Connor Cook will lead the Raiders to a playoff win over Texans

Connor Cook is making his first career start for the Oakland Raiders Saturday and it just so happens to be a playoff game against the Houston Texans.

I found it fascinating listening to oth Mike Golic and Brian Billick speak about why Connor Cook would not be successful on Mike and Mike Thursday. Their major criticism was that he was inaccurate in college.

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Billick was the more critical of the inaccuracy and even mentioning that college quarterbacks have it easy because all they have to do is “look to the sideline” or draw a quick screen. Obviously Billick’s remarks are a generalization of all college quarterbacks and his commentary is inaccurate of the Michigan State pro-style offense that has their quarterbacks reading and understanding defenses.

True, Cook was under a 60 percent completion rate in college. However, numbers do not always tell the tale nor describe the legacy of a quarterback. This is why John Gruden has been a cheerleader for Cook, but it is also what has earned Cook his share of criticism.

Gruden goes under the hood and digs into QBs to find out if they can compete at the next level. Many critics often only look at the numbers. Well, here is a stat Cook won two Big Ten Championships in three years at MSU through his play.

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It’s the uninformed opinion as well as the “he was not a captain” criticism that led many experts to purport that Jared Goff should be the No. 1 pick (the jury is still out on him). By the way, Goff’s play is not necessarily panning out for the Rams. Goff was highly accurate in his last year at California and his play this year leaves much to be desired. Numbers do not always tell the tale.

One only has to watch a full game of Connor Cook at MSU to understand that the criticism from the talking heads is unjustified and faulty.

Cook routinely went downfield, 15-plus yards, with the ball rather than settling for the easier dump off passes. He excelled at the 50/50 ball and he will do that again on Saturday against the Texans. Penn State coach James Franklin called Connor Cook the most NFL ready quarterback. There was a reason he said that, because he was on the other end of those games losing to the Spartans.

Many college gunslingers are unable to run the pro-style offense that MSU uses and they go into the NFL ill-prepared to face defenses. However, coach Mark Dantonio has prepared four quarterbacks to be NFL-caliber players. Cook is a rookie and they make mistakes and this logic and criticism is justified.

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Cook is a gamer and has always, when healthy, proven himself. He’ll have to do that again on Saturday. It’s also the reason the Raiders have an excellent chance to win.