Spotlight #1: San Diego State QB Ryan Lindley 

Spotlight #2: San Diego State OLB Miles Burris 

1^st quarter

13:34: Lindley pressured and almost has it picked when he tries to throw it away. He needs to be smarter with that.

10:33: Lindley overthrows the back on a check down a bit, but the back could have hung on to this one.

9:50: A drop by Lindley’s receiver that almost gets the pass picked off. That should have been a first down. Instead, it’s the 2^nd 3 and out of the game.

9:37: After a penalty gives San Diego State new life, another one of Lindley’s passes is dropped. He should have caught this one, but again Lindley did leave it a little high and overthrow it a bit.

9:31: Lindley checks down to the back, finally completes one, goes for 16 yards after some nice moves by the back. Tank Carder, a falling prospect, missed a tackle on that play. The TCU linebacker is having a very poor year by his standards. Once a potential day 2 prospect, Carder is falling into mid day 3.

7:56: Lindley threads the needle for a first down. He put that ball in the perfect spot.

5:12: Lindley has another drop, this time by the back on the check down. It wasn’t the most accurate pass either, but Lindley is having terrible luck early. He’s 2 for 7 for 22 yards.

4:27: Lindley throws a limp ball behind the receiver and the defensive back is able to jump on it and deflect it. I don’t understand throwing to that receiver. He was covered and Lindley threw it very inaccurately.

2:02: Burris is able to beat a lineman for a borderline quarterback pressure.

1:51: Burris overpowered off of the play when rushing the quarterback.

0:13: Lindley complete for the first down on 1^st and 10, but throws off of his back foot.

2^nd quarter

14:27: Lindley has a screen pass set up, but is pummeled by a defensive lineman, forcing an incompletion.

13:24: Lindley puts a ball on an out route in the perfect place and the receiver is able to break a tackle and get a big gain, 33 yards.

11:26: Burris gets in on a tackle near the line, a small gain.

10:54: Burris gets into the backfield, but misses the tackle.

10:06: Junior cornerback Leon McFadden, who already has a nice deflection tonight, picks off the pass, goes 29 yards and then gets 15 more on a personal foul penalty. McFadden has been thrown away from all season and he looks like someone who is going to play on Sundays someday, but as he is a small school junior, I doubt he declares this year.

8:34: Absolutely terrible by Lindley. Lindley had a guy open deep. Instead, he threw it right to the safety. This wasn’t a bad decision, he saw the open guy, it was just terrible execution.

7:34: Burris gets outmuscled once again.

6:14: San Diego State puts a big hit on the quarterback as he released, but Casey Pachall shows resilience and completes it for a 31 yard touchdown anyway. Andy Dalton’s replacement, Pachall, looks much better than he did in his first career start against Baylor. He’s a sophomore and could be someone to watch in the future. He has nice numbers coming into tonight, 69.8% completion, 7.9 yards per attempt, and 13 touchdowns to 2 picks. Tonight, he’s 7 for 10 for 136 yards, 2 touchdowns, and that pick to McFadden.

5:58: Lindley checks down to the back.

4:59: Lindley throws a lob up for a receiver deep, just overthrow, receiver isn’t able to catch it on a dive. Close. San Diego State will punt it down 17-0 and Lindley is just 5 for 14 for 71 yards and a terrible pick.

3:32: Burris blown off a running play.

1:39: Burris gets pressure from behind on the quarterback, but Pachall hangs in there again and completes it anyway.

1:20: Burris initially makes the wrong read on the triple option, but he’s able to hang with the play and be the first one to get to the ball carrier. He couldn’t bring the ball carrier down himself though, which is troubling.

0:59: Pachall picked, this time it’s the other cornerback. Larry Parker with his 4^th pick of the year. However, at 5-11 170, he’s undersized and he’ll be hurt by being a small school cornerback. Besides, it’s not that hard to get 4 picks if teams are constantly throwing away from the other cornerback, Leon McFadden. Still a very nice play in this particular instance. Parker looked like a receiver on that pick.

3^rd quarter

10:59: Burris unblocked into the backfield with the quarterback pressure, forcing Pachall to throw it early for an incompletion.

