Here are some things to keep in mind when watching football.

A number of plays involve timing throws. The QB throws the ball before the player makes his final break, so the ball is there before the defense has time to react. If the receiver does not run the route correctly, there is no way for the QB to adjust as the ball is already gone. The novice will see this as a bad throw or a high throw, when in fact, the receiver did not do what they did in practice for hours and hours to establish said timing.

On certain routes, the QB and receiver have to adjust routes based on the defense. For instance, when running some crossing type routes, if the defense is in man, the receiver continues to run in the same direction and the QB leads accordingly. If the defense is in zone, the receiver runs to and then settles into a zone and the QB throws to the soft spot. The QB will throw the receiver open. The ball can appear to be behind the receiver, but in actuality, if the QB fully leads the receiver, it will be an interception or get the receiver killed. The novice will see this as an under thrown pass. In the film room, the coaches will tell the QB it was the correct read and in some cases, tell the receiver he leaked too far out of the soft spot.

A 9 route is when a receiver runs down the field typically on an outside release. A ball that is caught 40 yards down field is released by the QB when the receiver is say 25 yards down field. Give or take. Wind and QB depth and location affect this, but it is safe to say that you are throwing to a spot far down field where no one is at at the time of the throw. If you are about to get sacked in the end zone and you have a guy on a 9 route, it is not a bad option to chuck it 45 yards down field and get an incompletion. You make this throw, knowing the guy is on a 9 route. If the receiver stops at 25 yards, by choice or due to getting tangled up with a defender, it will look like a bad throw. Again, I can see how a novice would just see the throw and not understand everything else that goes on and form an uneducated opinion. Fact is, we don’t know if it was a 9 route. Maybe the QB thinks it was. Maybe the receiver forgot or loafed because it was a run off route from the play. Maybe the receiver was held and broke it off. Maybe it wasn’t a 9 route and the QB forgot. Hard to say.

I hope this clears stuff up for y’all so you can watch football smarter in the future.