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How anxious was I for yesterday's game? I normally leave Fairfield at 9:00 sharp for noon games. I had done the prep work for the tailgate the night before, so I set the alarm for 7:30. I woke up, wide aware, at 5:24. I stayed in bed until 6:20 and then finally went downstairs to check the Boneyard and pack the SUV. Yes, this was my one game a year with my 24 year old from DC, but I was ready to go because, coming off the 'Nova win, I started getting confident that I was no longer watching this program being torn apart, but being rebuilt. And while others complained, I had fun in '05 and '06. I was ready for fun again. And I was ready for it two hours before the alarm went off. This week I didn't just want a win -- this week I wanted to see that we were really better than last year, and that we could push an Army team around.
And, for the most part, I got what I wanted today. We're 2-0. We did dominate the game (although the score didn't reflect it -- more on that in a minute). It was a nice, last summer's day. Hot, but not the unbearable heat of Stony Brook last year. A nice crowd. I wanted 30k, but we were up from 'Nova and with the second win hopefully we can cross the 30k mark against Navy. And, to boot, a day where our conference showed that it was much, much tougher than it was last year. (In fact, while it's early, the Sagarins showed the average strengh of a conference team to be 5 points better than a year ago (a statistically large jump), and the conference for now having moved into the spot as the best of the G-6, which it was so far from a year ago as to be frightening. Yes, yesterday was a good day indeed.
Rarely has a 5 point win been as dominant as yesterday's was, but yesterday's win was dominant. With two awful misplays by the D, we absolutely shut them down. On offense, we didn't finish two of our 4 drives inside their ten, but we gained 400 plus yards, barely threw an incomplete pass, and probably could have thrown for 400 yards if we wanted to. The game was kept close by their two out of the blue scores and our failure to finish, but it showed more talent on both sides of the ball than we had a year ago. Yes, I want to clean up the mistakes. Not just the two defensive plays, but the missed extra point, the passes that could have been caught but weren't, and the few moments of offensive uncertainty (late getting the plays in and procedures) that we didn't have opening day but had a small taste of yesterday. And if we do that, there won't be 100 plus teams better than us than there were last year, and we will get a few more wins (even if, lookng at the schedule today, I'm not sure we'd be favored next week in any of our 9 games other than the trip to Tulane -- maybe the home game with USF but I'm not sure of that). We are a long way from the '07 -- '10 run in terms of talent, but that can only improve over time. Right now, we have to play good, solid football and rebuild our roster over time.
Let's start with special teams. Justin Wain did great keeping his punts out of the end zone and free from returns. Puyol missed another extra point (while the kick wasn't high, looked to me it was more a collapse of interior blocking) but did go 3-3 with his FGs. Tarbutt isn't showing me a leg on kickoffs to make me understand why we're burning his redshirt. We don't have enough kick returns to say anything, and Lemelle's job on punts seems to be just to make the fair catch (which is in itself an improvement over where we've been), but the kick coverage showed more energy. Floyd made a few tackles, but it was Hicks and especially Omaire Stevens in the middle who wanted to hit anything that moved. You could see the attitude. Good sign.
On D, but for the two mistakes, just a great game. Discipline, discipline, discipline, and they gave up nothing. Graham Stewarts best game, and his reward was I'm not sure Diggs played LB (while Vann, Walsh and Joseph seemed to share the 2 inside positions relatively equally). The first TD I don't understand what happened, but you could see on the scoreboard that when Obi heard that his penalty was not a late hit but taunting, he reacted emotionally and was looking around for someone to talk to. I'm guessing, on film, you will see he was playing the last play and not the next one. The second one, as I said, not a bad decision early in the game, but you just can't do it there when protecting a two score lead. Oh -- and Mike Myers filled in seamlessly for Fatukasi. Groovy baby.
The OL is far, far better than it's been in pass protection. It obviously is not near where it needs to be against the run. Arkeel ran inside like we've never seen. Mariner was ready for his plays. And kudos to the staff for using both of them lined up as FBs in front of Ron Jon, and then getting them outside from that formation. Thomas is going to have a great next two years, and Lucas is doing fine, but I'm really high on Beal. A great catch and run down the right sideline, a nice short route to move the chains and an incredible one man wall set up on the left sideline getting Thomas more yards. And I don't know what to say about our QB. You watch play by play and he seems reluctant to air it out, and a lot of intermediate throws seem to be thrown not to lead the WR but to give him a chance to catch it, and then you look at the numbers and he's 19 for 25 with a few that a receiver could have made a play on but didn't. He may have limitations, but he's smart, tough, makes plays with his legs and can spread the ball around short and intermediate. Just a great start to his career.
And the offensive play calling his clearly been designed to make sure that our weapons get touches. Yeah, we ran too much stretch and not enough pounding the middle, but we're showing pleperation and strategy. Everything won't work, but there is clearly effort and imagination.
So that's it. Could have been a blowout and wasn't, but first, it was a win, and second, in terms of seeing our team play better it was that. So now we go to MIzzou. They may be significantly overrated, but I have no doubt they are better than us. The fact that we've bottomed out and are moving forward doesn't make us a top 40 or top 60 team. I expect MIzzou just to have more talent everywhere, and significantly more talent on their defensive front than we have on our offensive front. But (subject to having to watch it during a convention in Chicago next weekend) I expect to enjoy seeing us play and getting a better read on how far we've come and how far we have to go. If we win, great. If we give them a good game I'll be very happy. And even if we don't, and knowing Navy is much better than Army, the way we played the option yesterday gives me a great deal of hope that we can win on the 26th. And go on from there.
