Breaking Down every pass Maty Mauk attempted vs Georgia

First, this breakdown is solely thanks to me stumbling across a Youtube channel that has been putting together highlight reels of the SEC quarterbacks, something I wish I had the time to do.

First pass,1st and 10

#80 Sean Culkin motions right across the formation to inside Wesley Leftwich, Mauk scrambles right, runs out of bounds, Georgia flagged for late hit, first down. LT Mitch Morse gives up a lot of ground to DE #59, as does C Evan Boehm to DT #88, once Mauk gets into his pocket and looks off his first read, he barely has breathing room to look left, so he feels he has to bail out of the pocket right toward the sideline. Pressured: 1

Second pass, 1st and 10

#18 Wesley Leftwich motions left across the formation to inside Jimmie Hunt. Russell Hansbrough releases through the line since he has no one to block, Mauk tries his best to put some touch on the dump off pass, but it's well behind Hansbrough. Bad throw: 1

Third pass, 2nd and 8

#18 Wesley Leftwich motions left to inside Sean Culkin. DE #84 stunts inside of Mitch Morse and gets pressure on Maty Mauk, forcing him to scramble, then spin back left and eventually throw the ball away. Pressured: 1

Fourth pass, 3rd and 8

No motion, Mauk throws interception on a pass intended for Jimmie Hunt

As you can see in the above GIF, this interception is incredibly frustrating because if Mauk reads the safety help over the top and checks down, he can get easy yards on a drag route to Bud Sasser. Bad throw: 1

Fifth pass, 2nd and 4,

Bubble screen intended for Marcus Murphy, thrown high and is tipped off Murphy's fingers then is intercepted

An example of Mauk's mechanics having an impact on his ability to make certain throws, this is a duck of a pass that's thrown simply too high to Murphy, forcing him to stab at it above his head and deflect it into the defender's hands. We talk about deflected interceptions not being the Quarterback's fault, but there is a grey area here when a pass is poorly thrown/placed, especially to an inexperienced receiver like Murphy who normally is a running back. Bad throw: 0.5, Bad catch: 0.5

Sixth pass, 1st and 10

#80 Sean Culkin motions right inside Jimmie Hunt, bubble screen to J'Moon Moore picks up 17 yards, great blocking by Culkin and Hunt. Moore is a larger receiver so this time Mauk's pass is the perfect height for him. Good throw: 1

Seventh pass, 1st and 10

Jimmie Hunt motions left to inside Bud Sasser, Mauk rolls out right, throws the ball away. I think this is one of only two instances where I saw of Mauk feeling "Casper" and trying to scramble before necessary.

This was the play I was talking about earlier where Morse actually gets his guy on the ground but then lets him back up. It doesn't impact the play but it struck me as odd. You want to see the first example of Mauk scrambling without pressure, it's the above GIF. If he steps up into the pocket or even stays still he's fine for at least another few seconds, but he bails out to the sideline as well as toward the pressure. Had he stepped up and gone through the gap between the LT and the LG, he would have forced the linebacker to decide between Mauk keeping it or Hansbrough in the flat. Casper: 1

Eighth pass, 3rd and 11

Sean Culkin motions right to inside J'Mon Moore, Maty drops back, scans the field, can't find anything, rolls right and throws the ball away

Another example of Mauk scrambling due to phantom pressure, as well as being unable to quickly reset and find receivers down the field once he goes into scramble mode. It looks like he's been coached to avoid stepping up to run in situations like this and Georgia has a linebacker spying him on the intersection of the 50 yard line and the right hash-mark to prevent him from picking up the first down. Again I'm curious about the routes call here, on both sides the receivers cross but the most open receiver is Bud Sasser cutting over the middle from the X - and that takes him nearly 14 yards to get marginally open. I'll call this half phantom pressure and half a good throwaway by Mauk. Casper: 1

Ninth pass, 2nd and 10

Quick hitch route to Jimmie Hunt for five yards. Good Throw: 1

It's on the play we call attention to something David Morrison points out from his Snap Count article:

The second thing: the longer Mauk had, the worse off he was, pretty much. It seems fairly odd, but it was true. At least for this game. When Mauk went fewer than 2 seconds from snap to first action, by my stopwatch, he completed more than half of his passes for 81 yards. He had three interceptions, but two of them were the Murphy and Hunt drops. When he had more than two seconds, he fared worse: 3 sacks, completing 2 of 8 and his final interception of the day. On that play, he sat in the pocket for 5 seconds before escaping and throwing into a crowd of four Georgia defenders.

[Here the above video shows Mauk on an option run to the left where he's tackled for a loss, that's not a pass play so I'm ignoring it for these purposes]

Tenth pass, 1st and 10

Mauk tries to find Sean Culkin on a seam route up the middle, but Culkin trips, incomplete pass. Culkin is relatively well covered by the safety, but an inside catch was definitely possible and would have meant a first down. I think this is a good throw by Mauk and not his fault. Bad Catch: 1

Eleventh pass, 3rd and 6

Mauk actually hangs in the pocket trying to look down field but is sacked

I discussed the play in a previous post, I think the problem is, even Culkin's route needs to be a short in or drag route to take advantage of the linebacker having to cover Hansbrough in the left flat. Georgia gets pressure off the right side of the offensive line, DT #88 stunting outside while DE #59 stunts inside, but #88 actually beats Chappell back inside to force Mauk off his spot and into the sack. Pressured: 1

Twelfth pass, 1st and 10

Quick hook pass to Bud Sasser for a first down. You might noticed that Sasser bobbles the pass slightly here but is able to reel it in. Heyoo quick short passes for positive yards! Good throw: 1

