Thoughts on the game/season

[evilpoke]

- I don't think it's any coincidence that the offensive line has its best game and the team scores 38 points. The crazy part is, that was while allowing 5 sacks, a couple of blow up plays on basic runs and absolutely no answer when the Aztecs decided to blitz. We can complain about the playcalling all we want, but if there's no room to run, the offense is not going to do anything.
The coaches are going after some junior college o-linemen, and there's 6 true freshmen o-linemen. I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes next year.

- I'm looking forward to seeing this defensive line NEXT season, when we the tackles have an extra year and 15 pounds more on their frames.
Here's the weight from the roster (they may be heavier now):
Ben Durbin - 256
Patrick Mertens - 269
Mike Purcell - 269
Tyler Strong - 275 (but hes a true freshman)
THATS NOT OK FOR A D-I TEAM
256 is a defensive end weight.

Was Hillman injured? I was pleasantly surprised by how well the team bottled him up.
Keep in mind I am NOT bashing the young d-tackles. They've been put in a very difficult situation - going up against guys 30-50 pounds heavier than them with not a lot of D-I experience.

- I don't remember the last time we had a good pash rush. Early 2000s? The defensive backs got blitzed - that's for sure, but you can't give a decent quarterback 5-6 seconds back there. Our guys got close a lot of times, I wish we had someone on the team who could just pin their ears back on obvious passing plays and you KNOW he's going to disrupt the play.

- We play a bend but not break defense - we wait for the other team to make a mistake, and we lock up tight near the goalline. That's fine if it works, but I really would have liked to have seen more blitzes yesterday - just in general. The funny thing is, on those rare occasions they do decide to blitz, it usually winds up being successful for us.

- Two suggestions for the offense:
1. Get a screen play in there. It's obvious the o-line has problem protecting, so why not get the ball the hell out of there? (Imagine Robert Herron out in space making defensive backs look silly)
2. Put in some roll-out plays. Austin is better in open space, and he always seems to make plays running near the sideline.

I think the Pokes beat UNM and UNLV the next two weeks, with the Border War at the end.

The coaches have this team in the right direction. There's only 11 seniors, and most of the playmakers are freshmen and sophomores. Get the defensive and offensive line shored up, and these close defeats turn to wins.

Go Cowboys.

[MrTitleist]

The Jake Plummer bootleg with ACS would be sick. He rarely lines up under center to really sell it though.

[fromolwyoming]

I did notice that when they blitzed, it put pressure on Lindley and he threw bad passes.

And the last time we had a good pass rush, was probably 2006. #4 defense in the country.

[Asmodeanreborn]

There's only 11 seniors, and most of the playmakers are freshmen and sophomores.

I thought I'd just point out:
Bolger and Leonard are seniors... and Leonard's going to be very tough to replace, I think. Unless the biggest miracle in the world happens and Anthony Denham decides to become a Poke, that is. At least we offered him, so that's a start. Unfortunately, so far Nebraska, Utah, and Oregon also gave him offers. I guess as a JuCo guy, he may not feel as certain about starting at any of those schools, though.

[Fullback41]

We play a bend but not break defense - we wait for the other team to make a mistake, and we lock up tight near the goalline.

I don't mind a bend but don't break defense. If we could have kept them out of the endzone and just given up field goals we would have won. The way we were stopping the run and short passes, I really thought we were going to win on Saturday.

Sad that we will probably crank out 40 points a game and win the last 3 to finish 5-7. Too bad we couldn't have pulled out the BYU or AFA game.

Depressed.

[Asmodeanreborn]

We play a bend but not break defense - we wait for the other team to make a mistake, and we lock up tight near the goalline.

I don't mind a bend but don't break defense. If we could have kept them out of the endzone and just given up field goals we would have won. The way we were stopping the run and short passes, I really thought we were going to win on Saturday.

Bend but don't break isn't bad at all... as long as you make SURE to not break the way we did on several occasions. I was really upset with Prosinski during the game, and the same goes for Gipson, but oh well.

[Fullback41]

Last season we took a few steps forward, this year a step back. I still look forward to watching the Pokes beat the heck out of NM and UNLV and finally the Border War. As a friend told me today, at least we will save money staying home this Bowl season....there is always a silver lining right? Maybe it will free up some recruiting time. Missing out on the extra practices that come with a bowl game and the bragging rights is disappointing. I wish our conference schedule was backwards with the easy teams first and AFA last, I think if we had a chance to get rolling offensively early the BYU and AFA games thus our season would have ended differently. Especially now that Jared Tew is hurt. Heck a bye week may have made a differece. Oh well, we can't really worry about how the schedule is made, we just got to play it.