Sunday Post-Game Quick Thoughts

Greetings Coug Nation. Sorry for the late post as some technical difficulties/tailgate fun set us back a bit in the ability to get it done. But now we’re back. 

With regards to the game, well, we got what we all thought we would see. We’re better, but we sure have a long way to go. And while I think that we will win a few games this year, we clearly look like a 10th place team after Week One.

Couple of brief thoughts:

1) Lopina is our man. Ironically, Marshall showed that all things equal, he throws a better ball. But the tempo and flow of the offense was SO MUCH better with Lopina. In fact, if Lopina would have played the entire game, I think we would have covered.

2) Our defense played better as the game went on. That said, our DTs just didn’t have ANY push up the middle in passing situations. Obviously, that has to change if we are to win any games in the Pac-10 this year. (I did like what I saw from Alex Hoffman-Ellis, Louis Bland, Travis Long, and Jason Stripling, though..of course, great hit by Block). That said, Andy Mattingly earns player of the game and maybe the year: IF he doesn’t run around the whole backside of the O-Line to sack Andrew Luck on the goal line stand before the end of the half, we enter the locker room down 30-3 and might have been on our way to 60-6.

3) We’re still too slow. Sir Vincent Grippi obviously tipped us off to that last week. But our lack of speed still shows–especially on special teams. That fact, in particular, has to be our biggest concern moving forward, including how we look at our fortunes for next year. I think the coaches need to seriously reconsider Markle’s redshirt given his reported 4.7 speed in the middle.

4) More Mitz, More Mitz. The overall play of Tardy and Monty sure was a bright spot–as was some of our run blocking. But, it would be nice if we went with a few more power sets with Mitz as a fullback and bruiser. If we’re going to win any games, we’re going to have to wear teams down, since I think our vertical passing game is going to continue to be pretty anemic (remember how horrible Stanford’s corners are supposed to be).

5) Protecting the Pill. Obviously, we did a great job of protecting the football today. That said, it is also somewhat disconcerting that we lost by more than three touchdowns in spite of a lack of turnovers.

All in all, there’s things we can build on from in this one. The good news is that Hawaii and SMU showed themselves to be gridiron midgets yesterday.

But next week is a MUST win.

GO COUGS!