For those anticipating a quarterback controversy, there wasn’t one. Jeremiah Masoli took all the reps with the first-team offense, despite his 4-of-16 performance in Oregon’s win over Utah. I tracked every pass Masoli threw in drills today; he was 50-of-64 for the day, with at least five drops, one ball thrown away and two nice breakups by defenders.
Masoli completed 33-of-36 until his one bad stretch, when he missed six straight throws over the middle to tight ends. Nothing horribly off the mark—in fact, the receivers were able to at least get a hand on pretty much all of them—but they tended to be a little high or in front of the mark. He ended the day completing 11-of-12, the one incompletion a ball thrown away out of bounds and the last attempt a 31-yard touchdown to Lavasier Tuinei in a “clutch” drill.
After practice each day, Chip Kelly chooses one player to break the team’s final huddle, and today he chose Masoli in what to all appearances was a vote of confidence.
The quarterbacks and a number of receivers then stayed late on their own to continue throwing for another 10 minutes or so. I’ll have more on Masoli and the passing game tomorrow, having had a good conversation with QB coach and offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich.
It's time to trust the coaches and to do what we can as fans to help Masoli gain back his confidence and swagger. Cheer him on and don't ... DON'T boo him.
Good post echo, just what some of the negaducks need to read. Just remember last year...
Over the middle passing has seemed to always be an issue with Masoli, which kinda stinks since that's a very high percentage throw in general. Height has to be a big factor in that.
My only problem with trusting Kelly on a QB issue...is that he fought Belotti when Belotti wanted to put DT in for Chris Harper in the BSU game...Kelly gets stubborn and thinks he can fix anything because he is so amazing...And he is so amazing but that doesn't mean Masoli is the better QB between him and Costa
I'd never boo Masoli, but there comes a point in time when someone else needs to be given a chance...Masoli better improve against Cal..just improve that's all I ask..yikes how far back he has fallen
Fair enough, I'll respect the coaches' decision. But he better show up on Saturday. This is his fourth opportunity as this season's starter, and he needs to start making things happen.