9:55: Lindley drops back to pass and gets picked. A poor decision, an underthrow, and it’s unclear who he was throwing to. There was no receiver in the area. He sucks tonight, 5 of 16 for 71 yards and a pair of ugly picks. He’s completing just over 50% of his passes on the season against weak competition. I fail to understand why this guy is regarded as a mid rounder.

9:05: Burris relentless in pursuit after the back changes directions from east to west and gets in there on the tackle for a short gain.

6:56: Another ball off the hands of a San Diego State receiver, almost picked on the deflection.

6:30: Lindley sacked quickly.

6:09: Lindley checks down to the back, who doesn’t have a lot of space and is tackled for a loss after a great closing move by the defender.

5:34: Lindley leaves another one high, receiver can’t hang on and it’s batted up into the air. A lot of these “drops” have been on Lindley’s poor accuracy as much or more as they have been on poor hands by the receivers.

5:29: Lindley throws off his back foot, but strong enough to throw a perfect spiral through coverage in the end zone for a touchdown to the big 6-6 tight end. This is the one time tonight Lindley has looked good, but he wouldn’t have even been on the field there had TCU’s punt returner not muffed a punt.

4:40: Burris doesn’t fill a gap after the nose tackle was double teamed, and the running backs gets a sizeable gain through a big hole. Bad angle and instincts there.

2:16: Lindley throws high into coverage and the tight end is able to go up and get it there, and then break a couple tackles for a huge gain. Lindley put that one in the right spot, leaving it high for the receiver with a height advantage (6-6) and a pretty, accurate spiral as well. 39 yards.

1:56: Lindley rollouts and throws off his back foot and he’s literally inches away from completing it deep to the receiver. A different receiver might have been able to catch that.

1:52: Lindley with some momentum now, finds an open guy underneath for 8 yards. A better decision that he’s been making tonight.

0:42: Lindley overthrown and incomplete out of the back of the end zone on a fade.

4^th quarter

13:39: Lindley has nothing open in the end zone, so he checks down to the fullback, who has a clear path to the end zone for Lindley’s 2^nd touchdown of the night, 20-14 TCU, San Diego State is back in this game. Excellent decision by Lindley.

12:07: Miles Burris with a huge sack off the edge, forcing a punt by TCU. San Diego State has a shot to go up here.

10:42: Lindley with a clutch excellent decision and huge play on 3^rd and 12, finds the back in space with room for the first and he does get it.

10:08: And now Lindley has it picked off. So much for that.

5:23: Burris overly aggressive on a running play, going for the quarterback unblocked and taking himself completely out of the play as TCU was able to punch it in for 6 pretty much untouched.

5:09: Lindley back to work, complete for an intermediate gain.

5:00: Lindley with another intermediate completion, almost moving the gains again. He’s got a little momentum.

4:40: Lindley throws a bad, inaccurate ball, tipped up by the defender and almost picked.

0:00: I came into tonight excited to see Ryan Lindley, who is being mentioned as a potential mid round pick out of a small school. However, I was extremely disappointed. Lindley is barely completing more than 50% of his passes against weak competition. He struggled against Michigan and he struggled against a tougher defense here in TCU. He was 15 of 41 for 201 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 3 picks. His picks were ugly, especially the first two.

He had a lot of so called “drops”, but so many of those were because of because Lindley wasn’t accurate. With some better receivers, maybe he’s 18/19 of 41, but that still sucks, especially with how ugly those first 2 picks were. He flashed and I understood the types of things people are excited about with him, but he’s so inconsistent and so inaccurate. I don’t think he’s anything other than a late round flier at the most. His footwork needs work and his accuracy and decision making are terrible.

As for Miles Burris, he’s fast and a solid edge rusher, but at 235 pounds, he’s so small. He can’t play the rush linebacker position in the NFL like he does in college at his size. He’ll have to either be a 3-4 middle linebacker or a 4-3 outside linebacker and I don’t think he does the types of things he’ll have to do there well enough to be a starter at either of those positions at the next level.

He’s still small for either of those positions and he’s terrible against the run. He barely drops into coverage so it’s tough to say he makes up for his run play with his pass play. He might just be a situational player at the next level and a mid to late rounder in the 2012 NFL Draft.