The game was literally won and lost on the ability of the QB to scramble away from pressure and get 1st downs with your legs. Gabriel's ability to time and time again pick up 1st downs with his legs and slide to safety. No need to pile drive or hurdle anyone, but he did find the line every time (paging Montez). Gabriel, who by all accounts isn't a runner, managed to run for 63 yards showing escapability in the pocket to avoid sacks, keep plays alive for timely passes, and sneak out and pick up 1st owns with his feet. Their last 2 TD drives were a clinic in doing that. Still, Boise had a chance to win the game. Bachmeier (once a near CU commit) scrambled on 3rd and 4 and looked to have an easy 1st down picked up with his legs if he just runs. Instead, he runs to the sideline and before diving out of bounds tosses an ill-advised ball across his body into the teeth of the UCF defense.
Hank is a gunslinger of course and that is his game, but had he had even a little bit of runner in him, he picks up an easy 1st down and that drive continues in scoring territory. Instead, it's a turnover and it's game over. Well, almost. Boise got the ball back and had 10 seconds left to try and mount a hail marry at game's final end. Hank, again, with no understanding of scrambling ill-advisingly scrambled away from his protection into the teeth of the 2 man rush UCF put on and couldn't even get off a hail marry from the 50 yard line. A big armed QB couldn't even do what he's best at... flinging it a mile. It made me appreciate Kordell Stewart even more. Kordell would have looped back around with the chasing defensive linemen falling on their butts and protection resetting to pick them off once they got back up. He would have then had plenty of room to chuck a hail marry.
I am so glad we have Lewis (and to some extent Carter). We have an athletic QB who is going to make the game simpler. On 3rd and 4, if he has room to gain the line, he's going to do it. If they spy him, you know someone is wide open underneath and he will have the space to make the throw. It's such an equalizer at the college level. Bachmeier was -7 yards rushing compared to Gabriel's 63 yards rushing, so UCF was +70 on QB rush yards. The game between the game though where statistics don't show is what Gabriel was able to do in the pocket sliding away properly from pressure and setting himself up with easy throws. Even though he turned it over a couple of times with poor throws, Gabriel's running changed the game in that 2nd half. I hope to see Lewis do the same for CU!
Hank is a gunslinger of course and that is his game, but had he had even a little bit of runner in him, he picks up an easy 1st down and that drive continues in scoring territory. Instead, it's a turnover and it's game over. Well, almost. Boise got the ball back and had 10 seconds left to try and mount a hail marry at game's final end. Hank, again, with no understanding of scrambling ill-advisingly scrambled away from his protection into the teeth of the 2 man rush UCF put on and couldn't even get off a hail marry from the 50 yard line. A big armed QB couldn't even do what he's best at... flinging it a mile. It made me appreciate Kordell Stewart even more. Kordell would have looped back around with the chasing defensive linemen falling on their butts and protection resetting to pick them off once they got back up. He would have then had plenty of room to chuck a hail marry.
I am so glad we have Lewis (and to some extent Carter). We have an athletic QB who is going to make the game simpler. On 3rd and 4, if he has room to gain the line, he's going to do it. If they spy him, you know someone is wide open underneath and he will have the space to make the throw. It's such an equalizer at the college level. Bachmeier was -7 yards rushing compared to Gabriel's 63 yards rushing, so UCF was +70 on QB rush yards. The game between the game though where statistics don't show is what Gabriel was able to do in the pocket sliding away properly from pressure and setting himself up with easy throws. Even though he turned it over a couple of times with poor throws, Gabriel's running changed the game in that 2nd half. I hope to see Lewis do the same for CU!
