This isn't on....

[redsfan5590]

Birdsong. Look I get it, he's the easiest target in the world. He replaces Cato so he has to step in and fill those shoes and he has a young kid waiting in the wings that's supposedly the next star qb at marshall. The easiest thing in the world to do is blame this loss on Birdsong and say how bad he is.

Yes, he played poorly. in fact he played very poorly.
I also remember Cato playing poorly there twice. And I remember that we haven't won in Athens in a while.

You can say all you want that Cato would have won this game but I refuse to believe that we win this game no matter who the qb is.

Here's our first several drives (purely facts)
1. 1st and 15
3rd and 20 after a sack
2. Birdsong completes pass on first down for 13 yards. Called back for holding. 1st and 20
3. Birdsong completed the pass for 12 yards and first down. Offensive pass interference. Called back. 1st and 25.
4. Holding 1st and 20.
5. Touchdown.
6. Holding 1st and 20.
7. Personal Foul 2nd and 19.
8. 3 and out
9. Birdsong sacked (by defender who goes untouched) fumble.
10. 3 and out. Yurachek drops what would've been first down catch.
11. Field Goal.
12. Johnson fumble.
13. Punt.
14. False start 2nd and 14.
15. Interception.


Those are our drives from tonight. Of those penalties. None were on Michael Birdsong. He did not play well. He deserves blame for this loss. But he didn't lose this game by himself. Offensive play calling was terrible. We have 1 running play, and that makes it difficult to sustain drives. Our offense is predicated on rhythm and hurrying to the line. You can't do that when there is a big penalty on every drive.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

Birdsong is terrible. He holds the ball too long and locks on to his intended target. He is scared to death to throw the ball down the field and when he does it's not remotely catchable.

6 of his 13 completions went to Foster behind the LOS.

At JMU he was the same way. He threw 2p TDs to 17 INTs.

Our average completion tonight was something like 2.9 yards.

Go back to last week and look at the whole game. He had two good drives and couldn't move the ball for most of the game.

With Birdsong behind center the offense has score 37 points and ran nearly 70 plays less than the opposition.

It isn't like we are rebuilding the offense. We return a good OLine, a bevy of WRs, and one of the best backs in the history of Marshall football.

The offense goes as the QB directs it. Several times tonight we counted Birdsong holding the ball for 7-9 seconds. That is insane and that was while standing in the pocket.

When he got hurt he never even seen it coming and it came right at him. He doesnvt scan the field and can't take advantage of mismatches and coverage.

Several times tonight they were playing oreas man with one and sometimes no safety kver the top and he would drop it off to Hyleck Foster on a screen or swing.

If he stays at QB we'll be lucky to make a bowl game.

 

[beefcake0520]

Birdsong is terrible. He holds the ball too long and locks on to his intended target. He is scared to death to throw the ball down the field and when he does it's not remotely catchable.

6 of his 13 completions went to Foster behind the LOS.

At JMU he was the same way. He threw 2p TDs to 17 INTs.

Our average completion tonight was something like 2.9 yards.

Go back to last week and look at the whole game. He had two good drives and couldn't move the ball for most of the game.

With Birdsong behind center the offense has score 37 points and ran nearly 70 plays less than the opposition.

It isn't like we are rebuilding the offense. We return a good OLine, a bevy of WRs, and one of the best backs in the history of Marshall football.

The offense goes as the QB directs it. Several times tonight we counted Birdsong holding the ball for 7-9 seconds. That is insane and that was while standing in the pocket.

When he got hurt he never even seen it coming and it came right at him. He doesnvt scan the field and can't take advantage of mismatches and coverage.

Several times tonight they were playing oreas man with one and sometimes no safety kver the top and he would drop it off to Hyleck Foster on a screen or swing.

If he stays at QB we'll be lucky to make a bowl game.

This^^^^^ x2

 

[Penn2moss]

Many of those penalties were absolutely on Birdsong. He holds the ball forever.

Our defense played lights out. We have what many thought was one of the best WR corps in school history. DJ was one of the nation's best RB. The only missing piece in this equation in QB play.

Now I do agree that we shouldn't run Birdsong out of town just yet. Cato had some bad games in Athens for sure. A QB's first road start shouldn't define his career.

I will say that no matter how bad Cato played, I could always see the talent. He made some bad throws and bad decisions over the years but I always know he had it in him to be great. I can say the same about Birdsong, atleast not yet.

 

[munotwvu342]

This ^^^^ X 3

 

[RhinoD]

Comparing Birdsong to Cato simply isnt fair... Cato was a very good quarterback, a great competitor and more than anything - a playmaker. Even when he was having a bad game he could make a play with his feet. Birdsong looks slow and unathletic along with not being able to read defenses and holding the ball for eternities.

