The defense remains really interesting to me. The first few series consisted of a 4-2-5 look and what I'll describe as a 5-1-5 look (although its probably more often called a 3-3-5 counting Hutch and Olabo as OLBs). Despite standing up, Ojabo and Hutchinson much more often resembled duties of a traditional defense end than that of an outside linebacker. They are obviously critical players. Inside was very surprised to see Hill-Green as the starter when we had been told Colson was (thought via direct quotes from staff). Odd. Did I miss an update/injury?
Ross' role in this defense is huge and we need him to stay healthy.
I was pretty darn pleased, even at times when we were giving up yards at the apparent adherence to big play limiting principles and techniques. Players were missing on the correct side, attacking blocks on the correct side, disengaging when they needed to disengage, working the ball back into help - help that was always there. High risk high reward Ds like the one we played under Brown put people on islands all over the field. You get creased its trouble. This felt very different in a good way.
With that said, I kept wondering how this will hold up against Wisconsin. Our defensive line got absolutely embarrassed against Wisconsin the last time we are in Madison. Made us look like an FCS front at times. Is Chryst going to drool looking at Ojabo, Jeter, Morris, etc. on tape? Will we in turn be nauseous when we see the results? No team with less talent than us overall should do what Wisconsin did to us that day and I'm anxious to see how that game plays out.
On offense I'm somewhat unmoved. We hit big plays against a lesser talented team - that can be fool's gold. I was mystified at how many times we left the backside end (apparently intentionally) unblocked and that player made an easy tackle. That looked like a scheme issue.
I didn't like how often linemen were stalemated, sometimes by smaller players when pulling. So I remain uneasy about Gattis' offense and the players up front running it. We'll see.
Ronnie Bell going out of course blows. I liked our wr blocking and our running back play. Cade continues to give the vibe of a steady gamer that is more than capable of winning games here.
Our best players were our best players which is an underrated sign of a team that is in the right place development wise.
First games when you look back over the years tend to forecast precisely squat about what is coming - so we'll learn more next week.
But if I had to sum up my overall take, its a reinforcement of my hope/belief that recency bias has us more down in general than we should be. We've got a damn good football coach who is capable of big things and a decently talented squad. I would not be shocked if this is a pleasantly surprising pretty fun year setting up big things - a la 2002.
Ross' role in this defense is huge and we need him to stay healthy.
I was pretty darn pleased, even at times when we were giving up yards at the apparent adherence to big play limiting principles and techniques. Players were missing on the correct side, attacking blocks on the correct side, disengaging when they needed to disengage, working the ball back into help - help that was always there. High risk high reward Ds like the one we played under Brown put people on islands all over the field. You get creased its trouble. This felt very different in a good way.
With that said, I kept wondering how this will hold up against Wisconsin. Our defensive line got absolutely embarrassed against Wisconsin the last time we are in Madison. Made us look like an FCS front at times. Is Chryst going to drool looking at Ojabo, Jeter, Morris, etc. on tape? Will we in turn be nauseous when we see the results? No team with less talent than us overall should do what Wisconsin did to us that day and I'm anxious to see how that game plays out.
On offense I'm somewhat unmoved. We hit big plays against a lesser talented team - that can be fool's gold. I was mystified at how many times we left the backside end (apparently intentionally) unblocked and that player made an easy tackle. That looked like a scheme issue.
I didn't like how often linemen were stalemated, sometimes by smaller players when pulling. So I remain uneasy about Gattis' offense and the players up front running it. We'll see.
Ronnie Bell going out of course blows. I liked our wr blocking and our running back play. Cade continues to give the vibe of a steady gamer that is more than capable of winning games here.
Our best players were our best players which is an underrated sign of a team that is in the right place development wise.
First games when you look back over the years tend to forecast precisely squat about what is coming - so we'll learn more next week.
But if I had to sum up my overall take, its a reinforcement of my hope/belief that recency bias has us more down in general than we should be. We've got a damn good football coach who is capable of big things and a decently talented squad. I would not be shocked if this is a pleasantly surprising pretty fun year setting up big things - a la 2002.
