Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston
I live in Ducks territory, so for 3 years I’ve been hearing about how utterly great Marcus Mariota is. Since I only half pay attention to College Ball I mostly just found it annoying. He’s basically football Jesus out here, second only to football god Chip Kelly. When Chip Kelly bailed for the NFL, tons of locals suddenly “became” Eagles fans, but none of them stuck with it. I honestly expect much of the same from Mariota fans, after he was drafted I actually started seeing Titans jerseys around Portland. I’d get excited about it, “OH WOW, A TITANS FAN IN REAL LIFE” and I’d go to sneak a picture only to realize it was a Mariota jersey and it hit me that they are just Ducks fans. While I never had anything against Mariota, I can’t stand over-hype so I was automatically a bit sour on him. I thought he was a system QB, drafted to a team and coach that wouldn’t use him well and didn’t have much talent around him and that he’d bust. Shame too, he seems like a great guy.
I am now fully onboard the Marcus Mariota hype train.
There is a lot of reasons to not get too excited. The Bucs defense is a tire fire outside McCoy and Mariota only threw the ball a conservative 16 times. It’s only 1 game. But at the same time, he showed incredible poise and he was accurate as hell, and his passes had impressive levels of zing. The Titans showed an offensive game plan that actually seemed to make me think he’ll work and that Whisenhunt will adjust for his talents. Not a lot was asked of Marcus against the Bucs but he still delivered in spades. I am genuinely going to watch Titans games this season if he keeps this up. Good for the Titans, it’s about time you got some love.
If Mariota was Gallant, Winston was Goofus. I don’t like Winston as a person so that game was hilarious from his first play. Winston threw a pick 6 on his first pass, tripped over his own lineman, screwed up a handoff, threw another pick, and generally looked like a rookie. It’s far from curtains on him for the same reasons we can’t get put Mariota in Canton yet though. However, young QBs have less time to grow these days, so he better shape up fast.
As much as I loved watching Super Mariota obliterate Shameis, I’m apprehensive only because of these statlines:
Winston’s first game: 16/33(48.5), 210 yards, 2TD/2INT, 4 sacks, 64 rating.
Luck’s first game: 23/45(51.1), 309 yards, 1TD/3INT, 3 sacks, 52.9 rating.
Mariota’s first game: 13/16(81.3), 209 yards, 4TD/0INT, 2 sacks, 158.3 rating.
RG3’s first game: 19/26(73.1), 320 yards, 2TD/0INT, 2 sacks, 139.9 rating.
With that said, I liked Mariota more coming out of college than I did RG3 or Winston, I think he’s smarter than either of them, more durable than either of them, and running a less simplified offense than either of them, so I believe he’ll be good this year and in the future from what little I’ve seen. That said, until year two is a success, I’m keeping one foot on the hype train and one foot on the platform.
Its both fair and unfair to compare him to RG3. I think physically he has the same skillset as RG3, but you’re right he’s smarter and more durable. He could easily have a similar rookie season. However, he can throw much better, and is coachable, so I think he’ll get sacked less, and won’t use his legs as much.
Winston isn’t running a simplified offense. He is running the full extent of Dirk Koetter’s playbook. And why do you think he isn’t durable?
It’s not as much that I think Winston isn’t durable as much as it’s that I think Mariota’s more durable. Winston doesn’t seem fragile, but he also doesn’t strike me as an iron man. Put him behind an atrocious line for more than a year or two, and he’ll miss at least 4-6 games one of the years. Mariota, from what little I’ve seen and what I’ve observed of their builds, seems built more durably.
Let’s just remember that while this demonstrates how truly awful the Bucs are… this was a bum fight between two drunken hobos. Someone was going to win, and one guy was just so drunk he started punching himself. Let’s hold off until the Titans play a team that didn’t draft in the top 5.
Its one game. I can post great QBs that had a good to great first game and ones that had a bad game. Same with bad ones. I know football analysis is more reactionary then say a 162 games per season baseball ones but let’s cool off either way
Was that an accurate representation of the Titans fans in Tampa in frame 1?
Your Bucs logo in the same frame looks like the Paul Frank monkey in cosplay, btw.
