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O.K. For the second straight week we lost a 4th quarter lead and lost to a BCS opponent without a great history of success, but who may be better this year than anyone thought. I don't want to discount ISU's win over Iowa, or Vandy's beatdown of Ole Miss yesterday. It may turn out those are both the equivalent of midlevel Big East teams this year. So, while we've lost two games we needed to win if we were going to win 8 or 9 games this year, or compete for the Big East title (which we never had the offensive weapons to do), I still think that we can have a winning record in the Big East and get to Yankee Stadium. We need to make more plays than we've been making, but not many more. And, make no mistake -- this week was about not making plays, not coaching. Others will/have point out all the things that the staff did, and I will point out some to, but I don't blame coaching for a loss like this. Many players had an opportunity to make one more play and get us a W. They didn't. And, this was a game where the D put the O in a position to have the game won in the first quarter, and the O didn't take advantage of it. The O, overall, looked considerably better than it did against Vandy, and played well enough overall that we still could have won, but it didn't cash in a giftcheck it was given. That's why we lost.
Let's start with the defense. It was o.k., dominant for large stretches of the game, but gave up three long TD drives, two of which were way too quick and easy. Instead of an effective bend but don't break D, we seem stuck on dominate, dominate, give up easy TD. I am concerned we can't win that way because we don't have the offensive firepower to overcome that. There is nothing wrong with Brown's style, but the style we play offensively and defensively have to complement each other better. Individually, Reyes is just a friggin beast. Shocked if he's not drafted in the first few rounds. I thought Trevardo played his best game ever. On the other hand, Teddy Jennings did not have the game he had the first two weeks. The pass drops that both Johnson and Sio got on their combined pick was frankly astounding. I thought Harris Agbor had an outstanding game, except he didn't make the key play of the game -- the third and long conversion on the sidelines where all he has to do is push an airborne receiver over the sideline and he didn't, letting the foot come down and the first down, leading to the game winning TD, be converted. Plays. Gratz had a very good game. I am, however, out of patience with Jerome Junior. I thought he was really coming on last year with his football smarts, but he was involved with two of the three long TDs -- leaving his responsibility on the flea flicker and whiffing on an easy tackle on the last TD. I know he's physically talented, but I'd be looking at Stlouis. I just can't see turning any more plays into TDs. Very little substituting on the DL, in part because ISU never but a drive together in the 1st half. I saw a little of Campbell, Stephen and Wirth, but not enough to comment.
Special teams needs to step it up if we're going to start winning games -- that was always part of the plan. I don't want to beat up a kicker who makes 2 50 yard plus filed goals, but senior leaders have to make plays. Make either of the last two misses, where we only need a FG to win at the end, and the last few minutes may be different. I get the impression that Wagner and Christen are so concerned about directional kicking that they're not kicking. They need to be turned loose. I don't like our kickoff coverage. We are not breaking up the wedge and we're going to get burned on kickoff returns. It took an amazing open field tackle by Chad Christen to save one Friday night. Williams looked a little better on kickoff returns -- it may be more the blocking than him. I would like to see someone else get a chance with punts.
