I haven't seen anyone give a comprehensive look at the game so I'll throw mine out there.
Pregame:
There was much talk about the changes. I got there about 15 minutes beforehand and thus never heard the "sirens". If they were loud though I would have thought I'd have heard them on my way there. Someone led the crowd in cheers, with at best moderate success. I think the size of JTS makes it hard to do large organized cheers because of the time it takes for the sound to travel. There was a video set to Thunderstruck, but they have retained the techno song thing from previous years. Being able to clap to something is a necessity IMO so this did not disappoint me. I think I will end up liking the helmet, but it could take some time to grow on me. I thought the atmosphere was relatively good, and I was encouraged by the participation of the non-student sections.
Offense:
I was not very impressed with our O-line unfortunatelly. They only gave up 1? sack that I remember, on a missed block by Stevie. That said, Meyer rolled out of the pocket a lot (by design). There were a lot of times that Stevie just did not have room to run though, but his running seemed solid aside from a fumble (I really hate fumbles). Meyer was our best running back and the QB draw was run A LOT. Almost all of our offense was run from the shotgun and I have to wonder if our running game could be helped if Meyer played more under center. Our passing game carried us and was very effective in overtime, making one wonder why we did not stretch the field more during regulation. The key and question mark still seems to be our run blocking.
Defense:
Where to start... it could be a long year if we don't improve (which we should given the number of young guys).
D-Line: I was worried about us stopping the run at the begining of the game, but they seemed to go away from that as the game went on (possibly due to the effectiveness of their passing). Our line seemed to have trouble getting penetration and their QB had all day to throw if we didn't blitz. I saw Curvey in pass coverage at least twice so we either did some zone blitzing or things were really ****ed up.
Linebackers: I had thought this would be the strength of our defense and was very dissapointed. They bit on play fakes way too much after which they would throw to a wide open guy on the other side of the field for about 8 yards a pop. I am probably spoiled from watching Dobbins, but very rarely did they hit someone and stop them in their tracks. Toledo usually got some yardage after contact as they fell forward. This group was also supposed to be very fast, but got eaten alive in pass coverage. I remember a specific play where a Toledo player outran Bowen after the catch.
Secondary: As mentioned, they ate us alive with their passing. I only remember one play where Jackson made a play, which indicates that they avoided him. I can't count the number of passes completed where there were three or more guys within 5 yards of the reciever but no one had good enough coverage to prevent the completion.
Special Teams: :Sick:
Did we get a new special teams coach this year? If so do you think it is too early to fire him? Perhaps a bit premature, but they looked ugly aside from Shaggy's kicking. They returned their first kickoff out past the 40. We then blocked their extra point attempt and then had about 4 people run past the ball, allowing them to pick it up and run it in for 2. We later bobbled a punt snap and got off about a 3 yard kick, which was fortunately negated by them having 12 people on the field. Our punter seems to take way too much time to get kicks away. We later kicked a kickoff out of bounds. We later went for a field goal to go up by two scores, at which point the ball was snapped over Flynn's head. He did a remarkable job of keeping it alive, but of course no one ran a route so he could try and throw it. As for the good news, Shaggy had one just under 40 yard field goal and numerous extra points, all of which were very good kicks.
In Summary:
There is a LOT to work on, but hopefully our guys can gel as the season goes on and the poor coverage seems to be a mental problem that should be correctable (otherwise I dread the TT and Nebraska games). A win is a win though and hopefully finally winning in OT will get a monkey off of these guy's back.
Pregame:
There was much talk about the changes. I got there about 15 minutes beforehand and thus never heard the "sirens". If they were loud though I would have thought I'd have heard them on my way there. Someone led the crowd in cheers, with at best moderate success. I think the size of JTS makes it hard to do large organized cheers because of the time it takes for the sound to travel. There was a video set to Thunderstruck, but they have retained the techno song thing from previous years. Being able to clap to something is a necessity IMO so this did not disappoint me. I think I will end up liking the helmet, but it could take some time to grow on me. I thought the atmosphere was relatively good, and I was encouraged by the participation of the non-student sections.
Offense:
I was not very impressed with our O-line unfortunatelly. They only gave up 1? sack that I remember, on a missed block by Stevie. That said, Meyer rolled out of the pocket a lot (by design). There were a lot of times that Stevie just did not have room to run though, but his running seemed solid aside from a fumble (I really hate fumbles). Meyer was our best running back and the QB draw was run A LOT. Almost all of our offense was run from the shotgun and I have to wonder if our running game could be helped if Meyer played more under center. Our passing game carried us and was very effective in overtime, making one wonder why we did not stretch the field more during regulation. The key and question mark still seems to be our run blocking.
Defense:
Where to start... it could be a long year if we don't improve (which we should given the number of young guys).
D-Line: I was worried about us stopping the run at the begining of the game, but they seemed to go away from that as the game went on (possibly due to the effectiveness of their passing). Our line seemed to have trouble getting penetration and their QB had all day to throw if we didn't blitz. I saw Curvey in pass coverage at least twice so we either did some zone blitzing or things were really ****ed up.
Linebackers: I had thought this would be the strength of our defense and was very dissapointed. They bit on play fakes way too much after which they would throw to a wide open guy on the other side of the field for about 8 yards a pop. I am probably spoiled from watching Dobbins, but very rarely did they hit someone and stop them in their tracks. Toledo usually got some yardage after contact as they fell forward. This group was also supposed to be very fast, but got eaten alive in pass coverage. I remember a specific play where a Toledo player outran Bowen after the catch.
Secondary: As mentioned, they ate us alive with their passing. I only remember one play where Jackson made a play, which indicates that they avoided him. I can't count the number of passes completed where there were three or more guys within 5 yards of the reciever but no one had good enough coverage to prevent the completion.
Special Teams: :Sick:
Did we get a new special teams coach this year? If so do you think it is too early to fire him? Perhaps a bit premature, but they looked ugly aside from Shaggy's kicking. They returned their first kickoff out past the 40. We then blocked their extra point attempt and then had about 4 people run past the ball, allowing them to pick it up and run it in for 2. We later bobbled a punt snap and got off about a 3 yard kick, which was fortunately negated by them having 12 people on the field. Our punter seems to take way too much time to get kicks away. We later kicked a kickoff out of bounds. We later went for a field goal to go up by two scores, at which point the ball was snapped over Flynn's head. He did a remarkable job of keeping it alive, but of course no one ran a route so he could try and throw it. As for the good news, Shaggy had one just under 40 yard field goal and numerous extra points, all of which were very good kicks.
In Summary:
There is a LOT to work on, but hopefully our guys can gel as the season goes on and the poor coverage seems to be a mental problem that should be correctable (otherwise I dread the TT and Nebraska games). A win is a win though and hopefully finally winning in OT will get a monkey off of these guy's back.
