My thoughts on the game...

Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:32 am

Just got back, wow!

1. I hope that team that showed up the first half is a preview of what is to come down the road. That was the best half of football I have seen a Wyoming team play in a long time. Completely dominated them outside their 2 big plays. That team could compete with anyone in the conference, including BSU (maybe not win, but put up a good fight.)

2. On the other hand, the second half was again lackluster. I couldn't quite pinpoint what happened, just
seemed to be a lack of execution and focus. It sure would be nice to drive the stake through someone's heart on the road and really finish a team, but I guess we aren't there yet.

3. If I was a SDSU fan, I'd be questioning the playcalling. #13 should have gotten the ball on every single down, we couldn't stop him. I actually think that our missed extra point was a blessing in disguise, it kept the final margin at 3 instead of 4. Had it been 4, SDSU would have been going for those 4th down's instead of kicking field goals and I'm not sure we would have stopped them.

Overall a very nice win and (hopefully) a big step forward out of the shadow of that USU game. If they can put a solid effort together and compete against TCU, that would be the next big step.

Sun Oct 30, 2011 2:09 am

calpoke25 wrote:Just got back, wow!

2. On the other hand, the second half was again lackluster. I couldn't quite pinpoint what happened, just
seemed to be a lack of execution and focus.

D line is suspect due to size they get worn out to quickly and if we don't have a strong 3rd quarter they are completely winded by the 4th quarter and it has shown in every game wins and losses.

I think it will be fixed and it has certainly improved but I still can see our D line worn out before the opposing teams O line is. That is our O's fault for not letting them rest but still they could use a little more size.

What I don't get is in the 1st half we ran 8 in the box and had a lot of blitzing but the 2nd half it's like we completely ignored what worked and played too much prevent/zone.

Sun Oct 30, 2011 6:08 am

We won on the road against a pretty damn good team. One that handled Air Force pretty easily at their place. Yes, they missed a few field goals. 3 weeks ago, we couldn't force a team to kick a field goal.

We've come a long way defensively since Utah State. The offense has more weapons than I can remember for a long time. I'd say 8 wins is not out of the question. There's no reason why we can't beat Air Force.

In fact, I'm going to say that we can put up a fight next week. I'm drinking the kool-aid and it tastes pretty good.

Sun Oct 30, 2011 9:41 am

calpoke.....how were the Aztec fans? Cocky? Respectful? Didn't really acknowledge you guys?

Sun Oct 30, 2011 10:26 am

J-Rod wrote:calpoke.....how were the Aztec fans? Cocky? Respectful? Didn't really acknowledge you guys?

I only interacted with a couple in the parking lot before the game and the guys next to us were pretty cool. The WYO section was very full so not a lot of them around there. I didn't experience anything bad on the way out of the stadium either.

I will say though, that even though the WYO fans only numbered maybe 2K (not sure how many were there, seemed like a lot) we sure cheered a hell of a lot better and louder than SDSU fans.

Sun Oct 30, 2011 10:47 am

Yea all you could hear on tv on the last 2 SDSU drives was a defense chant

Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:53 am

I knew Long would tighten up his defense after the first half, and he did - that along with rather conservative playcalling from Wyoming led to our offense not having much luck in the second half. I'm not going to complain too much, though. We won, and we did play solid on defense, even if it wasn't great.

I think the main reason we didn't stack the box was that we knew they had to throw against us eventually, especially since running made the clock keep going. San Diego used up way too much time by actually running it, so it worked out (apart from the 99 yard run, that is).

I really like how Brett Smith just picked them apart in the first half, though. The defense did all they could to confuse him, but it just led to him finding holes everywhere.

This was a VERY solid win, even though it was a close game. San Diego is a much better team than we've given them credit for, and Vegas certainly thought they'd win rather easily - but that didn't happen.

How many times did Biezuns get his hands on Lindley's arm to ruin a throw, by the way? The guy's a beast!

Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:41 pm

What happened in the second half is what happens every game and I posted it on my vote for Pokes and Chokes on Poke Pride.

Once DC gets a lead he plays to conservative and is afraid to try anything, he coaches to just sit on a lead not coaching to add to it and dominate the opposing team. Until DC coaches the second half with the same intensity as the first The Pokes will have a tough time in the second half all year.

Sun Oct 30, 2011 2:36 pm

PokePride.com wrote:What happened in the second half is what happens every game and I posted it on my vote for Pokes and Chokes on Poke Pride.

