Some thoughts on the game
- By WaveON
- Joe Kennedy's Wave Crest
- 25 Replies
38-14. Despite "winning" the turnover battle, we lost by 24 to a very average (for FBS purposes) football team at home. We were outplayed in every phase of the game-offense, defense, and special teams. Is it talent? A lot of people say, "no." Is it youth? A lot of people say, "yes." Is it coaching? A lot of people say "yes" to certain coaches, and "no" to others. And some people say it's the officials who, for some reason, every week, treat the Wave unfairly. Everyone has an opinion. Whatever...
On offense, we were pretty successful and balanced on first down. We ran the ball 17 times and gained at least 4 yards on 12 occasions. We also passed the ball 14 times on 1st down with 11 completions, nine of which were for 4 or more yards. That sets up 2nd down pretty well most of the time. Cincinnati, on the other hand gained at least 4 yards on 1st down only 17 of 29 opportunities, not quite as good. But when we "really needed it," we were 3 for 13 on 3rd down and 0 for 2 on 4th down. Cinci was 6 for 12 and 1 for 1 on those plays. Big difference!!
Our offensive line may have had its best game in my view. Lee generally had good time and was sacked "only" twice. CJ essentially "threw the QB under the bus" discussing those sacks, so maybe the line wasn't at fault. Some nice holes were opened with eight rushes for over ten yards, seven of which were on 1st down. But we failed badly on short yardage plays, failing to make a 1st down rushing on our two 3rd and less than 2 efforts. The failure on those short yardage and 3rd down play greatly detracts from an otherwise solid outing. We've simply got to make those plays!! It's a big reason why we only scored 14.
Lee looked the best I've seen him. He looked under control most of the time, and kept the ball in "safe" locations throughout the night. During the second quarter, for some reason, he started throwing high-very high-over the receivers. Had safeties been in position for them, this could be dangerous. It turned out not to be and he was much better later. He took two sacks that CJ thought were his fault, and probably so. Yet, he didn't throw it into coverage, so I'm not THAT upset. It's a learning process for Lee and it appears to me that he's slowly "getting it." But, for this game (and it's just my opinion), had we swapped QB's with Cincinnati, the result might have been very different.
I thought the receivers also looked pretty good. Except for the one really bad "drop" (and resulting near interception) by Veal, I don't recall any others. And, with Rush out, we've gone to a freshman- dominated receiving corps, including tight ends. Of the 35 passes last night, 28 were targeted at freshmen (80%). 21 of the 24 completions (87.5%) went to freshmen. And 191 of 205 yards (93%) were logged by freshmen. I'm sure there is miscommunication at times between our rookie QB and our receivers due to inexperience, but those numbers give me some hope for the future. It simply isn't enough for the present.
And, once again, our RB's looked good. With Badie hobbled, Hilliard stepped in and played a great game. We know he doesn't quite have Badie's speed, but he sure looked like it at times. Thompson didn't have as good a game, however. Except for his 19 yard TD run (a great effort), he was held to 4 or fewer yards on every other carry, averaging just 2.5 yards/carry. Running back is not our problem and shouldn't be for at least three more years.
On special teams, it's hard to overstate how bad we are. The Veal play was even worse than when DJ Banks did essentially the same thing a few years ago. Our FG attempt to use a baseball metaphor (how appropriate) looked like a foul ball into the 3rd base dugout; probably the worst miss I've seen in my 70 years on earth. We still can't return punts or kickoffs and, although it was the right "no call," we did come very close to being hit in the back by our own punt in the second half. We've simply got to be more aware.
On defense, we truly stunk. We gave up 31 points but they also dropped one in the end zone (got 3 points out of it) and two more long passes that resulted in no points. Their 479 yards would have been closer to 550-600 had those been caught. And our tackling?!? At one point, LeBeau made the most picture perfect tackle I have ever seen: head up, shoulder into the runner's midsection, arms firmly around the ball carried, lifted him, and drove him backwards into the ground. It should be a training film! But other than that one play, we couldn't tackle anyone. They sliced through our line at times like it wasn't there. Linebackers were caught running in the wrong direction; and DB's? Our safeties looked slow and made more missed tackles than successful ones. Monroe and Nickerson did pull down interceptions and Nickerson may be our best defender at this point. Nixon played more than in recent weeks but generally was chasing receivers/ball carriers towards the end zone. He, at least, looked fast, but how these guys kept getting behind him with the ball in hand was a big problem.
And, of course, Gilbert got tossed early in the game. Was it the right call? I thought it was a helmet to the head but not necessarily "spearing." But, the replay official disagreed. So what! Last year, CJ would have said, "next man up." Now, he's talking about how tough it was not practicing a three man line without Gilbert.
