JJ is not regressing

He's a true sophomore QB. First season starting. Team is 11-0, with a very good chance at being 12-0.

14 TDs, only 2 INTs, 69% compl %, 158 QBR rating.  

Take a nap, dude. Sleep it off.

I don't think he's regressing as much as he's not progressing at any noticeable rate. At times he appears less comfortable than the weeks before and you'd like your young QB to slowly appear to get it more each week.

More and more he and his WRs don't even appear to be using the same playbook or verbiage, specifically with Bell. Those two look like they don't speak or see each other all week, show up on Saturday and then try to play major CFB. They are just so very out of sorts.

Frankly, the only player he looks comfortable with - as in  being able to predict their next move - is Edwards...who happens to be the only guy we know he works with on his own time. Anthony joins them sometimes but I not as much as those two. The rest look mostly or entirely out of sync with each other.

Why is no one mentioning that he has a partially torn labrum? Even if it is on his non throwing shoulder, couldn't that throw off his timing in any way, shape, or form?

11-0, I'll repeat it eleven wins and no losses, that's 11-0.  BEAT OHIO!

JJ is regressing.  It's brutal to type, but it's true.

#GoBlue

People need to also understand that if you're a freshman playing in a system that throws 40+ passes a game, you will develop more as a passer than the same guy in a system that throws 20-30 times a game. Player development is all about repetition and there's no better repetition than game repetition. A QB who had to learn to pass his way out of a bunch of tight spots throughout his career will simply become a lot more accomplished over time than a guy who handed off the ball 55% of the time and was asked to make a tough throw over 10 yards deep a couple of times a game.

Michigan fans keep waiting for the mirage of a star QB but the reality of it is that a Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Tua Tagovailoa, Trevor Lawrence etc. just isn't walking through that door because quite simply even if we had that recruit, he would be conditioned to be a QB who's job is to support the running game and to not lose the game with turnovers. That's the identity of the Michigan QB job. Unsurprisingly if you find yourself in a situation where you need your QB to be letting it all hang out and suddenly be Drew Brees, well, it's not going to come naturally. How could it?

Have not seen a QB progress year 1 to 2 under JH @ Michigan.   That's bad.

That said rewatched first 3 quarters so far and our WRs ex Bell are really poor. Really poor.  I don't expect any improvement because I am not coming here to catch 1-2 passes a game and spend 80% of the game run blocking.  Worthy made the right choice.  Enough about the Andrel hype.  Had a TD go through his hands and our man from Hawaii also dropped a very catchable ball.  Done with the excuses with the WR - OSU 6th WR catches these balls. 

There were some bad drops, yeah. But J.J. had some really bad misses, too. Of different varieties. Bad read, too much mustard, behind receivers, too high. The whole passing game is fucked right now. 

This was definitely too important and well researched to just be a comment in the three post game threads.   

Welcome back to the land of a thousand excuses. 

Watching the highlights now, JJ had some passes dropped, and he missed a couple short throws. He's got the hole throw along the sideline down to a tee. Only thing I see needs improvement is I'd like to see him not tuck the ball so far behind the LOS on the designed QB runs. Instead hold the ball like a rollout pass play and do the pass fake before crossing the LOS. He'll hold the LB's and DB's longer that way.

As Alex's roundup pointed out, a few more balls caught and this game—and our opinion of JJ—is very different.

He is not playing as well as he previously had, call it what you will. He is still a good qb, with a ton of potential, but he is making more bad reads, missing more routine passes, and his completion percentage is falling off in a way that is impossible to dismiss. There are other contributing factors, like instances of poor play design that defenses are easily defeating, some questionable play calling at times, and drops that certainly aren't helping things either, but an increasing number of failed plays are on just him. It's not the end of the world, but it is happening. 

I am a bit confused by the fact that Michigan simply doesn’t take advantage of play action significantly more, Illinois to their credit was selling out on the early downs and run blitzing a ton, yet very little was done to penalize them for it, no apparent hot reads behind the blitz, etc

Fire Matt Weiss… into a cannon at a ABA bball game in Flint. Dude’s a legend

he doesn't throw a catchable ball when touch is needed at any distance.

This narrative about JJ is bullshit. WR's are not open and when they are they are dropping it. No starting rb's or tight ends that past few games and the receivers have been bad. Missing a couple o-line players as well, what is that...6 offensive starters out?

He’s missing some throws pretty badly, but by the same token he’s got more than a few great throws that his receivers are just flat out dropping. 

Anthony dropped a would be TD which was right in the bread basket. Gant dropped an easy catch that he could’ve picked up an easy first down, maybe even a TD to put the game away. There was another pass today (I think to Bell?) that although it was a bit high, it was more than catchable and should’ve been caught. 

JJ needs to be better. He knows that better than any of us. But he needs help from his receivers and he’s just not getting it. If Anthony and Gant reel in those catches than McCarthy’s day looks vastly different. 

When Petras from Iowa has outperformed him over the last 7 game span, it says all you need to know about his play.

Illinois Defense had 16  game streak of atleast one Int, That ended today.!!  That dropped snap turned into a throwing first down was a QB that has progressed. He also Hit Anthony right in the hands. I think JJ grew a lot in today's 4th qt..Of course there's improvements needed, but let's not get bent out of shape here 

He’s definitely not progressing. 

Be interesting to figure out how to disentangle his overthrows/missed reads from the drops that have plagued us the last three weeks.  Don’t know what’s “normal” but a handful of those drops get caught and I’d guess his numbers look way better.  What I did not love today was some of the choices he made while running.  Too much heroball, not enough just get what you can get.

And, he made some clutch fourth down plays where we get an L if he does not convert.

He can't hit anyone down field anymore. All those deep shots to Roman Wilson from earlier in the year are gone. He's barely completing 50% of his passes the last couple of weeks. 

If you're team can't do basic things like pass the ball, that's on them and their recruiting. So either way it's their problem.

JJ definitely wasn’t helped out by his receivers today, but at the same time Tacopants was targeted more than I would prefer.

When our receivers start to 1) get separation, 2) track the ball, and 3) catch the ball, I think we can more properly evaluate JJ. Has he been great? No. But I'm not comfortable concluding that he just isn't good when the receivers let him down game after game. And that brings me to another point- what is going on with the coaching at that position? These issues are all fixable but there has been zero progress all year. 

The coaches do not have a great feel for the passing game outside of the early scripted plays. They go away from certain concepts even tho they are working and defense is giving it to them. But it makes sense when your two OCs are running game guys. 

Putting guys in motion was getting them free releases and open quick. They hit a few screen plays finally. Crossing routes were open consistently. Now JJ missed a few and our receivers have stone hands and that is problematic. 

Last thing, JJ and/or receivers don't seem to recognize coverage at times. They are zones that receivers should be sitting down in but they are running through them. Is that a QB issue or a receiver issue? 

I thought he was okay yesterday. Had some good passes that the receivers flat out missed. Had some less than good passes, but on the whole, was not a liability.

I’m curious as to why the offense stopped throwing screen passes. They were a big and effective part of the offense early and seem to have all but gone away. Yesterday, the offense was mostly running between the tackles and the passing game did not test the edges.

I don’t think the play calling moved away from the early season stuff because it was ineffective. I am hopeful and somewhat expecting the offense to incorporate everything we’ve seen this year and then some at the Game.