Full Breakdown: Ryan Mallett vs Alabama

People don't believe me when I say Mallett did a lot more good against Alabama than bad, but it's true. I did this drill with an Andy Dalton game recently, his game against San Diego State. I found that even though statistically he had a great day and they won the game, I found more bad plays than good ones. Here Ryan Mallett is, and this ain't no chicken sh-t San Diego State defense, this is effing Alabama...and yet people are talking about Dalton in the 1st round while Ryan Mallett should fall out of the 1st round altogether. What can you do when you're surrounded by stupidity?

I'll tell you right now I found 25 good plays to only 10 bad, and of those 10 bad, 5 of them I felt were SUPER nitpicky...and I only listed them because I know some doof is going to come out of the woodwork saying I'm clearly biased in all this.

But the truth is, I see what I see.

On the Good:

1. Pistol snap goes WAY too high but he secures it somehow (he is 6'7"), still gives off a play-action fake, boots out, has TE open slanting shallow, WR open slanting deeper, chooses the WR over the easier option, and that choice results in 30+ yard gain because he chose the tougher, more aggressive throw, and got it to him in stride while booting to his right. Superb.

2. He's got a player open on a shallow cross which would be the easy quick option, but stays patient in his progressions, he reads the corner staying with the WR on the post instead of disengaging to protect against the RB's wheel route, throws deeper left to the RB on the wheel, play results in 43 yard touchdown. Could have been a much, much smaller gain if he rushed through his progression and took the easy option.

3. Reads a 5 man zone blitz from the right man, calmly goes thru his progressions and checks it down to the back that was running a flare to the side opposite where the linebackers were forced to rotate to cover the blitzer's vacated zone. This is keen stuff. His TE DJ Williams was running a curl right into the vacated zone of the blitzing LLB, but the MLB was focused on rotating into that zone quickly, and so the RLB was backup up and rotating to the middle, and was therefore slow to react to the RB running a flare to perimeter of that RLB's side of the field. I don't know how many times I hear people mistakenly yell at QBs for not throwing into the zone vacated by the blitz. You have to play chess, not checkers. The weakness isn't always the vacated zone, in fact I think more often it's away from it, as the defenders are so focused on covering the hole they over-commit and throwing back that way yields greater results. In this case the RB would have gained a lot of yards, more than DJ Williams would have if Mallett had thrown hot and quick to him, but the runner just flat out dropped it. That was Mallett's third read in the progression, by the way. Oh and did I mention there was pressure from that right side and he stepped up in the pocket to avoid it before throwing the ball? Yeah.

4. After I just get done praising him for throwing opposite the rotation on a blitz, here's where I can praise him for recognizing when it's beneficial to throw into the blitz. Am I just being easy on him? I don't think so. This is 3rd & 4. The 4 yard gain is imperative. The play above I praised him for was 1st & 10. That's different from 3rd & 4. You want to be aggressive on 1st & 10, gain more yardage, and this is the kind of aggression that is etched in Ryan Mallett's bones. On 3rd & 4 you just want to get the job done, move the chains...so he draws the blitzer into him and releases the ball with pressure in his face into the vacated zone so that the RB could catch in stride and get enough YAC for the 1st down. Super quick, very decisive on this play.

5. Has a spread field against Bama's dime package. Reads the man coverage underneath with a center fielder in Cover 1, and so he throws underneath to a pair of WRs running a route combination. The slot WR is running a jerk route (fake the shallow drag, then jerk out to the sideline), while the boundary WR to his side runs a deep cross which is designed to pick the jerk route's man coverage. Ball is a little inside but Jarius Wright stumbles all over the place a little unnecessarily as he caught it, probably should have gained more yardage. You could say this is a negative, but as Mallett stepped up into the pocket the MLB clicked on a green dog (delayed) blitz and was coming right at Ryan's face pressuring the throw. In that situation, I don't mind a ball that is thrown maybe a foot or two more inside than it should be, it's still up to Wright to use the space provided by the pick route to gain the 9 yards on 3rd & 9, instead of only 7 yards.

