Zannexstad

[mnsports1]

I agree as well. There are times he could step up in the pocket instead of bailing.

Yep. That feel will come with more experience, but one of his areas to improve at this point. I actually felt better about his arm strength Saturday. I thought his ball lacked zip in game 1.

 

[rockford]

Strongly disagree. I'm happy with him so far, but he has a long way to go.

His pocket presence was pretty bad. He put his tackles in awful situations against Fresno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbMQDIs-Ec&t=55m56s (this was about a step away from becoming a safety)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbMQDIs-Ec&t=61m21s (thought his pocket was collapsing before we had a man come open)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbMQDIs-Ec&t=62m42s (Leber calls him out on this one)

Also not sure what you're seeing on his long throws but he is inaccurate beyond 15 yards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAbMQDIs-Ec&t=77m25s

His flick to Johnson on the run tells me he has the arm strength to be better than he is downfield.

He's raw, but has more talent than I've seen at Minnesota in awhile.

hello-world, that's some first-class posting, with the video links. Thank you!

But ... on the first play you posted, ZA had 2.2 seconds before being flushed. Should he have stepped up instead of releasing to the outside? Maybe. But there was a blitz coming from his left, with a stunt on designed to bring a free man up the middle, so I can't knock him for running away from pressure. Second play, also a blitz on. First and 10 from the opponent's 36, he got rid of the ball in just over 2.0 seconds rather than risk a negative play. Third play, the Gophs were counting on the flanker coming across the formation to pick up the outside rusher; he was unable to get his head in front of his man and the defender had him beat less than 1 second after the snap. Maybe ZA could have stepped up. Maybe. He may also have stepped right into a sack.

As far as Leber goes, I mentioned elsewhere that sometimes his mouth gets ahead of his brain, which is understandable. It ain't easy doing that job in real time. Sometimes first impressions aren't accurate.

Anyway, I agree with your statement: "I'm happy with him so far, but he has a long way to go."

JTG

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Seems like a lot of the longer throws have been over the top to let the receiver run under it which would be more about playing calling and the defense. Haven't seen many plays of the 20-25 slant over the middle which is ok in my since its good way to get your receiver killed.

Yeah the handful of longer throws seems like "ok get to this spot receiver". Maybe it works itself out over time.

 

[gopher7]

Well hopefully he doesn't do too good otherwise he'll leave early.

His downfield passes have been pretty hideous, but at the same time I don't recall our receivers really getting open when going deep. If he continues to miss when that happens then I'll be more concerned. But his short to mid range passing is already been than we've seen in a while.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Well hopefully he doesn't do too good otherwise he'll leave early.

His downfield passes have been pretty hideous, but at the same time I don't recall our receivers really getting open when going deep. If he continues to miss when that happens then I'll be more concerned. But his short to mid range passing is already been than we've seen in a while.

It is one of those chicken and egg things.

If you don't have a great QB and offense ... makes crooting more harder... I'll take possibly losing Zack in a couple years over all the empty "but QBs should come here because they can start" arguments.

 

[alchemy2u]

As far as Leber goes, I mentioned elsewhere that sometimes his mouth gets ahead of his brain, which is understandable. It ain't easy doing that job in real time. Sometimes first impressions aren't accurate.

JTG

I feel the same way. I remember when they would ask Leber his take about the games on the fan morning show. It always felt like he was just winging it and never made much sense, all full of BS.
Then on the evening show he would have a much better take.



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[alchemy2u]

I was thinking of starting a similar thread. I think we may have a real QB.... I really like the character that he shows in the game. PJ talked about how ZA walked by him during the Fresno drive and said isn’t this fun... he thrives on the competition.


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[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

I was thinking of starting a similar thread. I think we may have a real QB.... I really like the character that he shows in the game. PJ talked about how ZA walked by him during the Fresno drive and said isn’t this fun... he thrives on the competition.


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He looks really cool out there. He took some hits... played the same way after them... same with passing, he just stays within himself it seems.

 

[50PoundHead]

He looks really cool out there. He took some hits... played the same way after them... same with passing, he just stays within himself it seems.

That's what has impressed me the most. I'm sure that as the season wears on, opponents' scouting will make things more complicated for him and the rest of the offense, but Annexstad seems to have that "it" factor a QB really needs.

 

[Tigger]

As well as he has played so far, his stats could be even better if we haven't had some terrible drops by our WRs (especially Johnson). I think his first 3 or 4 passed in the NMST game were right in the hands and dropped and Johnson dropped another easy one against FS. Now don't get me wrong, I love our WRs and they area WAY better than before, but a QB can't do anything more than hit the receiver in the hands.

I am okay with his pocket presence at this point, 2 games in to his true freshman year. His deep ball needs a some fine tuning, but I would rather deal with a couple of overthrows than floaters that get picked. that should get better with time. For his 2nd game I am thrilled with where he is.

I am SOOO glad that he doesn't throw ground balls to the shortstop like some of his predecessors did! How many times in previous years did I want to pull my hair out when we had a guy open on a 7 yard route and the ball hit the ground 3 feet in front of him!

 

[BarnBurner]

we have two better passing qbs and one better running qb than last year...we have six better wrs than last year...we are better than last year at all five oline spots and all five oline depth spots...