I can remember back one year. The Titans had an impressive week one victory on the road and didn’t get their 2nd win until the middle of October. They didn’t get their 3rd until this past Sunday.
Things are looking up, but I’m not reading too much into this; I’m just going to enjoy it for this week.
as a college football fan who suffered multiple disappointments at the hands of jameis’ antics, it was a lovely dose of schadenfreude to see him fall on his face several times in one game
I feel like I will get backlash for saying this but BOTH rookies exceeded my expectations. Imagine what would have happened if Mariota threw more. I liked Winston more because he DOESN’T play in a gimmick-offense, but this is NFL Football so none of that really matters much anymore. I think Winston was good in his own right, he just needs to work on his accuracy, which looked shaky since his preseason debut. Hopefully Mike Evans will help him out.
That Titans-jersey-in-Ducks-territory phenomenon had a corollary in Indy when Manning was drafted. There were people in TN who bought Colts season tickets (no waiting list after so many years of ineptitude!) and wore their orange Tennessee Manning jerseys to the games. I’m guessing all those season tickets have lapsed. 🙂
What no comic about the Cowboys comeback win?
Thanks god Chip Kelly lost. All the media proclaiming him as the second coming of Jesus. He is a good coach, but not a top 5 coach, probably not a top 10 either.
“I only half pay attention to College Ball”
” I thought he was a system QB, drafted to a team and coach that wouldn’t use him well and didn’t have much talent around him and that he’d bust.”
You’re literally the most annoying type of fan.
Half paying attention is still paying some attention. I can’t escape it out here, he was all the local sports people would talk about, and I did watch most of the latter half of the season, and all his highlights once draft time rolled around because I was interested in what people were saying.
From what games I did watch it certainly seemed like he benefited from how Oregon operated as much as Oregon benefited from his play. Around draft time absolutely no one thought Ken Whisenhunt’s system was a good fit for his style, and the Titans are still devoid of a lot of talent. I didn’t expect Whis to use him as well as he did because I thought Whis was a tight ass who did things his way. Whis impressed me with the gameplan on Sunday because I didn’t expect it. I thought Mariota would be a case of square peg round hole like RGIII. He could still be that, but if Whis is able to change his gameplan maybe there’s a better chance of him succeeding and that’s something I hope to see.
I am a college football fan and what Dave said is spot on and representative of what many people thought. NFL scouts fell in love with Mariota’s measurables, decision-making and accuracy but he did not run an offense nearly as complex as that of Winston at FSU. In an interview Chip Kelly mentioned that his Oregon offense didn’t even require the QB to call out the Mike bfore the snap. Just quick, one-read throws to open WRs. Same reason Texas Tech QBs don’t pan out in the NFL, although Mariota is much better than any Tech QB was.
“You’re literally the most annoying type of fan”
Nope, that award goes to the folks sincerely convinced that there’s a league-wide conspiracy out to get their team. Looking at you, Steeler and Patriot fans.
I still feel bad for mettenberger.
I think he could start for some teams. I don’t think you could design an entire offense around him, but if you give him at least a competent ground game, he could be dangerous enough to keep defenses guessing.
Honestly, I was kinda happy about what happened in this game. I’m not a huge fan of Mariota, and I do like Winston some, but most of my football friends online gave Mariota a lot, and I mean A LOT of crap, all of them being big Winston buffs. All offseason these guys would go on and on about how Mariota was bound to be a bust and how Winston was 10x the QB, and when confronted by defenders of Mariota, would just call them biased and stupid or some crap. It honestly got ridiculous (One of them called this matchup Winston, the next Tom Brady vs Mariota, the next Jamarcus Russell.
Even when Mariota seemingly out performed Winston in the preseason, they still thought Winston was gonna mop the floor with him. All in all, I think these guys got what was coming to ’em.
Outside of McCoy and David, you mean? Pats fan, but Lavonte is no slouch.
Since I live in Tampa, I can safely say that the Bucs (except from 1979-1981 and 1997-2002) have always been crap, just not this bad. Are you ready to watch one of the worst teams in NFL history struggle to 1 maybe 2 wins tops?