6. There's an overload of WRs lined to the left, going up against a Cover 2 look of the D. As he drops he's reading the LS to see if he stays at home which would indicate more aggressive underneath coverage from the LCB against DJ Williams' out route he's running from an on-the-line position. He sees the LS bite hard to the overload size to cover one of the WRs in man to man, so he knows the LCB is going to be playing bail (deep), throws to DJ Williams on the shorter out route, putting it all the way at the perimeter so that the LLB wasn't likely to be so far out of his zone for fear the route the RB running directly behind DJ Williams might turn out to be a circle route (out then in). If the LLB ran too far out to the perimeter chasing Williams' out route, and the RB was running a circle, then Mallett COULD hit that RB and bust the defense wide open. This all sounds very complicated but Mallett doesn't need to process all this. He knows defenses, he's studied them, he knows they're generally not going to do things that don't make any sense and could be easily exploited. By throwing the out to Williams here, he's hitting a "honey hole" between the zone coverage. Ball isn't necessarily out with great anticipation on this one, but it's accurate to the open man underneath the zone and it lets DJ Williams be DJ Williams. He stops before getting to the sidelines, breaks a tackle, gets help breaking a second tackle from that RB that was running a route right behind him, and gains like 20 yards on the play before fumbling (his own team recovered).

7. This is great stuff right here, and it's no wonder I put this clip on the Deep Ball Highlights video which I listed in the "How good is good?" section of my Mallett write-up. Every little aspect of this play, as I isolate it, it just keeps getting better. Mallett is executing a play-action boot to the right side. His play fake is so good the camera follows the running back to where Mallett is off screen. Coverage should be Cover 3 with the RS rotating to Center, which means the LCB has deep responsibility against his WR. The WR runs a double move, out and up. Meanwhile Joe Adams is running a deep slant from Mallett's left to the right side where the WR is running that double move. The idea here is for Mallett to pop around after the fake, freeze the Centerfielder to the middle of the field with his eyes (which Mallett does), then come to the right and if the WR got open off the double move throw to him, and if not, you probably try and lob the ball to Adams off his deep slant right into the spot the LCB vacates as he's running deep with the WR on the double-move vertical. This LCB just totally bit the move and is eating sh-t though, so Mallett throws to the double-move WR on the vertical. This is where things keep getting interesting. On this play, Mallett has already A) Pre-snap read the Cover 3, B) Pulled one hella good play-fake, C) Froze the Centerfielder with his eyes, and D) Recognized that the LCB defending the double-move is currently eating sh-t. So why not finish the play with a keen throw? That's what he does. He underthrows this ball, so that the deep Centerfielder can't get into the play. Even after the bundle of goodness that went on with this play, the Centerfielder is showing good range and if Mallett hits the WR in stride then he could have broken it up. He underthrows a little, and it's huge gain. "Chunk yards". You want chunk yards, I'm not sure anyone in the country created more than Ryan Mallett, with plays like this one.

8. The hits just keep coming. He's looking at a 5 man rush with a blitzing linebacker up the middle. He reads the Cover 1. The idea here is, again, hit the WR to the side where the safety is rotating from. In this case the rotating safety was a LS, so Mallett wants to throw to the WR on his right. That WR is running a fade. Mallett draws the LS further to center with his eyes, looking to the left. He has to rush back to a hot because there's a LB blitzing up the middle and that LB beat the hell out of Mallett's LG and is bearing down on him hard. He pops back to the right after drawing the safety further to middle, then lobs the fade perfectly placed on the outside shoulder, can't get more textbook dropped down the chimney in stride with outside shoulder placement. Greg Childs isn't even that fast, he doesn't have much separation from the corner. The ball is just that perfect. If it was underthrown at all the corner gets back in and breaks it up. If it's thrown even a yard further up field, Childs doesn't have the speed to run under it. Childs finishes with a good catch, but that was a far better throw than route or catch. Se magnifique.