Offense -- it was better. It went from totally incompetent against Vandy to wildly inconsistent Friday night. But we produced two TDs on long drives. Had we just done better off the takeaways, we would have been fine. But this team, as I said last week, can't expect to win when it turns the ball over three times. On the OL, I saw both Greene and Bardzak at LG again. I am fairly certain that Jimmy Bennett played most of the game, or maybe all of it, at LT with Mike Ryan at RT and Kevin Friend the odd man out. Notwithstanding the lack of success running on Friday night, I like this line better and hope it will produce over time. Would someone please show Moe Petrus that he's supposed to get the snaps above the QBs knees. Don't know why we didn't look for the TEs all game. One strange note -- on the last hail mary to end the game, I am fairly certin that Ryan Griffin never once turned his head to look for the ball as he ran down the field into the right corner of the end zone where the ball was thrown. Strange. Each of the FBs caught a pass, but I don't think either of them is giving us the blocking from the position that we are used to, or even that we need. I liked the way DJ was running before he coughed the ball up (before being hit the best I could tell). I can't blame the coaches for sitting him the rest of the game, but we need him to get some carries, and we need him on the passing packages to win. I hope he's not buried. As for McCombs, I think we saw his limitations at this stage of his career. He is giving us as much as we can hope for -- we need someone else to contribute. We saw a little of Deshon Foxx -- don't know if he is the answer, but someone needs to be. But he's also little and Hyppolite is still out. Oh vey. At WR, I. Moore was, frankly, great (but for the fumble). I hope that was a breakout game, and not just a great game. If he can play like that consistently, a lot of things on offense will become easier. I have not thought K. Moore has given us what we need from him this year, but the TD catch and run was a great play. I am fairly certain that he used his lower body to nudge the CB, who should have had a pick, out of the way (like a good basketball low post player) so that he could make the catch. A great, great play.
That leaves QB. We did not see enough of Nebrich to tell if he's ready, but the one scramble we saw off the low snap is all we need to see to know that we have to get him over the hump so that he is ready. When will it be? No idea. McEntee was clearly better, and seemed to develope a chemistry with I. Moore, but he's not consistent enough, and he still looks too nervous in the face of a rush. McCummings looked much better running the ball -- we are going to need those plays whether Nebrich or McEntee is the QB -- but did not show that he was an every down QB. He missed a wide open McCombs on a wheel route -- wide open -- and the TD to K. Moore should be all rights have been picked. I'm still at the point where I'm not challenging the coaches whatever they do in Western New York Saturday night. But I will say this -- coming out of that game, a decision has to be made and, barring catastrophe, lived with. Right or wrong.
Good, enthusiastic crowd. Warmer weather than feared. Great night to cook a steak on the grill. Totally different traffic pattersn to the grey lot (and a lot of confused people). But, ultimately, a tough, tough loss. For the second straight week. This can't be a great team without at least one offensive playmaker, and I don't blame P that we don't have one. But this team, with just a little improvement at the skill positions, can win every game left on its schedule except probably WVU and USF. That doesn't mean we have the talent to win all of them, but we do have the talent to win any of them, and then start adding up the wins one by one. I don't know if we'll get there, because I don't know how the QB soap opera will work out, and I don't know if this staff will improve the players and the team during the year as we did the last two years. But I haven't given up on it either.
Here's to a successful trip to WNY and coming out of it 2-2 and with a QB (maybe a below average one but a QB nonetheless).
Let's start with the defense. It was o.k., dominant for large stretches of the game, but gave up three long TD drives, two of which were way too quick and easy. Instead of an effective bend but don't break D, we seem stuck on dominate, dominate, give up easy TD. I am concerned we can't win that way because we don't have the offensive firepower to overcome that. There is nothing wrong with Brown's style, but the style we play offensively and defensively have to complement each other better. Individually, Reyes is just a friggin beast. Shocked if he's not drafted in the first few rounds. I thought Trevardo played his best game ever. On the other hand, Teddy Jennings did not have the game he had the first two weeks. The pass drops that both Johnson and Sio got on their combined pick was frankly astounding. I thought Harris Agbor had an outstanding game, except he didn't make the key play of the game -- the third and long conversion on the sidelines where all he has to do is push an airborne receiver over the sideline and he didn't, letting the foot come down and the first down, leading to the game winning TD, be converted. Plays. Gratz had a very good game. I am, however, out of patience with Jerome Junior. I thought he was really coming on last year with his football smarts, but he was involved with two of the three long TDs -- leaving his responsibility on the flea flicker and whiffing on an easy tackle on the last TD. I know he's physically talented, but I'd be looking at Stlouis. I just can't see turning any more plays into TDs. Very little substituting on the DL, in part because ISU never but a drive together in the 1st half. I saw a little of Campbell, Stephen and Wirth, but not enough to comment.
