NILAW
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Santa v. Graham
It seemed appropriate for this to have its own thread.
Santa made some bad decisions today, as did Graham against BC. Anyone that says both did not make some bad decisions simply is not giving an honest evaluation.
Graham’s 41% completion rate against BC was the result of horrible accuracy; throwing at receiver’s feet, over them, to the sides, etc. It had nothing to do with the quality of the defense. While it is possible that Santa’s percentage rate against EIU today was helped by the quality of the defense, he was accurate all day. Not once did I say who was he throwing to or that was a horrible pass like I did way too often with Graham.
I will go with the big play potential of Santa, and I liked the offensive flow today versus Graham during the BC game; Graham killed drives with his accuracy. As Santa gets experience he should make better decisions; I don’t see how Graham will get more accurate – what you see is what you get with Graham. Who gives us the better chance to move the ball, score and win games; IMO it is Santa, and I don't even see it as that close!
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09-09-2017 07:28 PM |
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MaddDawgz02
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RE: Santa v. Graham
(09-09-2017 07:28 PM)NILAW Wrote: It seemed appropriate for this to have its own thread.
Santa made some bad decisions today, as did Graham against BC. Anyone that says both did not make some bad decisions simply is not giving an honest evaluation.
Graham’s 41% completion rate against BC was the result of horrible accuracy; throwing at receiver’s feet, over them, to the sides, etc. It had nothing to do with the quality of the defense. While it is possible that Santa’s percentage rate against EIU today was helped by the quality of the defense, he was accurate all day. Not once did I say who was he throwing to or that was a horrible pass like I did way too often with Graham.
I will go with the big play potential of Santa, and I liked the offensive flow today versus Graham during the BC game; Graham killed drives with his accuracy. As Santa gets experience he should make better decisions; I don’t see how Graham will get more accurate – what you see is what you get with Graham. Who gives us the better chance to move the ball, score and win games; IMO it is Santa, and I don't even see it as that close!
Santa has to get better with those bubble screens in both accuracy and quickness of release Other than that I agree, have to go with Santa
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09-09-2017 07:35 PM |
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7
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RE: Santa v. Graham
Santa threw at least one ball at a WRs feet (could have been more), threw a few inaccurate screens and on pass threw a pass where I had literally no idea who it was going to (I think there was miscommunication).
If you're going to try to analyze something don't let your bias get in the way of facts.
Santa was better today than Graham was last week, but don't sit here and say santa didn't throw anything inaccurate because that's not true.
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09-09-2017 07:42 PM |
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NIU007
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RE: Santa v. Graham
Santa threw 1 pick and so did graham and both had another that should have been picked. I saw one pass well short of the wr by santa today. He hit the longer passes perfectly though
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09-09-2017 08:09 PM |
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142niu
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RE: Santa v. Graham
I'm liking Santa right now. I think he has a much bigger upside than Ryan Graham. Our hope should be that with more experience he will limit the number of bad decisions. I just like his swagger much more than Graham and the offense just seems to flow better with Santa running the controls.
Call it as you want but I liked watching Childers in his limited action today too. Potential.
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09-09-2017 08:14 PM |
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Rabid Squirrel
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RE: Santa v. Graham
(09-09-2017 07:42 PM)7 Wrote: Santa threw at least one ball at a WRs feet (could have been more), threw a few inaccurate screens and on pass threw a pass where I had literally no idea who it was going to (I think there was miscommunication).
If you're going to try to analyze something don't let your bias get in the way of facts.
Santa was better today than Graham was last week, but don't sit here and say santa didn't throw anything inaccurate because that's not true.
Its more about the passes he made. A couple of big time throws. To Tears and Brown. Graham rarely makes those. Santa seems to have a knack for it, though limited evidence. An analogy would be Graham is Bouagnon and Santa is Huff. It's about the upside. The playmaking, game changing ability.
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09-09-2017 08:15 PM |
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NIUHuskie4life
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RE: Santa v. Graham
Santa>Graham. If Santa started against BC I think we win that game.
