“When evaluating Stephens’s play, keep in mind that I did not visually see the game.”

That reminds me of Mitch Hedberg’s old bit:

"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said ‘I hear music,’ as though there’s any other way to take it in. ’You’re not special. That’s how I receive it too… I tried to taste it, but it did not work.’"

I was at the game, so I can try to answer a few of your questions.

The biggest difference between watching Stephens play and watching Crompton play is that I didn’t feel like my stomach was in my throat the whole time. He had poise. He exuded confidence. He was moving guys around to get the formations correct (wish he would have told G. Jones to step off of the LOS on the flagged play, though).When he dropped backed to pass, I wasn’t nervous about what would happen. There were times when he was locked on to one receiver, but there were others where I would see his helmet move, scanning the field. He stood in the pocket and did not panic. When he released the ball, I was confident it was on target. If you take away two dropped balls and two that were thrown to wide open receivers in the flat, but were knocked down at the LOS (which you can’t, ’cause those things happen), his accuracy and consistency are even more evident.

The offense still had two drive killing mistakes (both fumbles), but they were more of the tolerable variety. The Briscoe fumble should have been an incomplete pass, I think, and Stephens was hit from the blind side when he coughed up the pig skin. Each of those were huge because the Big Mo’ was in our favor at both times. Still bad, bad, bad, but much better than not being able to hand the ball off to the running back.

I’m not sure what to say about Foster. He wasn’t playing outstanding, but then neither did Hardesty, at least in terms of Hardesty’s usual level of play. Foster had a few big plays, but was caught from behind too many times to be ultimately pleased with his performance. Hardesty danced around in the backfield on the last drive, failing to pick up the requisite yards for a first down. Certainly partially due to the mediocre blocking, but may have had something to do with a lack of rhythm. So, I really didn’t see one playing better than the other — each of them had a few big plays. I hate playing the guessing/conspiracy game that UT fans are so wont to do, so I won’t speculate on the reason for Foster’s rise in number of carries. You could just as easily say that they rested Hardesty (who is injury prone) to make sure he is good to go for the UGA game.

Stephens at least appeared to handle pressure fairly well. His eyes were always down field, and he protected the football. The deep pass to Gerald Jones was made under duress (stepped up in the pocket! couldn’t believe my eyes!) and he took a shot as he released it (somehow he didn’t go down). Another time he stepped up in the pocket as it was collapsing and fell forward, covering the ball. Another time he scrambled about 50 yards, and picked up I think 4 (did the smart thing at the end of the run, falling forward to avoid a big hit). And the only other time I remember him being pressured was in the red zone after (I think) the Berry interception. He made a throw to the sideline end zone(presumably to Gerald Jones) that was almost caught for a touchdown. It was probably a dangerous throw (Fulmer didn’t like it), but I thought it was thrown to an open enough space on the sideline as to be relatively safe. A faster safety may have picked it off though.

We do need to utilize the tight ends more, but keep in mind that one of the dropped passes was to Brandon Warren in the flat. I know the commenters at GVX love this guy to death, but though I do love the big plays he’s made, I don’t like his lack of consistency. He’s obviously a dynamic player, but IMO Luke Stocker gives us the best option right now. It will be great having Cottam back in the mix, so we can hopefully do some two TE sets. Not sure how that scheme fits into the Clawfense though. Anyway, I’m not sure what an acceptable number would be, but if Warren catches that ball, then approx 20% of the completions were to tight ends. I was just happy that we were hitting quick slants for 5 – 6 yards, and I think we even completed one or two across the middle of the field.

Gerald Jones did have one drop in this game, but I’m not sure about previous games. He has made enough great catches (ball thrown behind him, too high, etc), that I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Stephens is much more accurate passer, so if Jones’ trend of incompletions continues, well, I just don’t want to think about it, ha. How does his percentage of incompletions compare with the other receivers?

I do not like the new clock rules. Unless my team is winning. Then I love them.

Hooper,

I watched the entire game (I have seen every game, follow articles, blogs, etc…true "Fanatic").

I am also in the leadership consulting business with Army and outside. I think I can watch an organization and say, “there is a leadership issue here.”

I say several leadership issues because of not just poor quarterback play, but penalties, dropped passes, poor blocking and poor communication (routes ran, etc…).

I go back and say "there are several leadership issue(s) here. In the 1998 championship team, it was not just talent, but leadership. The team rallied around the new quarterback Tee Martin and made it happen.

I hate the blame Fulmer approach. The team must take responsibility as well, though the coach makes the big bucks to find a way to motivate people to win.

