Should Riley Learn To Take A Sack?

Riley tends to throw with defenders hanging on him or off balance after taking a hit. He exposes himself to injury and risks turnovers. Sometimes, he makes big plays. Should he learn to just take the sack and move on?



This question first came up after the TCU game iirc. It may have gotten more complicated for some fans to answer that question today in Honolulu.

I am even more convinced that the answer is no. He makes plays. Yes he will make mistakes. Better defenses will be more likely to make him pay. Maybe he needs to factor that in to when he takes or does not take risks.



Folks - he put up over 360 yards today with zero interceptions or fumbles.





Anybody still absolutley certain that he has already hit his ceiling? And this with an injury after a three week layoff.

Cougarbib2 wrote:
Riley tends to throw with defenders hanging on him or off balance after taking a hit. He exposes himself to injury and risks turnovers. Sometimes, he makes big plays. Should he learn to just take the sack and move on?



This question first came up after the TCU game iirc. It may have gotten more complicated for some fans to answer that question today in Honolulu.

Yeah, that 20-yard desperation toss to Hoffman was EXACTLY the sort of toss that I don't want Nelson making. Even if it worked out this time.



But to my recollection, that particular throw was the only time we saw the "I'm going down, better toss it up for grabs!" version of Nelson that reared his ugly head against TCU, despite the fact he saw a fair amount of pressure all game.



I think Nelson DID take a few honest-to-goodness sacks today. Three, to my recollection. He finished the game with 7 carries for -3 yards.



On a semi-related tangent, I'm really interested to see where the debate regarding Nelson/Doman goes this week. There's definitely merit to the argument that Nelson's skillset takes a lot of pressure off of the playcalling, but I believe Nelson and Doman did a lot to refute the "Doman can't call a game for a pure passer QB" argument. Nelson WAS a pure passer against Hawaii. Nelson clearly wasn't his usual rush-with-abandon self and instead beat Hawaii through the air. His mobility was still a factor, but more for evasion/play extention.

There was also one play where he threw the ball out of bounds instead of trying to run through the Hawaii players shadowing him.



I was surprised and impressed he did the danger thing that play.



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Dcr36 wrote:

Riley tends to throw with defenders hanging on him or off balance after taking a hit. He exposes himself to injury and risks turnovers. Sometimes, he makes big plays. Should he learn to just take the sack and move on?



This question first came up after the TCU game iirc. It may have gotten more complicated for some fans to answer that question today in Honolulu.

Yeah, that 20-yard desperation toss to Hoffman was EXACTLY the sort of toss that I don't want Nelson making. Even if it worked out this time.



But to my recollection, that particular throw was the only time we saw the "I'm going down, better toss it up for grabs!" version of Nelson that reared his ugly head against TCU, despite the fact he saw a fair amount of pressure all game.



I think Nelson DID take a few honest-to-goodness sacks today. Three, to my recollection. He finished the game with 7 carries for -3 yards.



On a semi-related tangent, I'm really interested to see where the debate regarding Nelson/Doman goes this week. There's definitely merit to the argument that Nelson's skillset takes a lot of pressure off of the playcalling, but I believe Nelson and Doman did a lot to refute the "Doman can't call a game for a pure passer QB" argument. Nelson WAS a pure passer against Hawaii. Nelson clearly wasn't his usual rush-with-abandon self and instead beat Hawaii through the air. His mobility was still a factor, but more for evasion/play extention.

Is it throwing it up for grabs if it hits the reciever in the hands? I couldn't believe he threw that ball either but when it hit hoffman right in the hands it made me wonder if he didn't know that hoff would either catch it or make sure it wasn't intercepted. It was a risky throw but I wouldn't classify it "up for grabs". I think that since Riley wasn't anyones first choice at QB this year he is taking some criticisms that would be praise if the same plays were made by Heaps or one of our QB legends like detmer. Detmer used to take a lot of risks in games, some turned into interceptions, some turned into legendary highlights. I thought Riley was awesome last night. I think that the pressure that he overcame from Hawaii's defense would have had our second string QB making big mistakes, and/or our offense going 3 and out.

I only saw one play that he should have taken the sack on and that was the jumpball to Hoffman. If Hoffman doesn't catch it, there's a chance that's returned for 6 since all the OL were down on the ground as was Riley. If Hoffman had fallen, there would have been no one to tackle him.



That's a play that I'm glad worked out in our favor, but it is one when they break down the film they can teach him to do better on.

