I attended the UW vs. AFA game - my observations...LONG:

[McPeachy]

In no specific order:

1. All fanbases have jackasses. Even the coveted AFA / military (no pedestal allowed by me). Yep - saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears. Not sure what pissed me off more: The cadets being allowed to throw their little shitty plastic footballs at the Wyoming bench (without security present to maintain decency and toss the offenders); The security (armed - 2 of them, with berets and full camo) right in front of the Wyoming crowd staring down any and all Wyoming fans - which bred a somewhat uneasy feeling - especially as they "cheered" on their home team; Or the mouthy AFA bitches that were seated behind my group that continually were dropping the eff bomb and trying everything to start shit...as even their boyfriends were trying to settle them down.

2. Walker Madden needs to be on the MWC first team list at the end of the year as offensive tackle. Pure domination, in all aspects. He absolutely blew up the right side (he is the left tackle for UW) of the AFA defense - sometimes taking on 2 guys at once. The "walk-in" 4th down touchdown by Brett - that was all Walker. When the AFA D stopped us at the twelve, but we ended up at the 5, that was all Walker. And the list goes on.

3. The offense looked as good as I have seen in many, many years. Rivaling (at this point) the 1987, 88, and 1996 squads. We made it look easy, as good teams often do. Hats off to all of them, they played as well as a unit as I can remember seeing. 42 point in the first half - no punts. Wow. Brett was all business, and it is such a huge blessing that he is a Cowboy. Cracks me up to think back about all the posters that suggested Adam Pittser was "the MAN" to take over for a departed pot head in the summer of 2011. Ahhhhh hindsight.

4. We have issues in the secondary. Not major issues, but issues. UW has yet to play a pass efficient team at this point, and the yards passing we gave up against run-happy AFA is a concern. Even when the front 7 had pressure, our man-on-man coverage is not good. Of course, it is easy to pick on the weak link. Surely UW is aware, and they will continue to get better. Good thing is that we have until 10/19 if not 10/26 to work on it.

5. Players that come to the sidelines after the game and shake hands with fans, and thank them for coming, hats off - you are all class. You make fans like me appreciate being affiliated with UW and UW football.

 

[BeaverPoke]

I love being a Wyoming Cowboy!

 

[HR_Poke]

We had a bunch of cub scouts/boy scouts from the springs behind us in our section. I don't remember being that vulgar as a scout until I was in high school but damn. They shut up pretty quickly after the Kick off return turnover so they weren't an issue. I think our secondary spent too much time trying to make a play on the ball instead of trying to break it up and they got burned on it.

 

[Wyovanian]

We had a bunch of cub scouts/boy scouts from the springs behind us in our section. I don't remember being that vulgar as a scout until I was in high school but damn. They shut up pretty quickly after the Kick off return turnover so they weren't an issue. I think our secondary spent too much time trying to make a play on the ball instead of trying to break it up and they got burned on it.

Bingo- the secondary needs to play to be disruptive, not try to be low-percentage play heroes. Should have also done a better job of using the secondary to defend the corners at the LOS. This would have resulted in more pressure on their QB, and, thus, fewer completions. No need to double-cover AFA WR's if you're not giving them their routes or giving their backfield room to maneuver around the ends.

 

[HR_Poke]

We had a bunch of cub scouts/boy scouts from the springs behind us in our section. I don't remember being that vulgar as a scout until I was in high school but damn. They shut up pretty quickly after the Kick off return turnover so they weren't an issue. I think our secondary spent too much time trying to make a play on the ball instead of trying to break it up and they got burned on it.

Bingo- the secondary needs to play to be disruptive, not try to be low-percentage play heroes. Should have also done a better job of using the secondary to defend the corners at the LOS. This would have resulted in more pressure on their QB, and, thus, fewer completions. No need to double-cover AFA WR's if you're not giving them their routes or giving their backfield room to maneuver around the ends.

I didn't understand the cushion with the DB's and the WR at the line. There was no chance of an AF receiver beating out our guys, and there was a huge chance AF would run the option and an extra tackler would be needed.

 

[BeaverPoke]

We had a bunch of cub scouts/boy scouts from the springs behind us in our section. I don't remember being that vulgar as a scout until I was in high school but damn. They shut up pretty quickly after the Kick off return turnover so they weren't an issue. I think our secondary spent too much time trying to make a play on the ball instead of trying to break it up and they got burned on it.

Bingo- the secondary needs to play to be disruptive, not try to be low-percentage play heroes. Should have also done a better job of using the secondary to defend the corners at the LOS. This would have resulted in more pressure on their QB, and, thus, fewer completions. No need to double-cover AFA WR's if you're not giving them their routes or giving their backfield room to maneuver around the ends.

I didn't understand the cushion with the DB's and the WR at the line. There was no chance of an AF receiver beating out our guys, and there was a huge chance AF would run the option and an extra tackler would be needed.

Agreed. They didn't even need to be right in the face of the WR, even 3 yards back, but why on earth were they so far back?
Does it give them time to see the option play out?

 

[Wyovanian]

We had a bunch of cub scouts/boy scouts from the springs behind us in our section. I don't remember being that vulgar as a scout until I was in high school but damn. They shut up pretty quickly after the Kick off return turnover so they weren't an issue. I think our secondary spent too much time trying to make a play on the ball instead of trying to break it up and they got burned on it.

Bingo- the secondary needs to play to be disruptive, not try to be low-percentage play heroes. Should have also done a better job of using the secondary to defend the corners at the LOS. This would have resulted in more pressure on their QB, and, thus, fewer completions. No need to double-cover AFA WR's if you're not giving them their routes or giving their backfield room to maneuver around the ends.

I didn't understand the cushion with the DB's and the WR at the line. There was no chance of an AF receiver beating out our guys, and there was a huge chance AF would run the option and an extra tackler would be needed.

Agreed. They didn't even need to be right in the face of the WR, even 3 yards back, but why on earth were they so far back?
Does it give them time to see the option play out?

If your LB's and CB's are jamming the WR's at the LOS (or within the first five yards), and then dropping into single coverage (AFA's worst position, year-in, year-out, is their undersized WR's, seldom do you get much defensive efficiency from multiple coverage sets, and they pass so infrequently, the pick percentage odds are always low), it disrupts the precise timing requisite to this type of option. It basically takes away the pass option if the corners are sealed by the safeties. If the offense only lines up two eligible receivers, you run a corner blitz, keeping the safeties on the edges. Keep their passes incomplete and take away their outside runs, and you will beat AFA more often than not.