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09-09-2017 08:45 PM |
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NIU1981
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RE: Santa v. Graham
Graham's weakness is accuracy, Santa's is decision making. Santa did a great job today minus a couple of throws. He seems to have a knack for making plays as others have said. Nebraska next week will be an excellent test for him, we can see how far he's come.
BC was a bad loss. They're going to win like 3 games this year. I was thinking yesterday about how we thought Maddie was going to get a sixth year. With Maddie we beat BC by three touchdowns.
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09-09-2017 09:02 PM |
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armour248
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RE: Santa v. Graham
I don't think they beat BC by 3 TDs...but I've told numerous people that they would've won by 10+ with even a slightly above average college QB
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09-09-2017 09:07 PM |
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HuskiePride12
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RE: Santa v. Graham
The one roll out Santa made and then hit I think it was Dj brown was a thing of beauty. Yes this is one game but upside all day is with Santa. I said this earlier in a thread, but the first TD Graham wouldn't have been able to make in 5 tries. Offense reminded me of when we actually had some real good flow today where as Graham was no where close. It's night and day with arm strength. Don't think it takes a genius to see Graham is a great practice player but when you put the opposing team out there he's a different player.
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09-09-2017 09:08 PM |
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Homewood Huskie
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RE: Santa v. Graham
Without a doubt Santa should be qb until proven otherwise. Next week will be a huge test.
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09-09-2017 09:09 PM |
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badmoonrising13
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RE: Santa v. Graham
Since we are playing a vastly superior opponent like Graham did against BC, Santa will get a pass next week. He can suck like Graham did and it won't matter because they'll be so much better. Santa just needs to complete 40 percent of his passes and throw a pick and he'll be fine.
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09-09-2017 09:44 PM |
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NIU84
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RE: Santa v. Graham
we don't exactly have the best luck with keeping QBs healthy over the past few years, I'm now thinking "how many snaps will Childers see at NU?" with Santa getting dinged...I fear this will be the more relevant question come next Saturday. Or this Beebe injury has also affected my brain in addition to his :)
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09-09-2017 10:47 PM |
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7huskie6
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RE: Santa v. Graham
(09-09-2017 09:44 PM)badmoonrising13 Wrote: Since we are playing a vastly superior opponent like Graham did against BC, Santa will get a pass next week. He can suck like Graham did and it won't matter because they'll be so much better. Santa just needs to complete 40 percent of his passes and throw a pick and he'll be fine.
BC "vastly superior" ????
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09-09-2017 11:09 PM |
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NIU1981
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RE: Santa v. Graham
If I can add Childers to this thread, he did a nice job a couple of times by hanging on to the ball instead of throwing it up for grabs when the play broke down.
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09-09-2017 11:45 PM |
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Teamduh
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RE: Santa v. Graham
(09-09-2017 08:15 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote: (09-09-2017 07:42 PM)7 Wrote: Santa threw at least one ball at a WRs feet (could have been more), threw a few inaccurate screens and on pass threw a pass where I had literally no idea who it was going to (I think there was miscommunication).
If you're going to try to analyze something don't let your bias get in the way of facts.
Santa was better today than Graham was last week, but don't sit here and say santa didn't throw anything inaccurate because that's not true.
Its more about the passes he made. A couple of big time throws. To Tears and Brown. Graham rarely makes those. Santa seems to have a knack for it, though limited evidence. An analogy would be Graham is Bouagnon and Santa is Huff. It's about the upside. The playmaking, game changing ability.
I fail to see the analogy. Huff is splitting time with Jones instead of being the main man like Joel last year.
I agree, the accurate deep passes for Santa were a huge improvement over last week. Let's hope he can continue this the next 2 weeks. Then we can compare the qbs.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
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09-10-2017 12:17 AM |
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MaddDawgz02
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RE: Santa v. Graham
(09-09-2017 08:14 PM)142niu Wrote: I'm liking Santa right now. I think he has a much bigger upside than Ryan Graham. Our hope should be that with more experience he will limit the number of bad decisions. I just like his swagger much more than Graham and the offense just seems to flow better with Santa running the controls.
