If you live by the gun, then there is a good chance you will die by the gun.
In this case, the gun is AJ McCarron’s arm. After watching Alabama dominate Penn State on Saturday, I noticed that McCarron had a little bit of gunslinger in him.
With quarterbacks, the term gunslinger is usually given to the guy who seriously thinks he can make every throw, no matter what the coverage is, and consistently tries to fit footballs into pinholes. Some notable quarterbacks who have been hit with the gunslinger tag include Brett Favre and Jay Cutler.
Favre is great and owns nearly every important quarterback statistic, but he is also known to lose games by forcing throws and trying to play outside of the offense. Cutler…. well, Cutler is another story completely.
Before I go on, let me say that I am not hating on McCarron or knocking his performance. I believe he has all of the tools to be a great quarterback and with proper coaching, he will ultimately lead the Crimson Tide to a championship.
McCarron played a solid game once he finally settled in and got rid of the road jitters. He made some nice decisions, went through his progressions, often dumping the ball off when there was no one open, and controlled the offense like a veteran quarterback.
With that said, one thing that jumped out at me after breaking down McCarron’s performance was that McCarron has a ton of confidence in his arm.
He threw a few questionable passes that should have been picked off, including his touchdown to tight end Michael Williams.
When Alabama gets into conference play, those questionable passes will be picked off. No disrespect to Penn State’s defense, but they don’t have the elite perimeter speed of LSU or Florida.
At Alabama, quarterbacks are taught to be game managers whose job is more not to lose the game than it is to win it. To be successful at Alabama, a quarterback just needs to not make mistakes, hand the ball off and of course, not make mistakes (that’s so important I had to say it twice).
Gunslingers aren’t accustomed to playing that way. Gunslingers like to prove to the world that their arms are magical cannons that have the ability to make throws seen only in video games. And if my assessment of McCarron is correct, then he is surely cut from the same mold as the Favres and Cutlers of the world.
If McCarron is chosen as the next Tide quarterback (Saban hasn’t officially announced that he will be), then the coaching staff will have to constantly monitor his throws and teach him that you don’t always have to go for the big play.
But coaching usually doesn’t get through to the gunslingers. They come from a completely different breed of quarterback. The only way they learn is by losing.
For McCarron’s sake, I hope that losing comes in practices and not a real game.
