The late-season swoon for Ty Simpson has caused all sorts of problems for the Alabama offense. He had his worst game to date in Saturday's SEC Championship Game loss to Georgia, and his struggles call into question whether or not Alabama will be able to advance at all in the College Football Playoff.
The Crimson Tide will need Simpson at his best next Friday night in Norman in a rematch against Oklahoma to have a shot at advancing to face Indiana in the Rose Bowl.
Alabama's offense issues certainly aren't all on Simpson. He's not getting help from the play calling, the running game, the offensive line, or the skill players on the outside. There have been too many protection busts, too many questionable calls, and too many dropped passes.
But Simpson is also missing things he saw a month ago. It's all fixable, but it will take a reset for Simpson in the playoff to change things. Former Alabama QB and two-time National Champion as the starter AJ McCarron, gave his assessment of what he's seen recently from Simpson and what the Tide's QB needs to do to fix things:
“I look at his eyes when I’m watching from the TV, but when I’m there in person, I’m watching his feet, and if there’s one thing I can tell him, it is to slow down from a processing standpoint,” McCarron said on The Dynasty podcast, via Touchdown Alabama Magazine. “You’ve played enough games. Trust what you see. Don’t overthink everything. Don’t try to be perfect. Know your rules. Know what your weaknesses are and go play the game.”
AJ McCarron says Ty Simpson needs to 'trust what he sees.'
It's good advice. Simpson is not trusting his eyes right now. He's also not trusting his protection, which is probably the bigger problem. Even when he has time to throw, he's abandoning clean pockets because he assumes they are going to break down.
To put it simply: Simpson is a quarterback who is playing scared. He's playing on his heels and isn't the confident signal-caller we saw in September and October.
Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb need to get him in better positions. Quicker routes, screen passes, designed roll-outs, whatever it takes to get Simpson into a rhythm and keep him from taking so many hits. And yes, finding some sort of running game would be a big help.
We've seen the player Simpson has the potential to be. Alabama will need to find a way to pull that out of him over the next eight days to have a chance at pulling out a road playoff win.