1. In the 4th quarter yesterday, Simpson began to look like a leader, handled the position well (similar to AJ in some of his games) and did not make a mistake resulting in a turnover. He may not be the best option going forward, but his performance should give him some confidence.
2. I will admit that there were points where I wanted to see Milroe at QB, but that was frustration due to the offense not producing. A fair evaluation of the Texas game shows that reading defenses and the intermediate passing game are problems for him and yesterday, Simpson looked sharp on some of those passes. If he continues to improve, that could help open up the running game and take some of the pressure off the quarterback by slowing down the rush.
3. The key moving forward is to play turnover free football on offense and pray that the defense can produce a couple of turnovers each week. We knew coming into this season that we would have to depend on the defense to save us in some games and that happened yesterday. It may not be able to do that in the coming weeks, but let's take it one step at a time and see what happens. Both the offense and defense should show some improvement each game and a little improvement can make a lot of difference.
4. Having Nick Saban on the sidelines is worth points in every game. With Milroe, he sees what could be. Part of the problem is the unexpected negative things that may happen when he is in the game. Simpson is not going to overpower a defense, but after seeing him hold onto the ball after some of the hits he took yesterday, it looks like he is not going to give points away either.
5. The problem is that the coaches cannot know how the games will turn out based on which starter is selected. Are we better off with Milroe and a dynamic, mistake prone offense and the possibility of a long scoring strike on any play or Simpson with better ball security and the chance that we cannot score enough points to keep up if the defense is having a bad day?