 

[BleedsGreen33]

Comparing Birdsong to Cato simply isnt fair... Cato was a very good quarterback, a great competitor and more than anything - a playmaker. Even when he was having a bad game he could make a play with his feet. Birdsong looks slow and unathletic along with not being able to read defenses and holding the ball for eternities.

He actually is atheltic and not that slow. The problem lies in his chest and in his head. He doesn't have the heart to play D-IA football and he doesn't posesses the ability to scan and process the entire field.

I can't stop laughing at the people defending Birdsong saying this was his first action when just two weeks ago people were saying he's been there and done that being a RS JR.

It isn't like he just is making the wrong read or late on hos throws because he doesnvt have the playbook fully grasped.

He locks on before the snap, is wildly in accurate, and holds the ball too long because he cannot handle pressure.

 

[Trebel06]

In my opinion Birdsong and Legg share this blame 50-50.. Birdsong was downright awful, one of the worst QBing performances in school history.. You can't make any excuses for him because he was terrible.. However, he was struggling, the confidence he had on our last offensive possession against Purdue was gone after our very first possession last night.. As an offensive coordinator you have to see that and make some adjustments to help your QB out and settle him down.. Legg didn't do that and he had plenty of GOLDEN opportunities to do it.. We started at least 3 drives last night from around midfield where DJ never even touched the ball.. Hell we started one drive from the 12 yard line after a muffed punt and DJ doesn't touch it.. Sure you can say "Birdsong misread the first down play and kept it himself or DJ would have touched it on that drive".. But, sometimes we should run something that doesn't give Birdsong the option and just say "Hey, give it to our stud".. We squandered too many golden opportunities last night and Legg is just as much at fault as Birdsong

Heater made adjustments after Ohio's first drive and then again at the half and the defense was lights out last night.. One of the better defensive performances in a long time at Marshall.. Unfortunately our offense was as inept as I've ever seen it.

 

[redsfan5590]

200 yards in penalties... Some may have been on birdsong but a lot of them were simply someone getting beat off the line. Birdsong looked terrible. No excuse. But the line looked pathetic. They were getting pushed back all night. Our special teams consistently put our offense in a hole. And in an offense predicated on rhythm we were consistently facing 1st and 2nd and long.

We have one running play. Which means when it's 1st and 20 and we run the read option, Ohio knows how to stop it then it's 2nd and 15.

Legg refuses to make adjustments and it hurts us. Cato lost to Ohio 3 times, once by 30+ (while throwing 4 interceptions). They know how to stop Legg's offense. And this offense looks a lot like it did during Cato's first year. Either birdsong doesn't know the offense or Legg isn't giving him the whole playbook to work with.

There are a lot of factors that went into this loss including Birdsong. I just don't see how you can pin this loss on him when we had 200 yards in penalties, when 6 of our first 7 drives we had a penalty that backed us up deep into our own territory. We don't win that game last night with Cato as our qb.

We have deified Rakeem Cato, which is great, but that means the guy who comes in behind him is doomed to fail because he will get the blame for every loss.

 

[Trebel06]

200 yards in penalties... Some may have been on birdsong but a lot of them were simply someone getting beat off the line. Birdsong looked terrible. No excuse. But the line looked pathetic. They were getting pushed back all night. Our special teams consistently put our offense in a hole. And in an offense predicated on rhythm we were consistently facing 1st and 2nd and long.

We have one running play. Which means when it's 1st and 20 and we run the read option, Ohio knows how to stop it then it's 2nd and 15.

Legg refuses to make adjustments and it hurts us. Cato lost to Ohio 3 times, once by 30+ (while throwing 4 interceptions). They know how to stop Legg's offense. And this offense looks a lot like it did during Cato's first year. Either birdsong doesn't know the offense or Legg isn't giving him the whole playbook to work with.

There are a lot of factors that went into this loss including Birdsong. I just don't see how you can pin this loss on him when we had 200 yards in penalties, when 6 of our first 7 drives we had a penalty that backed us up deep into our own territory. We don't win that game last night with Cato as our qb.

We have deified Rakeem Cato, which is great, but that means the guy who comes in behind him is doomed to fail because he will get the blame for every loss.

You keep saying we don't win that game with Cato.. But last night we had three second half drives start with us getting the ball in Ohio territory (49, 40 & 12).. We scored 3 points on those drives (no flags on any of these three drives either).. You really don't think Cato wouldn't have put more than 3 points up with that starting field possession? Come on now.. I'm with you, it can't all be pinned on Birdsong a lot has to go on Bill Legg.. But, Cato gets at least 10 points on those three drives which would have gave us the lead and changed the complexion of the football game.