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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

fromolwyoming

fromolwyoming

Well-known member
The Good-
Let's start with the Defense. Holy crap we actually have a defense! Yeah, they had a few breakdowns, but only allowed like 40 some yards on the ground the whole game. The d-line was actually able to get pressure, the linebackers and secondary provided good coverage throughout much of the game. And we won in the trenches with out d-line.

RBs. I knew they were going to be good, and when the o-line gave them a chance, they just blew threw the Montana defense, led by Wick.

WRs. When they got the ball, they did well. Took some shots, but held on.

Special teams. Blocked a punt, good coverage, great tackling, overall, they did really well.

The Bad.

Colby Kirkegaard. Part of it was due to having little pass protection (I'll get on that shortly), and the rest, yeah. His arm is better, but overall, he leaves a lot to be desired.

Offensive play calling. Let's face it. Vigen had some questionable plays called. Like throwing it on 3rd and short. I know you want to build up Colby's confidence, and I think that first pass in the 2nd quarter did it, but force Montana to stop the run when they are having trouble doing that.

The Ugly.
The o-line. Overall, the run blocking was better, but not consistent enough. The pass blocking was like it got hit with an ugly stick. Capt. Kirk, who is NOT a dual threat QB or the dynamic QB that Brett Smith was, was hit before he could find an open guy quite a bit.
 
Brian Hill had an excellent run right in front of me toward the end of the game. I really liked how he put his head down and blasted the defender before he gained a few extra yards.
 
kansasCowboy said:
What was the actual attendance there; probably pre lightning delay?
Click to expand...
Damn near sellout crowd if I ever saw it. Made it through the first half, but my ankle was killing me. A few spots had open seats, but those were few and far between. 26,000-28,000.
 
One bad thing that wasn't the team's fault: the lightning delays let Montana's defense get plenty of rest. They looked exhausted when May burned them with his touchdown, but had plenty of energy back when we got out there again after the second delay.
 
I really liked what I saw for the most part. Overall, I think our QB might be able to make the job work if they can redesign some pass plays that he might be able to execute and hit a receiver with. Our poor Rx corps look like they can make some big plays when they aren't back peddling to keep the football from hitting the turf.

Regardless, O-line had some bright spots - but it was far from what I would hope for.

Offensively, the biggest need is to be able to move the chains and not have to punt. There are alot of ways to probably make this happen, but they need to be scoring and not punting.

Defensively, we looked pretty good. We stopped the run quite well. We got pressure on the QB. We made him throw the ball away a few times.

I'm excited for the year. My expectations are low until we can move the chains consistently, but I don't think we will get blown out of many games.
 
fromolwyoming said:
The Good-
Let's start with the Defense. Holy crap we actually have a defense! Yeah, they had a few breakdowns, but only allowed like 40 some yards on the ground the whole game. The d-line was actually able to get pressure, the linebackers and secondary provided good coverage throughout much of the game. And we won in the trenches with out d-line.

RBs. I knew they were going to be good, and when the o-line gave them a chance, they just blew threw the Montana defense, led by Wick.

WRs. When they got the ball, they did well. Took some shots, but held on.

Special teams. Blocked a punt, good coverage, great tackling, overall, they did really well.

The Bad.

Colby Kirkegaard. Part of it was due to having little pass protection (I'll get on that shortly), and the rest, yeah. His arm is better, but overall, he leaves a lot to be desired.

Offensive play calling. Let's face it. Vigen had some questionable plays called. Like throwing it on 3rd and short. I know you want to build up Colby's confidence, and I think that first pass in the 2nd quarter did it, but force Montana to stop the run when they are having trouble doing that.

The Ugly.
The o-line. Overall, the run blocking was better, but not consistent enough. The pass blocking was like it got hit with an ugly stick. Capt. Kirk, who is NOT a dual threat QB or the dynamic QB that Brett Smith was, was hit before he could find an open guy quite a bit.
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Are you saying that we're still in the running for the four team playoff come January? :whistle:
 
I wish. If we somehow beat MSU and Oregon (beating just one would be a miracle), and ran the table, than yeah. As it stands now, I think we need to work on getting bowl eligible before anything else.
 
There is only one bad/ugly I take away from this game, and it's turnovers...on both sides of the ball.

I don't think Kirkegaard played as badly as you guys do. There were two mistakes he made: the fumble and the INT. However, I don't see the accuracy concerns. If he makes better decisions with the ball, we'll be fine.

Defensively, I had to be pretty picky to point this one out. However, we could have had at least 2-3 more turnovers on plays that we just didn't quite execute all the way through. Easy INTs were dropped.
 
fromolwyoming said:
I wish. If we somehow beat MSU and Oregon (beating just one would be a miracle), and ran the table, than yeah. As it stands now, I think we need to work on getting bowl eligible before anything else.
Click to expand...