Special teams needs to step it up if we're going to start winning games -- that was always part of the plan. I don't want to beat up a kicker who makes 2 50 yard plus filed goals, but senior leaders have to make plays. Make either of the last two misses, where we only need a FG to win at the end, and the last few minutes may be different. I get the impression that Wagner and Christen are so concerned about directional kicking that they're not kicking. They need to be turned loose. I don't like our kickoff coverage. We are not breaking up the wedge and we're going to get burned on kickoff returns. It took an amazing open field tackle by Chad Christen to save one Friday night. Williams looked a little better on kickoff returns -- it may be more the blocking than him. I would like to see someone else get a chance with punts.
Offense -- it was better. It went from totally incompetent against Vandy to wildly inconsistent Friday night. But we produced two TDs on long drives. Had we just done better off the takeaways, we would have been fine. But this team, as I said last week, can't expect to win when it turns the ball over three times. On the OL, I saw both Greene and Bardzak at LG again. I am fairly certain that Jimmy Bennett played most of the game, or maybe all of it, at LT with Mike Ryan at RT and Kevin Friend the odd man out. Notwithstanding the lack of success running on Friday night, I like this line better and hope it will produce over time. Would someone please show Moe Petrus that he's supposed to get the snaps above the QBs knees. Don't know why we didn't look for the TEs all game. One strange note -- on the last hail mary to end the game, I am fairly certin that Ryan Griffin never once turned his head to look for the ball as he ran down the field into the right corner of the end zone where the ball was thrown. Strange. Each of the FBs caught a pass, but I don't think either of them is giving us the blocking from the position that we are used to, or even that we need. I liked the way DJ was running before he coughed the ball up (before being hit the best I could tell). I can't blame the coaches for sitting him the rest of the game, but we need him to get some carries, and we need him on the passing packages to win. I hope he's not buried. As for McCombs, I think we saw his limitations at this stage of his career. He is giving us as much as we can hope for -- we need someone else to contribute. We saw a little of Deshon Foxx -- don't know if he is the answer, but someone needs to be. But he's also little and Hyppolite is still out. Oh vey. At WR, I. Moore was, frankly, great (but for the fumble). I hope that was a breakout game, and not just a great game. If he can play like that consistently, a lot of things on offense will become easier. I have not thought K. Moore has given us what we need from him this year, but the TD catch and run was a great play. I am fairly certain that he used his lower body to nudge the CB, who should have had a pick, out of the way (like a good basketball low post player) so that he could make the catch. A great, great play.
That leaves QB. We did not see enough of Nebrich to tell if he's ready, but the one scramble we saw off the low snap is all we need to see to know that we have to get him over the hump so that he is ready. When will it be? No idea. McEntee was clearly better, and seemed to develope a chemistry with I. Moore, but he's not consistent enough, and he still looks too nervous in the face of a rush. McCummings looked much better running the ball -- we are going to need those plays whether Nebrich or McEntee is the QB -- but did not show that he was an every down QB. He missed a wide open McCombs on a wheel route -- wide open -- and the TD to K. Moore should be all rights have been picked. I'm still at the point where I'm not challenging the coaches whatever they do in Western New York Saturday night. But I will say this -- coming out of that game, a decision has to be made and, barring catastrophe, lived with. Right or wrong.
Good, enthusiastic crowd. Warmer weather than feared. Great night to cook a steak on the grill. Totally different traffic pattersn to the grey lot (and a lot of confused people). But, ultimately, a tough, tough loss. For the second straight week. This can't be a great team without at least one offensive playmaker, and I don't blame P that we don't have one. But this team, with just a little improvement at the skill positions, can win every game left on its schedule except probably WVU and USF. That doesn't mean we have the talent to win all of them, but we do have the talent to win any of them, and then start adding up the wins one by one. I don't know if we'll get there, because I don't know how the QB soap opera will work out, and I don't know if this staff will improve the players and the team during the year as we did the last two years. But I haven't given up on it either.
Here's to a successful trip to WNY and coming out of it 2-2 and with a QB (maybe a below average one but a QB nonetheless).
