The day started so similarly to Fresno State last year -- awful weather forecast, cancelled tailgate with people from my office, bad but not awful morning, decision to go by myself made at the last minute, leaving just enough time for a beer in the parking lot -- that I went to my seat with some hope. And then something happened that hadn't happened in the 20 years since the Rent opened and I've been to almost every game. I left at halftime. And the weather had almost nothing to do with it, as I was dressed for a monsoon and it had done no more than mist.
In my eyes the weather was the worst part of everything but this was due to the forecast indicating that an event that I had planned once we knew we would have a home game for this specific weekend needed to be cancelled. To add insult to injury, the weather was such that we could have pulled off the tailgate. To add further insult to injury, well. the game.....
We did get there with time for more than one beer in the parking lot.
That really says it better than any analysis, but I'll give a short one anyway. The defense needs to tackle better, and I'm incredibly disappointed in Eric Watt's lack of impact this year, but the defense didn't suck. Duke has a damn good offense, and if the D wasn't going to get any help whatsoever from the offense, the special teams or the coaches, it's not going to have a chance. On specials, Ruelas now needs a chance to play. He was far better last year than McFarland has been in games. Our coverage sucks, but what do you expect when you can't tackle. Oh, and on the reverse kickoff return before the game was over, that should have been a much bigger play except that Tui Brown didn't whiff on a block as much as he let a guy run right by him without even attempting a block from great position.
I'm not sure why this hasn't been addressed more. Not merely this specific player, but the defensive line as a whole. We came into this season believing that this would be a strength (and Mora even mentioned it before the season began) but they haven't performed close to expectations. This is near the top of the list of my many disappointments to date this season.
I won't even get into our tackling woes (it will take too long) but the block was there (if he was willing to do it) to spring a very long return, possibly to the house. So many little details that we were better at completing last season (which played an enormous role in our unexpected success) seem to to overlooked this season.
The offense is a total train wreck. Roberson, however good he might have been before the injury, is not nearly the QB Zion Turner was last year. Continuing to play him is reminiscent of the utter stubborness, and inabilty to admit to a mistake, that we've seen from our last 3 failed coaches. And the current coach is starting to convince me that last year was a total fluke, like Diaco in 2015, rather than a good coach. The offense seems to be a total trainwreck from design, but the play calling is also absurd. We had one chance yesterday to generate offense. One. To pound the ball down their throats running it. And we had success at times doing that. But we'll never know if that might have worked because if we got a first down with 2 or 3 successful runs, then we had to either throw unsuccessfully or run a trick play. And the defensive play calling isn't much better.
After what we've witnessed since Fagnano went down, anyone who claims we never should have considered him for #1 QB needs to take a reality check. No, he wasn't anything to get excited about on this level but he clearly (at this point) was more capable than Roberson of running an offense. I don't know what happened but Robeson appears lost and if anyone looks like they are placed in a higher level of football than they belong, well, look at what we've done and come to your own conclusions.
I fully understand and agree that it is past time to turn the ball over to Turner. I imagine the concern is that
a) Mora likely never expected it to come to this while we were still in September and
b) as it would be a benching, with one of our QB's out for the year, there really is no coming back from this move once it's made. When he puts Turner in as QB, that's pretty much it for moves he can make this season and if this doesn't work out, well, the wheels may fall off.
I will come next week, weather cooperating, because I've already invited folks for a tailgate. But I don't want to. We suck, and I don't see a whole lot of hope at the moment. Other, as FCF said as I was leaving at halftime, basketball season is coming.
I hate the idea of missing games but (as I also have an obligation the following weekend that cannot be missed) I have let a lot of things fall behind around the house (including two bathrooms partially redone which I was supposed to have finished in August) that I cannot continue to postpone, I may end up passing on the Utas St game. This will be a last minute, executive decision.
Also, while I obviously am anticipating a very enjoyable basketball season, I hate the idea of mentioning as I did at Saturday's football game.
