Fitz numbers since LSU game

[TheStateUofMS]

51 of 84 passing, 736yds, 10 TD, 0int 60.7% completion

Rushing: 62 attempts, 257yds, 3 TD, 4.14ypc

Those stats include playing Bama (had -23 rushing yards)


Not too bad and give Joe credit for sticking with Fitz. I think this is further evidence of the team learning the system and being more comfortable especially at the QB position.


Future looks bright IMO.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

Bump bc I worked really really hard on adding up numbers for 4 games***

 

[Dawgfan61]

Bottom line -- When Fitz plays bad or even non-elite defenses, he has been awesome. When he plays elite level defenses, (Kentucky, Florida {maybe not elite but that staff knew Fitz backwards and forwards for obvious reasons} LSU and Bama) he was awful a lot of which was on the line not being able to block those elite level defenders.

 

[dawgstudent]

Something clicked after that game. That's why I would love to play the teams we lost to again. We would beat LSU (definitely at home), UF and Kentucky. We are much better offensively than we were in the first 1/2 of the season.

 

[Cooterpoot]

AL is the only decent defense we've faced since LSU.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

He was probably good enough to beat Kentucky, but with all the penalties (many pre snap), on the road and in a monsoon it just made it take a perfect game for him.

He was atrocious in the UF game as well. Almost like LSU without the INTs, but UF played their best game of the season against us and again...that drop by Mitchell....that woulda helped Fitz's confidence and numbers.

I think overall it's him being comfortable in the system. He said throughout the season and through the LSU he wasn't trusting himself and was second guessing. After LSU we went aggressive and and Fitz quit second guessing himself and he looked a lot better and that all comes down to him getting comfortable in the system.

Everyone bitching we should have dumbed down the offense and handed it to the RBs every play, maybe we would have won an extra game or two, but maybe we wouldn't have as our coach would have been the one calling plays out of his comfort zone, but the main thing is it would take longer for our team as a whole get used to the system.

I think Moorhead sticking to his guns was best for the team in the long run, and may have been best for Fitz in the long run in terms of developing him as a passer.

I don't care who you're playing (although A&M and Auburn are no slouches), 0 int in 4 games is pretty good. If he throws 0 against Ole Miss, that's 0 turnovers from your QB down the stretch and that's huge for the team and Fitz's future chances at an NFL shot.

 

[fishwater99]

Something clicked after that game. That's why I would love to play the teams we lost to again. We would beat LSU (definitely at home), UF and Kentucky. We are much better offensively than we were in the first 1/2 of the season.

I agree on UF and Uk, not so sure about LSU.. we just aren't good on the road and that worries my about Thursday.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

I agree on UF and Uk, not so sure about LSU.. we just aren't good on the road and that worries my about Thursday.

We seemed fine vs. K-State.

It's about playing elite defenses. Sure we've gotten better since the beginning of the year, but duh, that usually happens.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

You're flat out wrong. Texas A&M and Auburn both have a pretty good defense. They are not push over teams. A&M was around a top top 25 D when we played them too.

And Alabama is an elite defense not a "decent" one.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

that's kind of been my argument. we haven't looked that great against better defenses. Makes me wonder. Would Kelly Bryant's numbers look the same against these teams? would Fitz's numbers look a lot better in ACC. Think it's a fair assessment to make. just wondering if he will look that much different if we do land him.

 

[philduckworth]

You're flat out wrong. Texas A&M and Auburn both have a pretty good defense. They are not push over teams. A&M was around a top top 25 D when we played them too.

And Alabama is an elite defense not a "decent" one.

Texas A&M has had a bad secondary all year. We ran the hell out of the ball vs AU.

 

[WutheringDawg]

To that point -

Fitz’s record in the SEC on the road as a starter - 3-8. 2016 vs. Ole Miss, 2017 vs. TAMU & Arkansas It’s just not that easy to win on the road in this conference. Oxford is one of the three places he’s gotten a W on the road.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

HoopsDawg is right. A&M got torn up by Stidham and pretty much any other QB that threw the ball against them. Auburn is the one game plan where we just ran the ball.

 

[MSUDC11]

To that point -

Fitz’s record in the SEC on the road as a starter - 3-8. 2016 vs. Ole Miss, 2017 vs. TAMU & Arkansas It’s just not that easy to win on the road in this conference. Oxford is one of the three places he’s gotten a W on the road.

Ironically all three of those teams fired their coach after those seasons (Freeze for off the field reasons obviously). So the road wins have been against teams that were falling apart.

