Funny. I remember Fitzgerald throwing some great deep balls....

[Clarence Boddicker]

...when he had Fred Ross and a healthy Donald Gray. Weird. Not perfection, but pretty good.

All you guys worried about him overthrowing some folks Saturday - go have your ankle wrapped around 90 degrees, have surgery, rehab all year, then start your first game on the road in an environment like that, and get back to me about the deep ball.

If you want to criticize Fitz, do it regarding whatever it was that got him suspended. He earned that.

Other than that, we need our wide receivers to help him out going forward. I think we will eventually find out that K-State's secondary was pretty good. Somebody needs to step up and become a leader for that group.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

If I can remeber from last year he threw like **** in some games we were well in command of and tightened up when he needed to. He will get better as the season progresses. He shows up to games but it’s on Fitz’s time.

 

[Dawgzilla]

You can make excuses for him all you want, but he has thrown those same, line drive, overthrown deep balls throughout his career. I don't see how having an ankle wrapped and being rusty is an excuse for doing the same thing he has always done. Plus, he allegedly was working on passing a lot during the Spring since he wasn't running.

And I don't want to hear about the receivers. He had men open deep and mostly threw balls that they had no chance of catching. All he has to do is give them a chance. I've posted this before, but this throw from the first play of last year's Bama game is the same throw he was chunking on Saturday:

Rewatched last season's Alabama-Mississippi State game this morning, great game but have to wonder how the complexion of the game could have been changed if Nick Fitzgerald connected with one of his receivers on the first play of the game pic.twitter.com/Vuy94NlvWa— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) May 26, 2018

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

I personally want to see more throws on the run. I think that's when he's most accurate, especially on those slants.

http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=13693746

 

[TheStateUofMS]

As a RS FR he threw a good deep ball against FCS and did the same as a soph against Samford.

I haven't seen him throw a good deep ball other than to Todd last year when it mattered although it wasn't really a deep ball.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

As a RS FR he threw a good deep ball against FCS and did the same as a soph against Samford.

I haven't seen him throw a good deep ball other than to Todd last year when it mattered although it wasn't really a deep ball.

He torched #4 Texas A&M in 2016.

Do you enjoy making stuff up?

 

[TheStateUofMS]

Making stuff up? He torched A&M through the air? I think you're making things up my friend. 18/31 209yds 2TD and 2int is torching?

He ran the ball well but I thought we were talking about deep balls? He threw one good one to Fred Ross if I remember correctly but I wouldn't call it BOMB of like 45-50yards in the air, but you're going to call me out for making **** up and you're gonna say Fitz was torching A&M?

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Making stuff up? He torched A&M through the air? I think you're making things up my friend. 18/31 209yds 2TD and 2int is torching?

He ran the ball well but I thought we were talking about deep balls? He threw one good one to Fred Ross if I remember correctly, but you're going to call me out for making **** up and you're gonna say Fitz was torching A&M?

OK buddy

 

[TheStateUofMS]

You just said I was making **** up and I'm wondering what led you to believe that unless it's just you're trying to make a name for yourself on this site since you just joined because you think it's cool.

Come on you called me out now tell me why.

 

[MarkDallas]

While I somewhat agree with the OP, I do have a problem with that line of thinking. There are some things you can do in practice and some things you can't. You can't get a feel for game speed even in a scrimmage. You can't get really hit, at least as a QB. But one thing you can absolutely do in practice is throw deep balls and learn to put touch on your passes.

There's no reason, even with the hardships he's endured, not to believe that his passing was improved IF that's what we were told was a point of emphasis. The throws I saw in the KSU game lead me to believe that he is one of those guys who has peaked in his passing ability. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Msubulldogfan1]

I love Fitz. But I don’t have many recollections of him hitting a streaking WR downfield.

 

[TrueMaroonGrind]

I love Fitz. But I don’t have many recollections of him hitting a streaking WR downfield.

When he got playing time as a freshman I recall him hitting a few deep passes. It was against some nobodies, but that throw looked good as a freshman. Now it looks like he is trying to hum that ball in there all the time. Maybe he was just juiced up and it will get better, but we'll see.

At least the WRs are open now. If Fitz could hit them MSU will have an impressive year.

