That was a weird game and a poor performance, but at the same time, things don’t seem that far from clicking. A lot of folks seem predisposed to hate on Milton, but his performance through two games has been fine; not transcendent, but fine. The receivers have played as poorly as possible, even guys that performed well last year. They start making plays and things look at lot different. I counted 5 drops through the first 20 minutes of game time, and it may have been more. A couple were on throws behind guys, but the catches weren’t nearly as difficult as what Bru/Keeton were making last year at times. Aside from that, I’m not sure that you can take much from this game. Flow was jacked up from the get go with the weather. We look like we prepped for Florida instead a coked-out 12 year old running every strange formation he can find on NCAA ‘14. Officiating was as poor as you’ll see and worth probably 14-21 points; we didn’t execute well enough to overcome it. Final thought - I know the AD likes to keep the money for these FCS buy games in-state, but I’d take AP out of the rotation. It’s a minor miracle we didn’t have a player blow out a knee. I’m not sure I’ve seen that many cut and chop blocks in the last ten years combined. Even on Castle’s late TD, the AP DB dove at his knee two yards deep in the endzone. It’s one thing to play with an edge and throw the kitchen sink at an opponent. It’s another to pull the crap they did last night.
Somebody said it last night on basilio, idk how true it would be, but with Milton throwing rockets like he does, passes just a little off are that much harder to catch. Made sense to me.
Don’t blame Castle for his. That ball needs to float a little and let him make an easy catch an run. There was nobody near him. No need for 95 mph there on back shoulder of a TE running lateral
If you can equate the torso of the receiver to a strike zone, Milton was masterful at imitating Spencer Strider with 2 seams, 4 seams, and sliders all over the zone.
Dude looked like he was on a coke/meth/caffeine trip all night long. Their last play of the game, he and his coach were hunkered down like they were planning the storming of the beaches of Iwo Jima. Down 17. With 20 seconds left. it was hilarious to me.
I don't fault them for getting the most out of the opportunity and maybe try and carry over that intensity for the rest of the season. I do think that unless they plan on running the Emory and Henry once a game and diving at knees until players get ejected, don't come in playing that way just because it is the big school.
Maybe, but we’re only talking about a couple of plays there (I think Castles and Bru on early crossers, but I can’t find a full game replay to confirm). I’m also not certain that the receivers didn’t misread the defense on those plays. AP ran a lot of zone, and neither receiver sat his route like you typically would with option routes. It seems like many want to blame Milton based on 6 quarters 2 seasons ago instead of reacting to what they’re actually seeing. Keyton’s drop last week + Thornton’s drop on 4th and 3 and the scramble drill on the sideline are as good as any receiver could want. They’ve just not been making plays.
1. People were excusing Milton's awful play two years ago by blaming WRs. Those guys are in the NFL now while the same excuses are being recycled to protect the same QB. 2. You know what's hard to catch ? A perfectly thrown pass thats preceded by 19 errant ones.
Agree to disagree. Any receivers coach is gonna tell you that if it hits your hands, you catch it. To suggest a perfectly thrown pass is more difficult to catch because the last three were two feet off target but catchable is absurd. A perfectly thrown pass is a perfectly thrown pass. That’s like suggesting a routine grounder to short becomes a more difficult play because the last three were crazy hops in the hole. Don’t get me wrong, Joe has room to improve, but his performance through two weeks isn’t the Overthrow Joe that was putting 10 yards to much on 9 routes to Jones and Peyton. He’s made throws that have to be caught and the receivers aren’t catching them. That’s been the difference in the offense clicking or not.
People need to go back and look at Hooker last year. If you think he was hitting everyone on the numbers, you are mistaken.
Two years ago, Milton was generally fine on the short stuff and absolute trash downfield. I don’t think there was any way to excuse the latter because of the WRs.
If you can only catch a changeup then you don’t belong as a skill position player on an SEC roster. And you can forget playing on Sundays.
