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It was funny watching a game proceed as completely opposite the week before as possible. Against Rice, in the first half, neither team moved the ball a lick, there was no flow and it was unwatchable. Friday night, both teams moved the ball, third downs were converted at a high rate by both teams, and the first half was almost half an hour shorter than the prior week. And then we put the running game together, didn’t need to throw the ball, opened a 21 point lead and despite not realizing how to receive a 10 yard kick held on. So the probably unprecedented homestand finishes 5-1, the record goes up to 6-3, bowl eligibility is achieved with three games left and on to Birmingham for another winnable game.
The passing game looked better — competent if not overwhelming — until we decided we didn’t have to throw the ball any more. And no, we didn’t have to throw anymore. The makeshift OL, with Cassidy snapping, did their job, Robinson didn’t have the week he had the week before but Brown and Edwards picked up the slack and we ran the ball down their throats. I’m not sure whether running on 4th and 2 at the end instead of trying a 42 yard FG was the right call, but it worked and show confidence. I’ll assume that Mora had good analytic advice on the odds of each path (let’s hope). But a good offensive game. We only had to punt twice.
Not a good game for the defense. I was impressed by their QB, and it’s tough to rush the passer when you’re called for a penalty every time you touch the guy, but our defense had been incredible on third and fourth down defense all year and gave up a large percentage of conversions Saturday night. We defended the run great, however, and mostly kept things in front of us until the long pass right before the 2 minute warning. On that play, it looked like we weren‘t set defensively and thought we were entitled to time to make a defensive substitution — Summers was nowhere near off the field when the ball was snapped — but it may have been that they hadn’t subbed on that play and we weren’t entitled to anything.
A great punt pinned them deep and set up a score. Freeman keeps doing his job perfectly. But our kick coverage better improve before it costs us a game.
So that’s where we are. 0-3 against the P-4 and 6-0 against poor G-5 and below. On to a date in Birmingham against another poor G-5 game. We’re favored by almost a TD and there’s no reason we can’t chalk up another win. I don’t think we’ve played our A game in a while. Let’s hope we see it on Saturday and get our first 7 win season and winning season since friggin 2010. Go dogs.
The passing game looked better — competent if not overwhelming — until we decided we didn’t have to throw the ball any more. And no, we didn’t have to throw anymore. The makeshift OL, with Cassidy snapping, did their job, Robinson didn’t have the week he had the week before but Brown and Edwards picked up the slack and we ran the ball down their throats. I’m not sure whether running on 4th and 2 at the end instead of trying a 42 yard FG was the right call, but it worked and show confidence. I’ll assume that Mora had good analytic advice on the odds of each path (let’s hope). But a good offensive game. We only had to punt twice.
Not a good game for the defense. I was impressed by their QB, and it’s tough to rush the passer when you’re called for a penalty every time you touch the guy, but our defense had been incredible on third and fourth down defense all year and gave up a large percentage of conversions Saturday night. We defended the run great, however, and mostly kept things in front of us until the long pass right before the 2 minute warning. On that play, it looked like we weren‘t set defensively and thought we were entitled to time to make a defensive substitution — Summers was nowhere near off the field when the ball was snapped — but it may have been that they hadn’t subbed on that play and we weren’t entitled to anything.
A great punt pinned them deep and set up a score. Freeman keeps doing his job perfectly. But our kick coverage better improve before it costs us a game.
So that’s where we are. 0-3 against the P-4 and 6-0 against poor G-5 and below. On to a date in Birmingham against another poor G-5 game. We’re favored by almost a TD and there’s no reason we can’t chalk up another win. I don’t think we’ve played our A game in a while. Let’s hope we see it on Saturday and get our first 7 win season and winning season since friggin 2010. Go dogs.
