The most exciting moment of this years Senior Bowl was the opening kick-off. Southeastern Louisiana's Robert Alford took the ball and shot through the middle of the kick coverage and went 85 yards before being brought down at the opposing fifteen yard line by a face mask tackle. From that point it was a pretty tough game to watch if you were tuning in to see the offenses excel.
The QBs really struggled in this game. Ryan Nassib of Syracuse went 4 for 10 with a pick. Oklahoma's Landry Jones went 3 for 9 for 16 yards. NC State's Mike Glennon was 8 of 16 for 82 yards. Tyler Wilson of Arkansas was 8 of 11 but only for 40 yards but severely underthrew Arkansas teammate Cobi Hamilton in the first half on a throw that should have been picked off. Miami of Ohio's Zac Dysert cleaned up in the two-minute drill at the end of the game to finish 10 of 16 for 93 yards and a TD but he also had an INT and a fumble (which was luckily recovered by a teammate). The best performance by a QB was by FSU's EJ Manuel. Manuel didn't look great but he did finish 7 of 10 for 76 yards (1 INT and 1 TD). More importantly for Manuel is that he led his team on three TD drives (one of them was just under 15 yards due to the Alford return on the opening play of the game). The best play of the game from Manuel was a beautiful twenty yard TD pass to Alabama TE Michael Williams that floated right over the defender.
Eric Galko of Optimum Scouting says not to worry too much about the performance of the QBs though…
Don't jump to conclusions on these QBs based off this game. Nothing changed based off this game for them.
— Eric Galko (@OptimumScouting) January 27, 2013
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So who stood out in the game? BYU's Ziggy Ansah really jumped off of the TV screen. He finished with 7 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss, caused a fumble and broke up a pass. Not too shabby. As a Georgia guy, I was keeping my eye on some of the Bulldogs and Cornelius Washington really had a good game. He was only credited with one tackle but he also had a sack and a forced fumble and was beating his man on a regular basis. At Georgia the last few years he's seemed a little lost in the 3-4 as he doesn't quite fit the mold of the 3-4 DE or OLB and if he gets with an NFL team as a straight up 4-3 pass rushing DE he could have a very nice career. Baccari Rambo of Georgia also had a nice interception of Ryan Nassib in the first half.
When you talk about the Senior Bowl and games of this type, the game is very important but so is the week of practice leading up to the game. For more coverage of the week leading up to the game make sure you check out Optimum Scouting as they were on-hand to cover the game.
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