Let's put a couple myths to bed

Myth #1: Paul Chaney could have caught that ball if he had stayed on his feet.

Uh, no. The angle provides terrible depth perception on the end of the play, so it's easy to misinterpret the end of the play. The slow-motion replay from :25 to :42 tells you everything you need to know—mainly, that Chaney and the ball weren’t on the same line. The ball falls at least a yard or two closer to the hash mark than where Chaney had been running. There’s no way he could have kept stride, adjusted his route that much, and stayed fast enough to catch up to the ball.

This sort of revisionist fan-think is upsetting, because it heaps the L onto the shoulders of one kid (Chaney) rather than a team that had spent the previous 59 minutes as being largely ineffective, due to inexperience or poor in-game coaching. Chaney did everything he could, but there’s literally nobody on the team who could have caught that ball.

Now, if you still need something to criticize, there's always a wide open Albert Young at the first down line. Check out the first few seconds of the clip again, but now watch him come out of the backfield and occupy the space the first two receivers cleared out. Sick yet?

Myth #2: AJ Edds is moving to tight end.

It’s understandable for reporters to get a hardon about situations like this, where AJ Edds spends time after practice working on his hands. He was a tight end in high school, after all. But switching him to offense is flatly ridiculous. He is a vital teammate on the defense, whereas he has spent no time running routes with Jake Christensen. You honestly think Ferentz would give up a proven linebacker with an all-conference future just to start experimenting with tight ends for a few weeks while Tony Moeaki recovers? Even Steve Kragthorpe calls that "questionable."

Besides, if Ferentz wants to switch guys to tight end, why not do so with Christian Ballard? He’s a, as Phil Steele would say, "VHT (#6!)" at tight end, and although he moved to the defensive line, it’s not as if he’s even in the two-deeps at this point. Go ahead and move him back over for a while. It didn’t stunt Damian Sims’ growth to spend time at cornerback, and Ballard can still be a dominant defender a year or two down the line while helping out at TE for now.