Time to hop in with my thoughts. I'll tell you now I can't bring myself to go back and watch L's so this is from memory.
I did see they put in a few new wrinkles this week. They ran that roll out at least 2 times but I think it was 3. They ran quite a few plays out of the pistol as @lwv had been calling for.
Most of us have not seen enough of these guys to know how comparable the Olinemen are but ideally your #2 LT is better than your #3 LG. OL did not look good at all...especially once Crawford went down. They're having trouble with base looks let alone stunts. Trust me when I tell you it's a talent issue on the OL right now. I'm sure everyone in the building would love to kick McGovern inside but if he's the best you got, he's the best you got. I'm pretty confident AJ knows what he's doing from a technique standpoint.
I thought Maty looked good in the 1st half, reverted to overly aggressive Maty in the 2nd half. Kid HAS to run more. He looks like the fastest player on the field when he pulls it down and takes off. Lock threw a couple of balls last night that I don't think anyone else on the roster can...one in the middle of the field. My opinion ain't worth squat but I don't understand why they are being so stubborn about this. The player alone makes your offense less predictable.
Until RH is healthy it looks like Hunt deserves the majority of the snaps. He runs tough and is going to get you those 3-4 yds you need. Good balance but just can't stick his foot in the ground and change directions like a healthy RH who also runs very strong. Ish gives you the juice of RH but doesn't run nearly as strong. He needs to be in space and used as a change of pace back.
I think J'mon is close. The drop was a very good throw by Mauk but was always going to be a touch catch because of the angle and trajectory. Problem is, if you want to be great, you have to catch those. Nate Brown made a couple of nice catches last night. Think Marcus Lucas. I would like to see a little more of Dilosa. Reese is about to get his shot. Has to catch the ball consistently and block.
There are 3 top 3 round players on that DL right now(Harris, Augusta, and Beckner). Howard isn't far behind. Harris destroyed an entire drive by himself. Beckner is always in the backfield. That young buck is an animal and Big Josh is just a dancing bear.
I didn't think the LBs played as well as they had in weeks past. I sense a week of back to basics. Getting run/pass reads. I think it was the 2nd touchdown that was a microcosm of what happened all night. The play before, Scherer gets a little bit of a late read and is engulfed by the lineman. So on the next play ( which was PA) he takes 2 false steps, doesn't get any depth and Towles throws one on a line right where he should have been. Towles might still throw that ball but, if he does he's gotta put some air on it. That gives the safety an opportunity to get over. The last drive, somebody wasn't where they we supposed to be on the 1st 1st down. Two people in the same gap. Can't be entirely sure if it was the DL or the LB who messed that up but, my gut says it was the LB. Lastly, I hope KB isn't out too long but I'm thinking best case scenario is high ankle from the way that looked.
I hate to see Simon go down. I think you are about to see why he plays. Everybody loves for safeties to make plays. A lot of times, what's more important is that they get everyone back their lined up and don't give up big plays. I thought the secondary played pretty well. The PI on Penton was ridiculous. They all came up and tackled well.
I think at the end of the day, we ended up gassed on the defensive side of the ball.
I'll finish by saying there is some talent on the roster but a lot of it is young. I saw @Burst3737 say politics goes into who plays. I hate to call it that because what you might think are politics on the outside looking in really have to do with a player's maturity level. My last year there was a player who was the best we had at his position the minute he stepped on campus. Everybody knew it. To this day, that same player will tell you he wasn't ready to play yet. He wasn't doing the things off the field that would have allowed him to have sustained success on the field.
I did see they put in a few new wrinkles this week. They ran that roll out at least 2 times but I think it was 3. They ran quite a few plays out of the pistol as @lwv had been calling for.
Most of us have not seen enough of these guys to know how comparable the Olinemen are but ideally your #2 LT is better than your #3 LG. OL did not look good at all...especially once Crawford went down. They're having trouble with base looks let alone stunts. Trust me when I tell you it's a talent issue on the OL right now. I'm sure everyone in the building would love to kick McGovern inside but if he's the best you got, he's the best you got. I'm pretty confident AJ knows what he's doing from a technique standpoint.
I thought Maty looked good in the 1st half, reverted to overly aggressive Maty in the 2nd half. Kid HAS to run more. He looks like the fastest player on the field when he pulls it down and takes off. Lock threw a couple of balls last night that I don't think anyone else on the roster can...one in the middle of the field. My opinion ain't worth squat but I don't understand why they are being so stubborn about this. The player alone makes your offense less predictable.
Until RH is healthy it looks like Hunt deserves the majority of the snaps. He runs tough and is going to get you those 3-4 yds you need. Good balance but just can't stick his foot in the ground and change directions like a healthy RH who also runs very strong. Ish gives you the juice of RH but doesn't run nearly as strong. He needs to be in space and used as a change of pace back.
I think J'mon is close. The drop was a very good throw by Mauk but was always going to be a touch catch because of the angle and trajectory. Problem is, if you want to be great, you have to catch those. Nate Brown made a couple of nice catches last night. Think Marcus Lucas. I would like to see a little more of Dilosa. Reese is about to get his shot. Has to catch the ball consistently and block.
There are 3 top 3 round players on that DL right now(Harris, Augusta, and Beckner). Howard isn't far behind. Harris destroyed an entire drive by himself. Beckner is always in the backfield. That young buck is an animal and Big Josh is just a dancing bear.
I didn't think the LBs played as well as they had in weeks past. I sense a week of back to basics. Getting run/pass reads. I think it was the 2nd touchdown that was a microcosm of what happened all night. The play before, Scherer gets a little bit of a late read and is engulfed by the lineman. So on the next play ( which was PA) he takes 2 false steps, doesn't get any depth and Towles throws one on a line right where he should have been. Towles might still throw that ball but, if he does he's gotta put some air on it. That gives the safety an opportunity to get over. The last drive, somebody wasn't where they we supposed to be on the 1st 1st down. Two people in the same gap. Can't be entirely sure if it was the DL or the LB who messed that up but, my gut says it was the LB. Lastly, I hope KB isn't out too long but I'm thinking best case scenario is high ankle from the way that looked.
I hate to see Simon go down. I think you are about to see why he plays. Everybody loves for safeties to make plays. A lot of times, what's more important is that they get everyone back their lined up and don't give up big plays. I thought the secondary played pretty well. The PI on Penton was ridiculous. They all came up and tackled well.
I think at the end of the day, we ended up gassed on the defensive side of the ball.
I'll finish by saying there is some talent on the roster but a lot of it is young. I saw @Burst3737 say politics goes into who plays. I hate to call it that because what you might think are politics on the outside looking in really have to do with a player's maturity level. My last year there was a player who was the best we had at his position the minute he stepped on campus. Everybody knew it. To this day, that same player will tell you he wasn't ready to play yet. He wasn't doing the things off the field that would have allowed him to have sustained success on the field.
