I have read a lot of opinions from gloom and doom to "don't worry, be happy", but I don't think I have seen quite the viewpoints I would like to share below.
Connor Shaw's Injury - Only Chris Low have I read getting it right by identifying the cause of the injury as a knee in the back. Connor assumed it was a helmet. but he could not have seen or known, and everyone has ignored the obvious video evidence.
Connor Shaw's passing - Connor said the wet ball was limiting his velocity. I think it was a combination of this and Connor being a little too relaxed with his throws and Connor not being the quickest release either. I think he focuses on quicker releases and more zip, and gets much better this week (assuming no rain or injured shoulders).
Marcus 100%? - Not yet, but not even close at beginning of game. The thing that stood out to me was that Marcus was really struggling with the mental aspect of playing on his recovered knee. On the first play he was scared $hitless, backing off of contact with only one hand barely on the ball. Completely unlike him! Then every time he cut, it looked like he was thinking about the cut and hesitant to do it. As he said "very, very, very nervous." When have you heard anything about nerves from him? I think he got about 80% past this mental barrier, gradually throughout the game. I think he will get 100% past this at some point and will be 110% as effective as he was when the injury happened. Not yet though, and it may be very gradual, perhaps through the whole year.
Latti for Heisman? - It shouldn't be possible for Latti to win it this year because we should not be giving him enough touches to rack up those kind of stats, unless he is able to get 100+ yards on 20 or less carries in the first half of the season and then he blows up in October against better competition, AND, we win the SEC with no more than one loss.
O-line - Other than TJ, this is an extremely young line. The youngest is Shell, and he is playing at the toughest position. Of course this is where our line did not perform as well as we need it to in game one. But, we got past that game and have two chances to develop the player our coaches think has the most potential to develop quickly. Shell will be ready enough for Mizzou and really ready when the schedule cranks up in October. We will also see improvement from all the other young guys across the line. The schedule works well for this area.
Lack of pass protection - Consider that Vandy was essentially doing what we do on passing downs by putting four defensive ends in to outquick the guards. They were run blitzing with these smaller, quicker guys on most downs, so when we did pass we were facing the same kind of "third and long" defense we are so very happy with ourselves.
Secondary - Am I the only one that noticed Vic avoiding contact, at least whenever someone else was there to attempt the tackle. No gang tackling or stripping the ball from Vic! Brison's mistake on the TD pass was HORRIBLE (least unique observation in this post - I know). I hope our coaches can address both of these issues. Again, we have a schedule that should allow us to develop our youth a bit, although Mizzou will be a bigger test for the secondary than for the O-line.
Play Calls - I do think the HBC was calling what he thought they would not expect, but that is probably a good idea if your guys can execute. What I got out of Dylan's meltdown was that we need to get our backups more meaningful game reps at QB and HB. If we don't let Dylan play a full quarter in each of the next two games, preferably before they become blowouts, we should not be upset when he can't perform say at LSU in the fourth quarter when Connor goes out. (See Connor coming in at Auburn two years ago.) Likewise we should not be giving Latti more than 10-15 carries in each of these next two games. If we keep riding him til he drops, don't be surprised when he does just that, which would be tragic.
Sorry, so long but hopefully there are at least a few different angles on these issues that give you a little more comfort that we will be much better when the meat of the schedule comes around.
Connor Shaw's Injury - Only Chris Low have I read getting it right by identifying the cause of the injury as a knee in the back. Connor assumed it was a helmet. but he could not have seen or known, and everyone has ignored the obvious video evidence.
Connor Shaw's passing - Connor said the wet ball was limiting his velocity. I think it was a combination of this and Connor being a little too relaxed with his throws and Connor not being the quickest release either. I think he focuses on quicker releases and more zip, and gets much better this week (assuming no rain or injured shoulders).
Marcus 100%? - Not yet, but not even close at beginning of game. The thing that stood out to me was that Marcus was really struggling with the mental aspect of playing on his recovered knee. On the first play he was scared $hitless, backing off of contact with only one hand barely on the ball. Completely unlike him! Then every time he cut, it looked like he was thinking about the cut and hesitant to do it. As he said "very, very, very nervous." When have you heard anything about nerves from him? I think he got about 80% past this mental barrier, gradually throughout the game. I think he will get 100% past this at some point and will be 110% as effective as he was when the injury happened. Not yet though, and it may be very gradual, perhaps through the whole year.
Latti for Heisman? - It shouldn't be possible for Latti to win it this year because we should not be giving him enough touches to rack up those kind of stats, unless he is able to get 100+ yards on 20 or less carries in the first half of the season and then he blows up in October against better competition, AND, we win the SEC with no more than one loss.
O-line - Other than TJ, this is an extremely young line. The youngest is Shell, and he is playing at the toughest position. Of course this is where our line did not perform as well as we need it to in game one. But, we got past that game and have two chances to develop the player our coaches think has the most potential to develop quickly. Shell will be ready enough for Mizzou and really ready when the schedule cranks up in October. We will also see improvement from all the other young guys across the line. The schedule works well for this area.
Lack of pass protection - Consider that Vandy was essentially doing what we do on passing downs by putting four defensive ends in to outquick the guards. They were run blitzing with these smaller, quicker guys on most downs, so when we did pass we were facing the same kind of "third and long" defense we are so very happy with ourselves.
Secondary - Am I the only one that noticed Vic avoiding contact, at least whenever someone else was there to attempt the tackle. No gang tackling or stripping the ball from Vic! Brison's mistake on the TD pass was HORRIBLE (least unique observation in this post - I know). I hope our coaches can address both of these issues. Again, we have a schedule that should allow us to develop our youth a bit, although Mizzou will be a bigger test for the secondary than for the O-line.
Play Calls - I do think the HBC was calling what he thought they would not expect, but that is probably a good idea if your guys can execute. What I got out of Dylan's meltdown was that we need to get our backups more meaningful game reps at QB and HB. If we don't let Dylan play a full quarter in each of the next two games, preferably before they become blowouts, we should not be upset when he can't perform say at LSU in the fourth quarter when Connor goes out. (See Connor coming in at Auburn two years ago.) Likewise we should not be giving Latti more than 10-15 carries in each of these next two games. If we keep riding him til he drops, don't be surprised when he does just that, which would be tragic.
Sorry, so long but hopefully there are at least a few different angles on these issues that give you a little more comfort that we will be much better when the meat of the schedule comes around.