USC Football QB Caleb Williams has been unreal this season for the Trojans. That's a statement everyone would agree with, as he's completed 67.3% of his passes for 8.8 yards a pass attempt and 10 adjusted yards per pass attempt. He's scored 15 touchdowns (12 passing), and only turned the ball over once. He's tacked on 144 rushing yards too.
The one thing he's been criticized for, and this dates back to his time at Oklahoma; is his tendency to hold the ball too long and look for home runs that maybe aren't there, instead of hitting his check downs when necessary. That criticism needs to be delivered in context, however, as Williams has also evaded LOTS of sacks this year at the same time, that he's miraculously scampered away from.
In fact, Ryan Kartje of the LA Times found that Williams has created two full seconds of added time to throw while under pressure (4.5 seconds to throw), as opposed to when he is not under pressure (2.5 seconds to throw). That's absurd, and goes to show just how amazing Williams is at avoiding pressure and not taking sacks. He's only gone down 10 times so far this season.
Kartje also found that nobody in the country has produced more time to throw while being under pressure than Williams' 4.5 seconds. It's really not too surprising. Williams has been superman this year when attempting to avoid sacks whenever it's come up all year. It's got to the point where he looks like he's not even under pressure when he really is.
USC Football QB Caleb Williams has pulled out every move in the book to evade defenders this year.
USC Football signal-caller Caleb Williams has been seen picking up and throwing a defender via a stiff arm this year. He's been seen taking snaps that were thrown over his head that he's run back, corralled, and juked his way to chunk gains. He's been seen pulling off a spin and a juke back-to-back to send multiple defenders flying. He's done it all.
He's used his abilities as a runner in the backfield in buying him time to throw and escape pressure. It's not a bad strategy, as Williams has averaged 4.8 yards per carry over the course of his career.
A true dual-threat, he's proven to be just as tough to bring down in the pocket as he is in the open field. It goes to show that he knows how to put the team on his back, and make that offensive line look even better than it is.