9. There's a difference between a blitz and an over-load blitz. A blitz you can be elegant in figuring out how to beat it, like I said you can choose to work against the grain of the rotation, or if you just need the short easy yards you can throw right into the vacated zone. With an over-load blitz, meaning more guys than you can block to one side, it's "oh sh-t" time and you just have to be an athlete. Mallett reads the "oh sh-t" blitz coming from his left and doesn't even wait to finish his drop before he starts sprinting to his right to get away from the players coming to kill him from the left side. He has his hot receiver Greg Childs flowing with him underneath with man coverage in trail. Honestly Childs should have been able to create some yardage after the catch here, and I think this is one of the big reasons he gets criticized that I've seen. Mallett makes a great throw, at a dead run, a blitz beating sprint-out and throw that people say he can't do because he's such a poor athlete that evidently has never seen the gym in his life (so say the people that have never seen him OR his gym, in their lives), and he executes perfectly on 2nd & 10 a throw that gets him a good 8 yards for 3rd & 2, but could have gotten him much more yardage if Childs stepped up as a playmaker and made a play.

10. We're getting into 2-minute area before the half. He sees all the DBs dropping back into deep zones while DJ Williams is running scott free over the shallow middle so he says meh, why not let my playmaker make a play, throws it to him (good throw, blessed be that 6'7" height as it gives you tremendous potential to use the short middle and drop the ball over the heads of the line), Williams sprints out to the sideline, makes a tackler miss, gains a good 13 yards on 2nd & 6 and gets out of bounds.

11. What a perfect, decisive throw right into one of the classic "honey holes" between a Cover 2 zone. You have the corners squaring up to the QB, the safeties over top charged with making sure those WRs don't get open vertically. What do you do? DOLFANMIKE knows, you hit the fade. Split the zone between corner and safety. Nice play design by the way, have two inside receiving options running out routes right at the two boundary corners that have their shoulders squared to the QB, which creates hesitation in them about whether and when to break off the boundary WR and pick up the TEs coming into their zone. In this case the CB to the side Mallett's working after he gets done with his eyes held over the middle reading the coverage of the safeties, gets a little antsy about DJ Williams crossing into his zone and breaks off the WR a little early, Mallett reads it, guns the ball straight into the hole between the zones. Let me tell you, this ball goes about 25 yards thru the air and it's a bullet, doesn't give the safety much time to get over. Fantastic play. By the way this is still within the 2 minute mark and it sets the Razorbacks up for a few runs that get them a little closer to the goal line where Mallett goes on to QB sneak in for the TD. Just sayin.

12. Holy hell what a play. Mallett's booting to his right again off the play-action, but there was barely any hesitation in the weak side DE to the side he was booting and he ran right in on Mallett. You can see this play in the "Under Pressure" video, by the way. Soon as Mallett gets his head around he's got a DE in his face. This "ridiculously poor" athlete, jerks to a dead stop on his boot and steps up, then fires off a ball into a TIGHT window with a TE slanting right into the exchange point between two zones. If he front-shoulders the ball, it stands a chance of being picked off. He back-shouldered it. What a play.

13. Nice decisiveness on this play. He's reading the middle and to his left, all the DBs are backing up but Jarius Wright is running underneath crossing the middle shallow. The thing that sticks out is Mallett's decisiveness here. The linebacker in zone travels too aggressively up the field with DJ Williams and so Jarius Wright who was playing slot a little tighter to the formation and is slanting directly into that linebacker's zone, is going to be open. Mallett knows that without seeing it. He just clicks over from left to right and bangs the ball out, and because of the decisiveness, the anticipation, the play gains about 18 yards with YAC.

14. I don't know what blocking rules DJ Williams is operating under here, but usually you're expected to pick up the inside-most threat. Mallett is again running the play-action boot to his right but this time DJ is on that right side, and he lets the jack backer go unblocked so that he can pick up a DB blitzing to that side. Maybe he's just thinking the jack backer will bite down hard on the play-fake and Mallett will be able to squirt outside of him, whereas if Williams down-blocked the jack backer and let the DB go free then Mallett would again be running into a situation of popping around to find pressure in his face. Sounds good in theory but Upshaw does not bite AT ALL on the play fake. It was not a bad fake but to this point they've seen the play-action boot to the right too many damn times. Mallett turns around he's got Upshaw right in his grill and again, this "ridiculously poor" athlete makes the guy eat sh-t by jerking to a stop and stepping inside, only this time instead of throwing, he scrambled up the middle for a few yards.

