ISU Game Thoughts
Just watched the DVD of the ISU game. Saw a couple of good things and a few areas that still concern me. The ISU team I saw on the video did not resemble the team that beat NU in Lincoln IMO. Maybe the NU offense is just that slow. ISU defense looked much quicker in that game. In our game they reminded me a lot of the UAB defense. JJ could have passed for 400 yards in this game if we wanted him to. The ISU secondary was hard hitting, but played off our receivers a bunch. There were holes in their zone coverage all day long. The ISU coach was correct in his pregame statements that they simply do not have the athletes right now. On defense, they were outmanned. Our defense struggled all game long IMO. That is still a major achilles heal of our team. If we want to stay in the game against OU and even tu, we need to really pick it up on that side of the ball.
Too many missed tackles. At times we look like an average defense out there, other times we resemble last years unit a lot with the first guy never making the tackle. It may just be that we need another year in the S&C program until out athletes are where they need to be.
For the second game in a row, Cyrus Gray ran very strong. He is dancing less and running vertically more. There were three or four instances in the game where he was pushing the pile forward at the end of the play; he was refusing to go down. He has really improved as a running back this year.
Second game in a row the OL opened huge holes for the running game. We are going to need our OL to play like that in every game the rest of the year if we want to win them.
Jeff Fuller, Kenric McNeal, Uzoma Nwachukwu, and Brandal Jackson are starting to remind me of the OU WRs in Rhett Bomar's first year. They are going to struggle with being consistent this year, but the next two or three years should be a lot of fun.It was nice to see Fuller back and almost to full strength.
Kyle Mangan played the run well in this game. He is starting to become more of a complete LB.
Our LBs as a whole need to get a lot better as a unit. Garrick Williams is improving, but too many times RBs break through the LOS and it is a free run into the secondary and a 10-15 yd gain.
Defense as a whole just needs to play better. We cannot play defense like we did on Saturday and expect to win any more games this season.
Special teams were very poor in this game. Too many long kickoff returns.
Jamie McCoy seems to have grown into his role as an H-back. Hopefully that will make him more enticing to the NFL scouts.
JJ had a nice game, but had two balls that should have been intercepted. He needs to continue to play within himself and not force the ball down the field. Tannehill is a hell of a playmaker, but that does not excuse throwing into triple coverage.
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I'll have to wait until I was the DVD to comment
but from what I have seen on the highlights from the game, you are correct about the defense.
I like what I’m seeing from our offensive line; we’ll really know what we have there once we go to Norman.
well
I’ve watched the first quarter and am partway into the second
we’re up 21-0 and our defense looks atrocious
very poor tackling
we’re also playing very vanilla, especially on DL
we’re slanting a lot, which isn’t a good idea against a team that uses the zone running game like ISU
I just paused the video b/c I saw our first stunt of the game at the 16:30 mark
I’m not sure if we were just trying to play gap-control to force their running game outside, but we really simplified the blocking for their offensive line.
Gray and Michael were both beasts in this game
we have a long way to go on defense just to be average
Completely with you on that
Apparently he has relatives in the military, and its Military Appreciation Day for crying out loud!!
you know what is really ridiculous?
they call unsportsmanlike conduct on Morrow on that play, but don’t call State for the helmet-to-helmet hit on EZ that caused the fumble
one is a safety issue, one is not
they call the non-safety issue; go figure.
Saw the game
here.
Your assessment is on the park. I actually saw three throws that could have been easily intercepted from JJ. EZ is a beast, but thats two games in a row where he has lost fumbles at crucial points. He really needs to address that. In this game, he got greedy and was going for the TD. Our team discipline is better but its not really where it should be, if we are looking to compete with OU and Texas.
On the defense, the bad part was the penchant for giving up big plays. And it cerainly is a Jekyll and Hyde defense within the game which is a bit scary. The sequence after the half where they came up with a crucial interception was a good example. Tiller was sacked, but then ISU come right back and moved the chains right till goal line before than interception happened.
The good part is the Defense kept coming up with plays when really needed, but it was clear they need to show up for every single play rather than just the crucial ones. I think we have the players but after having sucked for so long, they are now finally starting to buy in and trust their team-mates more.
On the whole, improvements are evident, but glaring deficiencies still exist. The really cool part is the schedule though where for the first time in a long time, we dont have a crazy November waiting for us. Colorado and Baylor should give us the opportunity to get better before we face the big 2 respectively. Based on this game, we are not beating them, but then based on the K-State game, we would not have beaten even a Pop-Warner team.
I think the play EZ fumbled on, he was knocked unconscious. I was suprised to see him on the field later in the game.
by miketag on Nov 5, 2009 12:06 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
I was at the game
and I honestly thought he had died or was paralyzed. The hit was nasty and he instantly went limp and did not move for probably 20-30 seconds.
Wow..
If he was knocked out, then the coaching staff should not have brought him back on the field. With all the stuff you are hearing in the news lately with football players and concussions, I hope our coaching staff will be extra careful with our players.
I'm assuming
it was probably a neck issue since he would have to clear concussion tests to play again.

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