Not sure how literally you can take stats. I love Ainge, and think he a great QB, but I am not sure I would rank him as better than Clausen nor Manning quite yet. He has a tendency to crumble against good defenses. Sorry, but defenses dont just disguise defenses to try to fool the offensive coordinator who is calling in the plays and the rookie QB who is still learning, but then when the QB matures they stop.... Masking formations, cheating safties up and then having them fall back into pass coverage are part of the game. Perhaps he is leaning too much on Sanders's playcalling, but I have seen quite a few throws he should not have thrown. Statistically alot of his INTs were not his fault, but i consider them more the karmatic balance for quite a few bad throws that should have been picked off. Recievers will drop balls, but they can sure make bad throws look like good ones. Also someone needs to work on route running because either the recievers are running the wrong routes too much or Ainge is throwing the ball in the wrong place too much.
Erik does seem to have lots of poise and is hard to rattle, but I also think he iis lacking the heart of Casey. I am sure he has heart, but it just seems like there is no emotion there alot of times. Football is a game. The more fun you are having, amazingly the better you do while feeling it almost effortless.
I guess alot of it might be playcalling. I am just tired of watching teams like USC and others and sit there thinking, "I wish we could pass like that" as they hit 20" yard slants and go routes. This season is actually the most I have seen the team throw down the field instead of across it. I just hate seeing many of the times we try going downfield, it becoming an incompletion and not always due to great defense.
