Yesterday, we determined that the Distraction Prosecution failed to provide credible and tangible evidence to find Beck guilty of distractions. The court of public opinion may beg to differ, but we are operating on hard evidence here and not assumptions. The court dismisses Mr. Bellamy from further testimony.
To start, let’s break down the nature of quarterback play for Beck. One key fact is to remember that part of Beck’s play includes quick releases, as he had the fastest snap to throw time in 2023 of 2.4 seconds. That requires a delicate balance of timing, precision, and all surrounding parts to work effectively for Beck to work effectively. Receivers have to know their routes, the checks, and must be precise as the QB is anticipating and timing throws. Linemen have to open lanes to throw, pick up blitzes and stunts, and running back plays a delicate game of pass pro that can become safety valve in the blink of an eye. Beck is surrounded by walking wounded, new or young faces, and some folks who are mistake prone, but that’s for tomorrow’s case, not necessarily today’s.
But as the defense will show, it does play a factor in Beck’s 11 interceptions.
To help out, I’ll reference Brooks Austin’s recent breakdown of all of Beck’s interceptions to submit video evidence in the case:
https://twitter.com/brooksaustinba/status/1853473754854133896?s=46
Here’s a breakdown of every catastrophic throw from Beck on the season, along with a verdict on each play.
Interception 1 – Arian Smith runs the wrong check down route on a screen, Alabama interception. WR error. Verdict: Not guilty.
Interception 2 – Beck forces a ball flat against middle of the field coverage to an Alabama linebacker. Bad read, Beck’s fault. Beck looks the receiver in the whole way, bad read and throw. Verdict: Guilty.
Interception 3 – Beck throws a backside shoulder throw flat, Alabama interception. Beck’s fault in technique. Verdict: Guilty
Interception 4 – Tipped at the line, poor protection. Verdict: not guilty.
Interception 5 – Beck sees PI and throws the ball towards Luckie, hoping to draw the flag. Picked by Mississippi State. Verdict: Guilty, mainly because he wears Red and Black and should know we don’t get those calls.
Interception 6 – Great play by the Texas defender, bad vision by Beck. I could go with a tie here between bad read and great defensive play, but I’ll defer to a verdict of guilty on this one, too.
Interception 7 – Play was there, bad footwork and mechanics leads to a floater, tipped by Luckie, intercepted by Texas. Verdict: Hung jury. Luckie could’ve caught it, Beck could’ve thrown it better, too.
Interception 8 – The famous PI, no PI interception against Texas. Smith also is likely running the wrong route, again. Verdict: not guilty.
Interception 9 – First pick against Florida, Beck doesn’t see the linebacker coming over in coverage and throws a pick . Verdict: guilty.
Interception 10 – Beck scrambles and allows the play to develop too long rather than hitting the open man along the sideline. Throws into double coverage, interception Florida. Verdict: guilty.
Interception 11 – Carson is in the process of getting sacked, waits too late, throws a wounded duck for an interception against Florida. Verdict: guilty.
Of the 11 picks, six are picks that Carson is clearly guilty of. As Brooks points out, the concepts are there, but a blend of offensive line mishaps, Arian Smith’s routes, and quarterback technique.
Notice something else: all the picks are to the middle of the field, or the left side of the field. Possible solution here: throw more to the right, duh. In all honesty, though, it does point to comfort in throwing against the body bell versus with the body, so a solution here could be comfort and practice with the middle and left side concepts for Beck.
But to the point of this case – Carson’s vision- that hasn’t been the case in all of his mishaps. It could be argued that Carson fails to see open receivers at times, but watch a pro game and count how many times a wide open receiver is missed in pass plays. Quite simply it boils down to quick decisions, tendencies on the defensive side of the ball, and taking chances against mismatches that contributes to that more than a quarterback’s vision. When you have 250 pound plus giants preparing to pound you into oblivion, you tend to take less time to scan the field and start getting rid of the rock. Slightly over half of Beck’s interceptions are solely in the QB1, but other contributing factors play a role, as well.
Additionally, consider that Beck has thrown over half of his 11 interceptions in the past two games, and has still managed to chalk up two wins. Punitive damages in this case, are limited to only the Alabama game.
In the case of Carson Beck’s vision, I find the defendant not guilty.
