Hey Ewker - about VY....

I hear what you’re saying. I see Earl Campbell around town from time to time and for a man who has to be only about 52 years-old, he moves about like he’s 90. Even though Vince Young doesn’t carry 30 times a game, nor does he lower his shoulders to punish linebackers like Earl did, there is still no doubt that running is punishing and that it does take its toll. So I honestly respect your point of view.

But just remember that even non-running quarterbacks take their share of abuse too. In fact, nothing’s more vicious than a sitting duck getting blindsided in the pocket.

I don’t know if you were a fan of this franchise in the late ‘70s but Dan Pastorini took a licking. Outside this franchise other non-running quarterback injuries I can think of off the top of my head was the Redskin’s Joe Theisman’s horrific leg snap along about the mid-‘80s. And Troy Aikman who played behind of the better OLs of the time had to hang up his cleats because of recurrent-concussions.

But as for VY, you say you’d like to see him take his passing skills to another level. I think that will happen. The man has an incredible work ethic and he’s very smart. He steadily improved his passing skills each year he was at Texas and in doing so he did cut down on his running slightly.

year / completion percentage / yards / TDs to INTs
2003 / 58.7 / 1155 / 6-7
2004 / 59.2 / 1849 / 12-11
2005 / 65.2 / 3036 / 26-10

year / rushes-yards / YPC / TDs
2003 / 135-998 / 7.4 /11
2004 / 167-1189 / 6.5 / 14
2005 / 155-1050 / 6.8 / 12

 

Not that many of you care, but as an FYI for anybody who likes comedy…

24 hours ago a Houstonian posted on www.hornfans.com (a Texas Longhorn fansite) that “All of the Titans Bandwagonning is ridiculous.” The guy has been absolutely slammed by Texas fans ever since. There’s been about 150 posts in the last 24 hours and while there is a small smattering of Texan fans who hate Bud Adams, the overwhelming response is that most Texas fans, Dallas fans, old Oiler fans and some Texan fans have all become Titans fans, thanks to Vince Young.

Y’all may find some of the posts amusing. There was one in there about “why should Texans give a damn about Tennessee?” and someone else replied “because if it wasn’t for some volunteers from Tennessee, we’d all be soccer fans in Mexico right now.” Heh! Classic stuff.
http://forums.hornfans.com/php/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=football&Number=4657932&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart=

 

That sounds reasonable to me, TNThunder. I’d like to think that Vince Young will still be around 15 years from now and will have evolved into just a mobile quarterback who can throw any pass but still scramble on the rare occasion it’s called for.

In fact, one thing that has worried me a little is that Jeff Fisher and Norm Chow are so actively encouraging Vince to use his feet. That’s quite a departure from last year when Mack Brown and Greg Davis encouraged him to trust his passing skills more.

But I suppose it’s worked out all right so far.

And it actually looks like the game has slowed down for Vince these last couple of weeks. Throughout practice, preseason and the first 9 games of the year or so, VY looked poised and there were flashes of talent but he also looked like he was in over his head at times. Now he’s just beginning to look like he’s totally in command.

Don’t be surprised if one of these weekends he’ll have a 21 of 24 outing or something insane like that and you’ll be able to say the three incompletions were two drops and a spike.

VY was pretty average at passing his first year and half at Texas and then suddenly something clicked and he became Phil Simms in Super Bowl XXI. These last couple of weeks I could’ve sworn I was seeing that same kind of transformation take place.