The good news is that we won. Banks played an incredibly courageous game, particularly on the last drive. And Army is probably a tougher team than most people who follow college football realize. All that said, I didn’t think we looked particularly good. But, as they say, the scoreboard is the only measure of the game that counts. Big win!!!
We had 253 yards rushing on 30 carries, but 170 of those were on 3 plays. We gained 83 yards on the other 27 rushes, not much more than 3 yards per carry. Of course, all the plays count and our blocking at the point of attack on Hilliard’s and Badie’s long TD runs was excellent. But Badie, in particular, simply outran everyone who had the angle on him or it would have been a 15 yard carry at best. Far too often, we were stuffed for very little yardage.
Banks was 10 for 22 passing which sound terrible, but he had at least two clear drops, a couple passes blocked at the line of scrimmage, and had to throw away two more. He clearly is our best thrower at this point and, when he gets healthy, could be a real threat. We’ll see. I’m optimistic.
Our tight ends were invisible and our wide receivers had trouble gaining separation against Army’s secondary. I’ll say that again. They had trouble gaining separation against Army’s secondary despite the threat of our running game. That’s not good, though it appears that Mooney, Clewis, and Robertson have now joined Encalade in our top four. We’ve got a number of others resigned to watching most of the game. Better wide receivers would help.
On defense, it’s hard to find much to like from our interior line other than they competed to the end. They were shredded all game long by the fullback up the middle. Yet, I thought Sample, the freshman, outplayed our more experienced guys. He could be a very good one. Of course, Army only scored 17 points but they kept the ball for far too long. If they had any passing game, we might never have stopped them. As it was, when they inexplicable passed on that one long drive, it ended in a turnover. In my opinion, their ineptitude passing was more important to their lack of scoring than our defense.
Our linebackers made a ton of tackles, but they tended to be 5-9 yards downfield and even then we missed a number of tackles. Can’t allow that.
When you don’t allow any completions and intercept two passes, it’s hard to complain about our defensive backfield no matter the opponent. Donnie Lewis, who I frequently criticize, made a truly great play on his interception. And Nickerson made at least three highlight plays- one when he ran down the Fullback at the one yard line (though they eventually scored), his play against the “trick” kickoff return in the last minute of the game, and his interception on the game’s final play. But, everyone has to take some blame for allowing Army to run so well.
On special teams, Banks made a terrific “pooch” punt to the 3 yard line but Block, who averaged over 40 yards per punt, had only a 34.5 yards net due to a touchback and 8 return yards on four punts. Their guy had two punts averaging 51 yards with no returns, so we lost that battle. We held them to the 24 yard line on average from our kickoffs, the exact same starting position we achieved. And Glover made all three extra points without trouble but probably hasn’t gained Coach Fritz’s confidence to try anything much longer.
Like coaches say forever, it’s good to win but have some things to work on. We’ve got two weeks to prepare for our next “must win”—Tulsa.
Roll Wave!!!
We had 253 yards rushing on 30 carries, but 170 of those were on 3 plays. We gained 83 yards on the other 27 rushes, not much more than 3 yards per carry. Of course, all the plays count and our blocking at the point of attack on Hilliard’s and Badie’s long TD runs was excellent. But Badie, in particular, simply outran everyone who had the angle on him or it would have been a 15 yard carry at best. Far too often, we were stuffed for very little yardage.
Banks was 10 for 22 passing which sound terrible, but he had at least two clear drops, a couple passes blocked at the line of scrimmage, and had to throw away two more. He clearly is our best thrower at this point and, when he gets healthy, could be a real threat. We’ll see. I’m optimistic.
Our tight ends were invisible and our wide receivers had trouble gaining separation against Army’s secondary. I’ll say that again. They had trouble gaining separation against Army’s secondary despite the threat of our running game. That’s not good, though it appears that Mooney, Clewis, and Robertson have now joined Encalade in our top four. We’ve got a number of others resigned to watching most of the game. Better wide receivers would help.
On defense, it’s hard to find much to like from our interior line other than they competed to the end. They were shredded all game long by the fullback up the middle. Yet, I thought Sample, the freshman, outplayed our more experienced guys. He could be a very good one. Of course, Army only scored 17 points but they kept the ball for far too long. If they had any passing game, we might never have stopped them. As it was, when they inexplicable passed on that one long drive, it ended in a turnover. In my opinion, their ineptitude passing was more important to their lack of scoring than our defense.
Our linebackers made a ton of tackles, but they tended to be 5-9 yards downfield and even then we missed a number of tackles. Can’t allow that.
When you don’t allow any completions and intercept two passes, it’s hard to complain about our defensive backfield no matter the opponent. Donnie Lewis, who I frequently criticize, made a truly great play on his interception. And Nickerson made at least three highlight plays- one when he ran down the Fullback at the one yard line (though they eventually scored), his play against the “trick” kickoff return in the last minute of the game, and his interception on the game’s final play. But, everyone has to take some blame for allowing Army to run so well.
On special teams, Banks made a terrific “pooch” punt to the 3 yard line but Block, who averaged over 40 yards per punt, had only a 34.5 yards net due to a touchback and 8 return yards on four punts. Their guy had two punts averaging 51 yards with no returns, so we lost that battle. We held them to the 24 yard line on average from our kickoffs, the exact same starting position we achieved. And Glover made all three extra points without trouble but probably hasn’t gained Coach Fritz’s confidence to try anything much longer.
Like coaches say forever, it’s good to win but have some things to work on. We’ve got two weeks to prepare for our next “must win”—Tulsa.
Roll Wave!!!
