Prospect Analysis: Zach Mettenberger vs. Alabama

Play 1

2nd and 11: Pre snap Mettenberger see's clear man coverage from the CB's, and two deep safeties (both off screen). To the strong side he has a go from the WR and a corner from the TE. Back side he has a deep in and a couple check downs. The D has 5 guys at the line. Nothing his line and backs can't handle (most of the time before releasing for a check down backs will check if they need to pick up a man).
 

From the snap, the WR with the go did a great job. When CB's are in man, they want to keep inside shade of the WR to push the WR towards the sideline, using the sideline as another defender in a sense. Right at the snap, the WR does a great job to get inside his CB. The TE on the other hand literally has no one covering him. I'm not sure why this is. While the DB's are playing Cover 2 Man, the LB's are playing some sort of zone, and allow the TE to run right by them. Something doesn't add up, and someones assignment has been missed, and it result to the TE having no one on him. At this point Mett knew he's getting a big play, and it was up to the S on the left to deside where. Either he gives up his deep zone that the CB is expecting him to have and comes up to cover the TE, or he keeps his zone giving the corner over the top help, and letting the TE run free. Ultimately the S decided to jump on the TE's corner, leaving his zone. Mett now has a WR with a step on his CB with no safety to take it away.
 

Mettenberger make the right choice taking the deep shot. All he needs to do is throw the ball high so his WR can run under it easily, knowing the DB is just trying to gain ground, not playing the ball. The throw is perfect, and Mettenberger shows he has a beautiful deep ball. Fantastic play.
 
Full Play
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVv5BLArbGY[/youtube]
 
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Play 2

3rd and 8: This play is just so awesome. NFL stuff everywhere. Offensively, LSU has called a trips right bunch play. There's a go, a deep in, and a shallow crosser. On the back side the WR runs another go to clear out for the shallow crosser. The progression would be from right to left. Bunch is designed for man coverage, and lucky enough, that's what Mett gets. Cover 2 man is the call. The O wants man coverage because in most cases vs. bunch, rather than taking a specific man, the defenders will have the player who "goes most outside" for example. It can confuse the DB's as to which guy is going where, and can give the WR's a step on the DB right away. Immediately, Mett can rule out the go's. The deep S's are taking that away. So now the progression is deep in to shallow crosser.
 

Here is where Mettenberger shows great pocket presence. He knows he he needs to wait for the deep in to develop, but has no where to step up or by time. So, he stands tall, and waits until the last possible second to release the ball. Not only this, he steps into the the throw, and the hit. This is big league right here. Reminds me of Tom Brady. 
 

The punishment pays off for Mettenberger, as he throws a bullet right on the money, for a big 3rd down conversion. Plays like this just make me giddy. This guy's is ready for the NFL, mentally and physically (minus his ACL tear ).
 
Full Play
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCftflPxKsI[/youtube]
 
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Play 3

3rd and 6: Seems like Mettenberger is facing a lot of 2 and 3rd a longs hey? Well, good thing he's good at them. Pre snap, defense is again showing man. The CB's and in particular, the DB covering the right slot tips that. One S is deep, the other is moving closer to the LOS. This points to Cover 1 Robber, where the S close to the LOS is the robber. He can play run or pass. The WR's are running go's, the slot a crossing route, and the TE an in at about 10-12 yards.
 

Just off screen, the TE running the deep in is covered by his man, and the robber is close by as well. Not opened. The short crosser is pretty tightly shadowed by his CB as well. So Mett looks to the left go. Again, he steps up into a muddled pocket, and delivers the throw.
 

The WR didn't have enough separation to throw the deep ball, and there seemed to be a chance the deep S could have made it over in time to make a play. Instead Mettenberger threw a beautiful back shoulder throw, using the CB's momentum against him. He was running with the WR, back to the QB. He didn't turn until the last second, and he fell over. The WR made a great adjustment to stop and make the catch. Great QB/WR chemistry here, another NFL throw, and great showing of pocket presence. 
 
Full Play
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd37PH5matY[/youtube]
 
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Play 4

1st and 10: O has only 2 receivers going out for routes here: a comeback by the WR, and a hook by the slot. The DB's are all looking into the backfield, and I've never seen a CB that far off play man. So, zone is a good bet.
 

Mettenberger easily finds the hole in the zone and delivers a rocket to the WR. The read was itself wasn't too difficult, but the throw is just outstanding. Mettenberger threw the ball from the opposite hash, and put it in the perfect spot with great velocity. That's rare arm strength right there, and another legit NFL throw.
 
