The Good, The Bad, The FUUUUUUGLY.

Sun Oct 12, 2014 7:12 pm

The Good-
Offense-
We scored a season high last night. 28 altogether, 21 by the offense.
Wick is still a beast at RB. Probably one of the most underrated players in the conference this year.
Ryan Cummings. Despite being a true freshmen, and his first ever college game, he stepped up to the plate and did pretty well overall. The left side was actually fairly solid.
1st half offense. We did well (in comparison) in the first half of the game, getting our usual 14 points at record pace.
Hey! We called a screen with May and it turned into a TD! It works!
Kirk had a great 1st half! Also had a nice TD throw in the 2nd half.

Defense-
We forced 3 fumbles.
Mertens is a very good DT.
That's all I got.

The Bad-
Offense-
As typical, after a strong start on our first drive, we sputter and stall for a long while with multiple 3 and outs before we get another 1st down.
We only called 1 screen all game (WR screens out to the left and right are a bit different). Yet Hawaii blitzed all night. A couple more probably would have got them to back off.
Kirk threw 2 more INTs after what had been a great 1st half for him.
Overall play calling is still highly questionable.

Defense-
I'll just save this for later.

Special Teams-
Not so much on our kicker, but more on the plan. Who's ever idea it was to try and kick a 50 yard FG at sea level forgot that Laramie is over 7000ft above sea level. They didn't think that one through.

The Ugly-
Offense-
The 4th quarter offense. Could not do anything when it mattered most.
Right side o-line. Even on running plays, blocks were missed and Wick was dragged down from behind when he otherwise could have had a 5 yard rush or more.

Defense-
Other than Mertens and the 3 fumbles, the defense almost completely regressed to last year. Bad tackling, blown coverages, and making Woosely look like a Heisman hopeful and RBs look like they belong in the NFL already.

This game hurt. I did not predict a win or a loss. I wanted a win, yeah. But I also had major concerns, and Hawaii exploited those concerns to the fullest (other than Cummings, who impressed me). Even as a loss, this hurt pretty badly because of the overall play throughout the game, particularly by the defense.

Sun Oct 12, 2014 7:48 pm

They were picking on our defensive left side all night. They ran at that side and got to the corner at will. Kamana is not ready to play at this level yet. Has no clue what he's doing. He let's receivers run right by him and always bites on the counter and gets walled off by blockers. I like the freshman corner Preacher, but his mistakes end up in touch downs. We are in serious trouble with White and Sampson out. I have a feeling the ugly will get much uglier if we play Tormey defense. Can someone please tell me what happened to Peulatasi, Yarbrough, Stanton, and Olive ? The once strong point of our defense is a glaring weakness. On a good note Nezocha is the most consistent, hard working defensive player on the team. I dont know where we'd be without him.

Sun Oct 12, 2014 7:52 pm

mwc fan wrote:They were picking on our defensive left side all night. They ran at that side and got to the corner at will. Kamana is not ready to play at this level yet. Has no clue what he's doing. He let's receivers run right by him and always bites on the counter and gets walled off by blockers. I like the freshman corner Preacher, but his mistakes end up in touch downs. We are in serious trouble with White and Sampson out. I have a feeling the ugly will get much uglier if we play Tormey defense. Can someone please tell me what happened to Peulatasi, Yarbrough, Stanton, and Olive ? The once strong point of our defense is a glaring weakness. On a good note Nezocha is the most consistent, hard working defensive player on the team. I dont know where we'd be without him.

True. I forgot to put him on there. One of the few that did wrap up and tackle. Probably forgot because the one guy kept calling him "Nacha".

Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:16 pm

We called a few other screens but they were blown up. The one you speak of is the one thar actually worked. if DBs weren't getting burned they were missing tackles for big yardage

Sun Oct 12, 2014 9:20 pm

You might also mention that Burns has been a big disappointment so far.

Sun Oct 12, 2014 10:30 pm

With D White out we are in the poop! Not that we were great before but without him we play a couple of kids who are really bad!

Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:19 am

Adv8RU12 wrote:You might also mention that Burns has been a big disappointment so far.

Has he? He tackles pretty damn well for a DB IMO..

Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:29 am

VisorHair wrote:
Adv8RU12 wrote:You might also mention that Burns has been a big disappointment so far.
Has he? He tackles pretty damn well for a DB IMO..