 

[MSUDawgFan86]

...when he had Fred Ross and a healthy Donald Gray. Weird. Not perfection, but pretty good.

All you guys worried about him overthrowing some folks Saturday - go have your ankle wrapped around 90 degrees, have surgery, rehab all year, then start your first game on the road in an environment like that, and get back to me about the deep ball.

If you want to criticize Fitz, do it regarding whatever it was that got him suspended. He earned that.

Other than that, we need our wide receivers to help him out going forward. I think we will eventually find out that K-State's secondary was pretty good. Somebody needs to step up and become a leader for that group.

He missed the **** out of several too with Fred Ross and Donald Gray. I’m not a Fitz hater but he throws about the same as he did 2 years ago. The problem with Fitz IMO is just inconsistency. He’ll hum one in there and the receiver might drop it and the very next pass he throws isn’t even competitive where the receiver has a chance to catch it because it’s a mile overthrown. I’m not a QB but I would have adjusted my throw after a few times overthrowing people. It’s been 2 years. Make an adjustment. Put some more air on it. Also every pass doesn’t have to be a damn bullet. Adjust velocity and add a little touch on some throws. Tom Brady does it every Sunday.

 

[AFDawg]

Nick is capable of a better deep ball--just not consistent.

 

[Go Budaw]

Exactly. Folks are acting like these balls are just beyond outstretched hands or something. He had a couple on Saturday that were overthown by 6 or 7 whole yards to wide open receivers. Its gotta be better than that.

 

[the dog is on the loose]

For those that say to give fitz a break because of this or that, he said himself that he was not accurate last saturday.

 

[lanceharbor7]

The bottom pass is probably one of his best. The was air under, where as most of the overthrows are bullets.

Nick is capable of a better deep ball--just not consistent.

 

[Crazy Cotton]

Videos remind me that he's got new receivers he hasn't spent time with because they are new and he was rehabbing, as opposed to a Donald Grey who was with him for years. I'd think that has something to do with it.

 

[aTotal360]

Translation: He can throw the ball far.

 

[blacklistedbully]

I think we need to give him until the UK game before we start worrying. This was his first time since the injury to go against guys he didn't know were gonna take it easy on him. He didn't have the luxury of doing much since the injury, so that was a set-back. Even the talk of him working on it whne he was rehabbing can only go so far. A lot goes into a throwing motion, including foot placement, pushing off, etc, and that doesn't even get to the biggest part...the mental aspect.

Muscle memory is also involved, which is something that can be altered due to injury, etc. Whatever he was able to work on while rehabbing, it was bound to become a period of adjustment once he got going vs live-action, etc. We have a great coaching staff who will work with him diligently. I believe it will begin to really come together by the time we get to UK.

Don't be surprised to see us use ULL as a way to work on his deep passing, either from the get-go or after we build a big lead. I suspect we'll see a fairly large % of passes this Saturday.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

He has had the same issue that Dak had, he throws deep balls too flat. They are both unable to throw fades in the endzone. When you throw that flat, the pass must be much more accurate because the catch window is way smaller since the chance to adjust is lessened. It is why as a baseball hitter you prefer to hit line drives and not high arching flies, it is harder for outfielders to get to it. In this case we want the guy to catch it though. The flat deep ball also gives a defender a better chance to get a hand on it. His arm strength is great. He just has to trust putting touch on the ball and let the receiver go get it.

 

[HumpDawgy]

The more Osirus develops, the better the opportunity for Fitz to throw the 50/50 lob and feel comfortable that he will come down with it. I'm not worried. First live, full contact action he has seen since the Egg Bowl, so he will get more comfortable. I just hope he uses his TE more and more. We have some playmakers there that could take a 5 yard catch and turn it into 20+ yards.

 

[aTotal360]

The back shoulder to Bear was the only 12+ yard pass that Dak was able to consistently throw. Fitz appears to have even has less in his arsenal.

 

[Dawgzilla]

He's physically capable of making every throw required of him, but inconsistency is his problem. He can get on those streaks and throw 8 to 10 great passes in a row, and then he regresses.

I said in another thread, I got really down on Fitz Saturday because I was expecting a lot more from him. But, he really just had a bad game throwing the ball (and a great game running). He will improve, its just a question of how much.