15. Nice play here. Bama's bringing 6 to the line, making Mallett guess and/or read which blitz and which drop. Looks like Cover 1, so he knows pre-snap there's a lot of man coverage going on. With this in mind, he drops back, and WORKS the pocket with his feet, those things on the ends of his long legs that some people claim he doesn't possess, sliding to his left to buy time while he waits patiently for DJ Williams to make his break on his man coverage. Throws a great ball, completes a 3rd & 13 pass that actually had a shot of going for the 1st down, but instead of breaking the tackle Williams got dragged down a yard shy right after he caught the on target ball. Sucks, but this is why 3rd & 13 is not a high percentage down. Mallett did everything he could to make it as high percentage as he could, and for that reason this is an unqualified positive play for him.

16. Sometimes there's a benefit to making a play on 3rd & 13 even if it doesn't quite net you the 1st down. Why? You get to go for it on 4th & 1, which is a nice high percentage play. Much as I love the play design and the play calling in this game so far the one criticism is showing that damn play-action boot right too often. They do it again here, but this time they built a nice little back door into it by having Joe Adams line up at H-Back to the play side and then at the snap crossing back behind the line of scrimmage to the weak side where Mallett is booting. Now, it doesn't matter that Mallett's got a DE in his face as soon as he gets his head around...because he's got Joe Adams' 4.3 speed to contend against linebackers. Mallett zips the ball right by the defensive end with no worries about angles (he can thank all 79 inches of height for that one), and Adams easily gains the 1st down on 4th & 1, and then some. There's a lot of confidence in Ryan Mallett flowing thru this play call. It's a 4th & 1 and at this point the coaches know they've shown the play-action boot right to Bama's defense too much, know the weak side defensive end is screaming toward the quarterback on these plays, and they trusted Mallett to make whatever adjustment he needed to make in order to get that ball OUT (Mallett's answer to that one was to keep backing up and throw off his back foot) and get it into the hands of Joe Adams. Ballsy. You see a play like this, you know the staff has confidence in that quarterback.

17. I'm tired of throwing nitpicky plays into the negative column. This play's a sack but I'm giving Mallett an unqualified positive on this one. You have two blitzers shooting the same hole, one the ILB and the other a delayed safety blitz. The design here is for the RG to tie up with the first blitzer, create some hesitation among the other OLs in zone hopefully not recognizing the safety following right after, be a little late, hope Mallett hasn't gotten the ball out, and maybe the safety will get lucky. Problem? The RG decides not to even pick up the FIRST blitzer, let alone the safety. He zones out to his right and lets the LB bee line to Mallett. And damn, this cokeheaded white statue with evidently zero escapability seems to keep making blitzers eat sh-t. How curious. Mallett actually BEATS that first blitzer and gets free...but he can't beat the second blitzer that just ran up the same gap. The positive is for making that first blitzer eat sh-t and go to the ground with no Ryan Mallett in his paws. After the play, OH MY GOD IS THAT RYAN MALLETT ASKING HIS RIGHT GUARD WHY THE HELL HE DIDN'T BLOCK??? WHAT A TOTAL A$$HOLE!!! NEVER MIND I'M PUTTING THIS BACK IN THE NEGATIVE COLUMN!!! (psych)

18. I could have thrown this play into neutral and therefore undocumented, but I like it when Bama is trying to show all these complicated blitz schemes, with six guys at the line, blitz some, drop others, and Mallett navigates those treacherous waters against one of the best defenses in the country, making a throw that should have been caught and should have converted on 2nd & 7. There was NOBODY else to throw to on this play. He throws Greg Childs, his hot, on the slant from the outside. Perfect ball, should have gained a 1st down, but Childs drops it because he hears some footsteps from a linebacker crossing over. That's not on Mallett, this was an unqualified positive play.

