How did Athan do in the second half?

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swelna

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I wasn't able to watch the second half, but 14-22 seems like an improvement on his completion percentage. Did he look like he settled in?
 

He’s banged up and threw a bad interception driving in the second half. He locks on too much. Everything was to Jackson as much as possible.
 

To me, I saw the first promising signs this season.

He made some mistakes — for example he got tackled hard to the ground, trying to run for yardage, on a play he clearly should have thrown the ball away. As mentioned by State of Football, the INT was a bad throw.

But he made a really nice run on an RPO, and also had some really good, strong throws.

Most importantly (to me): he seems to be showing a greater understanding of what his role is in this offense. Don't — repeat, don't — try to play like Patrick Mahomes. Instead, be the point guard, be the leader, engineer wins for this team.

It will be interesting to see if he continues to show progress next week vs Illinois.
 

I thought he was around the 2/3rds completions ratio the whole game?

Don't think that's a bad spot to be in. Obviously we'd take 70's, but thought he had some nice completions.


Someone locked the real BSF in a closet somewhere and sent an imposter to fill in. So that helped for a couple huge gains.
 



swelna said:
I wasn't able to watch the second half, but 14-22 seems like an improvement on his completion percentage. Did he look like he settled in?
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Answer is yes, he looked much better in the second half than he has all season. Your question was not "was he good enough to satisfy most gopher holers" right? He did look settled in for the most part. Threw the one bad pic but other than that I thought he was good. To be fair, the receivers were not dropping balls and we had the running game going a bit. That helped him immensely. In short, I thought AK played much more like the AK we were expecting to see this year. On related comment... was there a single tipped ball at the LOS yesterday? I don't think so, and he usually has 2-3 of those per game.
 

RememberMurray said:
He made some mistakes — for example he got tackled hard to the ground, trying to run for yardage, on a play he clearly should have thrown the ball away.
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Correct. He took a hit, not to mention a five yard loss, he didn’t need to. On the plus side, the very next play he threw a dart to Jackson for a TD.
 


His biggest issue is he holds the ball too long.
Take out int and fumble and he played a pretty good game. Both plays he held the ball too long.
 



Looking at the play by play, I must’ve transposed my memory of good passes in the first half to the second half.

The first drive was three and out with two incompletes and the 2nd drive he had a 10 yard to Jackson and threw the pick.

We didn’t attempt a single pass after that in the game, including the two TD drives. 16 straight runs, two of which by AK and rest by Nubin.
 

He had flashes of decisiveness that looked good like last year.

But also indecisiveness and poor choices.

Toward the end though the offensive line was dominating the defensive line so much it didn’t make any sense to pass or give AK more tries.
 

Crosby said:
Answer is yes, he looked much better in the second half than he has all season. Your question was not "was he good enough to satisfy most gopher holers" right? He did look settled in for the most part. Threw the one bad pic but other than that I thought he was good. To be fair, the receivers were not dropping balls and we had the running game going a bit. That helped him immensely. In short, I thought AK played much more like the AK we were expecting to see this year. On related comment... was there a single tipped ball at the LOS yesterday? I don't think so, and he usually has 2-3 of those per game.
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I guess he looked good handing off in the 2nd half ;). I don't recall them even throwing the ball, though they must have. Fleck found another running back to feed all day, so that's what he did the entire 2nd half.
 

swelna said:
I wasn't able to watch the second half, but 14-22 seems like an improvement on his completion percentage. Did he look like he settled in?
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He handed off the 2nd. Threw 18 times for 190 yards in first half then was sent off to nap.
 



State of Football said:
State of Football said:
He’s banged up and threw a bad interception driving in the second half. He locks on too much. Everything was to Jackson as much as possible.
Click to expand...

He’s banged up and threw a bad interception driving in the second half. He locks on too much. Everything was to Jackson as much as possible.
Click to expand...
This is tough on Jackson too. Crooms is a decent receiver and needs to be used. BSF is ready now.

AK locking in on Jackson is his biggest shortcoming right now. Would be an ideal time for a coach on staff. It’s correctable.
 

AK was like 7-9 for 80 at some point in the first half.
 

MplsGopher said:
I thought he was around the 2/3rds completions ratio the whole game?

Don't think that's a bad spot to be in. Obviously we'd take 70's, but thought he had some nice completions.


Someone locked the real BSF in a closet somewhere and sent an imposter to fill in. So that helped for a couple huge gains.
Click to expand...
Better than percentage, he threw for a little over 190 yards in the first half alone. When was the last time you saw a QB on pace for nearly 400 yards sent to his room at halftime?
 


Crosby said:
Answer is yes, he looked much better in the second half than he has all season. Your question was not "was he good enough to satisfy most gopher holers" right? He did look settled in for the most part. Threw the one bad pic but other than that I thought he was good. To be fair, the receivers were not dropping balls and we had the running game going a bit. That helped him immensely. In short, I thought AK played much more like the AK we were expecting to see this year. On related comment... was there a single tipped ball at the LOS yesterday? I don't think so, and he usually has 2-3 of those per game.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you saw in the second half to make that assessment. He threw 18 times in the first half for 190. He threw four times in the second half for 10 yards and the interception. No tipped balls. Sparty spent that on the too low Kessich FG attempt.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
He had flashes of decisiveness that looked good like last year.

But also indecisiveness and poor choices.

Toward the end though the offensive line was dominating the defensive line so much it didn’t make any sense to pass or give AK more tries.
Click to expand...
Wrong. Makes sense to continue to balance the offense when both run and pass are working, especially when you only have one back to handle 40 carries.
 

Gophers need an OC (like Kansas has - love their offense) who can also coach QBs.
 

Fleck is who he is.

Tyler fumbles - he is banished to the bench and J. Nubin carries the ball 40 times.

AK makes a bad throw for an INT, and the team does not throw another pass for the rest of the game.

Fleck is very reactionary when it comes to turnovers. Yes, AK lost a fumble on a strip sack in the 1st half - but he was not benched for the fumble because he is the starting QB and Fleck does not pull the starting QB unless he is too badly injured to play. But if that QB makes a bad throw, Fleck tells the OC "no more passing."

Fleck is who he is, and you take the parts you like along with the parts you don't like.
 


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