Hurts has the defensive end, Christian LaCouture, bearing down on him and, while on the run, he somehow rifles the ball into a tight window surrounded by four LSU defenders. He keeps rolling to his right, but he keeps his eyes downfield. With the pressure incoming, Hurts takes off. Arden Key is going up against right tackle Matt Womack, and he beats Womack pretty quickly. Cam Sims (#17) and Ridley are on the left. This allows him to fire a dart to Ridley for a 15 yard gain and a first down.ģrd and 9: Alabama hurries to get set up on the ensuing play. LSU gets some pressure, and Hurts scampers up into the pocket but, again, he keeps his eyes downfield instead of tucking the ball and trying to make something happen with his feet. Hurts is in the gun with Bo Scarbrough (#9) to his left. You can look back at my entire breakdown, but I’ll include a couple plays here.ģrd and 11: Bama is deep in its own territory facing another third and long. I still feel this was a solid performance by Hurts, stats notwithstanding. Hurts steps up into the pocket and drills it to Ridley, who’s wide open past the first down marker. Damien Harris stays in and does a nice job picking up the blitz from the nickel back. Bama has trips left with Ridley as the #3 receiver (#1 is the farthest outside, and you count your way in). Hurts sees it and throws it, but it lacks the right touch and sails yards past Ridley.ģrd and 10: Of course, Hurts’ performance wasn’t all bad. Ridley releases to the outside and immediately gets a step on the cornerback. Cam Sims (#17) motions right to left, leaving Calvin Ridley (#3) as the sole wideout at the bottom of the screen, though TE Hale Hentges (#84) runs a little out route. Hurts is in shotgun with Damien Harris (#34) on his right hip. Florida Stateġst and 10: Hurts’ first pass of the season is just 1 out of 254 passes, but it’s emblematic of some of his issues. The consistency just wasn’t there, and that showed up again in 2017. There were times Hurts stepped up into the pocket or put the ball right on the many. Receivers could have separation only to see a pass fall incomplete because the ball didn’t have the touch it needed. Too often he turned to scramble and run if his first read wasn’t open or if he felt some pressure. His diffidence when throwing intermediate or deep balls was often still there. That said, many of his freshman struggles reared their heads again his sophomore year. His passer rating improved from 139.12 to 150.75, which was 20th in the country. His completion did drop a bit, but that stat wasn’t as padded by the jet sweep “passes” as it was in 2016. In 2016, he averaged 7.3 yards/attempt in 2017, he averaged 8.2 yards/attempt. In addition to limiting his turnovers, Hurts was more efficient passing the ball. His fumbles - total, not just lost ones - dropped from 11 to 3. His interceptions plummeted from 9 to just 1. There were several areas were Hurts unquestionably improved. With a full season and an offseason as the #1 quarterback, the hope was that Hurts’ passing skills would take a step forward - it did not have to be a leap, really - but improvement was needed. A couple weeks ago, Erik revisited Jalen Hurts’ freshman film, referencing the excellent work of Seth Galina.īut, more importantly were the conclusions that he arrived at: Hurts is a transcendent athlete with modest passing skills and, the types of errors that Hurts made as a first-year player are usually wrinkled out by the next season.or they never are.
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