Week 5 - Official Browns Bye Week Thread

The guys is a freshman with three starts playing the most difficult position in football. Seriously, what do you expect? I never said he was great NOW. He will be great some day, based on how he has performed so far. Like I said, nobody expected him to step in and be a star right away. He wasn’t even supposed to start this year! If that’s the “hype” you’re talking about, then I guess he didn’t. But nobody that I read or talked to expected that.

It is obvious from watching him play that the kid is immensly talented. Does he have a lot to learn? Of course! I never implied that he didn’t. I would say that he is far exceeding my (and most people’s) expectations of him so far this year. I call that “living up to the hype.”

If someone doesn’t believe that Terrelle is living up to the hype then they can go tell the coaches that. They would vehemently disagree.

This isn’t baseball where you have a nice list of objective tools to determine performance. There is no Vorp or OPS figure that tells you who played well. Even if you were going off the “raw” data you would have to be pleased.

A 68% completion percentage is very nice to see. However, TP did miss reads on a few coverages. For instance, he had Devier Posey open on a drag route but took a sack instead.That will change with time.

Really, this smells like a negative nancy trying to find something wrong with a true freshman leading an 80 yard drive for the victory. There really isn’t. Only special players can make that happen.

Trent Dilfer?? You’re comparing Terrelle Pryor to Tent Dilfer? Could Dilfer had made the TD run that Pryor made to win the game on Saturday? Pryor can make great plays — have you even watched any games? He’s not great all the time, of course, but he certainly has shown the abilities to be a playmaker. He had 4TD passes in his first start!!

This season, as a true freshman, Pryor has completed 65% of his passes at 6.77 yards/attempt with 5 Td’s and 2 Int’s. He has also averaged 5 yards per carry with 4 TD’s on the ground. Do those looks like Charlie Frye or Trent Dilfer numbers to you?

Listen, nobody is arguing that Beanie Wells isn’t OSU’s best player or the key to their offense. Everybody knows that. But to say that Pryor “hasn’t lived up to the hype” is simply ridiculous.

Plenty of sportswriters across the country have written about how much better than expected Pryor has been this year. Did you read those article I posted above? I think you’re the one that is not being objective.

Let’s also not forget that it was Wisconsin sitting so deep on that last drive that let Pryor accrue a good chunk of those passing yards. Before that drive he had thrown for 85 yards.

You know why they were sitting deep?

They couldn’t afford to man up and attack or OSU would run a four vertical play and allow the receiver’s to clear out room for TP to run for a mile. Terrelle’s skill set is forcing bad matchups for defensive coordinators. His ability handcuffs them on what they can run.

No one is saying that he is the greatest quarterback who ever lived. He has a long way to go as a quarterback. However, I think that everyone here believes that your characterization of him not living up to the hype is where the problem lies.

That’s tough. He is great, but Colt McCoy and Sam Bradford have been pretty fantastic as well. McCoy is running a lot this year, also (not sure about Bradford). Neither of them have played any really good teams so far, although McCoy looked pretty good at Colorado last Saturday. We’ll tell a lot more about those two when they play each other this weekend.

Chase Daniel and the Mizzou offense are putting up some amazing numbers. The kid has a rocket for an arm.

Juice Williams also has a lifetime completion percentage of 50%.

He hasn’t broken 60% in a single season for his entire career. I find it infinitely entertaining that you complain about Terrelle in the following manner:

..praying the kid doesn’t have to actually play quarterback.

Praising Juice Williams when he can’t even break 60% completion percentage is awfully suspect. I’m guessing you haven’t kept up on the fact that Juice Williams was benched last season at multiple times. Your argument seems razor thin right now. I’m actually not quite sure where you are going with this Juice Williams comparison. I

Absolutely, I watch the games I get on TV. I can also read, comprehend, analyze, and evaluate your argument here, which is what I am doing. You also never said this was a one-day comparison. Calculating the skill of a QB at any point in time implies a taking-in-to-account of more than one game that QB has played (unless, of course, that QB has only played one game). You weren’t arguing who had the better night, you were arguing who was better overall, that Pryor was not better-than-advertised so far, and that OSU fans/coaches had to “pray the kid doesn’t actually have to play quarterback”.

Side note: a superlative is something that is of the highest degree or skill, such as “the best” or “the most talented”. Think about those things in your yearbook; “most likely to suceed”, “craziest hair”etc. People were not using superlatives by saying he looked in control or like he knew what he was doing. Fail.

OSU coaches have other options who are more mature than Pryor, who have been in the system longer, who are more experienced. Yet, when the game was on the line, the ball was in Pryor’s hands. He scored the winning TD for chrissake! That hardly seems like “praying” he didn’t have to make a play.

What really undermines your argument, however, is that you use Juice as a standard for greatness. He is not the BEST (superlative) in any facet of the QB game in college this year, nor did he have the best game last weekend, regardless of criteria. Graham Harrell had more TDs, a better completion %, had more yards and led his offense to more points than did Williams.

Speaking of, what exactly are your criteria for evaluating a QB? I threw out some common ones in my last post, but you declined to give a reason as to why Williams was the “better” QB. You simply mention Pryor’s stats and his perceived lack of yardage. I contend that the only stats that matter for QBs are Ws and to a lesser extent points scored. Did Williams have better stats on Saturday? Absolutely, and no one was claiming that Pryor really shined in the box score. I was impressed that he found a way to win, and led a 4th quarter comeback at age 19 at night on the road in a loud stadium where the home team had pretty good winning streaks both at night and at home. I asked about his passing, which could have been as bad as you suggest; I only saw highlights. Regardless: Pryor is 3-0 as a starter this year. Juice is 3-2.

How do you measure Passers by stats? Passer rating? What if a RB gets a trick play and throws one pass for 99yds and a TD? Is that RB all of a sudden the best QB in college? How small is too small a number of attempts? What about TDs? What if the QB threw a screen pass and his monster WR took the ball 80+ yds by himself? What if I rack up huge numbers against a Division I-AA team and lose? What if I have poor stats against USC or Bama or LSU or Oklahoma but win? What if my wideouts are horrible? There are too many variables to go purely on stats in football.

I guarantee you that if DA didn’t approach last year’s stats, but won every game that way less people would be calling for Quinn (there are a few who would call for him no matter what).

Here is what else is wrong with your argument: Pryor’s hype was that he was one of the best recruits in the class, was a physical freak, was very mature for his age, and could become a great college QB. So far I think he has met that. Additionally, he actually taken over the starting job 3-4 games in to the year, something that most didn’t think he could do, especially with a guy like JT at the helm, who errors by not playing young guys enough if anything. How is that not exceeding his hype? Who was actually hyped as a HS recruit who came in as a QB, took the starting job early in the season from a future draft pick, and then passed the ball well while being such a good runner?

Yeah, that looks like it could be for the Big Ten title (and PSU’s shot at a national title if they can get by Wisconsin). Although the Michigan State game also worries me. They’re tough.

Its about what Young’s is right now. Not that Pryor is that good, Young is just that bad of a passer.

What about Young singlehandedly defeating USC in the Rose Bowl? That was one of the best individual performances of all time