College football quarterback film study: Joe Burrow impresses, Justin Herbert improves

Breaking down the top college football quarterbacks with film study to look at the Week 9 performances from Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence and more.

Week 9 offered a limited but important look at several of the nation’s top passers. Joe Burrow took advantage of his first showdown of the season against Auburn, while Justin Herbert found consistency against Washington State. We also saw Jalen Hurts and Oklahoma fall on the road to Kansas State.

Wins and losses aren’t everything on Saturday but isolating individual play helps give us the context we need. Franchises are quarterback-driven, and thus always keeping an eye out for their next star.

We also dove into Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love in this week’s breakdown of top college quarterbacks. Next week will feature more of a season-long review look at these names since the schedule lightens up. It’s also good to check-in and see where this class is stacking up with recent groups in terms of the data I’ve collected.

Trevor Lawrence, Clemson

This season has been like a swinging pendulum for Lawrence’s play. We’re back onto the impressive side of his game, as he easily eviscerated Boston College’s defense with pinpoint precision inside and outside of the pocket. His lone two misses came on pressured throws as he escaped the pocket area.

Unfortunately, we lost the chance to see his deep accuracy on several passes as the Eagles committed a handful of defensive pass interference penalties as the ball arrived. Clemson wants this as part of their offense to help create big plays but it’s tough from the evaluation phase to get anything out of those penalties.

What we can take away is Lawrence’s smoothness delivering the ball was on full display. He generates excellent velocity on his passes even when there’s a defender in his lap or he has to throw on the move. His biggest question mark, even in a down season overall, is his decision-making.

It would be interesting to see Lawrence in a more creatively designed offense instead of Clemson’s basic one. This system is one reason I undervalued Deshaun Watson‘s upside, and we’re seeing now how much of a playmaker he is with a system that gives more freedom to the quarterback. I think Lawrence will show more to his game in the NFL than even what we see now.

Joe Burrow, LSU

We finally had the chance to see Burrow and this LSU offense against a defense as athletic as them. Burrow didn’t disappoint vs. Auburn, unloading a short-passing assault that continually took advantage of soft coverage on underneath routes. This kept the offense humming, moving the chains and avoiding too much pressure on Burrow to create outside of the pocket.

Auburn was able to break through the pocket and hurry Burrow on 10 of his 36 attempts beyond the line of scrimmage, as well as force two unavoidable sacks. He was nearly flawless in these situations, only missing twice on the 10 hurried attempts. Even his interception was simply a case of trusting his receiver to win a jump ball that was blanketed by the defender.

Burrow is blossoming into a terrific prospect. It wouldn’t surprise me if he overtakes Tua Tagovailoa as the top quarterback for teams worried about the latter’s ankle injuries. I still want to see a defense press onto these receivers and disrupt the quick passing game Burrow benefits from since a lot of his reads are immediately open. How he reacts to failure from his supporting cast can affect his stock.

But for now, it’s all good with Burrow. He’s easily the No. 2 quarterback in the class and there’s a case he’s the top guy. His ability to play under duress and adapt his play to the situation, meaning changing his reads from hi-low to low-hi, is an NFL trait that can help him succeed early in his career.

Jalen Hurts, Oklahoma

Oklahoma shockingly lost to Kansas State, but it’s hardly fair to put the blame on Hurts. The Wildcats went on a shocking run and held on to the ball for a massive amount of time in the second half. Hurts had no trouble scoring when they had possession.

Hurts hit several tight-window throws and showed off his ability to play inside and outside of the pocket in this performance. While he missed a couple of key deep throws, the volume of attempts Oklahoma usually produces was cut into by Kansas State’s rushing game. His miss in the red zone and poor play off play-action was highlighted due to the smaller sample size.

The criticism he will continue to hear is how he’ll hold on to the ball or go for the home run a little too often. Both sacks were on him this week, and he also tried a spinning, cross-body throw on third and long late in the game. He completed that pass to CeeDee Lamb but had a clear running lane in front of him in addition to a receiver with room to run or with the ability to block for him.

Hurts needs to find the blend between playmaker and game manager a little more often. He’s a smart player reviling in this free, open system, but his NFL success won’t come as easy as this transition to Oklahoma has been.

Justin Herbert, Oregon

Oregon was on the bring of defeat once again this Saturday, but this time it was Herbert leading his Ducks to a late-game field goal that sealed the tough win against Washington State. His performance was much cleaner and consistent this week compared to when Oregon won in spite of his uneven play against Washington.

Oregon had him under center more often this week and it gave the chance for Herbert to show his footwork and ability to reset his eyes post-drop. The results were impressive when targeting intermediate receivers. Seven of his nine attempts were catchable, and a few were great displays of reading coverage and understanding defender leverage with his release.

The mental side of his game fluctuates based on the situation but this is the type of game I want to become his floor. He took care of the ball, played well-enough against pressure and on third downs, took shots when he needed to. There’s an upside he flashes occasionally, but like Carson Wentz, I don’t need him to play hero ball all the time because his talent isn’t going to carry him to success if he does.

Oregon isn’t relying on him to carry them like they did last year, which is good for the team and likely Herbert’s stock. But it’s not the best for his development or projection into what he’ll become. I don’t trust he’ll be anything better than average in the NFL despite his traits, so hopefully, he shows more consistency down the stretch this season.

Jordan Love, Utah State

Much like the Kansas State-Oklahoma game where Hurts was limited by the time of possession clock, Love lost opportunities to produce due to the nature of their opposition. Air Force bled the clock continuously, and Love’s struggles on third down led to few extended drives. Yes, it was another outing where Love didn’t look NFL-ready.

He’s developed a jump step into his deep passes, which was an area of concern entering the year because he misses them so frequently. This is an ugly mechanical breakdown that leads to more variance in his motion, and less predictability on results. He had two great deep passes but had at least one there for the taking had it been more accurate.

His play on short passes was solid but it’s hard to overlook the situational struggles. This wasn’t a game Utah State should’ve been blown out in, and Love’s 1-for-6 passing beyond the markers on third downs is a major issue. He’s seen a considerable drop in his accuracy in this critical measurement compared to last year.

I’d like to see Love do a graduate transfer elsewhere for 2020 instead of taking the path to the draft. Linking up with Jim Harbaugh in Michigan or Nick Saban in Alabama would give him NFL-type exposure mentally and physically. It’s just a thought, but it could catapult him into the top-five if he’s the real deal.

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