Pluses and Minuses

I will go over the game more in depth in the radio show later tonight, but thought I would hit on a couple of positives and negatives that I saw out at Kyle last night.

Pluses:

Defense was swarming to the football. Cannot remember the last time I saw the entire defense running to the football like that. It has been that long. Did not see many missed tackles last night, and the main reason for that was multiple defenders were making the tackle.

True freshmen made an impact. Luke Joeckel was dominant at times out there. Damontre Moore may have been the best defender on the field. He had a sack and ran down the ball carrier from behind on multiple occasions. Nehemiah Hicks had a great catch and run.

Cyrus Gray is running hard. Gray made some great cuts out there. He ran well between the tackles. Was very happy with how physical Gray was.

Ryan Swope is just what we thought he was. He will lead the team in receptions this year. I hate it that everyone compares every small white WR to Wes Welker. However, that is exactly the type of player Swope can be for us. He will give JJ an outlet in the passing game and can consistently get us 6-15 yds on receptions. He is the kind of WR you hate facing as an opposing fan.

Our LB play was much better than I expected,and I had pretty high expectations. Garrick Williams, Sean Porter, and  Moore all had strong games. This could turn out to be the strength of the defense.

DL actually made plays. Lots of tackles at or near the LOS by our D-linemen. TJE got his typical batted down pass for the game. Eddie Brown and Jonathan Mathis both played very well. 

Good pass blocking by the OL. The OL gave JJ plenty of time to operate back there.

Minuses:

Jerrod Johnson's arm is obviously not 100 percent. He hung the ball up twice when Jeff Fuller and EZ both had their men beat deep. We need JJ to be 100 percent or our offense will be very easy to defend.

Kickoffs were atrocious. If Randy Bullock cannot kick the ball into the endzone, then we need to put Ross Gilliam our there to see what he can do. I am quite sure he can get it to the 10 consistently, which Bullock cannot do.

Offense is still a little inconsistent. I realize it is only the first game of the season and we should not expect a well oiled machine out there, but the offense seemed a little disjointed to me. We need to complete drives.