Everybody is piling on Petras, but I thought he played very, very well yesterday. Yes, he took a few sacks he ideally should not have, but even those were only partially his fault.
Right now, our O line is the only thing holding this team back from being a complete team and a legit playoff contender. And, that is not surprising. We have freshman tackles. We have new starters all over the place. Our most experienced Guard is out with an injury. We are still rotating guys around to get our best five figured out. Petras is a lightning rod (QB always is), but he is about 7th on my list of offensive concerns at the moment. The good news is that our O line is not a lost cause. They will improve. I think they will improve a lot. They are struggling with communication right now. They are struggling with technique right now.
We all agree that Goodson is a very good RB. We know he is. But, he has looked less than pedestrian so far this year. Why is that? Why does he get a pass that Petras does not? Because he has more credit in our memory banks than Petras does, so he deservedly gets more slack when we evaluate him. But, honestly, IKM has been a more effective runner than he has so far this year (minus his ball security issues). IKM is not the better RB though. Goodson is running with a style (patience, vision for the cutback) that requires the Oline to do their jobs, and they just are not right now. IKM is mostly just running with a full head of steam and blasting into the line to pick up 4 or 5 yards (but likely leaving truly big runs on the table because he doesn't give them time to develop).
Petras is in the same position. We are not taking the dink and dunk, safe throw approach with him. That just isn't his game. He has a big arm. He has good vision. He can stand tall in a pocket and throw darts. That is his game, and we need the rest of the offense to rise to that. Then we will truly be special. Just like we are not going to tell Goodson to just blindly blast into the A gap no matter what so we can make sure we get 3 or 4 yards - we are going to expect the O-line to do better and tell Goodson to keep playing his game.
And we have been fortunate that our defense and special teams have been so ridiculously dominant that we have not had to compromise on any of that in the moment to win our games. People are knocking Petras for pocket presence, and admittedly, it is not one of his major strengths or anything, but we are also not providing him a consistent pocket. It breaks down inconsistently enough that there is no way for him to know whether to favor stepping up or rolling out. I would prefer that we work our technique and shade our protections so that he can step up as he is much better throwing that way than running sideways.
People comparing Petras to someone like Christensen are just being ridiculous. Petras has had some misfires - mostly when trying to throw on the run - but he has actually been impressively accurate. For example, even in a "miss" on that fade to the corner to Laporta in the end zone...that wasn't an inaccurate throw. Petras put that exactly where he intended to, Laporta just didn't get there. That may have been because Petras let it go just a half second early, or maybe Laporta got held up in his release...either way, that is a timing throw and the timing was just a fraction of a second off - but the throw was perfect. In the throw to Goodson that he wasn't ready for...that was an absolutely perfect throw (and a very difficult one to hit a running player exactly in stride at waist height crossing like that) - whether that was on Goodson not knowing that the hot route was coming there, or if Petras jumped the gun a bit, only they know - but, again, that is an amazingly accurate throw. Laporta dropped another perfect pass that would have been a huge first down conversion like he did a couple times against Indiana. The throw to Jones that he almost made the circus catch on was another perfect throw. When we really needed him, Petras took over the game in the second quarter and executed at an extremely high level.
Bottom line, Petras is playing so much better than people are giving him credit for. It is not a question of him needing to improve for the offense to take the next step as much as the rest of the offense around him. His receivers need to play better and not drop as many passes. His line needs to really improve both in run blocking and pass pro - and I think they will. His RB's need to keep working on ball protection and pass pro. This offense has potential to be very, very effective...and that should scare everyone left on our schedule.
Right now, our O line is the only thing holding this team back from being a complete team and a legit playoff contender. And, that is not surprising. We have freshman tackles. We have new starters all over the place. Our most experienced Guard is out with an injury. We are still rotating guys around to get our best five figured out. Petras is a lightning rod (QB always is), but he is about 7th on my list of offensive concerns at the moment. The good news is that our O line is not a lost cause. They will improve. I think they will improve a lot. They are struggling with communication right now. They are struggling with technique right now.
We all agree that Goodson is a very good RB. We know he is. But, he has looked less than pedestrian so far this year. Why is that? Why does he get a pass that Petras does not? Because he has more credit in our memory banks than Petras does, so he deservedly gets more slack when we evaluate him. But, honestly, IKM has been a more effective runner than he has so far this year (minus his ball security issues). IKM is not the better RB though. Goodson is running with a style (patience, vision for the cutback) that requires the Oline to do their jobs, and they just are not right now. IKM is mostly just running with a full head of steam and blasting into the line to pick up 4 or 5 yards (but likely leaving truly big runs on the table because he doesn't give them time to develop).
Petras is in the same position. We are not taking the dink and dunk, safe throw approach with him. That just isn't his game. He has a big arm. He has good vision. He can stand tall in a pocket and throw darts. That is his game, and we need the rest of the offense to rise to that. Then we will truly be special. Just like we are not going to tell Goodson to just blindly blast into the A gap no matter what so we can make sure we get 3 or 4 yards - we are going to expect the O-line to do better and tell Goodson to keep playing his game.
And we have been fortunate that our defense and special teams have been so ridiculously dominant that we have not had to compromise on any of that in the moment to win our games. People are knocking Petras for pocket presence, and admittedly, it is not one of his major strengths or anything, but we are also not providing him a consistent pocket. It breaks down inconsistently enough that there is no way for him to know whether to favor stepping up or rolling out. I would prefer that we work our technique and shade our protections so that he can step up as he is much better throwing that way than running sideways.
People comparing Petras to someone like Christensen are just being ridiculous. Petras has had some misfires - mostly when trying to throw on the run - but he has actually been impressively accurate. For example, even in a "miss" on that fade to the corner to Laporta in the end zone...that wasn't an inaccurate throw. Petras put that exactly where he intended to, Laporta just didn't get there. That may have been because Petras let it go just a half second early, or maybe Laporta got held up in his release...either way, that is a timing throw and the timing was just a fraction of a second off - but the throw was perfect. In the throw to Goodson that he wasn't ready for...that was an absolutely perfect throw (and a very difficult one to hit a running player exactly in stride at waist height crossing like that) - whether that was on Goodson not knowing that the hot route was coming there, or if Petras jumped the gun a bit, only they know - but, again, that is an amazingly accurate throw. Laporta dropped another perfect pass that would have been a huge first down conversion like he did a couple times against Indiana. The throw to Jones that he almost made the circus catch on was another perfect throw. When we really needed him, Petras took over the game in the second quarter and executed at an extremely high level.
Bottom line, Petras is playing so much better than people are giving him credit for. It is not a question of him needing to improve for the offense to take the next step as much as the rest of the offense around him. His receivers need to play better and not drop as many passes. His line needs to really improve both in run blocking and pass pro - and I think they will. His RB's need to keep working on ball protection and pass pro. This offense has potential to be very, very effective...and that should scare everyone left on our schedule.