 

[aTotal360]

In regards to yards allowed, aTm's passing defense is 104 out of 128. Your definition of "pretty good" is different than mine.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

that's kind of been my argument. we haven't looked that great against better defenses. Makes me wonder. Would Kelly Bryant's numbers look the same against these teams? would Fitz's numbers look a lot better in ACC. Think it's a fair assessment to make. just wondering if he will look that much different if we do land him.

I personally do not think he will be much better, if at all.

 

[philduckworth]

Bottom line -- When Fitz plays bad or even non-elite defenses, he has been awesome. When he plays elite level defenses, (Kentucky, Florida {maybe not elite but that staff knew Fitz backwards and forwards for obvious reasons} LSU and Bama) he was awful a lot of which was on the line not being able to block those elite level defenders.

I think when we play better teams the processing time has to be quicker and the windows are tighter. That's the main reason Fitz struggles. We are running the same plays.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

won't know for sure unless he does come here. But Bryant's numbers, while slightly better, were put up in the ACC which isn't know for the same defenses we have. Clemson has the best defense in that conference by a long shot. Fitz's numbers against average to bad defenses look really good. Just saying it's hard to compare, and you are right. I don't think he would be that much better based on the comparison of defensive competition.

 

[johnson86-1]

51 of 84 passing, 736yds, 10 TD, 0int 60.7% completion

Rushing: 62 attempts, 257yds, 3 TD, 4.14ypc

Those stats include playing Bama (had -23 rushing yards)


Not too bad and give Joe credit for sticking with Fitz. I think this is further evidence of the team learning the system and being more comfortable especially at the QB position.


Future looks bright IMO.

I'm not sure much of it is that we've learned the system. We dominate bad defenses. We've looked awful against top 25 defenses. We just ran the ball down Auburn's throat and passed well against A&M. Auburn has talent on defense, but have been inconsistent to say the least. A&M has a bad pass defense.

I think LSU was a combination of a good defense and Fitz (and Moorhead?) just completely losing confidence on the road. UK was a combination of rain, being overly emotional, and finding out for the first time that we were incompetent on offense against defenses with a pulse (combined with Moorhead freezing up when needing to makea n adjustment ingame). Don't know how to explain Florida. Don't know that Bama needs an explanation.

But when you look at it as a whole, I'm not sure you can tell a trend in how we've learned the offense versus just a trend in the quality of the defense we've played.

I think the only thing we know for sure is that we won't be croomtastic with Moorhead. Does beating up on bad opponents mean we will eventually put it together against good opponents? Or does the complete shitshow against upper level SEC defenses mean Moorhead's system is not going to work against better defenses?

 

[WutheringDawg]

I think the piece that Bryant would bring is just being a more polished passer. Yes the defenses are worse overall, but in Fitzgerald’s recent good stretch he’s hitting 60% of his passes (career 54%). Bryant has never been below 60% and has career average 66% completion percentage.

He would definitely be the least threading QB with his legs if he shows up here, but I don’t necessarily think that would be a bad thing for Moorhead’s offense. Allowing for more reliance on our running backs.

 

[Crazy Cotton]

Fitz threw a damn touchdown in the bama game. 17 you refs!

 

[57stratdawg]

Nice. Accidentally downvoted you. Should be 4 for 4

 

[thatsbaseball]

Well they're doing something right. They are 2.5 favorites over LSU.

 

[patdog]

Well they're doing something right. They are 2.5 favorites over LSU.

That is surprising.

 

[thatsbaseball]

If I weren't so bad at picking winners....I would take LSU in a second

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

that line did surprise me. maybe because it's in college station? LSU has had a major bama hangover. Their offense didn't do well against Arkansas so i'm guessing they feel like lsu will struggle to score on the road.

 

[aerodawg.sixpack]

Not too bad and give Joe credit for sticking with Fitz. I think this is further evidence of the team learning the system and being more comfortable especially at the QB position.


Future looks bright IMO.

I understand the sentiment for Fitz as he has had some better games against admittedly worse defenses.

But honest question, does anyone think we lose any of the games we have won since the Florida game with KT playing quarterback?

My thought based on what he has shown and his skill set leads me to think not. And that is what bothers me most when the season was completely blown after the LSU. What was the upside of sticking with Fitz?

 

[TheStateUofMS]

Overall they were a top 25ish defense when we played them. I'm pretty sure it was very stingy against the run. The numbers don't lie. Their pass D isn't good. Fitz would probably torch them now.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

The coach remaining in good standing with the team for one.

