and he should throw the ball to the open area based on how the defensive read key reacts. For example, one of Notre Dame's favorite pass concepts is the "smash" concept. The outside receiver will run a hitch route and the slot receiver will run a corner route. If there is a third re- ceiver, he usually runs an option route. If the quarterback sees a two-high safety look he will first read the safety to the side of the "smash" concept. Depending on how the safety reacts, Kizer will throw the corner route or go to the secondary target, which is the hitch route. Some looks might cause him to read the hitch to option route. Beyond that, the way the safety plays the corner route will determine if the route goes deep or levels off out of the break. If the quarterback does not properly read the leverage or drop of the safety, he could throw the ball deep when the receiver is breaking on a more shallow angle, or vice versa. The quarterback could throw the ball out to the hitch route, complete the pass and pick up a third-down but still be incorrect, or at the very least it might have been a missed opportunity to pick up 25-30 yards instead of the six or seven on the hitch route. On the stat sheet it would look good, but when grading the play it could be a minus. ACCURACY AND TIMING Accuracy and timing are vitally im- portant to a quarterback. Completing a pass but not being accurate could result in the receiver getting tackled right after the catch for a 10-yard gain. An accurate pass might have given the receiver the opportunity to run after the catch for an even bigger gain. Proper timing has the same results. Getting the ball out late to a receiver could result in a completion for good yards, but a better-timed throw could have gotten the ball to the receiver be- fore the defender arrived, giving him the opportunity to run after the catch. If both of those things happen in a game, the quarterback might go 2 of 2 on those throws for 25 yards, which on paper looks positive. A coach would look at that and teach the quarterback that those 25 yards should have been 50 yards, or maybe a touchdown. Trailing 28-24 and facing third- and-10 at Navy's 20, Kizer completed a six-yard pass to Kevin Stepherson — but if the throw had been in front of him it might have been a first down. Instead, the Irish settled for a field goal. Of course, there are times when a quarterback makes the right read, gets the ball out on time and makes an ac- curate throw, but the receiver runs the wrong route or makes his break at the wrong distance. That is the opposite ex- ample where an incomplete pass on the stat sheet was actually a good decision or well-executed play by a quarterback. These are simple examples of what a quarterback has to do each play, and how statistics do not always tell how well a quarterback is performing. ✦ Numbers Don't Always Tell The Whole Story CHALK TALK BRYAN DRISKELL Bryan Driskell has been a football analyst for Blue & Gold Illustrated since April 2015. He can be reached at bdriskell@blueandgold.com. Junior quarterback DeShone Kizer had completed 60.4 percent of his throws for 2,261 yards and 19 touchdowns with seven interceptions through nine games. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA