Btw, the press conference of Cameron Heyward was interesting. He said they saw on film that they could take advantage of Mallett's mobility and decison making IIRC.
mallet is a cry baby if you pressure him and get to him he crumbles and gets frustated and loses his composure
He always threw with touch on the deep ball to break through the confines of the defense, and in fact I believe I said that in the original post if you go back to it. What I didn't like is that he never showed the understanding of touch it would take to drop the ball into the zones not necessarily on a throw that blows the top off the defense but goes within the confines of the defense. He gunned everything and sometimes he was nearly picked because his selection of how to throw the ball was just awful. This also consistently showed up in his screen passes, to the point where I called him (legitimately) the worst screen passer I've seen this year. As for this game, he improved his touch tremendously. He added the back shoulder touch throw to his repertoire, I don't think I remember seeing much of that before. And, of course, he improved his placement on the outside shoulder on the vertical. But I still didn't see a fundamental understanding of touch as a weapon, and he continued to be (in my estimation) an awful screen passer. So improvement, but not enough. To me the guy that made the most dramatic improvement from regular season to Bowl game was Blaine Gabbert.
After the game I think it was Brian Rolle who said the exact same thing. They asked about that final play and he said it was an all out blitz and they knew that if they could get in there on the all out blitz they could rattle him and induce him to start throwing interceptions, and that's exactly what happened. It sounds to me like this was part of Ohio State's game plan. He's not very mobile in the pocket, doesn't handle pressure well, so blitz the heck out of him and capitalize on opportunities. He'd better get used to that because the NFL will do the same.
He had a few throws in which he did well with it. In the first quarter, he was making throws left and right and I actually found myself saying "impressive" but as the game went on, I backed away from that and the ending really topped it off, honestly. They got the ball back in OSU territory and I said to myself "here's his chance to win the game. Lets see if he can finally do it". Two plays later, the ball is in the wrong hands and I said "typical".
That looked more like a zone blitz than an all out blitz to me but I may be off on that. Possibly. They often zone blitz though.
Watched Mallet and Devlin, tbh like them both, Mallet imho tries to do to much, Devlin has a fine game as a all around Qb, think neither one handles pressure very well and that is the key to choosing between the two of them imho.
Interesting point of interest on Mallett, and one of the reasons I'm coming around to a 1st round grade on him after all... Prior to the Mississipp State game (through 10 games)...he was 55.8% with a 10.0 YPA, 5 TDs and 2 INTs when blitzed while he was dropping back from under center. He was 76.7% with a 10.5 YPA, 4 TDs and 0 INTs when blitzed while he was in the shotgun. The NFL is very much heading toward a shotgun league. The best QBs are using it 50+ percent of passing downs. If, despite his problems handling pressure when he feels it and hasn't found a place to go with the ball yet, he is THIS proficient at getting the ball where it needs to be to beat the blitz from the shotgun...then even if he has slower feet, he could still play at the next level. And let's be honest NOBODY are bigger douchebags than Michael Vick and Ben Roethlisberger, any reports on Mallett don't hold a candle to those two, and both earned playoff berths this year, and Roethlisberger has two Super Bowl rings. So, if pressure (and by extension, the blitz), and attitude...are two of my biggest criticism...those two points (his stats while blitzed, and the roethlisberger/vick precedent) are pretty effective counterpoints to those criticisms. I still don't like his leaden feet. I still think he regularly makes bad decisions and he'll have to learn to play unselfish and safer football. But, he can learn those things.
I'm not a fan of Mallett, but if Newton were gone and so was Gabbert I wouldn't be too upset if we took him. I imagine he'd go down in a blaze if he were to be unsuccessful which should be interesting at least. Plus, I can't imagine him not being like Jay Cutler and trying to consistently push the ball downfield and in tight windows, which should lead to a lot of excitement.