19. Very next play, 3rd & 7. Should be 1st & 10 but whatever. Mallett's got 4 man pressure straight in his grill. It's ridiculous. It's like 3 out of the 4 rushers acted like the Arkansas OLs weren't even there. DJ Williams is lined up on the right, on the line. Joe Adams is right side slot and there's a boundary WR outside him. The play design here is a combination between Adams and Williams. Williams slants up and out and runs a pick pattern while Joe Adams goes vertical and cuts sharp inside. With pressure in his face, Mallett gets the ball there off his back foot. Problem is, Adams decides he's not going to catch it. Adams wanted a flag, and truth be told he should have got it. The defender arrived way early and was pushing Adams around. There should have been two flags on this play. Mallett absorbed a vicious hit way after he threw the ball. This is again one of those moments where I couldn't help but think, they don't let guys come even close to getting away with that in the NFL. Ryan Mallett will appreciate the extra protection from the refs I'm sure.

20. Mallett's got a six man rush on, blitzers coming, he knows he's got to buy just enough time and get this ball to his hot player, and in this case it's Greg Childs lined up left and running a drag to the right side of the field. Mallett scrambles right and backs up long enough to wait for Childs, throws the ball at Childs' waist...and Greg drops it. Good play for Mallett. Bad play for Childs. Oh, and again? The player chasing Mallett pushes him to the ground AFTER the throw, sending Mallett tumbling like a tumbleweed...no flag. And he's hurt at this point. You can tell. Bet he can't wait to get to the NFL.

21. You're up 20-17. There's about 5:30 remaining in the game. You're near your own end zone. Your play caller is still calling wide open dropback passes. They TRUSTED him. And on a play like this, you see why. Could he have been aggressive and forced this ball up field with 7 men dropping back into coverage? Sure. But he didn't. He checked down to the safer option RB Knile Davis coming up the middle, because that's what the situation called for. Situational football. Gotta love it. Play gains 8 or 9 yards.

22. That 79 inches of height comes in handy when you're working the short middle on crossers, and NFL coaches like that. Here's another example. Thanks to Garrick McGee's reckless play calling and Ryan Mallett's over-aggressiveness, the Razorbacks are now down 24-20 with 3 minutes left. On 1st & 10 he's got a four man rush, so he has to take the time and wait for an option to come open. He does, he's got Joe Adams underneath with a lot of room. Hits Joe right in the hands in stride, would have gained AT LEAST 15 yards with Joe's speed being what it is. Dropped.

23. Four man rush and of course, Arkansas' offensive line being what it is, they let two of them right in on the quarterback. Doesn't matter, Mallett created some space on his drop, stood strong and read the field, stayed patient, found the underneath option open underneath the zones, and hits Jarius Wright for 10 yards on 2nd & 10. A good play during a critical drive.

24. Love this play. I love it because he read the matchup and not just the scheme. Joe Adams is in the slot matched up on a much bigger and slower player, not sure if he's a linebacker or not but he can't handle Joe's speed in man coverage. Mallett stays patient with a four man rush, this time the OL actually blocks for him (weird), and he slides to create a passing lane, then releases a ball over the middle low where only Joe Adams had a shot at it. He caught it, gained 19 yards, again on a critical drive. This is a great example of Mallett's confidence. He just threw an interception over the middle of the field. He comes right back and throws over the middle again, not afraid to gun it in there when he has a man he knows should get open. Confidence in his arm, confidence in his receiver.

25. Mallett reads the overload blitz and makes his hot read, a slant to Greg Childs. This time Childs catches it, gains 6 yards on 1st & 15. On a play like this with an overload coming and no obvious way to beat it, you're just hoping a guy like Greg Childs can take all that space afforded him by the CB prior to the snap, make the catch, and make something happen. That's the kind of thing Brandon Marshall excels at.


On the Bad:

1. This is nitpicky. He goes through his progressions to the left and jerks back to the right to throw to a guy he thinks is going to be open, but the DB was waiting for it. Did he throw way high ON PURPOSE, basically throwing the ball away? That's what happened. Is it possible he just got lucky that he threw an errant ball? Maybe, but I think it's just as possible that as he jerked back and went into his motion he saw too much white jersey and sailed the ball rather than stepping thru it fully. Is this a positive or a negative? Could go either way. It's an incomplete ball, so I guess negative. I guess.

