Which co-starting QB do you think played better vs Buffalo?

Which co-starting QB do you think played better vs Buffalo?

  • Rhoda

    Votes: 49 36.8%

  • Croft

    Votes: 84 63.2%
  • Total voters
    133
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MaroonGold1 said:
I mean was it a screen pass? Is Rhoda supposed to apologize for throwing a strike 15+ yds down field to an open receiver? Great play by Johnson, great throw by Rhoda. How much YAC on the bubble screens Croft completed? Did he complete a pass more than 3 yds downfield besides the one to Carter?
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Who said he should apologize? Who was complaining? The point was made that it skewed the Total Yards Totals. Nothing more. Did it not? No one took a shot at Rhoda for it. I have no clue what your beef is here.

Bottom Line: If you saw a big difference in tonight's game between the QBs passing abilities (one way or the other) then you are simply seeing what you want to see and not seeing reality.


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Spoofin said:
Who said he should apologize? Who was complaining? The point was made that it skewed the Total Yards Totals. Nothing more. Did it not? No one took a shot at Rhoda for it. I have no clue what your beef is here.

Bottom Line: If you saw a big difference in tonight's game between the QBs passing abilities (one way or the other) then you are simply seeing what you want to see and not seeing reality.


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I don't understand how a pass down the field to an open receiver skews a passing total. Not at all does that make sense. It wasn't a bubble screen, he found a guy wide open 17 yds down the field who was open and hit him in stride.

Yes, I saw a clear difference, and I'd say it's safe to assume the coaches have seen it too, since they played a similar amount of snaps and Croft threw about 5 non bubble screens

*clear difference in passing abilities, not overall QB play
 

MinneStoa said:
I don't think either one looked "bad" today. They weren't playing world-beaters, but they combined for one bad play all game. And they each made a handful of plays that I don't think Leinder would have made last year (and I was more pro-Leidner than most on here).

Certainly, neither quarterback is great. But it's all sorts of disingenuous to call the both bad.
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Agree with this assessment. And it's not like they had time to sit back there and choose their target. I'm watching OSU vs Indiana and Barrett has all the time in the world. Our QBs are average and don't have time.

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I think they were both equally ok. Rhoda clearly threw the better balls, but he also threw the worst ball of the night and he is no threat to run. Croft didn't make the great plays but he made some decent ones and no big mistakes. I say the co-QB role continues.
 



Gopher028 said:
Croft. Our offensive line is atrocious so far....and we're gonna need a guy to scramble. That's the separation between these two.

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This.

The O-line was so bad that one has to expect that it will be bad again and again this season. Croft gives the best chance to counter that issue.
 

I didn't watch the game on TV yet. Just saw it at the game and it looked really even.

Connor had the INT which was bad.
Croft missed a wide open receiver that would have kept the drive going early in the 2nd half where the throw was really bad.

I thought other than that, Croft looked solid and of course if a better running threat.

Connor was solid. I thought play calling was balanced and fair for both QB's so they both seemed to have equal opportunities.

I don't know if either wins the job. I think it's almost impossible for Connor to win the job outright with Croft being younger, where Croft has that advantage to take it over if his accuracy and consistency improves.
 

I went with Croft for two reasons...1. Legs. His threat to run, and ability to evade pressure more so than Rhoda.

And 2, other than the interception that Rhoda threw in the end zone, I thought he had two other ill advised throws towards the west end zone later in the game....on one, Still appeared to be triple covered, and another that I can't recall clearly, but it appeared he tried to force it.... same drive as the attempted pass to Still.

Just my opinions, but I think they both passed the game 1 test.
 




Whoever wins out, it's good to know we have a very good back-up - that wasn't always true during the past 15 years or more. Croft can scramble, is a better runner, but doesn't look all that sturdy when B10 hits start happening. Both can pass better than Leidner and we will have a passing game for the first time in years and shouldn't be ranked 117th, etc as we have been in so many recent years. Rhoda looked much better than I expected. It may come down to which one makes the most progress game to game, but I hope we settle on one by the time we play Maryland.
 

Tough call, neither blew me away, Rhoda was the better passer, but I like the offense more with Croft at the helm.
 

tikited said:
This.

The O-line was so bad that one has to expect that it will be bad again and again this season. Croft gives the best chance to counter that issue.
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yep, that's why I voted for Croft.
 

