Steve Sarkisian and the Sundance Kid
After nearly three years of watching Steve Sarkisian and Quinn Ewers together, I think it’s fair to say this combination basically is what it is.
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Ewers’ lack of consistent and reproducible mechanics in the pocket doesn’t mesh well with Sark’s love of creating open post routes deep or working deep into a progression in the dropback passing game. On the other hand, Ewers’ tremendous touch on throws at the top of his drop or off-platform on screens and scrambles are uniquely great and Sark has been able to leverage that into one of the best screening offenses I’ve ever seen.
Yet it just hasn’t all come together for the Longhorn offense with this duo and I think it’s fairly plain why this is the case. Sarkisian’s offense is built for pocket passing and Quinn Ewers simply isn’t a traditional pocket passing quarterback.
The Sundance Kid dilemma
For my fellow millennials and other younger readers, there’s a very famous film in American cinema called “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” in which a pair of robber buddies try to make their way in the American West.
At one point, they attempt to “go straight” and give up thieving for lawful work as payroll guards. A suspicious boss asks the Sundance Kid to demonstrate his ability to accurately fire his pistol at a small but stationary target…
When trying to stand still and fire off a clean shot, Sundance doesn’t impress. He doesn’t have the right balance and isn’t accurate. When he’s allowed to do his preferred and practiced quick draw and duck? He’s a total deadeye.
Can you see where I’m going with this?
Here were some of Ewers’ better throws against Arkansas.
He’s similarly good in the screen and RPO game because the talent is similar. The goal is to fire off an accurate ball from whatever arm angle works as quickly as possible. It’s not about precise footwork and there’s not a lot of process, it’s mostly arm and whether you can hit the throw or not. When Ewers is on the move and the calibration of a throw comes down to his arm and core, he produces unbelievable results.
Standing in the pocket and throwing on time off a read?
Not very good.
Do you notice how when he’s not shooting off the draw, his balance isn’t right and the mechanics break down leading to misses? He can’t get the timing right and can’t sync it up with his feet to allow himself to step up and drive the ball down the field, leading to lofted tosses that never land at the right place on time.
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You can say, “well he had the oblique injury and…” but it’s the same thing for three years now. Go look up some of his amazing plays against Michigan and you’ll see the same thing, he’s in Sundance mode throwing on the move.
So what does this mean?
Ideally Ewers would find the right rhythm to hit a few of these open deep shots Sark schemes up every week. One thing that’s been working pretty well and creates a bit of a compromise is to have Ewers look off the primary read and work to it with movement.
You can tell on these that Ewers knows what he’s going to find on the backside and consequently is in quick-draw mode. I doubt he was really planning to throw to the first side. When there’s hesitation or he needs to see it first and has to reset his feet unexpectedly, things break down. When he’s throwing at the top of the drop, all is well.
Beyond the fact that looking off safeties is a good idea in general, Sark probably needs to encourage Ewers to try and look off some of the deeper routes and see if he can help him sync up his feet and eyes better.
Overall, Ewers is what he is. Perhaps he’ll land a post route in a big game in the coming weeks, he’s done it before, but Sark’s ability to set him up with as many quick draw shots as possible is going to be the difference between a solid season and winning the SEC Championship/making a playoff run. Let the Sundance Kid move and see what he can hit for this final stretch.
