OttoinGrotto
2023-24 Iggy Award Most 3 Pointers Made
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- Aug 26, 2011
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Yes, I did meditate.
Since I want to end this on a positive note I'll begin with the things I did not like from the game.
1. The offense was indeed offensive early. Look, I don't have a problem with getting a three and out. It's going to happen sometimes. But we only converted one first down in the entire first half. Part of that was due to Provo's turrible drop, but the numbers don't lie. That was abysmal offense, and really discouraging to see given that we thought with experience everywhere on that side of the ball that we would be ready to go from the start. Of course, there was one glaring point of inexperience...
2. Macky looked like crap early. I really had doubts about Macky coming in to this season, and he just got worked over in the first half. It got so bad I was running scenarios in my head trying to figure out if it was too late to move Chibane over and plug Sweet Lou into his guard spot. I'm glad he rebounded, but I'm still not at all confident in the center position. I've been quietly terrified that we have a below average center, and below average defensive tackles, they just aren't gaining much going up against each other in practice, and once they encounter an average player or heaven forbid an above average player the weakness there will really show. Above all else I really hope I'm wrong about this.
3. Special teams snapping. Not much to say here, it was bad.
4. The safeties in coverage. I think the Thomas brothers are barely adequate here. They are talented guys though, and I do expect them to improve as the season goes on.
5. Our zone defense seemed extremely soft. We did get beat on a few occasions in man coverage, but I felt like it was way too easy for Price to pick apart our zone downfield, especially in long passing situations.
6. The conservative play calling when a TD would have sealed the deal. I did not like playing for the field goal and to burn clock on three straight running plays. We should have run play action once and at least taken a shot at the end zone to lock up the game.
The things I liked:
1. Ant rebounding from a fumble at a crucial point in the game to run with some steam and score a long TD. Actually, in general I was very encouraged by how well Ant ran inside. He's tougher and more complete than people give him credit for I think. I expect as the season goes on and the backups get more experience that we'll see Ant catching more balls and running a little less though.
2. Adam Harris. I've believed that if we see a lot of Harris that's a bad thing for our offense, but he won me over some. I recall a tough run that he made, and he pulled in the TD. That should be an easy grab, but even so a lot of guys find a way to not make that play. He did. I don't think he's Rob Konrad, but I think that he'll be more of a weapon at fullback than I expected and that's a big positive for a team with a shaky center.
3. The safeties against the run. The Thomas brothers are very good providing support on running plays, especially Shamarko. That's good, because I think the line and linebackers still need some time to gel.
4. The halftime adjustments were excellent. This might be the biggest reason to believe in our coaching - they make great adjustments on the fly. I have no idea how they fixed the issues with the offensive line, but whatever they did worked. The next step in their development will hopefully be to have the team look crisper from the start, but at the very least there are good reasons to believe that we can respond to surprises early in the game effectively.
5. Prince and Kobena. They didn't see the ball much, but both of those guys have that look that when they get the ball they have big dreams, and they seem to have the speed and wiggle to be real threats. I'm really excited about both of those guys. To a lesser extent I was glad to see that Stevens was more than just camp hype.
6. While I'm not sure that Nassib displayed enough that I'm convinced he has a true sexual understanding of the game of football and how to be a quarterback yet, he did make some excellent decisions and some even better throws. More importantly, I think Nassib has led the team on enough late game scoring drives that the team rallies around him in those moments and really believes that if the game is ending and they need a score that they can do it and he will get them there. It looked to me like at the end he was making plays to win the game and not just manage it.
Since I want to end this on a positive note I'll begin with the things I did not like from the game.
1. The offense was indeed offensive early. Look, I don't have a problem with getting a three and out. It's going to happen sometimes. But we only converted one first down in the entire first half. Part of that was due to Provo's turrible drop, but the numbers don't lie. That was abysmal offense, and really discouraging to see given that we thought with experience everywhere on that side of the ball that we would be ready to go from the start. Of course, there was one glaring point of inexperience...
2. Macky looked like crap early. I really had doubts about Macky coming in to this season, and he just got worked over in the first half. It got so bad I was running scenarios in my head trying to figure out if it was too late to move Chibane over and plug Sweet Lou into his guard spot. I'm glad he rebounded, but I'm still not at all confident in the center position. I've been quietly terrified that we have a below average center, and below average defensive tackles, they just aren't gaining much going up against each other in practice, and once they encounter an average player or heaven forbid an above average player the weakness there will really show. Above all else I really hope I'm wrong about this.
3. Special teams snapping. Not much to say here, it was bad.
4. The safeties in coverage. I think the Thomas brothers are barely adequate here. They are talented guys though, and I do expect them to improve as the season goes on.
5. Our zone defense seemed extremely soft. We did get beat on a few occasions in man coverage, but I felt like it was way too easy for Price to pick apart our zone downfield, especially in long passing situations.
6. The conservative play calling when a TD would have sealed the deal. I did not like playing for the field goal and to burn clock on three straight running plays. We should have run play action once and at least taken a shot at the end zone to lock up the game.
The things I liked:
1. Ant rebounding from a fumble at a crucial point in the game to run with some steam and score a long TD. Actually, in general I was very encouraged by how well Ant ran inside. He's tougher and more complete than people give him credit for I think. I expect as the season goes on and the backups get more experience that we'll see Ant catching more balls and running a little less though.
2. Adam Harris. I've believed that if we see a lot of Harris that's a bad thing for our offense, but he won me over some. I recall a tough run that he made, and he pulled in the TD. That should be an easy grab, but even so a lot of guys find a way to not make that play. He did. I don't think he's Rob Konrad, but I think that he'll be more of a weapon at fullback than I expected and that's a big positive for a team with a shaky center.
3. The safeties against the run. The Thomas brothers are very good providing support on running plays, especially Shamarko. That's good, because I think the line and linebackers still need some time to gel.
4. The halftime adjustments were excellent. This might be the biggest reason to believe in our coaching - they make great adjustments on the fly. I have no idea how they fixed the issues with the offensive line, but whatever they did worked. The next step in their development will hopefully be to have the team look crisper from the start, but at the very least there are good reasons to believe that we can respond to surprises early in the game effectively.
5. Prince and Kobena. They didn't see the ball much, but both of those guys have that look that when they get the ball they have big dreams, and they seem to have the speed and wiggle to be real threats. I'm really excited about both of those guys. To a lesser extent I was glad to see that Stevens was more than just camp hype.
6. While I'm not sure that Nassib displayed enough that I'm convinced he has a true sexual understanding of the game of football and how to be a quarterback yet, he did make some excellent decisions and some even better throws. More importantly, I think Nassib has led the team on enough late game scoring drives that the team rallies around him in those moments and really believes that if the game is ending and they need a score that they can do it and he will get them there. It looked to me like at the end he was making plays to win the game and not just manage it.
