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O.K., a few things to cover here.
1. The overwhelming odds when we kicked off at College Park were that even if we had gotten somewhat better or, God forbid, worse, we were going to be 1-2 after 3 games. That’s where we are. We looked as bad as I could have feared on opening day (unfortunately, the game I was at in person), but we looked significantly better than last year, and probably than I would have realistically hoped, in the last two games. Yes, yesterday was winnable (more on that in a moment), but we are record wise where everyone should have expected and quality of play, on balance, showing improvement. It was not a bad first quarter season. Now we get to the part of the schedule that will determine if we reach a bowl and if we can show improvement not just from last season but from ‘22 as well. Because from this moment on, there is probably only one game left (at Syracuse) that we are unlikely to have a reasonable chance to win.
2. I did not expect to be competitive yesterday, especially with Mora’s QB decision (again, more on that later), but we were. We didn’t look like we’d be after their opening possession, but from that moment on the defense was competitive, on the road, against a P-4 school. The offense more than struggled in the first half — I couldn’t believe we didn’t change QBs at the half — but then played much better on back to back drives. And we had a 4th Quarter lead and every chance to win the game and didn’t get it done. Sucks that we didn’t but this was always going to be an uphill struggle, and now we have chances to win games mostly at home (6 of the last 9) and against a lower quality of opponents.
3. The disparity in FG kickers was a huge factor in the loss. I pray that Mora knew what he was doing by going to get Freeman rather than focusing on keeping Ruelas (not to mention benching Ruelas for a McFadden who clearly wasn’t the same post injury) but the jury is out on that, at best, and may will argue that the votes are already being counted (to mix metaphors). I get that.
4. We just didn’t look good enough on the opening drive, but from that moment on the overall defensive performance was really good. After the first drive we gave up barely 300 yards of offense, 19 points and got a defensive TD. Tackling, pass coverage and rush defense — all far from perfect but light years ahead of what we saw in College Park a few weeks ago. Was Durante Jones playing in the first half? I didn’t see him. But the second half was the first time we’ve see Jones and Dixon-Williams on the field together, and not shockingly it looked to make a huge difference in a 5 DB set. I hope Yates is ready now also as we start the deciding portion of our schedule. But I’m hoping the defense is ready to lead us to a 2022 type season at a minimum.
5. Which takes us to the offense. So it was not good enough, and was poor for most of the game, but had a 20 minute stretch where it looked much more competent. The OL seems to be doing its job both running and passing, and the running game was really good. Edwards is going to be a stud by the time he’s done (assuming we can keep him here). The passing game? I really don’t get how you didn’t give Fagnano this game to see if last week was just a mirage, but tons have been said about that so I’m just writing this assuming Evers is the guy. So how was the guy? Clearly better then at Maryland, and therefore the hope is there that, when he gets to play at home and against non P-4 competition, he’s going to be better than what we’ve had for a while. And he did show skill running the ball. I’ll even put aside what looks to be inaccuracy until I see him next week. My concern, however, that I’m totally sold on is the fact that he locks in on one receiver all the time and there is no progressions. The number of times he threw to Bell when Bell was double covered (with a third DB keeping one eye on him) was frankly startling. I’m hard pressed to think that’s going to get better quickly, but it’s Mora’s call so we’ll see.
That’s what I’ve got. I think we’ll know a lot more about where this season is going after next week. Hope we get good weather, a good crowd and a good performance.
1. The overwhelming odds when we kicked off at College Park were that even if we had gotten somewhat better or, God forbid, worse, we were going to be 1-2 after 3 games. That’s where we are. We looked as bad as I could have feared on opening day (unfortunately, the game I was at in person), but we looked significantly better than last year, and probably than I would have realistically hoped, in the last two games. Yes, yesterday was winnable (more on that in a moment), but we are record wise where everyone should have expected and quality of play, on balance, showing improvement. It was not a bad first quarter season. Now we get to the part of the schedule that will determine if we reach a bowl and if we can show improvement not just from last season but from ‘22 as well. Because from this moment on, there is probably only one game left (at Syracuse) that we are unlikely to have a reasonable chance to win.
2. I did not expect to be competitive yesterday, especially with Mora’s QB decision (again, more on that later), but we were. We didn’t look like we’d be after their opening possession, but from that moment on the defense was competitive, on the road, against a P-4 school. The offense more than struggled in the first half — I couldn’t believe we didn’t change QBs at the half — but then played much better on back to back drives. And we had a 4th Quarter lead and every chance to win the game and didn’t get it done. Sucks that we didn’t but this was always going to be an uphill struggle, and now we have chances to win games mostly at home (6 of the last 9) and against a lower quality of opponents.
3. The disparity in FG kickers was a huge factor in the loss. I pray that Mora knew what he was doing by going to get Freeman rather than focusing on keeping Ruelas (not to mention benching Ruelas for a McFadden who clearly wasn’t the same post injury) but the jury is out on that, at best, and may will argue that the votes are already being counted (to mix metaphors). I get that.
4. We just didn’t look good enough on the opening drive, but from that moment on the overall defensive performance was really good. After the first drive we gave up barely 300 yards of offense, 19 points and got a defensive TD. Tackling, pass coverage and rush defense — all far from perfect but light years ahead of what we saw in College Park a few weeks ago. Was Durante Jones playing in the first half? I didn’t see him. But the second half was the first time we’ve see Jones and Dixon-Williams on the field together, and not shockingly it looked to make a huge difference in a 5 DB set. I hope Yates is ready now also as we start the deciding portion of our schedule. But I’m hoping the defense is ready to lead us to a 2022 type season at a minimum.
5. Which takes us to the offense. So it was not good enough, and was poor for most of the game, but had a 20 minute stretch where it looked much more competent. The OL seems to be doing its job both running and passing, and the running game was really good. Edwards is going to be a stud by the time he’s done (assuming we can keep him here). The passing game? I really don’t get how you didn’t give Fagnano this game to see if last week was just a mirage, but tons have been said about that so I’m just writing this assuming Evers is the guy. So how was the guy? Clearly better then at Maryland, and therefore the hope is there that, when he gets to play at home and against non P-4 competition, he’s going to be better than what we’ve had for a while. And he did show skill running the ball. I’ll even put aside what looks to be inaccuracy until I see him next week. My concern, however, that I’m totally sold on is the fact that he locks in on one receiver all the time and there is no progressions. The number of times he threw to Bell when Bell was double covered (with a third DB keeping one eye on him) was frankly startling. I’m hard pressed to think that’s going to get better quickly, but it’s Mora’s call so we’ll see.
That’s what I’ve got. I think we’ll know a lot more about where this season is going after next week. Hope we get good weather, a good crowd and a good performance.
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