Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-from-oklahoma-states-road-loss-to-ucf/
On the defense (once again) doing enough, and Zane just not having it.
I honestly can’t even remember… who’s calling plays right now?
As an alum and die hard fan at the game, you summed it up perfectly. Credit the defense, they played their a55 off, couldn’t ask for more. Zane is not a long term solution, he simply can’t get the ball down the field, so they had the box loaded up. And when we’re desperate for anything positive, especially a win, let it all hang out on offense, triple reverse HB pass, whatever, just do something/anything to try and win…
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Really liked this article. Your last point was well said and conveyed my thoughts. When do we throw the kitchen sink at these games? I didn’t realize we had TWO first downs in the 2nd half in total. Reading that statistic floored me. It felt that way watching the game, sure. But seeing the numbers…..and the TOP in the 2nd half….woof. Your point about bending backwards to justify flores was me as well. I try to not pile too hard on 18-20 YO kids, but this can’t be the one we stick with. He’s constantly under throwing perfectly open guys forcing them to the ground to catch his throws whereas if they could stay up to catch we would see paydirt.
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I think Zane has to be 21 or close to it. He has been there 3 years. Which makes it even more baffling how he is unable to move the ball.
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He’s not exactly playing in ideal circumstances. Yeah, he’s been here a few years with three different OCs. Even at the pro level where we expect QBs to be mature, we’re seeing more and more how environment matters. Sam Darnold, Baker Mayfield, Daniel Jones, Geno Smith, etc. had all been written off as “not NFL starter material” and now they have all had success when they got better coaching and better rosters.
Flores is in about the worst coaching and roster position you can be in. He may not ever be successful, but I don’t he should be written off. I already hear the “yeah, but… he should have this basic football skill,” again referring to Darnold, people wrote him off after his “seeing ghosts” comment as if he was lacking basic field vision. He’s #1 in PFF now (or was before the bad game last week, haven’t checked since then, but he’s probably still near the top), so while I’m not saying he’s the best QB in the NFL, the ghosts certainly got exorcised when he got good protection and weapons to throw to.
However, coaching change is going to bring QB change, so unless Flores has no options and is willing to stay as a backup, he’s probably not our problem to figure out if he has the stuff or not, but I don’t think this season tells us a lot about him other than he’s not a superstar that can transcend total organizational chaos, but those guys are once in a lifetime.
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I agree that your surroundings, whether it be coaching and/or talent, absolutely helps. But, the guys you are comparing him to were far more gifted than Flores is. Three of the four you listed were 1st rd picks, while the 4th was a 2nd rd pick. Those guys all showed a skillset worthy of being drafted that high. Flores…has not.
Yes, but those skillsets seemingly disappeared when they found themselves with inferior coaching and talent instead of superior coaching and talent (or at least on par).