Come Get Your Hot and Fresh Nelson Crow!!!

I'm more than happy after a BYU victory to welcome all you nelson-doubters to this wonderful feast of crow. I'll be the first to admit: I underestimated the kid. He was great out there tonight, and I was impressed with Heaps playing well and making no mistakes as well.

IMO Heaps choked a little on some easy throws at the end.



But I am sure glad of defense rose to the moment.

Qman wrote:
IMO Heaps choked a little on some easy throws at the end.

I'm no passing expert, but didn't Heap throw the ball a little hard towards the end of the game? He has a strong arm.

Italics wrote:
I'm more than happy after a BYU victory to welcome all you nelson-doubters to this wonderful feast of crow. I'll be the first to admit: I underestimated the kid. He was great out there tonight, and I was impressed with Heaps playing well and making no mistakes as well.

I'm proud of you, Italics.

urroner wrote:

IMO Heaps choked a little on some easy throws at the end.

I'm no passing expert, but didn't Heap throw the ball a little hard towards the end of the game? He has a strong arm.

Heaps needs to learn when to put a ball into a receivers hand with a light touch and when to rocket it in. Right now every throw is a rocket.

Italics wrote:
I'm more than happy after a BYU victory to welcome all you nelson-doubters to this wonderful feast of crow. I'll be the first to admit: I underestimated the kid. He was great out there tonight, and I was impressed with Heaps playing well and making no mistakes as well.

there can be only 2

By the end of the game I was fully on the Nelson bandwagon. I felt much more comfortable with Riley playing than with Jake. I think Jake will grow into the role and right now I'm actually glad we're going with 2 QBs but when the game is on the line, my money is with Riley.

hawkwing wrote:

I'm more than happy after a BYU victory to welcome all you nelson-doubters to this wonderful feast of crow. I'll be the first to admit: I underestimated the kid. He was great out there tonight, and I was impressed with Heaps playing well and making no mistakes as well.

I'm proud of you, Italics.

I said several times before that if Nelson played a good game and BYU won, I'd be MORE than happy to admit I was dead wrong about Nelson. He really impressed me out there tonight. 1-0 BABY!!!!!!!!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!

craigoscarson wrote:

I'm more than happy after a BYU victory to welcome all you nelson-doubters to this wonderful feast of crow. I'll be the first to admit: I underestimated the kid. He was great out there tonight, and I was impressed with Heaps playing well and making no mistakes as well.

there can be only 2

tou'che!

I too was more comfortable everytime Nelson was out there and with each series I was hoping that it was Riley's turn rather than Jake's turn.



Did it seem to anyone else that the receivers dropped more Heaps passes than Nelson's? Well, of course they did. How else would we have gotten them to the SAME number of yards?/????!!!

Jake needs those snaps. If we're not going to redshirt him, then you have to be willing to take the good with the bad. The more that the team gets comfortable withthe 2 qb system, the harder to prepare for we will be and the more dangerous we get.

Riley goes full bore and could get hit as he runs so you never know when we'll need Heaps to be the guy.



All the credit tonight goes to the defense though. They were awesome tonight against the Heisman guy... forgot his name already ;)

Yeah it's clear that Nelson was the man, but anyone talking about how hard Heaps' passes are is blowing smoke. 6 dropped passes...if you can get a hand on it it's a catch. Period.

mizzoucoug wrote:
Yeah it's clear that Nelson was the man, but anyone talking about how hard Heaps' passes are is blowing smoke. 6 dropped passes...if you can get a hand on it it's a catch. Period.

People like Ty Detmer, who often says how important it is to throw passes with the right amount of touch on them?

hawkwing wrote:

Yeah it's clear that Nelson was the man, but anyone talking about how hard Heaps' passes are is blowing smoke. 6 dropped passes...if you can get a hand on it it's a catch. Period.

People like Ty Detmer, who often says how important it is to throw passes with the right amount of touch on them?