Right now, we're a bad football team, whatever the reason or rationale. We've lost eight of our last ten games to FBS teams, and none of them were named Alabama, Ohio State, or any such "true power." Is there hope? Always. Win the next four and we're going to a bowl. But, I wouldn't bet on it. Of course, UConn beat UCF today and Temple beat ECU, so who know?
Roll Wave!!!
This post was edited on 11/1 2:55 PM by WaveON
On offense, we were pretty successful and balanced on first down. We ran the ball 17 times and gained at least 4 yards on 12 occasions. We also passed the ball 14 times on 1st down with 11 completions, nine of which were for 4 or more yards. That sets up 2nd down pretty well most of the time. Cincinnati, on the other hand gained at least 4 yards on 1st down only 17 of 29 opportunities, not quite as good. But when we "really needed it," we were 3 for 13 on 3rd down and 0 for 2 on 4th down. Cinci was 6 for 12 and 1 for 1 on those plays. Big difference!!
Our offensive line may have had its best game in my view. Lee generally had good time and was sacked "only" twice. CJ essentially "threw the QB under the bus" discussing those sacks, so maybe the line wasn't at fault. Some nice holes were opened with eight rushes for over ten yards, seven of which were on 1st down. But we failed badly on short yardage plays, failing to make a 1st down rushing on our two 3rd and less than 2 efforts. The failure on those short yardage and 3rd down play greatly detracts from an otherwise solid outing. We've simply got to make those plays!! It's a big reason why we only scored 14.
Lee looked the best I've seen him. He looked under control most of the time, and kept the ball in "safe" locations throughout the night. During the second quarter, for some reason, he started throwing high-very high-over the receivers. Had safeties been in position for them, this could be dangerous. It turned out not to be and he was much better later. He took two sacks that CJ thought were his fault, and probably so. Yet, he didn't throw it into coverage, so I'm not THAT upset. It's a learning process for Lee and it appears to me that he's slowly "getting it." But, for this game (and it's just my opinion), had we swapped QB's with Cincinnati, the result might have been very different.
I thought the receivers also looked pretty good. Except for the one really bad "drop" (and resulting near interception) by Veal, I don't recall any others. And, with Rush out, we've gone to a freshman- dominated receiving corps, including tight ends. Of the 35 passes last night, 28 were targeted at freshmen (80%). 21 of the 24 completions (87.5%) went to freshmen. And 191 of 205 yards (93%) were logged by freshmen. I'm sure there is miscommunication at times between our rookie QB and our receivers due to inexperience, but those numbers give me some hope for the future. It simply isn't enough for the present.
And, once again, our RB's looked good. With Badie hobbled, Hilliard stepped in and played a great game. We know he doesn't quite have Badie's speed, but he sure looked like it at times. Thompson didn't have as good a game, however. Except for his 19 yard TD run (a great effort), he was held to 4 or fewer yards on every other carry, averaging just 2.5 yards/carry. Running back is not our problem and shouldn't be for at least three more years.
On special teams, it's hard to overstate how bad we are. The Veal play was even worse than when DJ Banks did essentially the same thing a few years ago. Our FG attempt to use a baseball metaphor (how appropriate) looked like a foul ball into the 3rd base dugout; probably the worst miss I've seen in my 70 years on earth. We still can't return punts or kickoffs and, although it was the right "no call," we did come very close to being hit in the back by our own punt in the second half. We've simply got to be more aware.
On defense, we truly stunk. We gave up 31 points but they also dropped one in the end zone (got 3 points out of it) and two more long passes that resulted in no points. Their 479 yards would have been closer to 550-600 had those been caught. And our tackling?!? At one point, LeBeau made the most picture perfect tackle I have ever seen: head up, shoulder into the runner's midsection, arms firmly around the ball carried, lifted him, and drove him backwards into the ground. It should be a training film! But other than that one play, we couldn't tackle anyone. They sliced through our line at times like it wasn't there. Linebackers were caught running in the wrong direction; and DB's? Our safeties looked slow and made more missed tackles than successful ones. Monroe and Nickerson did pull down interceptions and Nickerson may be our best defender at this point. Nixon played more than in recent weeks but generally was chasing receivers/ball carriers towards the end zone. He, at least, looked fast, but how these guys kept getting behind him with the ball in hand was a big problem.
And, of course, Gilbert got tossed early in the game. Was it the right call? I thought it was a helmet to the head but not necessarily "spearing." But, the replay official disagreed. So what! Last year, CJ would have said, "next man up." Now, he's talking about how tough it was not practicing a three man line without Gilbert.
Right now, we're a bad football team, whatever the reason or rationale. We've lost eight of our last ten games to FBS teams, and none of them were named Alabama, Ohio State, or any such "true power." Is there hope? Always. Win the next four and we're going to a bowl. But, I wouldn't bet on it. Of course, UConn beat UCF today and Temple beat ECU, so who know?
Roll Wave!!!
This post was edited on 11/1 2:55 PM by WaveON