Once DC gets a lead he plays to conservative and is afraid to try anything, he coaches to just sit on a lead not coaching to add to it and dominate the opposing team. Until DC coaches the second half with the same intensity as the first The Pokes will have a tough time in the second half all year.

Seems like Joe Tiller had the same problem when he was at Wyoming.

Sun Oct 30, 2011 2:43 pm

PokePride.com wrote:What happened in the second half is what happens every game and I posted it on my vote for Pokes and Chokes on Poke Pride.

Once DC gets a lead he plays to conservative and is afraid to try anything, he coaches to just sit on a lead not coaching to add to it and dominate the opposing team. Until DC coaches the second half with the same intensity as the first The Pokes will have a tough time in the second half all year.

Our big gains in the 1st half came from screens, QB draws, and runs that broke free. I really didn't see a difference in play calling between halves. We still tried those screens, draws, and runs...even threw the ball down field a few times. Just weren't as effective, obviously.

Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:21 am

PokePride.com wrote:Once DC gets a lead he plays to conservative and is afraid to try anything, he coaches to just sit on a lead not coaching to add to it and dominate the opposing team.

I have to disagree a little bit with this. There wasn't a big change in the playcalling IMO, we just weren't as effective. Really, I think Long made some pretty good defensive adjustments at the half, and you have to give him credit for that. We maybe should have made some adjustments at half, but it was working so well it's hard to fault the coaches for that.

I'm still a little concerned with our defense - especially the secondary. There were two big SDSU pass plays, one at the end of the third quarter, and one just before the second missed field goal, that should have gone for TD's. Receivers were wide open with no Poke within 10 ft. Both passes were on the money and dropped by the receiver, but if they catch those we probably lose this game. We've got to get our secondary covering better.

Was pretty pleased with the run defense though - especially in the first half. Hillman's going to get his yards, and if you take out the 99-yarder (several blown tackles there), he only had about 130. Defense got tired in the second half and forgot fundamentals (lots of arm tackles on Hillman) - but they stepped up at the end when they needed to.

If we can play like this against TCU, it should be an interesting day, and if we can remember assignments against AF, I think that's a win. The Lowblows at home is a no brainer, and I think we go to CSEwe already eligible. Saturday made me feel a LOT better about this team, with a few concerns still hanging around

GO POKES!

Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:25 pm

One of the funnest games I have attended. Flight got in late last night.

Overall, I was very impressed with our D's effort. Undersized and they still competed awesome. I was disappointed in our O the second half, but they held on long enough for the win.

I couldn't have asked for nicer SDSU fans. Granted, I think they thought they were going to steamroll us, but still. They were so welcoming and accomadating. I would rather attend a game in SDSU than a game in Provo or SLC ANYDAY!

The wyoming fans were loud once again. Very impressed.

Well worth the $800 in plane tickets and hotel rooms. HUGE win for the Pokes. They need to keep the momemtum now. No letdowns. They have some momentum heading into some tough games.

Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:03 pm

Superb game offensively for the Pokes and by Brandon. He knew they were going send the house at Brett and we were obviously prepared for that in the first half. SDSU made a few adjustments in the 2nd half that I saw. 1) We hurt them early with option with Brett keeping it and also pitching to Al and they began to run Burris to pitch and our OL wasn't able to get up to the second level so their LB was able to cancel Brett when Burris went up to pitch. Good adjustment.

2) SDSU virtually came 100% of the time when their OLB are walked up on the line of scrimmage. In the 2nd half they showed the same look and would actually drop and one or both of those guys and at one point almost picked Brett on a slant that was thrown on our sideline. They never have shown that and I think Brett needs to do a better job of making his adjustments based on the adjustments that he sees. He needs to learn to adapt the O to those adjustments made and that will come the more games he plays and the more success he has.

The reality is this team is young and the vast majority of these kids have never been in the position that they were in going in at half time kicking holy hell out of a team many thought would have put them away at halftime. I can almost guarantee this team will not be let what happen in the second half happen again because they have been through it now and know what they need to do in order to finish off a team. That is how you LEARN to become a really good football team, because it just doesn't happen. These Pokes are learning to become that team and the next 3-4 years will be a lot of fun if your a Poke fan. This is what I believe anyway.

Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:29 pm

I actually thought B Smitty made some poor reads on the option and the read option. Looked like he should have pitched it once and didn't , then on the read option, he kept and was drilled very quickly. looked like he should have handed it off. He had a few more poor throws in the second half as well, but when you get spoiled with the first half, anything looks bad. Real happy with this kid. He's playing at least a sophomore level if not higher. We will watching him do great things for a few years. I'm drinking Kool Aid!