A bowl game of any kind would be a minor miracle this year. But, I'm optimistic. I absolutely love the discipline of the defense. I think the offense will gel more into the season. With decent recruiting, this team will become a force within the MWC.

That's my sunshine statement. :D
 
1 dumb throw away from putting 24 on the board. Montana D will be about average in MWC. If we can put up 28, we should be fine. CK was bad but he made some decent plays. If he can get consistently decent or even slightly adequate, we will be fine. Looked like line was driiled lots on run blocking but not pass. Makes sense because run blocking would be biggest change. They have time to remedy that. Sans Oregon and MSU, we should be competative.

We didn't fold when the chips were down, we won, and the kids all had pride...all areas of improvement. I truly believe we will see improvement and not regression...new to us I know.

Moderate improvement in the passing game and we wil be very competitive in MWC. It is gonna happen.
 
the good: Our fullback. Our running backs have not changed that much, but are much more productive due to the addition of the road grader. we trapped effectively. the blocks are designed perfectly. center takes an angle block, guard pulls behind center to kick out, running back moves left to shift the middle linebacker, fullback seals the middle linebacker, running back counters to hole, cuts at second level.

the good part 2: run defense.

front seven. coaching has turned this team into a hive mind. one greater purpose. no longer are our d linemen trying to beat the man in front of him to get to the backfield; now the d line tackles keep gap assignment. uso, in the second half would collapse the hole at an angle, pushing his man into the man next to him; closing 2 gaps. 60 rushing yards for Montana.

the bad: Kolby's needs more time. Im not talking about blocking... im talking about reps. he has a short window to fit this in and be successful, but this system can provide that.

the ugly. play calling. I liked the gameplan. and I believe that some of the plays called were a learning experience. but the interception in the endzone... I don't think I would have called that play, not at that clock position. I might have called a pass, but it would have been to outside routes. the middle of the end zone is too congested from inside the ten. Our coaches are learning what we can execute in gametime situations, so I think this will get better.
 
Overall I'm okay with the first game. While much more disciplined than last year, the Pokes shot themselves in the foot a couple times. Colby's fumble when he was sacked. He was trying to get rid of it, but fumbled. That lead to Montana's first td....on a 3rd and long trick play. Nice catch, but would have been a stop 90% of the time.

The 2nd was Colby's pick in the end zone. Needed to capitalize on the blocked punt and ended up with nadda. That is a 14 point swing. Could have also scored late if we wanted to.

The defense is much improved. Need to tackle better on the out passes with one on one coverage. Jones finally learned his lesson and dropped the wr for a loss the last time Montana tried it. Their QB was pretty mobile and was able to convert a few 3rd and longs. The defense needs to work on their qb containment.

Montana is a good team....otherwise they wouldn't be ranked #5 in the FCS. Probably could beat many MWC teams. Their #37 is a good player. If we played a cleaner game, we might have been able to win by 3 tds. Colby will get better with time and practice. After all, this was the first game with a new system, new coaching staff, new offense, etc.
 
The thing that I'm most worried about is Kirk making bad reads and the fact that any LB/DB worth their weight will read his eyes and get picked off left and right. Yesterday against a more experienced secondary we would have had 2-3 picks just because Kirk would stare the receiver down and never look anywhere else. That has to change also his play action or lack thereof needs serious work he isn't going to fool anyone going forward.
 
The Bad and the Ugly- the University of Wyoming game day experience. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Tailgating indoors, wtf? Run out of food at the CJC hospitality. 30 -45 minute wait for entry into stadium, can we not be prepared for more than 15k? South scoreboard is a waste. I don't give a damn about sponsors. How about scores and stats?! Can we not put televisions on the concourses? And the usual complaint, let the band play, sick of the piped in music!
 
Hayduke said:
fromolwyoming said:
I wish. If we somehow beat MSU and Oregon (beating just one would be a miracle), and ran the table, than yeah. As it stands now, I think we need to work on getting bowl eligible before anything else.
Click to expand...

A bowl game of any kind would be a minor miracle this year. But, I'm optimistic. I absolutely love the discipline of the defense. I think the offense will gel more into the season. With decent recruiting, this team will become a force within the MWC.

That's my sunshine statement. :D
Click to expand...
Why would it be a minor miracle? We're 1-0, beat a very very good Montana team that would easily beat three or four of the other MWC teams, and are still learning the systems. This is Bohl system, we're going to get into dog fights and win ugly. Isn't winning ugly better than losing pretty? Were not going to run the table but were gonna win games and be in the bowl hunt
 
I agree about the game day experience. :thumbdown: I don't like the IP being used for pre game "tailgate park" at all. A couple thousand people didn't get to see the Pokes come on the field nor the first plays. How come those lines are so long and take so much time to get into the stadium this year? Sound system almost non existent as it only came from the north and you couldn't understand or hear a thing. Yes, south scoreboard useless. I would like to see the names on the jerseys.

Pat
 
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