Last Saturday marked a critical turning point in the SMU football turnaround under June Jones. This was no fluke upset over a ranked team. This was a well-deserved away victory for a team on its way back into the national spotlight. The story of the game for SMU was its first half defense and its passing offense.
Like I said in the preview for the game, both teams have a suspect pass defense. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much better the wide receivers for SMU are than the TCU secondary. The domination in the passing game was a result of great play calling (made easier by the fact that on almost every other run play Zach Line was getting about 10 yards), great throws, great catches, and wide open receivers. This was made all the more impressive by the fact that Cole Beasley, SMU’s go-to slot receiver, was out due to injury.
To put it simply, the passing attack was at its best for the whole year by far. Except for one interception, which was called back because of a pass interference, Padron McDermott was about as good as a quarterback can get. There were multiple times in the game where JJ either took a sack rather than scrambling and losing yards, or just threw it away smartly. It was in these situations where his advantages over Padron were evident. Padron would have either thrown up a jump ball to be intercepted or scrambled and lost yards. I give the offense an A+. (more…)