Full Play:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAbYOpKHOXw[/youtube]
 
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Play 5

At this point, it almost felt like Mettenberger was a perfect passer. But, he finally makes a bad absolutely redonkulously awfully shitty play. The defense/offensive routes don't really matter on this one (the D is in Cover 3, couldn't see the routes), so I won't even go into that stuff. On this play, Mett rolled to his left, and had absolutely nothing. He was being rushed by an end, who luckily fell over. Please Mett, do not force anything! If it's not there, live to fight another day, check it down to the RB!! He did not do that.
 

Instead of checking it down, or throwing it away, he dilly dallies enough for the fallen end to get back up and continue chasing him. The streak of bad decisions continues when he tries to throw the ball 30 yards down the field off his back foot into a tight window. Without proper mechanics, I don't care what kind of arm you have, that's not happening.
 

Above I've pointed out the intended target. There is no way this was ever going to be a completion, and had INT written all over it. Lucky enough, the defender wasn't able to make the catch, but should have been able to. The even sadder part here is, let's say Mett isn't being pressured by that end and he is able step into the throw, it would have been even more likely to have been an INT. Here he is lucky he couldn't make the throw.
 

Another view of where he was trying to get the ball to. From this view you can kind of see his thought process. He broke a huge rule of QB'ing: don't throw back into the middle! He saw his WR break away from the DB's whose zone he was in, back towards the middle. When he saw this, he wasn't seeing the LB's zone he was now entering and that Lb picked him off. It's hard to explain, you'll be able to understand what I'm talking about better from the behind view of the video below.
 
Full Play:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-23cwoUFs[/youtube]
 
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I'll end this post here, and continue in another post so that the videos will embed into the post. For some reason I can only put 4
Hope ya don't mind clicking that one link
Anyways, I shall get to the rest of this game hopefully tomorrow, if not Wednesday for sure.

Play 6

3rd and 6: Another third and medium long. Pre snap D showing man. Both CB's and the nickel clearly inside shade one on one. No one however is lined up on the innermost slot. The D had a dime back on the field, but he blitzed, and the lone LB is going to have the RB or he's going to blitz (depending on if he releases or not). Either way the WR isn't his man. It's definitely possible the blitzing dimeback was supposed have the WR, but didn't see him on the other side of the field, and he adjusted his assignment to blitz because he thought he didn't have a man. Either bad call or mental error. I really don't know enough about defense and their rules to know. But I'm willing to bet they did not intend to leave the WR uncovered. Mettenberger, of course, was all over it. If there is a man open, he will find him. He usually sees the field like a veteran from the pocket.
 

Mettenberger again shows outstanding poise waiting until the last second to deliver the ball, allowing the WR to clear the traffic in the middle. He again steps into the throw, and into a hit. This guy is amazing in the pocket man. Fearless.
 

By stepping into it and using proper mechanics, he put the ball right where it needed to be, letting the WR catch it in stride and continue running, and pick up the first down, on another 3rd down. Love it.
 
Full Play:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCBGudz5XkM[/youtube]
 
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Play 7

3rd and Goal: First and foremost, this is an amazingly designed, NFL type play. On the right Mett has a go and a corner. On the left, from inside to out, he has a dig, and corner, and the outside WR is running a skinny post. The D is clearly in Cover 2 Man again, and this play is perfect against that. Obviously prior to this play Cover 2 Man has been a go to defensive call, so Cameron (the OC) knew what he was doing here. Both of the corner routes are designed to take the S's with them to the outside, leaving the middle wide open for the WR who's going there on the skinny post.
 

Right at the snap, Mett stares the right corner route to push the S to cover it.
 

He then does the same to the left corner route and S.
 

Then, sure enough the middle of the field is wide open for him to float in an awesome touch pass at the back of the endzone. Great play design, call, and execution by Mettenberger. Throw was perfect. And yet again, Mett has converted on another 3rd down. 
 
Full Play:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJxi5cJCxUk[/youtube]
 
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Play 8:

1st and 10: It's tough to make a guess at what the D is doing pre snap because of the formation the O is in, but based off the CB's position zone seems likely. At the snap Mett only has one WR going on a route, while he play fakes.
 

Once the play fake is completed, his TE releases late trying to sneak behind the defense. At this point the coverage appears to be Cover 3.
 

Here we can see both routes on the play. The WR go is covered by the deep S and the CB responsible for the deep left third. The TE becomes the target, and though he's covered, the play can be made. Mettenberger tried to gun the ball in, and badly under threw the ball, and it should have been picked (the LB dropped it). What is baffling about this play is how much open space he had to lay this ball in here. He could have led him deeper and to the right with that touch he showed off earlier in this game. You want to see him throw his man open. Instead he relied on his arm strength way too much, and should have payed for it. 
 
Full Play:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkYlnXN6LfY[/youtube]
 
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There's still lot's of the game left to do, so I'll try to continue to part 3, but not sure if I will.

Reserved for third part of analysis (if needed).

Great analysis again bud. Keep these coming. 

Part 2 is up guys.