Haha; I was just about to start a QB controversy thread, and I see NIU32 beat me to it!
I was thinking we may see more Childers with the weather forecast for today’s game, but I was not expecting to see him at QB for most of the game. The O clearly needed a spark and Childers certainly provided that spark today! After Santa threw his pick, I said that is it; he is done for today.
Do we now have a full-fledged QB controversy? The Chicago Tribune sure seems to think so (for what that is worth).
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/col...story.html
Childers showed a lot of poise, and certainly did not look like a RS FR today. He has good arm strength, but needs to put some air under/touch on his deep passes; I think Tears should have come up with the one long pass, but the others were simply too long. It is clear he is the best running QB; note to Childers: I appreciate the toughness/effort, but please no more flipping type tackles – he is going to get killed taking hits like that! I thought it was interesting that the coaches seemed to open the play book in the second half for Childers; it seemed that they wanted to see how he would handle playing QB with the whole pay book. He responded well, and you certainly have to love his effort and enthusiasm! We certainly needed his running, as the O line did not show up today; Carey correctly noted after the game the Kent St. defensive line won the battle in the trenches.
Childers forces the defense to account for his running ability. We are turning the ball over too much; that makes 5 picks in the last 2 games. Carey’s conversation with Childers after his pick was certainly animated –I had a very good view as Childers came off the field after throwing the pick and Carey certainly had plenty to say to him. I had no problem with it; it was a bad decision by Childers.
So, where do we go from here? IMO Graham is not the guy; we know what we have with him, and while I like the way he handles himself/seems like a quality young man, he just does not have the skills, and I don’t see him improving. In fact, for some reason Graham seems to have taken steps backwards. Santa is very good at deep routes, but he sure struggles with shorter routes, and in the red zone has struggled several times. I see the Childers and Santa picks today being quite similar in terms of the pattern, the passes and bad decisions. IMO, Carey is right about Childers having the more complete skill set, and he forces defenses to defend against his athleticism, both in terms of QB runs and scrambles. So, what will Carey do; go with one or the other or go with a situational rotation type of QB play? The situational rotation type of QB play has a lot of issues, and I am not in favor of that. Tough call; I like the dynamics that Childers brings, and it is the type offense that we have had so much success with.