Oline is still an issue. Will show up more as the season flow, imo. I hope I am wrong.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

Oline is still an issue. Will show up more as the season flow, imo. I hope I am wrong.

They're looking better at times, but I agree it is still an issue and as the season goes I expect better teams to exploit it.

Progress, and high five to the OL... I just don't know that they can improve enough fast enough.

 

[gray4heisman]

He's moved where the pocket has allowed, which has been laterally. The kid has great awareness. His scramble to hit TJ was elite.

Scrambling laterally OUT OF THE POCKET immediately after getting out of his 3 and 5-step drops would be the opposite of pocket presence. I had a problem with this too - also cuts the field in half in regards to who you can throw to (and that's generous). As others are saying, this will come with experience and age.

 

[LakerFan]

As well as he has played so far, his stats could be even better if we haven't had some terrible drops by our WRs (especially Johnson). I think his first 3 or 4 passed in the NMST game were right in the hands and dropped and Johnson dropped another easy one against FS. Now don't get me wrong, I love our WRs and they area WAY better than before, but a QB can't do anything more than hit the receiver in the hands.

I am okay with his pocket presence at this point, 2 games in to his true freshman year. His deep ball needs a some fine tuning, but I would rather deal with a couple of overthrows than floaters that get picked. that should get better with time. For his 2nd game I am thrilled with where he is.

I am SOOO glad that he doesn't throw ground balls to the shortstop like some of his predecessors did! How many times in previous years did I want to pull my hair out when we had a guy open on a 7 yard route and the ball hit the ground 3 feet in front of him!

There have been some disappointing drops, but that first one to Tyler Johnson in the Fresno game, you could tell from the shadows and light on the field Tyler was looking directly into the setting sun, poor design of a play given that condition.

I'm a little concerned about ZA's willingness to force balls into good coverage, but so far his results have been hard to argue with. The staring down receivers had gotten so bad that it looked like a few series they ran deliberate plays where he looked one way and then turned and fired to one and only one target on the other side. Not really a true progression, but progress, hopefully he can make that more natural as he develops.

 

[PMWinSTP]

Yeah the handful of longer throws seems like "ok get to this spot receiver". Maybe it works itself out over time.

Yep. Both the clips hello-world used looked like those types of throws. Bateman gets held up about 10 yards into his route otherwise he's probably under that throw. Douglas may have initially turned the wrong way, was using a double move that took too long, had to alter his route to get to the spot, or Zack released the throw a little too early.

 

[UpAndUnder43]

I think if the Oline was better, he'd stay in the pocket longer. After getting pressured repeatedly, he is bailing a little sooner but there is something to be said about self preservation.

I'd like to see some play calls that move the pocket for him. He has shown the ability to throw on the run and if the pocket moves, it slows the pass rush. ZA has also shown the ability to not make mistakes, so if something isn't there as he rolls to his right, he can bomb it out of bounds and live to fight another day.

 

[WorkingMyTailOff]

He is doing a great job for his age and experience, and I'm sure they are going to work with him on stepping up into the pocket instead of back pedaling so early.
That third and nine conversion was really an amazing play. His downfield accuracy on crossing and sideline routes is the best we have seen of a Gopher QB in a few years.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

I’m really impressed by his poise. He is willing to mak semi-dangerous throws but thus far it’s worked out and he was able to convert. He is showing a boat load of promise. He doesn’t have the strongest arm but that isn’t necessary at the college level. It’s strong enough.

The spectacular 3rd and 9 play in the fourth was made possible by Schlueter being made look silly by their DE. That one play tells me a lot about this QB. He’s going to face a lot of pressure/blitzes in the Big Ten particularly if the right side of the line isn’t shored up and/or the backup RBs aren’t good at blocking. His ability to scramble and keep plays alive is really nice. The screen passes....so nice to see us utilize those.

 

[LakerFan]

The screen passes....so nice to see us utilize those.

Agreed, several times we got that off with blockers in great position. IF we can get better vision out of the blockers, those will be huge, I think almost every time the ball carrier got tackled we had blockers still running downfield looking for someone to block.

 

[fraternity2017]

Zack Attack's IMG training is paying off. He looks like he's prepared as a pro for the last 3 years and thats basically what he's done. He didn't come in from some school where the math teacher is the offensive coordinator and somebody's dad is the QB coach. He looks well prepared. Might be a hot take but I'd take every IMG backup QB as a PWO until they prove they can't play.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

lot of positives so far - but we're talking about 2 games. Unless this kid is a real phenom, at some point, he's going to have a bad game. He's a freshman playing QB in the B1G. Opponents are going to throw all kinds of looks at him.

All I'm saying is - let's try not to get too high over a couple of big throws - and let's try not to get too down when the kid does run into problems.

If Rodney Smith is out for the season, that unfortunately puts more pressure on ZA to produce, because it's hard to imagine the running game being as productive without Smith.

and, I second the opinion that ZA seems a little too quick to bail out of the pocket. Yes, he might scramble and make a big play, but he might also scramble himself into a 10+ yard loss. I would rather see him throw the ball away - or if there's no other option, step up in the pocket and take a short sack as opposed to a much larger sack.