 

[aerodawg.sixpack]

Well if that isn’t chicken **** then I don’t know what is. A coach that is afraid to sit a poor performing player is the absolute last person anyone should ever want to support. I’m just going to block that comment out of my mind so I don’t get pissed off thinking that is a possibility.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

It's not chicken ****. Fitz was a team captain and out of our remaining games we had a good shot to win 4 of 5 with Fitz. KT wouldn't have been the difference over Bama. It's not worth having half the team question the coach. The team loves Fitz.

And how did you feel when Mullen repeatedly played seniors over underclassmen when they were clearly the less talented player? Holloway up the middle. Can't believe that was an actual thing.

 

[aerodawg.sixpack]

Like I said, I’m gonna go on not believing that our coach is literally afraid to sit a poor performing player. The day that is common place is when i will quit watching college football.

I’m ok with him believing Fitz gave us the best chance to win and sticking with him based on what he sees in practice. I just think that once we lost to LSU it was probably time to build for the future and give KT an actual opportunity. I’m not ok with him saying “ well gosh all these people are gonna have hurt feelings if I give another teammate a shot.” And I refuse to believe that is the case. I feel pretty confident in that assessment because he is actively pursuing a one and done transfer in Kelly Bryant for next year. Talk about hurting teammates feelings.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

KT didn't give us a better chance to win out than Fitz and Fitz deserved another chance to keep his job and he earned the right to keep it by the way he started the A&M game.

If Fitz didn't give us a chance, then I'm sure he would have been benched. Moorhead said during the week of the A&M game the plan the whole time was to let KT get in after a couple series. Well we scored a TD on the first drive and so it didn't happen.

Moorhead made the right decision to not bench Fitz and it's not that Moorhead was "afraid" of benching Fitz, but I've explained it enough and you don't seem to understand it.

Did you play a lot of team sports when you were younger?

 

[aerodawg.sixpack]

I did. And never did a coach “lose” a team for benching a poor performer. If I didn’t understand then it is because you presented it poorly. You clearly said the reason not to bench him was because he didn’t want to lose the team. I specifically replied to that statement.

I understand that Fitz has played better against the bad defensive competition we have faced since then. I don’t feel that was enough reason to deny KT an opportunity given the consistent bad play up until that point.

Specifically do you believe that we lose that Texas A&M game with KT starting and playing the entire game? If so, then thats a good reason to not to play KT while playing toward the future and competing to win as many games as possible this season. If, like me, you think we win it with KT then why would you not make the change beyond being afraid to lose the team.

Keep in mind we are talking about a point in time when this apparently untouchable beloved player was throwing for a smooth 44.4% with 92.5 ypg with 6 ints and 0 tds in his last 4 games.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

Not convinced we win the A&M game with KT starting. KT was 42% against Stephen F Austin. That's pretty bad.

I think the team believes, like Moorhead, that Fitz was the best chance to win games. Putting KT in without at least giving Fitz one more opportunity, being the 5th year Senior captain that he was, was the right move. Moorhead would have pulled Fitz had we not had early success against A&M.

Playing a poor performer without giving the other player an opportunity the remainder of the season would have been the wrong move and THAT could lose the team, but you got to give the guy another chance and not just walk in Monday after the game saying, "We're making a QB change."

ETA: It's just my opinion and I'm not trying to take a slight at you. I see you're point. I may not have articulated it well at the beginning.

 

[aerodawg.sixpack]

Fair point. I just wish we were a bit more proactive about the situation and had an opportunity to see what could have been. Not necessarily completely bench Fitz but at least give KT an actual opportunity. He may turn out to completely suck and it’s all moot. I’m probably just exhausted by all the gut punches to Mississippi State sports in the last year.

 

[TheStateUofMS]

I feel ya man. I was ready to pull Fitz too during the A&M game, but when he gets an opening drive TD by passing...gotta stick with him and his numbers down the stretch prove he didn't do anything to lose the job once he had the reigns put on him.

Nice debate.

 

[MedDawg]

I feel ya man. I was ready to pull Fitz too during the A&M game, but when he gets an opening drive TD by passing...gotta stick with him and his numbers down the stretch prove he didn't do anything to lose the job once he had the reigns put on him.

Nice debate.

Fitz badly missed two or three passes early against Arkansas, too. Then he settled down and passed much better the rest of the game.