Lol Naturally, I saw things differently...I'm not saying by an avalanche margin for sure but I do believe Rhoda is the better quarterback. Rhoda's pocket presence I thought was excellent. He stepped up in the pocket to avoid the rush, he stood in the pocket knowing he was going to get drilled and delivered the pass on target. The only criticism of Rhoda's play that I saw and it was huge, was the interception...BUT, the play was immediately after the coaches took a timeout. Rhoda came out and STARED down his one and only target. Then the threw the ball in what looked to be a horrible pass. Why? It's not how he quarterbacked (surveyed the field) on his other passes...there was a misunderstanding on that play somewhere...the receiver on the wrong pattern, the coaches instructions to Rhoda misunderstood...something was off on that play resulting in a huge mistake not typical of his other decisions. jmo
Yes, Croft has more potential as a runner but in a critical spot he could have kept the ball on the read option and run for days...but instead handed it off for a loss of yardage. One example... I can also easily see how/why we might have made the decision to be playing two quarterbacks to start the season.
 



Both are seriously flawed, but I choose Croft because of his mobility. That said, he seemed like he was going 1/2 speed (hesitant) on a few of those runs, but that's easily correctable.


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I went with Croft not because of anything he did, but because of Rhoda's inexcusable interception. I did get the feeling that the staff was more comfortable giving Rhoda a wider variety of passing plays so if we're playing catch up he might be the guy. Kyle from 247 was saying the running game was more effective with Croft because Buffalo was not honoring Rhoda at all. I was pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of both QB's for game 1 in a new offense with little experienced talent to throw to. Hopefully that observation is not just the result of playing Buffalo because it was one of the few things I was pleasantly surprised by in this game.
 

Gopher07 said:
Rhoda seems to throw a better ball and be a bit more accurate but Croft seems to make the offense work better as a whole because of his athleticism and ability to run the read option. I guess I'll go with Croft but it's a toss up for me.
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Rhoda moved the offense down field much better than Croft tonight.
 

Seemed like both guys were kept on a leash for the most part. Guys, this was not close to the full playbook. Buffalo didn't really respect either of them as passers. They were looking to stop the run. I thought both guys did some good things and some bad things.

Rhoda's pass to Johnson on that deep crosser was pretty money. But, he seemed to lock in on one guy a bit. That INT was really bad. Really bad. Outside of that really big mistake I thought he did ok managing the game.

Either Rhoda was told to not run or he chose not to on those read options. He had huge daylight at times IIRC but I'll have to rewatch the game. Running the RB into stacked +1 or +2 (on that third down on the Buff 42 in 3rd quarter) is a tough way to make yards. So I think either Rhoda doesn't have the green light to get out of plays or chose not to. I think the staff was playing this one pretty close to the vest. This offense will get much, much better as the QBs learn the system.

Croft's pass to Carter was sweet. The bubble screen decoy froze the CB and Carter got behind him. Pump fake and nice pass. That play alone is light years beyond what we saw from the old staff. It's a little thing but he placed the balls on the screens well. Too many times Leidner, and Rhoda, seem to throw at the receiver or behind them instead of leading them a touch to allow them to get up the field quicker.

Croft did choose to run it on the read options and he did it pretty well. Nobody will mistake him for Michael Vick but as he gets more decisive I think it will be an effective play.

He had the overthrow to Douglas, or was it Johnson. Not sure if just bad pass or miscommunication.

He put the ball on the money to Johnson on at least two go routes, but Johnson doesn't have that extra gear or doesn't get off well, not sure, and was unable to go up over the DB to make the catch.

We don't seem to really have a deep threat with wheels, which is a little disappointing but we have an actual functional pass game guys! Do we have any speed lurking in the recruits or true freshmen? There are other ways to manufacture a good pass game.

I think it's too soon to pick a QB. I don't think we as fans saw enough either way. Obviously Fleck sees what they do in practice. I'm a bit concerned that with the INT and the locking on Rhoda may be Leidner 1.1 but we shall see.
 

howeda7 said:
They were about equal in the passing game. Croft brings so much more to the running game, that's it's not close, IMO.
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How was that equal in the passing game? The pick was a bad, but i felt Rhoda looked waaaaay more poised throwing passes. I think there is something to be said about an older QB understanding the system a bit quicker. I give the edge to Rhoda for sure after game 1
 

I hope people gain more respect for Leidner after watching this game. Hate all you want but he made good plays throughout his career and consistently moved the offense. He wasn't a world beater, but he was a good QB. Hence why he's on the top of most program records and made a bowl game every year.

I think think Croft was marginally better this game, but I'm not ready to name a starter by any means.