2. This is not nitpicky. This is an actual criticism. He recognizes the Cover 3 (which was disguised until right at the snap when the RS moved up) and throws the 12 yard out to the side opposite the rotation, which is something that gets ingrained into quarterbacks' heads very early in their careers. Problem? He just fvcked up the throw. Ball sailed a little high on him, weight transfer was off. Ball barely scraped the receiver's finger tips even after jumping.

3. He's a little late recognizing and reacting to the free blitzer to his right side. The blitzer eats dirt because Mallett steps up just in time (remarkable, considering how everyone swears he's a statue that can't move for sh-t), and looks to his right to see what is open, settles on Joe Adams who crossed from the left side of the field and has a man trailing him, but as he's stepped up into the pocket and out to the side of the free blitzer who's now on the ground, he tripped over one of his OLs' feet, and is falling as he throws the ball to Joe Adams. The ball is a little high and so a zone defender behind Adams is able to get his hands on the ball but not secure it. Very close to another interception. But this is not a situation where you say "Ryan Mallett can't throw accurately while scrambling". This is a situation where you say, "Ryan Mallett can't throw accurately while falling to the ground having been tripped". And that is a little more understandable.

4. On 3rd down, he reads the safeties playing Cover 2, and so he decides to hit the deep middle to slot WR Joe Adams who is running a deep in against man. The safety to the side Adams is crossing into has his eyes fixated on the WR for the double team. Mallett throws to Adams, ball is about 15 yards thru the air, but he guns it too hard, and the placement is just a little inside, and so the ball is right by Adams before he even knows it. Curse of the rich. Most QBs don't have to think about taking any heat off this ball, but Mallett has to, and he knows it, has talked about it with the press, and you could see him laughing after the play knowing full well that was him gunning the ball too hard. Isn't this supposed to be a guy that blames his teammates for everything that goes wrong and is an a-hole? Bottom line is Joe Adams SHOULD have caught that ball, and if I'm grading Joe Adams, that's a negative grade for me that he couldn't get his hands up and secure that ball even if it was a bit inside. To me, a bigger negative for Adams than Mallett, but still a negative. It's a testament to how picky I'm being on these negatives.

5. This is super nitpicky. I don't see this as a negative at all. But I don't want to be accused of bias either. He's in the red zone and throwing against 7 people dropped into coverage. Had someone blitzed, there might have been a better opportunity. Could Mallett have "thrown open" the WR running the arrow route against man coverage to his left? Yeah, he could have lobbed it and led him to the back of the end zone, might have caught it. But he's got DJ Williams in man coverage with a safety to his right side, and he decides to throw the ball high in the back of the end zone to see if the soon-to-be Mackey Award winner will make a play. Williams isn't able to go up and get the high ball. Not really a big deal, I consider it a good stab at the end zone.

6. Here's a REAL negative. This is just a brain fart. This looks like man underneath with two floating safeties to read the play. The idea on the play is to draw the safeties underneath while the boundary WRs run vertically to the back of the end zone and cut toward the middle running along the back of the end zone. If the safeties are bit up, there should be lanes to hit the WRs crossing the back of the end zone. I'll tell you what's really going on here on this play. What Mallett WANTS to do, is pump fake the ball to the slot WR to his left side, who is running a short curl. That SHOULD in theory get the safety nice and bit up, and then you switch gears and hit the boundary WR that's now crossing toward the middle in the back of the end zone. The problem? Play timing gets screwed up. The slot WR to the left is just taking too long to run his route, focusing too much of his efforts on creating space for HIM to catch the ball, rather than understanding the play and playing his part. What he does is run up field with the idea in mind to chuck his underneath cover man backward at the top of the route. But you look at the wide angle, the slot WR to the right is into his break a lot more quickly. If Mallett had been working his right side of the field, the play would have been effective. Mallett already made a (rare) pre-snap mistake by choosing to work the left side instead of his right side. The safety to his right was lined up pre-snap a little closer to the line of scrimmage than the one on his left, so that guy would have been more likely to bite up. But Mallett compounds this minor mistake with a more serious one. The delay I described in the curl route creates hesitation in Mallett's pump fake, it ends up being totally ineffective against the safety and he never bites up. At this point Mallett needs to throw the ball away, the play is blown. But he pushed it, he didn't give up on the play, and honestly that's one of THE most common mistakes you'll see in Ryan Mallett is his unwillingness to give up on a play. He threw the ball right into the teeth of the safety.

