Bateman being the starter may be inevitable. He had some errant throws but things just seemed to run better with him. When coker has lots of time he's pretty good. Under pressure it's ugly. I don't think that will improve as we head into sec play. Ole miss will hit alabama's offense harder than any team all year. If he plays the majority of downs saturday, I think we drop this one to missy.
Dude where do you get that from? How in the world did things "run better" with Bateman?
Coker's drives went like this:
- 3 and out, punt.
- 4 plays, 32 yards, TD pass to Robert Foster (after Humphrey forced a fumble)
- 7 plays, 30 yards, turnover on downs.
- 3 and out, punt.
- 10 plays, 75 yards, TD from Henry. (OJ had the long catch and run)
- 2 plays, 70 yards, TD from Henry. (Drake had the long catch and run)
- 1 play, interception. Horrible deep pass that came nowhere near the receiver.
- 10 plays, 44 yards, Griffith misses a 24 yard field goal as the half ends (this was after the blocked punt and safety. Coker had a pretty good 2 minute drive only for Griffith to miss pretty much an extra point).
Bateman's drives went like this::
- 4 plays for just 3 yards, missed field goal. (This was after the defense forced another turnover on MTSU's first possession of the second half) Griffith misses a 49 yarder that was actually kicked 43 yards at most.
- 4 plays, 55 yards, TD pass to Drake on that little shovel pass again.
- 3 plays, 4 yards, punt.
- 11 plays, 97 yards, TD from Henry (pretty much the whole drive was Henry pounding the ball).
- 3 plays, 4 yards, punt.
- 6 plays, 24 yards, punt.
- 3 plays, 37 yards, interception on a horrible pass.
- 10 plays, 69 yards, game ends (they were running the clock out).
So in essence both started their day with bad first drives and then led TD drives and had TD passes on the second drive. They both had 10+ play drives and Batmean had a 97 yard drive. Both had horrible interceptions and both had multiple 3 and outs. So please explain of all of that how did the offense look better with Bateman? It looked like to me both had decent control of the offense and both had some pretty solid throws while at the same time had some bad throws. The best play for each, in my opinion, was this. Coker had a play were he scanned the entire field and couldnt find anyone open finally looked over to probably his third or fourth option and threw a bullet to OJ for a first down. Bateman's best throw was a beautiful 31 yard pass to Ty Smith on the sideline, but the probelm was he had his horrible pick two plays later at the goal line. I still feel a bit more comfortable with Coker than I do with Bateman but I like what Bateman brings to the game with his feet. Neither have hit a deep pass down the field which really bothers me. Last year we had a phantom complaint from fans that Sims couldn't complete passes down the field (despite him throwing several long passes) but right now the only passes that we have had go for more than 20 yards are because the receiver/runner breaks a tackle or a few tackles and takes it the rest of the way. We need some down field passes to convert or we will be in trouble regardless of who is in there.