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mcal24 said:
I hope people gain more respect for Leidner after watching this game. Hate all you want but he made good plays throughout his career and consistently moved the offense. He wasn't a world beater, but he was a good QB. Hence why he's on the top of most program records and made a bowl game every year.

I think think Croft was marginally better this game, but I'm not ready to name a starter by any means.

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If Leidner was more accurate and had made better decisions in the pocket...I believe he could have been one of the all-time great gopher Qbs....Loved his toughness and running ability on short yardage but too many letdowns in big games.
 

The pass that Rhoda made while on the run to Johnson on the sideline for a first down was impressive. His arm strength is better than I expected. I think the offense will be more dynamic and able to score quicker with him as the QB. If he continues to make a bad mistake like the end zone int one then Croft.
 

I didn't see the smooth-running offense with Croft that others did. The running game was better, sure, but I didn't think the passing game was very effective. He made a few dumpoffs and screens, but didn't reaky go downfield. We've already seen a running QB with a non-effective passing game the past four years, do we really need to see it more?
 

PMWinSTP said:
Rhoda moved the offense down field much better than Croft tonight.
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I'd like to see a stat of our avg yards per carry with each QB in the game. My guess is that it wasn't close. The run game stopped with CR15 in the game as there is zero buy in from the D he would run. If they make Rhoda our QB, they need to just remove the read option from the play book.

I'm amazed that anyone saw a large difference between our QBs in this game. It is people seeing what they want to. I hate the 2 QB system but totally see why PJ did it after this game.


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I agree with PJ, "Nothing was able to persuade me to [say], Well, I'm going to have to play that guy more".
 

Neither one of them stood out from each other. Need more game time to evaluate what they can do, so at this point I would still choose to play both of them, even though that is not an ideal situation.
Rhoda looked good at times throwing, but the INT was awful. We were able to move the ball through the air better than on the ground while he was in the game. He doesn't do a good job on the read plays. The Bulls D wasn't honor him on those plays so those defenders were able to sit inside on stop Brooks or Smith. Had he pulled it and hit the corner, he would have had a couple of nice runs.
Croft looked good throwing the ball as well, but they didn't seem to throw as much when he was in the game. Part of that could be because the run game was much more effective. He has some running ability that the Bulls had to honor after he pulled it on some reads and was able to get good yards. The Bulls defenders had some hesitation on those plays, which allowed Smith and Brooks bigger running lanes when they were given the ball.
The offense wasn't smooth when either guy was in the game, but it was the first game and they looked pretty good at times. I believe we will see some big improvement in the offense next week.
I also felt the OL did a very good job in the pass game in picking up blitzes and holding the pocket for the most part. There were some times that they weren't good and Croft/Rhoda moved around or scrambled to buy a little more time. But overall I thought they played ok in the passing game. The OL in the run game was not great. They did not get great push up front no matter who the QB was.

Post #48 by PE is also a pretty good analysis of the night.

I believe we will see a more diverse offensive game plan next week vs. OSU and one of the two will separate themselves from the other, so that by the MTSU game we will have a true starting QB.
 

There is no question that if you take the interception out of the equation Rhoda hands down was the better passer. So the question is, when evaluating the game how much negative weight do you put on that interception. I agree with 60's that the fact that it came straight out of a time out makes me believe that in part it was a set play with a set target and may have been dictated in that timeout. Pass could have been better, but how negative I would measure it will be dictated by what was communicated in that timeout. If it was just a play call hang it on Rhoda, If it was set target within that play, Fleck has to take some of the heat and the coach will know what he did or didn't contribute there.

Croft clearly the more mobile, but doesn't look like game changing speed back there like a JT Barrett. What that leaves you with is a QB that can run those options for short to medium gains and nearly guarantee he will take a hit every time he carries the ball. When a guy like Barrett takes off he can get a first down and get out of bounds untouched, and or score on a scramble. Having a QB take 6-10 hits a game to add 60 yards of rushing to your total is what we had with Mitch and he spent a lot of time not at 100%.

The equalizer will be the Oline play. If they don't get better, I think they will be forced to use Croft because Rhoda will take more hits in the backfield than Croft would take on scrambles and options.
 

Well the RPO needs the decisiveness that Rhoda showed and the legs that Croft showed. But that wasn't the question. Toss up for me.
 

1997vacatedfinalfour said:
If Leidner was more accurate and had made better decisions in the pocket...I believe he could have been one of the all-time great gopher Qbs....Loved his toughness and running ability on short yardage but too many letdowns in big games.
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Change a handful of plays in Mitch's career and folks would think he was the best.
 


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