7. Hey I'm being nit-picky right? He sees the linebacker blitzing from his right side. He's got a RB running out to that side, so he's immediately open because of the vacated zone. But as I said before you don't always want to go to the immediately vacant zone, you want to take advantage of any hesitation in the players that have to rotate because of that vacated zone. This is one of the cases where the more aggressive option would have probably been most appropriate. Mallett doesn't take a BAD option at all, he throws it underneath to an open Knile Davis and hopes he makes the first-responder miss and gains some yards. Hell, I'm pretty sure Tony Sparano & Co. would mark this up as a positive play, a good decision. But the LCB has a difficult proposition in deciding whether to stay deep with the WR or defend the RB coming into that zone. In this case he cheated up a little toward the RB and if Mallett had made a quicker decision that he was going to beat this blitz by clicking to the aggressive option, the deep fade to the WR, it might have been a big play. But I think you get the picture that I don't really consider this a big criticism.

8. Nitpicky, right? There's a slight miscommunication between Mallett and the RB on this one, on what depth to run the little flat route. Maybe it's drawn up this way but Green runs the flat route 2 yards up the field and Mallett clicks over and throws the ball and he seemed to be expecting Green to have run the flat at about the line of scrimmage. Still catchable, and he caught the ball, but off target to where RAC wasn't really possible. Was the right read though, nobody open and there was hesitation in the linebacker to Green's side covering him.

9. Uh oh. Play like this makes me regret putting all those nitpicky ones here in the negative column, cuz here's a REAL bad play. Keep Dan Henning away from this guy! What happens? Max protect. Only 3 guys out on routes against 6 men in coverage. Nobody's open of course. This is why Mallett has admitted that when the game's on the line he likes to have 5 man protect, so that he can make decisions and pick and choose his options, make good throws, etc. The only good throw in this case would have been the throw away, which isn't a Ryan Mallett specialty. He needs to learn it, because this is like 4:30 remaining in a game he was winning 20-17 against the defending national champs. Of all the receiving options, he did pick the most likely to end up open...trusting Greg Childs to create separation and finish with an athletic grab over the middle. But Mallett threw the ball too far inside. Picked off. Incidentally, it's 3rd & 11 with less than 5 minutes remaining of a game you're up 20-17. There's trusting your quarterback, and then there's being reckless. I think Garrick McGee got reckless here. I think 9 out of 10 NFL head coaches don't allow that play call in that situation, and that's including guys that have pretty great quarterbacks.

10. And finally...the KILLER play. I've talked about this one before already. I misspoke though. It wasn't a blitz. It was a four man rush. What happens is Mallett catches whiff of one of the linemen stunting from Ryan's right to his left, and so he starts sliding to his left because that's what he does. He has a good feel for pressure and he deals with it. But when he starts sliding left, Marcel Dareus chucks his man and he's about to get his paws on Mallett. At this point, I'm more convinced now that Mallett was doing what he was supposed to do and giving up on the play, trying to chuck it out of bounds. He could have been trying to hit the scramble drill. I think he was trying to throw high and at the sidelines for DJ Williams, and if Williams can make a super athletic grab, great, but if not the worst that happens is an incomplete. He just didn't get enough under the ball because he came so close to getting creamed by Dareus, he was falling off the throw as he threw it. It doesn't help that the overhead cam shows Greg Childs just sort of sitting there at the top of his vertical route only about 18 yards off the line of scrimmage. He's just jogging. His CB doesn't have to worry about a thing so he peeks at the QB and gets a read on what's happening, is in position to snatch the ball before it can get out of bounds. The safety to Childs side bit underneath, wasn't paying attention to Childs. Greg needs to keep GOING, or COME BACK. One or the other. Bad things always happen when receivers aren't decisive about things like that. That's what happened on that interception Gabbert threw against Iowa, Wes Kemp just sat there. Bad things happen when you give DBs nothing to worry about except the QB.