Thirteenth pass, 1st and 10

Quick out left to #24 Lawrence Lee, runs out of bounds. Yeah, momentum! Good Throw: 1

Fourteenth pass, 1st and 10

#84 from Georgia forces a fumble from Maty Mauk as he's winding up to throw, RT Chappell gives up the pressure. Pressured: 1

Fifteenth pass, 1st and 10

Dump off pass to Marcus Murphy over the middle, first down conversion. Good Throw: 1

Sixteenth pass, 1st and 10

LT Mitch Morse gets beat outside by #84, RT Chappell gets beat by #47 who is bearing down on Mauk, he's forced to roll out left and reset for a deep heave to Wesley Leftwich that's dropped and wouldn't have counted due to a hold. Pressured: 1

Seventeenth pass, 2nd and 2

Quick slant to Jimmie Hunt gains 24 yards, Good Throw: 1

Eighteenth pass, 1st and 10

Quick slant (again) to Jimmie Hunt, is bobbled and intercepted by Georgia. Bad Catch: 1

Nineteenth pass, 1st and 10

Quick bubble screen to Bud Sasser picks up about 4 yards. Again, a quick throw nets positive yards! Good Throw: 1

Twentieth pass, 1st and 10

Mauk drops back, but sees #84 beat RT Chappell inside and he's forced to roll left and pick up four yards with his legs. Problem with this play is absolutely no one is open even if he did have protection. Pressured: 1

Twenty first pass, 1st and 10

Mauk attempts a quick outside hitch route to Bud Sasser on the left sideline but Sasser can't reel the pass in. Bad Throw: 0.5, Bad Catch: 0.5

Twenty second pass, 2nd and 10

This play is an example of Maty Mauk making something out of nothing. Pressure comes off the right side immediately, DE #47 comes off the edge unblocked and Mauk has to scramble while keeping his eyes down field, fortunately he's running to his right side and doesn't turn his back on the receivers.

The fact that Mauk is able to keep this play alive is a testament to the reason the coaches probably start him, as is the rope he throws to J'Mon Moore to pick up a first down. Good Throw: 1

Twenty third pass, 2nd and 8

Mauk has FOREVER to throw the ball, does TWO spin moves, then throws a deep pass to Marcus Murphy short which is intercepted.

Maty rolling left should almost never try and force the ball into any kind of coverage. Go deep and risk overthrowing the receiver, or throw it very short for a sure gain or throw it away. Even setting your feet (slightly) he didn't have the angle or the arm strength to put the ball into that narrow of a window.

Would you like to see the textbook on how NOT to throw a pass? Look at the GIF above. Even the GIF's URL is indicative of how bad this pass is (Lame Vengeful Bufflehead). Mauk is drifting left and trying to throw across his body, can't set his feet because of the Georgia defender in his face. He side arms it and it floats into the waiting arms of the Georgia secondary, never a chance in the world to reach Marcus Murphy. Terrible Throw: 1

Twenty fourth pass, 1st and 10

Mizzou tries to run a screen to Marcus Murphy here, Mauk hops when he throws it to get it over the arms of the oncoming pass rush, which makes Marcus Murphy hop to catch it, Murphy then tries to cut it back only to be tackled for a minimal gain. Good Throw: 1

Conclusion

There you have Maty Mauk's 9 completion on 21 attempts, including 3 sacks for  97 yards, zero touchdowns and 4 interceptions is like the mirror image of Maty Mauk's 17/28 for 203 yards, 5 touchdown, zero interception game against Kentucky last year, so I think it's safe to say we've seen the ceiling and the floor of Maty's abilities.

I broke down the 24 attempts like this:

Pressure: 6

3 on Tyler Chappell, 2.5 on Mitch Morse and 0.5 on Evan Boehm

Casper: 2

Both times the phantom pressure came from Mauk's blindside, and on consecutive plays

Good Throw: 9

2 to J'Moon Moore - bubble screen, side line scramble
1 to Lawrence Lee - short out
2 to Jimmie Hunt - short hitch, short slant
2 to Marcus Murphy - both dump off passes
2 to Bud Sasser - both short hitches

Bad Throw: 3

Terrible Throw: 1

Bad Catch: 3

1 on Jimmie Hunt, 0.5 on Marcus Murphy, 1 on Sean Culkin, 0.5 on Bud Sasser

Obviously much of this is subjective. I watched each play several times and attempted to discern not just the intent of the players but the degree to which they were at fault/responsible for the outcome of the play and you may disagree. Regardless, of the 24 plays, the 9 good throws correlate with the 9 completions, while of the remaining 15 attempts, 6 were negative plays due to Maty Mauk while 9 were negative plays due not exclusively due to Maty Mauk.

Maty had one spectacular play (the laser to J'Mon Moore) and one terrible play (INT to Murphy).

I think it's important to highlight that each time Mauk rolled out was due to inside pressure where a defensive lineman beat one of Mizzou's tackles inside and got in Mauk's face. How he choose to react to pressure (the spin move where he took his eyes off his receivers down field) is obviously not ideal, but it was triggered by Mauk having to improvise.

Of Mauk's turnovers, one came entirely due to pressure (the fumble), one come entirely due to the receiver (the second INT to Jimmie Hunt) and two came from bad-to-terribad decision making by Mauk.

Play calling has been discussed at length, by myself and others, but on review, I only saw 2-3 plays where I think the routes ran by the receivers significantly affected Mauk's ability to create a positive play.

That's about all I have time for on this matter.