ADVERTISEMENT

Ketch's 10 Thoughts From The Weekend (The chance was there for the taking)

No. 9 - The List: Top 10 Steven Spielberg Movies ...

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts over the weekend (The Big Picture) and a discussion of Steven Spielberg's best movies was at the heart of a discussion centering around the release of his new movie "The Fabelmans," which is expected to compete for Best Picture at this year's Oscars.

I found myself completely disagreeing with a lot of the list that was created and thought I would take it on in this week's column.

10. Lincoln
9. Munich
8. Minority Report
7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6. Schindler's List
5. Raiders of the Lost Arc
4. Saving Private Ryan
4. Jurassic Park
2. E.T.
1. Jaws
I'm not a big "war movie" fan. I'm really not even a big movie guy on the whole. But Saving Private Ryan hit me in a way that few movies have. It's not my all-time favorite (that's Good Will Hunting), but it's unquestionably my #1 Spielberg movie. And I say that as a comparably aged guy who loved Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Raiders of the Lost Arc as a kid.
 
Nope, didn't say that either. I said 80/20 Sanders fault vs Ewers. Ewers threw a less than perfect but still catchable ball.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, in being the only person suggesting a shared responsibility in the play failing, when everyone else seems to be in the 100/0 Ewers fault.

I 100% disagree with Ketch’s opinion that Sark changed the play calling because he lost faith in Ewers in the Baylor game. The play calling in the passing game changed long before the sack fumble. It changed after the J Witt fumble. We used 7 people to block and barely held up long enough for a combo route and then it was fumbled. The O-line got whipped in pass pro all day. After the J Witt fumble Sark called 4 WR screens in a row until it was 3rd and long.

That being said. This is not a good ball. Velocity is fine but it should be right in his numbers. This is not a contested catch or 1 on 1 situation where he needs to put the ball that high. It’s poor throwing mechanics. Elbow is low, ball comes out high.

Could he have caught it, sure he could have. But it doesn’t change that it was a bad ball. Can call it 80/20 or 95/5. It’s a bad ball. You shouldn’t need a bail out catch wide open 13 yards away. Sanders isn’t 5’7.
 
Nope, didn't say that either. I said 80/20 Sanders fault vs Ewers. Ewers threw a less than perfect but still catchable ball.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, in being the only person suggesting a shared responsibility in the play failing, when everyone else seems to be in the 100/0 Ewers fault.
Ha - “shared” by 80/20. That’s like saying my ratio of 95/5 fault being on Ewers/Sanders is sharing. It was Ewers fault in my mind. It was Sanders in your mind.

You’re clearly entitled to your opinion though. I’m 100% with Ketch on this.
 
I'm not a big "war movie" fan. I'm really not even a big movie guy on the whole. But Saving Private Ryan hit me in a way that few movies have. It's not my all-time favorite (that's Good Will Hunting), but it's unquestionably my #1 Spielberg movie. And I say that as a comparably aged guy who loved Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Raiders of the Lost Arc as a kid.
It's a great movie. I'm surprised more aren;'t arguing for it.
 
I 100% disagree with Ketch’s opinion that Sark changed the play calling because he lost faith in Ewers in the Baylor game. The play calling in the passing game changed long before the sack fumble. It changed after the J Witt fumble.

The previous drive to the 22 consecutive runs was a 50-50 mix of run/pass... right up until Ewers gave the other team the lead.

I'm ok with you disagreeing with me, though. It happens.
 
Nope, didn't say that either. I said 80/20 Sanders fault vs Ewers. Ewers threw a less than perfect but still catchable ball.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, in being the only person suggesting a shared responsibility in the play failing, when everyone else seems to be in the 100/0 Ewers fault.
The receivers have no say in how the ball is thrown, Ewers does. He made the choice which makes more of the responsibility his by nature. It was a very simple pass too, but if it had been a very difficult throw under duress you could give him more slack. This was a simple throw right over the middle that didn’t require much zip as he was wide open. Quinn made that ball uncatchable, not Sanders. And I have to ask myself how many guys would have actually caught that pass and I have to say I can’t see it. It was an absolute missle thrown high and I have my doubts anyone would have caught it. At best a very small portion of the pass receiver population. That’s just being real after having played and watched the game. I have no agenda against Ewers and hope he balls out moving forward, but that was on him and he would tell you that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheHorn
The previous drive to the 22 consecutive runs was a 50-50 mix of run/pass... right up until Ewers gave the other team the lead.

I'm ok with you disagreeing with me, though. It happens.

You can spin it by calling it 50/50 run-pass because using those words helps you sell your opinion better but you should at least list what those 50/50 passes were.

Ewers was sacked on 3 consecutive called passes to end the first half. One of those being his own fault.

In the second half he completes a hitch to Worthy on a 3 step drop.

Then he throws a screen to J Witt that gets blown up because Milton blocks nobody. Milton gets pulled.

The next pass play Bijan doesn’t pick up the free man coming off the edge and Ewers escapes to complete the pass.