Yes he has.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 8:48 am

VisorHair wrote:
Adv8RU12 wrote:You might also mention that Burns has been a big disappointment so far.
Has he? He tackles pretty damn well for a DB IMO..

His tackling is good. But his coverage sucks. He's always out of position for coverage, then when his guy catches the ball he wraps up and tackles. STOP HIM FROM GETTING THE BALL FIRST!!!

Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:04 am

I don't think Tampa 2 is best defense for this group. Without a pass rush and good speed in secondary, we need fewer holes in our zone to aid coverage.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:38 am

Unless the front four can generate pressure this defense doesn't work well. This is Not the same defense that came out of fall camp. The disappointment of Yarbrough and Peulatasi has been glaring. Yarbrough is getting handled by one offensive lineman and Peulatasi is missing in action. These two are on national watch lists for their respective positions. What a huge disappointment. Even Stanton who led the team in tackles last year is struggling. Coming into the season with nine seniors I thought they would be one of the better defenses. Hope they poop straight this week.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:51 am

kansasCowboy wrote:
VisorHair wrote:
Adv8RU12 wrote:You might also mention that Burns has been a big disappointment so far.
Has he? He tackles pretty damn well for a DB IMO..
His tackling is good. But his coverage sucks. He's always out of position for coverage, then when his guy catches the ball he wraps up and tackles. STOP HIM FROM GETTING THE BALL FIRST!!!

Blair is one of the best players on defense. There's a reason they never throw to his side and throw at jones and the freshman all game. Blair is shutting down the receiver he is on its not his fault nobody throws his way. Blair sucked the last two years but he is back to his old self this year.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:20 am

I understand and in no way ensuing I know more than anyone but................isn't there a reason the Tampa 2 has been mainly phased out at the fbs and nfl level? Didn't USC have to stop running it?

*Asking for a friend.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:43 am

BJC wrote:I understand and in no way ensuing I know more than anyone but................isn't there a reason the Tampa 2 has been mainly phased out at the fbs and nfl level? Didn't USC have to stop running it?

*Asking for a friend.

It is mainly due to the Tampa 2 having a weakness against the spread offense. The Tampa 2 provides holes where a receiver can sit in, and that causes it to give up 5-10 yards routinely. Bohl doesn't run just a straight Tampa 2, they have changed it to better combat the spread offenses which is why it remained successful in North Dakota. Currently we don't have the secondary or the defensive line to be successful in this defense, we need shutdown corners on both sides instead of just one, we need smarter and more athletic safeties as well as a defensive line to get pressure in a four man rush routinely. It will take some time and a few recruiting classes before we can successfully run this defense.

Just how I have understood it, someone smarter than me can shed better light.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:49 am

My thoughts on the game after watching it and giving it a little time to consider.

Consistency, We still don't have it but Colby needs it more than ever. Basically every game this year the only thing consistent about him is his QBR. Fact is he has capped his skill at a 70 QBR this year and that was against Air Force the other games are flat out awful and that is just not going to win games when you finish with a sub 50 QBR. We need 1st Q Colby all game long or we aren't winning many more games this year.

Darrenn White is a solid Safety once he went down we got absolutely shredded through the air, I'm not going to say it was all because of him as it wasn't but his replacement took bad angles a number of times and would have had an easy pic had he even had an inclination of looking back at the QB instead of running over the receiver.

Our front 7 is solid it does a fairly solid job most games but if someone gets past the front seven holy poop look out no tackles, bad angles man it's ugly when teams get into the secondary it's just not a pretty site at all and it's been happening all year long.

If I were Bohl I would take the remainder of this season to see what some of the second string players can do between the secondary and QB if we don't figure something out 5-6 or 4-8 is a very likely finish.

Mon Oct 13, 2014 11:17 pm

Most people refer to that the fact that we are returning 9 starters on defense and that alone should be a reason to be solid.

Call me crazy, but I don't consider having 9 guys back from one of the worst defenses we've ever had a good thing. Haha.

Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:08 am

BackHarlowRoad wrote:Most people refer to that the fact that we are returning 9 starters on defense and that alone should be a reason to be solid.

Call me crazy, but I don't consider having 9 guys back from one of the worst defenses we've ever had a good thing. Haha.

It's great for the front 7 they have been doing a solid job but once you break through them our secondary just can't get the job done.