Published October 9, 2011 - 8:28am
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AJ McCarron had a great night against the Vanderbilt defense, and Vanderbilt’s defense was the leading the league in interceptions.
McCarron finished 23 of 30 for 237 yards and four touchdowns. He was great all night, and the emergence of his passing game gives Alabama a balanced offensive attack.
It is very important that Alabama gets the passing game firing on all cylinders before November 5th because LSU will attempt to take away the ground game and make McCarron be the difference-maker.
Everything just seems to point to that game.
Here are his four touchdowns on the night:
I think BAMA and LSU have two big games left on the year bc obviously they play each other but BAMA has auburn to play and its always a hard fought game and LSU has Arkansas to play and I know people will say they will kill ark but they are getting better and better every week.
He is a sophomore and is still making sophomore mistakes. He certainly seems to have a future. But right now, stats are misleading.
If he keeps locking in on one receiver and over throwing open guys on the deep routes, it’s going to be tough to be the QB Bama will need down the stretch.
Thinking that he will be able to even approach a successful outing against a defense like LSU’s by duplicating what he’s done against teams like Vanderbilt is wishful thinking.
I’m a die hard Bama fan. But I don’t let stats tell me the story. Stats against weaker opponents and soft defenses are meaningless. Those stats are skewed because we simply have better athletes than our opponents so far. McCarron has consistently stared at one route, thrown the long ball out of reach of open receivers, and thrown behind TE’s, backs, and crossing routes. Those mistakes will be a death sentence against LSU. Broken coverages have to be capitalized on and turned into points. And with their ball skills on defense locking in on receivers and throwing behind the routes will turn into interceptions at least and pick 6′s at worst.
I believe the coaching staff has purposely thrown more than needed so they have a case study for McCarron. I believe they see the issues, know we can turn on the power game when needed against weaker opponents, and have given AJ a chance to both see and work on weak areas. So far, he seems to have improved. But not to the extent needed if the pass is going to be a big part of the LSU game.
I sure hope he proves me wrong or we simply stuff the ball down their throats with Richardson and Lacy, and let the defense work. All of which I believe are options. But, so far, the latter seems to be the one we can count on.