My comment was not a general statement. All I'm saying is specifically about Heaps' throws tonight. Those were good and sometimes beautiful throws that were just dropped. That's all.

mizzoucoug wrote:
Yeah it's clear that Nelson was the man, but anyone talking about how hard Heaps' passes are is blowing smoke. 6 dropped passes...if you can get a hand on it it's a catch. Period.

A hand...how about two? If a receiver can get two hands on the ball it's catchable and there were several recipients of Heaps' throws that got two hands on them.



As long as we're talking about one-handed catches. How sick was Chambers' one handed haul? Too bad he was out of bounds.

mizzoucoug wrote:

mizzoucoug wrote:
Yeah it's clear that Nelson was the man, but anyone talking about how hard Heaps' passes are is blowing smoke. 6 dropped passes...if you can get a hand on it it's a catch. Period.

People like Ty Detmer, who often says how important it is to throw passes with the right amount of touch on them?

My comment was not a general statement. I have played QB mind you...what I'm saying is specifically about Heaps' throws tonight. Those were good and sometimes beautiful throws that were just dropped. That's all.

Heaps threw very well tonight, as I've said on other throws. He's a fantastic QB. There were a few throws on his last drive where he simply threw the ball too hard. Should the receivers have caught those balls? Absolutely, but a good QB will know how to get the ball to his receivers in a manner that will make it easiest for them to catch, while making it most difficult for the defense to make a play. Mind you, I've never played QB, but I've listened to some famous ones.

I told you so?

Here's an objective QB assessment:



Nelson: Nelson has grit and determination, but he has an undersized arm that will be a liability against a better defense with corners and safeties that have closing speed. He just can't zip it in there like it needs to be done. His throws are adequate, but you will notice that the majority of the throws he made were in the short to medium range. The pass to DiLugigi was a good one, but still a short one where coverage was blown. He's a shifty runner that should do well behind an experienced offensive line, however, not being able to stretch the defense will allow better defenses to stack up his receivers in the short range.



Heaps: Clearly a more polished passer. He does need to learn the balance between finesse and power. However, you can teach finesse--you can't teach power. He read the defense well and was able to handle college speed well. He also scrambled well, which was refreshing. The awkward slide in the first quarter was due to the really bad turf on the field (did you notice the turf bunch up under his knee--kind of scared me for a second there). It seemed like there were a few miscommunications between him and his receivers--where he thought they were going inside, but they went outside, etc. Not sure who was at fault, but this will get ironed out in time. You could see some of the dropped passes that we heard about from fall camp. Some of them were Jake's fault for passing too hard, others were the receivers' fault for not catching the ball (e.g., the almost touchdown that went out of the hands of the receiver). Overall, a solid performance from a guy who a year ago was playing high school ball. You can see why he was as highly recruited as he was.



Final QB assessment: I can now see why Bronco went with two quarterbacks. I give the upper hand to Nelson in this win, but I believe that Heaps will develop quickly and will surpass him in due time. Heaps has the greater upside where I think Nelson is likely about as good as he's going to get. However, I'm happy to have Nelson as a solid "bridge" while Heaps gets his "sea legs" under him. If the other skill players keep playing solid ball, they'll help the QB situation out.



Odds and Ends: Fairly clean first game--many fewer penalties, etc. than I saw in the Utah/Pitt game. There is work to be done--especially in our secondary, which will be needed for FSU. Also, Chambers needs to have better takeoff speed on his returns and keep from fumbling the ball (like he did several times last year). Good play from a very young set of Tight Ends. They should develop well over the first few games. Solid start. Go Cougs!

Nelson had the better game. His running opens up the game, is more exciting and has lower risk. But his throws are still wounded ducks. He should have had an interception there near the end. If we were to choose one he would be it for now. Heaps is the better thrower. Some of his throws were too hard. There was one throw behnd the receiver that touched both hands and I believe it was uncatchable with the heat on it.



The change up is to our advantage and I expect it to continue. I believe that if the QB gets a score he should go in again to give him a chance to get hot.

My bottom line is this: I think Nelson had the better game, but I saw enough unique out of both QBs that I'm tentatively half-sold on the two-QB scheme.



I hope the dropped passes, regardless of who's responsible, are something that can be fixed throughout the season.