1. The team is playing way too tight. I watched Dave Clawson for three years at Richmond, and loved when Fulmer hired him (and had high expectations of something like Urban Myer spread). But, I would guess that Fulmer is overriding Clawson’s play calling. Even with a new quarterback, it is way too conservative. They have nothing to lose to “open it up.” When you have an organization that does not function well at many levels, decision making remains conservative. Also when an organization over time makes just conservative decision (risk averse), the organization follows suit as well. Against teams like UCLA, UAB and UNI, great opportunities to see what that engine under the hood can do, and only a couple of times did they. UNI left single coverage many times, should have opened up early on, receivers were beating their secondary most of the time I could see.

2. One of thes strengths was the offensive line, and it is not opening the holes, or performing like last year in pass protection. No surge when needed. Where is the lineman providing leadership? Does the line feel it is worth the effort if the backs are not hitting the hole with full speed?

3. Dropped balls. Imagine if the receivers had not dropped half of those passes (normal) they did drop, likely 3-2 record even 4-1 right now. Unlike last year, we have proven receivers and tight ends. What is going on?

4. Killer mistakes, fumbles, penalties are piling up, as well as at the worst time (there is no good time for penalties, but the consistently is telling.

5. I think Arian Foster is not playing to his full potential. There is something wrong with his attitude right now. I think he has the potential to be a great back, does not have open speed, but I saw a big improvement in last year, making people miss, strength and use of stiff arm, moves inside off tackles,as well. Something is bothering him.

6. Maybe the problem is the players are silently rebelling to not being allowed to open up? I have heard that before. When I really trusted my subordinates, I would allow them to do more risky plans, take more chances. With NIU, that is what I would have done, what do we have to lose at this point?

7. Stephens did well for his first full game. I did see confidence. But, I would have let him through more deep as well. The fumble was a blind side fumble, now an incompetence fumble as Foster and Crompton have made. Maybe this is the spark the team needs? But, it needs to come from more than one player.

Bottom line, is something is quietly pulling the team apart, as well as not pushing players to lead this team out of this dismal performance. I still believe this team is as talented as GA or FLA, but there is no leadership. If you want to see leadership, look at Vandy or FLA at the player and coaching levels. My theory is the coaches are playing too tight, and the players are then accepting subpar playing ability as their reaction.

Don

I came away impressed with Stephens for two reasons.

The first is that Stephens throws the ball to a spot. With Crompton I’m always neurotic when he drops back because he has this tendency to lock and in and fire the ball to a receiver regardless of whats going on around him. Result: Either receiver killed, pass deflected, or at worst pick. So back to throwing to a spot: Stephens, despite having a gunslinger reputation from the little media info about him, seemed very adept at throwing to a particular spot on the receiver. For example, there were a couple of hitch routes where he threw right at the receivers knees. Ball started high and went low on a straight trajectory towards the receivers’ legs. The guy sitting next to me thought he was just inaccurate. I, on the other hand, thought he was throwing to a spot where only his guy had a shot. He did this a couple times and I thought that this was a great sign. Yeah, throwing every ball as hard as you can into the numbers can be effective…On the other hand throwing to specific spots on the receiver’s body can help minimize disasters in the form of interceptions. One of the legends replays was a perfect example of this. Tee Martin threws a psuedo five yard out to Cedrick Wilson after he gets position in front of and has the front side end zone. Sorry, this is a minute point but it’s just one of those little things I picked up from Stephens.

2. Also was dazzled by Stephens’ long passes. The first one he threw, he did not have his legs right and it was all upper body. He was moving up in the pocket, stopped himself with both feet and strong armed it down the field. That was a heck of a pass. It takes a lot of talent and confidence to throw that ball. I jumped out of my seat after that pass. The second was a similar situation where he didn’t have his feet set under him due to pressure. And still he found his guy and made another heck of a pass. The reason these passes worked was because he has a quick, confident release. Crompton would have gotten hit mid throw as his release is a might slower. Seems like these two guys have about the same mobility in the pocket. Both are tough runners and got absolutely worked on a couple of hits this year.

Botton line, I liked what little I saw. NIU basically killed the first quarter T.O.P. so the sample size is a little small. While they obviously need to finish drives, I do feel like there were some positive things to take from the game.

Also, what is the word on the Helmet Rule? I had no idea they have a new rule where if a ball carrier’s helmet comes off the team gets charged a time out. Or is it just for the quarterback?

Hooper:

I’m going to have to designate you an expert in something in one of my cases some day, if for no other reason than to show up with all your cool charts.

Very nice stuff, which tells a peculiarly bizarre story. I was pretty happy with Stephens in his debut. The rest of the offense, however, is going to have to pick it up a bit though if he’s going to have any hope of success.

The general consensus on B&B this morning was that the Vols win 2 more games and that’s it.

Ouch!