Breaking down college football’s best quarterbacks in Week 3: Trevor Lawrence struggles, Jacob Eason improves

Breaking down the top college football quarterbacks with film study to look at the Week 2 performances from Tua, Trevor, Justin Herbert and more.

Week 3 of college football didn’t bring many marquee matchups as there’s still the cupcake part of the schedule needing to be fleshed out. That doesn’t mean we took the week off from evaluating them, though. Every game matters when measuring performance.

The weekly regulars are back, including Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert. Also included are Jacob Eason, Justin Fields and K.J. Costello. The rest of the quarterbacks were far from challenged, making their play tough to draw conclusions from.

Trevor Lawrence, Clemson

Trevor Lawrence’s play this season and especially against Syracuse had social media buzzing with blowback to the immense hype that he earned last year. Upon throwing two (gasp!) interceptions against the Orange defense, some were calling him Jameis Winston, linking how Winston became interception-prone after his breakout freshman season.

While Lawrence has already eclipsed the number of interceptable passes he threw in 2018 (five this year), he’s still hitting big plays enough to offset the mistakes of a second-year starter. The outcry from some that he still needs development is obvious. Even the best quarterbacks of all-time aren’t perfect every game and the standard for Lawrence to fulfill the hype has become too much.

This performance had good and bad. Both interceptions were bad reads where he stared down his target and seemingly didn’t care about the defender. They both set up the Orange with great field position as well. The first, a short pass to the left, highlighted a predetermined one-on-one throw that does come with the basic Clemson offense.

It’s not ideal, and both were ugly. But Lawrence was also money against pressure, in the red zone, and was accurate throwing intermediate and deep to well-covered receivers. He also lost three first downs to drops.

Lawrence hasn’t lit the college football world on fire as hoped, but let’s not forget that Clemson traditionally starts slowly, and what he showed in the last few games of 2018. There’s plenty of time in a weak ACC for him to ascend, and his baseline talent is still enough to elevate this program.

Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama

The king of consistency and making everything look effortless, Tua Tagovailoa casually posted 444 yards and five touchdowns against South Carolina. There’s significant context needed for those numbers, though, as he was asked to do very little outside of the scheme.

Just six passes of his 36 traveled beyond 10 yards, and two were inaccurate throws beyond 20 yards. He diced up the Gamecocks with short throws on RPOs and play-action. But it was his playmaker corps that did the heavy damage.

He continually maximizes the offense with his ball placement. None of his receivers have to break stride on targets, allowing them to find their runway and continue upfield for yards after the catch. Only four of his 19 throws from 0-10 yards were inaccurate.

His situational play favors him as well. He was five of seven with two touchdowns under pressure, and just two of his 15 play-action attempts were inaccurate.

Justin Herbert, Oregon

We’ll keep this brief because Justin Herbert was playing against Montana, but he was productive in the fashion you want to see against low competition. Sure, Oregon played him two series too many in order to pad stats on screen passes, but he had the highlight plays that will keep teams interested.

He had a few big improvisational plays that show off his upside. His ability to throw off-balance and outside of the pocket makes him an ideal fit into offenses that’ll utilize rollouts and 11 personnel regularly. Spread the field and let him buy time with his body.

Herbert’s play against pressure and throwing deep remains questionable, though. He was only accurate on four of 12 throws made under pressure. Just one of his four deep passes was accurate as well, which was a dime that was dropped in the end zone.

The same questions remain for Herbert but he’s solidifying his strengths in these games. That’s a positive after 2018 opened more questions about his projection than provide answers.

Jacob Eason, Washington

I was thoroughly disappointed in what I saw last week from Washington’s Jacob Eason. He was tentative and unwilling to push the ball downfield, costing the Huskies a needed win against Cal. He took that to heart and completely flipped his passing chart from last week against a bad Hawaii defense.

Unlike Week 2, where he waited until the early third quarter to attempt a pass beyond 10 yards, he had more throws beyond 10 yards than in the 0-10 range this week. The results were much more promising as the big-armed thrower was accurate on seven of 10 attempts.

This game was out of hand quickly so the situational play was limited for Eason to show off more of a skill set. But this was the type of performance that can keep him as a potential 2020 draft prospect despite his lack of experience in the last two years.

Justin Fields, Ohio State

The Buckeyes avoided the trap game in Indiana behind a powerful J.K. Dobbins game and an impactful performance from Justin Fields. Fields went from being efficient and cerebral last week to a more aggressive downfield thrower this week. It’s fun to see everything he’s capable of.

Fields had only eight throws under 10 yards and all were to his right. Six of his nine throws from 11-19 yards were also to his right side. It doesn’t mean much, but interesting to see his preferred directional passing. He was accurate on nine of 14 total attempts that direction.

He lost a touchdown on a Dobbins drop in the red zone but was otherwise hitting big-time throws more than dump-offs. His arm talent is truly excited even though he hasn’t yet mastered touch throws. Some of his shorter attempts are more like fastballs and it makes it difficult for his receivers to finish the play.

His footwork seems to be the issue with these misses. Time and practice can clean this up, and his ceiling as a threat to Lawrence in the 2021 class depends on his development as a variable passer. The physical skill set is certainly there for him to succeed though.

K.J. Costello, Stanford

It’s been a rough start to the year for Stanford and quarterback K.J. Costello. I had major concerns with his throwing motion, inconsistent ball placement and importance to the offense without J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, and so far each of those issues has been present. Not to mention he suffered a concussion that kept him out against USC.

His performance against UCF was terrible. He was forcing passes to well-covered options, putting the ball at-risk and missing the windows he did have available to him.

This was the type of performance that tells me he’s not an overly strong draft prospect at this time. He’ll get the chance to go through the rest of the year and the bowl circuit, but the ceiling of a Day 2 pick seems impossible to reach at this time.