I know we’re all fans here and overreactions are part of that I guess, but I try to be level headed about it to keep realistic expectations. I feel like through an honest lense, Milton was not good tonight, but I don’t think it was all him. I’m not taking up for his performance, but we don’t have to make blanket statements after 1 game. The talent is obvious, but it needs refinement. The JG comparisons at this point are really ignorant. I’m telling you, Drew Lock had some stinkers early in his time with Heupel also and he turned out alright. It’s too early for all that nonsense, and we have to guard against taking the past out on Heupel and his players. They deserve a clean slate no matter how bad the last 13 years have been. Or more recently, how bad JG was.
What are the facts: It is a new system and Milton has only been here since summer with 2 scrimmages before tonight. Also, he’s playing with new teammates, many who have not played significantly in actual games. There are obvious chemistry issues, but it’s certainly not unexpected. Those things are true.
Also true, he didn’t appear to see the field very well at times. There were times he had guys open and either didn’t see them or didn’t see them on time. We also don’t know the primary on every route though and what he has been taught to do.
My biggest beef was holding the ball too long. If it’s not there within 3 seconds he needs to check it down or take off. I feel like he’s sort of going to have to learn to play as if he didn’t have so much talent to be effective. Just because you can throw it 80 yards doesn’t mean you should wait 10 seconds for your guys to get downfield to chuck it, especially if the guy isn’t really open.
But as much as I’ve watched this offense and as simple as it seems, there’s still a lot of things that are hard to know exactly what the thought process is. Like any new system it will just take time. Heupel has been able to get things going in year one before though.
If you’ve never watched or have not seen this offense much, it takes time to really understand what they are trying to do. There’s a lot of set up plays they run that you have to hit before you take the big shot. There’s a lot of option routes where the QB has to wait on the receiver to make his choice which way he’s going. And then there’s seeing what the defense is giving you. Bowling green was playing a very soft 3-3-5 and 3-2-6 to prevent the downfield shots. I actually felt like their gameplan was really good they just didn’t have the guys to execute it against superior talent. I feel like a lot of teams will play us this way and that means we are going to have to run the ball. We did tonight, but I felt like when Cooper went out things really got off track. I hope he can get back out there next week.
I know this is a lot of random blabbering, but just some thoughts. I hope people will try to give Milton a fair shot and not throw out “JG” every time there’s a bad play. There’s going to be inconsistencies, although it was kind of a roller coaster tonight, there is still some good stuff to build on, but still a lot to clean up. I hope Milton will keep growing in his understanding and decision making. If he doesn’t, then make the switch, but they say the biggest improvement comes from game 1 to game 2 so let’s see how he does next week before jumping to conclusions.