It's a good start, and a hopeful start. But the fanbase can't let those two wins hide the time and hard work that it's going to take us to rebuild this. There is work to be done, and it will take time. But we're building again, and that's a heck of a lot more fun than watching the tear down over the last four.
And, for the most part, I got what I wanted today. We're 2-0. We did dominate the game (although the score didn't reflect it -- more on that in a minute). It was a nice, last summer's day. Hot, but not the unbearable heat of Stony Brook last year. A nice crowd. I wanted 30k, but we were up from 'Nova and with the second win hopefully we can cross the 30k mark against Navy. And, to boot, a day where our conference showed that it was much, much tougher than it was last year. (In fact, while it's early, the Sagarins showed the average strengh of a conference team to be 5 points better than a year ago (a statistically large jump), and the conference for now having moved into the spot as the best of the G-6, which it was so far from a year ago as to be frightening. Yes, yesterday was a good day indeed.
Rarely has a 5 point win been as dominant as yesterday's was, but yesterday's win was dominant. With two awful misplays by the D, we absolutely shut them down. On offense, we didn't finish two of our 4 drives inside their ten, but we gained 400 plus yards, barely threw an incomplete pass, and probably could have thrown for 400 yards if we wanted to. The game was kept close by their two out of the blue scores and our failure to finish, but it showed more talent on both sides of the ball than we had a year ago. Yes, I want to clean up the mistakes. Not just the two defensive plays, but the missed extra point, the passes that could have been caught but weren't, and the few moments of offensive uncertainty (late getting the plays in and procedures) that we didn't have opening day but had a small taste of yesterday. And if we do that, there won't be 100 plus teams better than us than there were last year, and we will get a few more wins (even if, lookng at the schedule today, I'm not sure we'd be favored next week in any of our 9 games other than the trip to Tulane -- maybe the home game with USF but I'm not sure of that). We are a long way from the '07 -- '10 run in terms of talent, but that can only improve over time. Right now, we have to play good, solid football and rebuild our roster over time.
Let's start with special teams. Justin Wain did great keeping his punts out of the end zone and free from returns. Puyol missed another extra point (while the kick wasn't high, looked to me it was more a collapse of interior blocking) but did go 3-3 with his FGs. Tarbutt isn't showing me a leg on kickoffs to make me understand why we're burning his redshirt. We don't have enough kick returns to say anything, and Lemelle's job on punts seems to be just to make the fair catch (which is in itself an improvement over where we've been), but the kick coverage showed more energy. Floyd made a few tackles, but it was Hicks and especially Omaire Stevens in the middle who wanted to hit anything that moved. You could see the attitude. Good sign.
On D, but for the two mistakes, just a great game. Discipline, discipline, discipline, and they gave up nothing. Graham Stewarts best game, and his reward was I'm not sure Diggs played LB (while Vann, Walsh and Joseph seemed to share the 2 inside positions relatively equally). The first TD I don't understand what happened, but you could see on the scoreboard that when Obi heard that his penalty was not a late hit but taunting, he reacted emotionally and was looking around for someone to talk to. I'm guessing, on film, you will see he was playing the last play and not the next one. The second one, as I said, not a bad decision early in the game, but you just can't do it there when protecting a two score lead. Oh -- and Mike Myers filled in seamlessly for Fatukasi. Groovy baby.
The OL is far, far better than it's been in pass protection. It obviously is not near where it needs to be against the run. Arkeel ran inside like we've never seen. Mariner was ready for his plays. And kudos to the staff for using both of them lined up as FBs in front of Ron Jon, and then getting them outside from that formation. Thomas is going to have a great next two years, and Lucas is doing fine, but I'm really high on Beal. A great catch and run down the right sideline, a nice short route to move the chains and an incredible one man wall set up on the left sideline getting Thomas more yards. And I don't know what to say about our QB. You watch play by play and he seems reluctant to air it out, and a lot of intermediate throws seem to be thrown not to lead the WR but to give him a chance to catch it, and then you look at the numbers and he's 19 for 25 with a few that a receiver could have made a play on but didn't. He may have limitations, but he's smart, tough, makes plays with his legs and can spread the ball around short and intermediate. Just a great start to his career.
And the offensive play calling his clearly been designed to make sure that our weapons get touches. Yeah, we ran too much stretch and not enough pounding the middle, but we're showing pleperation and strategy. Everything won't work, but there is clearly effort and imagination.
So that's it. Could have been a blowout and wasn't, but first, it was a win, and second, in terms of seeing our team play better it was that. So now we go to MIzzou. They may be significantly overrated, but I have no doubt they are better than us. The fact that we've bottomed out and are moving forward doesn't make us a top 40 or top 60 team. I expect MIzzou just to have more talent everywhere, and significantly more talent on their defensive front than we have on our offensive front. But (subject to having to watch it during a convention in Chicago next weekend) I expect to enjoy seeing us play and getting a better read on how far we've come and how far we have to go. If we win, great. If we give them a good game I'll be very happy. And even if we don't, and knowing Navy is much better than Army, the way we played the option yesterday gives me a great deal of hope that we can win on the 26th. And go on from there.
It's a good start, and a hopeful start. But the fanbase can't let those two wins hide the time and hard work that it's going to take us to rebuild this. There is work to be done, and it will take time. But we're building again, and that's a heck of a lot more fun than watching the tear down over the last four.