Call it as you want but I liked watching Childers in his limited action today too. Potential.
There is no doubt in my mind Childers will be the best QB of the bunch. But yes Santa deserves to start until he plays himself out of the job now. Much better than Graham. These are the answers we should have found in fall camp and not waited until the season to find out
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09-10-2017 12:25 AM |
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foch41
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RE: Santa v. Graham
(09-09-2017 07:35 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote: (09-09-2017 07:28 PM)NILAW Wrote: It seemed appropriate for this to have its own thread.
Santa made some bad decisions today, as did Graham against BC. Anyone that says both did not make some bad decisions simply is not giving an honest evaluation.
Graham’s 41% completion rate against BC was the result of horrible accuracy; throwing at receiver’s feet, over them, to the sides, etc. It had nothing to do with the quality of the defense. While it is possible that Santa’s percentage rate against EIU today was helped by the quality of the defense, he was accurate all day. Not once did I say who was he throwing to or that was a horrible pass like I did way too often with Graham.
I will go with the big play potential of Santa, and I liked the offensive flow today versus Graham during the BC game; Graham killed drives with his accuracy. As Santa gets experience he should make better decisions; I don’t see how Graham will get more accurate – what you see is what you get with Graham. Who gives us the better chance to move the ball, score and win games; IMO it is Santa, and I don't even see it as that close!
Santa has to get better with those bubble screens in both accuracy and quickness of release Other than that I agree, have to go with Santa
Exactly, I was at the game and his screen throws were the worst throws he made throughout the game. Not sure why those throws are soo tricky for some QBs but he certainly was the better QB and I expect Graham lost his job.
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09-10-2017 07:24 AM |
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17Huskies
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RE: Santa v. Graham
I'm excited by what I saw from Santa's arm yesterday as well, but everyone needs to take a breath and wait until we see some more, playing against a bad EIU D vs. playing against BC D is a whole different world. Graham's decision making is safer and better (also think graham is much quicker/better on the read option), but I agree we need the the deep threat to keep 9 out of the box for the rest of our offense. With some of the Santa decisions yesterday, he throws 3-4 picks against BC.
And I see nothing to be excited about Childers so much (obviously short amount of time).
In my opinion, we've seen enough in the first 2 games to understand why there wasn't a clear winner out of all the camps. None of these dudes are GREAT college QB's yet. You have to hope they keep improving.
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09-10-2017 11:14 AM |
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Djud
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RE: Santa v. Graham
I don't get how/why Santa's success is at Graham expense. Graham did exactly what he was asked to do against BC; he put us in a position to win (or not lose) the game. That's exactly why Carey started him. He was far more experienced than Santa; and he clearly felt that the QB position did not have to win the game, instead it simply had to avoid not losing it...he was a play away from being right. With that being said, the abilty to throw the ball deep cannot be overstated. It spreads the field and opens up passing and running lanes. That is huge! Unless you have a freak like Lynch at QB, you need a vertical passing attack for this offense to be truly effective. Santa made a few bad decisions yesterday, but that apparently this is what you get with him; he thinks he can make every play. I do think he is being coached up. The most encouraging plays were the two or three purposeful "throw always" that went deep into the sidelines when there was no play; that's a sign he is being coached up. He now has basically 9 quarters of college football under his belt. Lets not overstate (or understate) what he did. It's been a long time since we seen passes like that; but next week is a far different opponent. Final thought ... Graham appears to be a great kid and a great teammate; can we keep from bashing a kid who is doing nothing other than his absolute best. I watched the Tennessee game last week and saw the 2nd team QB pout like a 5 year old on the sideline, hoping the starter screwed up. I don't see that at all from any of ou pr QB's; is is remotely possible that Carey should get some credit for this?
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09-10-2017 11:21 AM |
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