Deep in the Heart

I'm watching the game with my housemates and friends, and one of them says that Vince Young is not going to be able to do what he did in that game. He said Young's throwing motion is not exactly textbook, and that he runs a lot. While no one was able to run him down, even Vick doesn't rely as much on his legs in the NFL as he did in college. Defenses are too fast (and too tough hitting) for even the most nimble of quarterbacks to survive long as a running quarterback.

Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. I thought, despite his arm motion (which I couldn't tell good from bad), that Vince Young was pretty accurate. It sounds like, from Tony's commentary, Vince threw mostly to one guy, and when that wasn't successful, he ran, and he did that over and again.

To be fair, USC's defense is not one of the best, and the team often gives up a lot of points (strange given that Pete Carroll is the team's defense coordinator), and that, after the first half, neither team did a great job of stopping each other, though there was a critical fourth down stop, where USC decided that if they could make the fourth down, the game would have been over (and it would have been).

Texas came up big, but still had two minutes to make a touchdown, and needed all of 100 seconds to get it, all on the back of Vince Young.

Does success in college games lead to success in the pros? People are high on Leinart, Bush, and Young, the Heisman finalists. It doesn't hurt that Carson Palmer, who only had one good year with USC, is doing remarkably well this year, giving credence to the USC system (to be fair, Palmer is supposed to be taller and stronger than Leinart, but Leinart's been in the system several years).

Does Houston take Bush or Young, or neither? Wilbon argued for taking Bush, saying that Carr was not the problem with the Texans. The lack of a good offsensive line was the problem. Pick up Bush, get the O-line in shape, and Carr, already a few years into a quarterback apprenticeship, a position widely thought to be the slowest to develop, and you're better off than having Young.

Decisions in the NFL don't make that much sense though (the running joke is Detroit drafting yet another wide receiver, when the team so clearly has other needs, and that the wide receivers have not panned out).

Young said he'd return, but Wilbon says there's really, really no reason to do so. The same was said of Leinart, who came back, and his stock is about as good as it would have been last year, possibly better, since his health was in question a year ago (though no one much knew it until he declared he'd return).

We'll see come draft day.