Just some off the cuff thoughts on today’s game and our two rivals.
1. Corum is the best athlete we’ve had since Jabril. Hope this staff maximizes his touches.
2. Finally, FINALLY! did what we should do to middling competition. Think about how tight some of this mid-major type games have been over the last few years. This could have been tense in the 3rd quarter, but it was never close once we hit 17 in the first half.
3. This team certainly has talent abound, but will need to be flawless in the little things. Can’t give up field position, no stupid penalties, display mental fortitude, etc. The Ojabo penalty on the opening drive was the same old shit. Would have been 3rd and long, instead it’s 1st and a march to the end zone. Wish he was pulled immediately after, but it’s also an early, adrenaline play. Also sick of seeing special teams penalties, team is 50% to get roughing/running into the punter since 2017.
4. Equally the drive after the Corum return. Instead we lose yards (By false start I think?), and it’s 3 and out and a field goal. Go for the goddamn throat there!
5. First time I feel like I saw Gattis’s recruiting/personnel show through. You could finally feel the speed on the field at the skill positions. And the WRs blocked their asses off.
6. DLine will be a problem. No penetration, gave up a bit too much ground.
7. Nikhai Hill-Green brings it. Got caught out a couple times, but he runs straight through his tackles. Reminiscent of McGrones first year. He’s going to be a stud.
8. There was a particular sequence early where Dax showed blitz off the edge. Western paused, looked to the sideline, and changed up their play. Hill backed out into coverage at the snap, Western threw into the flat they expected to be vacant, and Dax absolutely blew it up. If that was still Don Brown, Dax still sends, and Western picks up 20+. Hopefully these are early signs of coaching putting players in position to win. Probably my favorite play all game.
9. McCarthy was nice to see, but he’ll burn us too. Can’t throw that TD against better competition...yet.
10. Get rid of Villari in the Wildcat unless he’s legit given all 3 RPO options. Looked tentative on the 2 point.
11. Still feel like are QBs are told to give i.e. no RPO. For a modern offense to work, the QB has to be able to pull and run. A number of times we gave up gains in exchange for nothing.
12. Roman Wilson was wiiiiiiiide open.
13. Maybe I couldn’t tell on TV, but that crowd should have been apoplectic on the Ronnie Bell penalty on the catch, and it shouldn’t have stopped the remainder of that drive. Horse-shit call in front of the entire country club.
A note on MSU: they’re going to be a problem. We can debate whether they’re a good team or not. But we play them @ and they just rinsed a stable Northwestern team who usually at least shows up to play defense. They also played with the same cockiness/swagger that some of their best teams had. We’ll need to match that and be able to smash them right in the mouth. TBD.
A note on OSU: they’ll figure it out. Minnesota played out of their minds most of that game, but the inevitable played out and you were just waiting for the breaks to go OSUs way. Day is an offensive genius, and it looks like he’ll be around a bit longer than originally anticipated. Hopefully someone nabs them early, and they can certainly be beat this year. But their strength is in both fronts and schematically. They’ll only get better
1. Corum is the best athlete we’ve had since Jabril. Hope this staff maximizes his touches.
2. Finally, FINALLY! did what we should do to middling competition. Think about how tight some of this mid-major type games have been over the last few years. This could have been tense in the 3rd quarter, but it was never close once we hit 17 in the first half.
3. This team certainly has talent abound, but will need to be flawless in the little things. Can’t give up field position, no stupid penalties, display mental fortitude, etc. The Ojabo penalty on the opening drive was the same old shit. Would have been 3rd and long, instead it’s 1st and a march to the end zone. Wish he was pulled immediately after, but it’s also an early, adrenaline play. Also sick of seeing special teams penalties, team is 50% to get roughing/running into the punter since 2017.
4. Equally the drive after the Corum return. Instead we lose yards (By false start I think?), and it’s 3 and out and a field goal. Go for the goddamn throat there!
5. First time I feel like I saw Gattis’s recruiting/personnel show through. You could finally feel the speed on the field at the skill positions. And the WRs blocked their asses off.
6. DLine will be a problem. No penetration, gave up a bit too much ground.
7. Nikhai Hill-Green brings it. Got caught out a couple times, but he runs straight through his tackles. Reminiscent of McGrones first year. He’s going to be a stud.
8. There was a particular sequence early where Dax showed blitz off the edge. Western paused, looked to the sideline, and changed up their play. Hill backed out into coverage at the snap, Western threw into the flat they expected to be vacant, and Dax absolutely blew it up. If that was still Don Brown, Dax still sends, and Western picks up 20+. Hopefully these are early signs of coaching putting players in position to win. Probably my favorite play all game.
9. McCarthy was nice to see, but he’ll burn us too. Can’t throw that TD against better competition...yet.
10. Get rid of Villari in the Wildcat unless he’s legit given all 3 RPO options. Looked tentative on the 2 point.
11. Still feel like are QBs are told to give i.e. no RPO. For a modern offense to work, the QB has to be able to pull and run. A number of times we gave up gains in exchange for nothing.
12. Roman Wilson was wiiiiiiiide open.
13. Maybe I couldn’t tell on TV, but that crowd should have been apoplectic on the Ronnie Bell penalty on the catch, and it shouldn’t have stopped the remainder of that drive. Horse-shit call in front of the entire country club.
A note on MSU: they’re going to be a problem. We can debate whether they’re a good team or not. But we play them @ and they just rinsed a stable Northwestern team who usually at least shows up to play defense. They also played with the same cockiness/swagger that some of their best teams had. We’ll need to match that and be able to smash them right in the mouth. TBD.
A note on OSU: they’ll figure it out. Minnesota played out of their minds most of that game, but the inevitable played out and you were just waiting for the breaks to go OSUs way. Day is an offensive genius, and it looks like he’ll be around a bit longer than originally anticipated. Hopefully someone nabs them early, and they can certainly be beat this year. But their strength is in both fronts and schematically. They’ll only get better
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