If he wants to. Start putting a box around him and he's the type of player where it will affect the rest of his game. His game is playing with reckless abandonment. If he learns it on his own, great, but I hope no one is chewing him out for it.



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I think the claim that Doman calls a better game with Riley could have been refuted the last 2 games where Jake took the majority of the snaps. Doman had just improved overall.



With Riley playing, you have to let him play like he always does. Sometimes he'll make mistakes, but he does more positive things then negative ones.



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He took several sacks, and threw one ball on a third down that was pretty accurate. Seems like he's learned to take a sack to me.

One article I read indicated that Doman got RIley on the headset in the 1st half and told him he was playing too tentatively - then that clearly changed.



RIley indicated that is wasn't his injury that contributed to is slow start - he saaid he never got over the jet-lag from the trip. Having made that trip many times - I know what he means. Jet-lag is a funny thing - it affects some peope much more than others.



My boss back when I was in So. Cal would fly to Japan for meetings fly back after the meetings ended - that night Tokyo time, and arrive in So. Cal morning time - and come straight in to work.



I always returned from those trips on a Friday night - wiped out - and slept until Monday - or nearly so.

Yes he needs to learn to take a sack, but he did much better of getting rid of the ball and not making poor decisions (except for that falling down heave to Hoffman).



A side note*, when mj dropped that pass inside the five right before the Apo td screen pass. After mj dropped it they zoomed in on riley and it looked an awful lot like he said "make a f****** play", not criticizing what he said but rather commenting on the frustration that mj has been to everyone.



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trueblue72 wrote:
Yes he needs to learn to take a sack, but he did much better of getting rid of the ball and not making poor decisions (except for that falling down heave to Hoffman).



A side note*, when mj dropped that pass inside the five right before the Apo td screen pass. After mj dropped it they zoomed in on riley and it looked an awful lot like he said "make a f****** play", not criticizing what he said but rather commenting on the frustration that mj has been to everyone.



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Something both Riley and Jake supporters can agree on: the graduation of Mckay Jacobsen is a good thing.



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I believe he has improved but the jump ball to Hoffman was not a throw that hit him in the hands. It was a jump ball that Hoff was able to get to and win. Against good to very good DB's and LB's that is not complete at best and an INT (and maybe six). The TD to Hoff was also a semi-desperate throw but it was put where nobody but the WR had a real chance at getting it and turned out to be an ESPN top10 play.



note: I sort of feel bad for Jake because he had only one chance to throw the ball and he picked MJ. Should have stuck with Hoff or Apo to get the first down. If I were QB, I might have let the play clock run down and called timeout so I could change the lineup. I just don't have any confidence in MJ making a play anymore. It looks to me like he decided to get big and spent too much time body building. Now he seems to have hands of rock.

The TD to Hoffman was a great play all around. I didn't see much desparation (i.e., Gee I sure hope this play works!) in it.



I almost had a flashback to Jake's TD to Falslev last week. Both guys made a guy miss in the backfield to avoid a sack and then stepped up, looked up and found a guy wide open.

SpiffCoug wrote:
The TD to Hoffman was a great play all around. I didn't see much desparation (i.e., Gee I sure hope this play works!) in it.



I almost had a flashback to Jake's TD to Falslev last week. Both guys made a guy miss in the backfield to avoid a sack and then stepped up, looked up and found a guy wide open.

Yeah, there is only one made play where I was nervous and would almost prefer he take the sack (the in the grasp one to Hoff for a first down).



After he avoided the rush on the TD pass, he just found the open guy.

Byu has had so many Turnovers this year I believe it is an obvious YES... Take the sack or throw it away. No game was this more apparent than vs Utah. That would have been a different game from the get go. Tcu game would have been different as well. Trying to do to much has cost us more than it has given...

Bottom line, Nelson's Pass Efficiency on the season is higher than any BYU quarterback since Beck and he only had one year (his senior year) with a higher efficiency. He ran for more yards than any BYU quarterback I remember. He just played the finest game of his career and showed that he can function as a pocket passing quarterback in spite of jet lag, hostile environment, Santa Claus gone wild and 3 sacks. If we are questioning his decision making based on one play (that he completed) because it might have been smarter to take a sack, then maybe it's time we started questioning whether or not we are too emotionally involved. I know he is not the quarterback that we expected to see at this point of the season, however, he is alot of fun to watch. Let's have fun watching him.

I think he should learn to take a sack and when. Good teams? ABSOLUTELY. Like TCU, it could turn out an interception...or worse, a pick 6.



But then you play the lower teams, and he should fight...he could get a completion, or a TD, etc. It pays off here.



Probably.