Tomorrow – Part 3 – The Case of Carson Beck’s Confidence in his receivers
Ron Courson’s on the mutha. Got Beck some HotRod style glasses to correct his color blindness. Problem solved!! 😏
So you agree that 6 out of 11 interceptions are clearly Beck’s fault with one hung jury verdict. But you still let him off the hook? I understand he’s working with a group of receivers that are struggling. He knows that too. Isn’t it incumbent on Beck and the coaching staff to pick a couple of guys and do a lot of extra work with them to improve this situation? It’s not like the season just started. Looking at the very same evidence you present I come to a different conclusion. It’s certainly possible that everyone involved is doing everything they can to fix this. At that point it does come down to calling the plays most likely to succeed. Based on the evidence, that would appear to be the quick out throws to the sideline we are all so sick of seeing. Most defenses shut down the vast majority of these throws but at least they’re completions. I think we need our defense to play up to their potential if we hope to win out. Shutting down Dart in Oxford will be a good place to start. The fact that we’re still looking for consistency on both sides of the ball with only four games to play isn’t what I consider encouraging. But I’m still hopeful.
What day do we blame Bobo? 😉
It’s actually 7-3-1 with guilty-not guilty-hung jury. Two of the not guilty’s are Arian Smith (probably) not running the right route. The hung jury was a bad throw. It was a good decision, but it was a bad throw. Granted, that’s a difficult throw to make. It’s not that he has to be perfect. If you never throw an INT, then you aren’t taking enough chances. The decision was good, the throw was just off. It happens. Those are tolerable, if unfortunate, outcomes.
Getting back to the wrong routes… Beck called a screen at the line against Florida, and neither Bell nor Lovett knew what was going on. It was only an incompletion, but Beck was clearly flustered after that one. He apparently didn’t confirm the change or something was messed up with the communication. The SAME THING happened on the not guilty interception on the Arian Smith screen against Bama, but that one was catastrophic. So, if communication is an issue when he is changing the play, he has some culpability there as well. It is up to him to make sure the WR knows when the play has changed. There should be a confirmation signal or something.
I think it is fixable. I don’t think it is vision. I think he is pressing. He misses Brock and Ladd, they haven’t ran the ball well, and his OL has been inconsistent all season. He feels like he needs to make a Superman play, but there are no QBs that have ever lived who could fit it into the nonexistent window he threw at on the second Florida interception. That was a freshman decision from a guy who has played a lot of football.
Really, I don’t think he has recovered from the Alabama game. They had to play with their hair on fire because of the deficit, so he took chances that he wouldn’t have taken, and it mostly worked out, until it didn’t. But he hasn’t stopped playing that way. He’s taking chances on first down when his team has the lead and has control of the game. That’s just bad football.
Take the sack. Throw it away. Live to fight another day. All of those are Bobo-isms. He knows this. It has been drilled into his head. He just needs to believe that the team around him is good enough to win against anybody in the country… because it is. He doesn’t have to do it himself because there is enough talent on both sides of the ball to win the game even if the offense scuffles and doesn’t score 40+. He just needs to stop giving it away.
Agree. Not all of the bad route running resulted in a pick. If we were lucky, it was just an incompletion. I still think Beck is a good/great QB and will get back on track. When he stops thinking or trying to do too much, he’s great.
But should we be so quick to write off the distractions? I’m pretty sure that, at the age of 21 if somebody gave me a Lambo, lots of cash, and a hot bikini model girlfriend, my poli-sci grades may have dipped ever so slightly.
As Mickey said to Rocky: “Women weaken legs.” (I keed, I keed…)
I’m guilty of not counting my own post correctly. Yeesh. My bad.
I would argue that Beck hasn’t been the same since the Alabama game…in 2023.
Do NIL investors look for a ROI, do next level gm’s really understand/realize whut they are seeing recently in film study….still, will never understand the draft pick for johnny football….GO DAWGS!!
cpadawg,
Post of the day.
Does anyone else think that he isn’t checking down to the RBs? I haven’t gone back to rewatch any games, but I’m having a hard time remembering many passes to the RBs that weren’t called plays. Maybe they’re staying back in protection, or maybe he’s trying to force the passes instead of taking the easy options. I miss the days of the drop off passes to our fast backs like Swift, Chubb and Michel.
When I rewatched parts of the Florida game and it felt like either Frazier didn’t understand his release or the RB was left in for pass pro to make up for the line. Idk.
Re: communication issues – I do think the receivers are missing a few of his calls at the line, and that can happen. But like CPA says above, Beck should take at least part of that blame. There needs to be a confirmation that the receivers see the play being changed.
All the other stuff is Beck pressing. He needs to trust the team. The old Joe Cox “throw it up and see what happens” isn’t going to carry us through the tournament.
Thought the Bobo rule was no blaming on the Friday prior to Saturday kickoffs, except on a full moon with a southeastern breeze and no Uncle Vern in the booth…GO DAWGS!!