The next pass was the J Witt fumble where we used 8 blockers on 1st and 20 & 2 guys are coming free in about 2.5 seconds. It was a really good throw. And we needed 8 men blocking to provide that amount of time.

From that point on the next 4 passes Sark calls were WR screens. This is your 50/50 pass you keep talking about but the goose was already cooked.

Then the sack fumble where we bring in an extra tackle who blocks air on a fake screen and go deep shot.

I’ll concede Ewers has to protect the ball that’s just a fact.

Sark didn’t take the ball away from him tho. This O-line had their worst pass protection day of the season. I guess he did by proxy. But you’re fooling yourself if you think we don’t pass had the running game sputtered us in to a 3rd and long.

1) hitch
1) blown assignment/scramble completion
1) blown assignment sack/fumble with an extra tackle against a 4 man rush.
1) 8 man pass protection to block 6
3) Sacks
5) WR Screens

That’s the last 12 passing plays of the game.

I’m fine disagreeing with you because you’re simply wrong on the Baylor game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Enjoying the Ride
If you watch this replay enough times, you'll see that Sanders can't get his hands up fast enough to catch that ball because of both the velocity and the height...that's exactly my point on people saying he could have caught that ball. He just makes his cut and turns for the ball and it's a rocket and too high. Sanders has great hands - anyone that's seen any footage of him, he's solid catching the ball when given a decent chance or better.
It’s a crap throw.
 
Go watch the replay again Buda. Hit pause/play super fast and you'll see that Sanders' hands are below his waste as the ball is crossing the 20-yard line...and he's still in the process of trying to get his hands high enough as it crosses the 15-yard line. Sanders could not catch up that highly thrown, extremely fast ball. Just watch the video again and again.
While watching the replay again, also watch the pocket collapsing around Ewers again. The kid has to get the pass out more quickly and probably harder than would be ideal.
 
You can spin it by calling it 50/50 run-pass because using those words helps you sell your opinion better but you should at least list what those 50/50 passes were.

Ewers was sacked on 3 consecutive called passes to end the first half. One of those being his own fault.

In the second half he completes a hitch to Worthy on a 3 step drop.

Then he throws a screen to J Witt that gets blown up because Milton blocks nobody. Milton gets pulled.

The next pass play Bijan doesn’t pick up the free man coming off the edge and Ewers escapes to complete the pass.

The next pass was the J Witt fumble where we used 8 blockers on 1st and 20 & 2 guys are coming free in about 2.5 seconds. It was a really good throw. And we needed 8 men blocking to provide that amount of time.

From that point on the next 4 passes Sark calls were WR screens. This is your 50/50 pass you keep talking about but the goose was already cooked.

Then the sack fumble where we bring in an extra tackle who blocks air on a fake screen and go deep shot.

I’ll concede Ewers has to protect the ball that’s just a fact.

Sark didn’t take the ball away from him tho. This O-line had their worst pass protection day of the season. I guess he did by proxy. But you’re fooling yourself if you think we don’t pass had the running game sputtered us in to a 3rd and long.

1) hitch
1) blown assignment/scramble completion
1) blown assignment sack/fumble with an extra tackle against a 4 man rush.
1) 8 man pass protection to block 6
3) Sacks
5) WR Screens

That’s the last 12 passing plays of the game.

I’m fine disagreeing with you because you’re simply wrong on the Baylor game.
I just used facts.
 
these were my issues and perhaps what triggered others as well:

Sarkisian to take the ball completely out of his hands

Sark just stopped letting him do anything other than hand off


I saw it more as Bijan dictated how the playcalling happened. There's no way for you or any other person besides Sark to know if he made that decision in his head after that fumble. When Bijan is going for 5+ on every other play, and you're ahead of the chains - I would hope the playcaller would be doing the same thing until the other team is able to stop it.

Ewers played ok at the end of the day. But your take makes it seem like he was so bad they couldn't let him throw. That he was some huge liability, and we had to ensure he did nothing to lose the game for us by eliminating him from the gameplan in the 4th quarter or something. Where, as Sark even said himself, it wasn't a lack of confidence in QE, but rather the line blocking for him.

I haven't been keeping score on your for/against on Quinn. I, seems like others too, just saw it differently.
 
Last edited:
these were my issues and perhaps what triggered others as well:

Sarkisian to take the ball completely out of his hands

Sark just stopped letting him do anything other than hand off


I saw it more as Bijan dictated how the playcalling happened. There's no way for you or any other person besides Sark to know if he made that decision in his head after that fumble. When Bijan is going for 5+ on every other play, and you're ahead of the chains - I would hope the playcaller would be doing the same thing until the other team is able to stop it.

Ewers played ok at the end of the day. But your take makes it seem like he was so bad they couldn't let him throw. That he was some huge liability, and we had to ensure he did nothing to lose the game for us by eliminating him from the gameplan in the 4th quarter or something. Where, as Sark even said himself, it wasn't a lack of confidence in QE, but rather the line blocking for him.

I haven't been keeping score on your for/against on Quinn. I, seems like others too, just saw it differently.
But, that is literally what happened. 🤷‍♂️ 🤷‍♂️ 🤷‍♂️
 
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT