Very true.

Posted on: November 25, 2017 at 23:05:14 CT

Moore and Hall are good.

Maclin and Alexander were all-Americans.

Okwuegbunam is outstanding for a freshman.

Coffman was an outstanding junior. And we also had Rucker, who was himself a stud.

We also have Johnson and Floyd who make occasional plays.

Saunders dropped fewer passes in his entire career than those guys do in any given game.

On top of all that, the 2007 offense was designed to create easy catches. Often guys would get their hands on the ball right around the line of scrimmage with blockers in front of them. Those kinds of screens eliminate the loss of focus that comes from knowing there's a safety or linebacker coming for your head. There's also less of a need to make a quick move to pick up yards, as you reasonably expect your blockers will take care of the first guy.

Back then, as was often said, a big part of the passing game was an extension of the run game. Basically long handoffs. We do very little of that with this team. We attack downfield, and as a result we ask our receivers to make harder plays.

All that said, they still drop far more than they should. But there's really no way to compare the two teams. Back then we had more talented players and an offense designed to make it easier on them in a lot of ways.