Positives:
1. OL got better as the game wore on. Which is similar to last weekend. I think that shows it's a well conditioned unit. I think that is something we can use to our advantage but we have to start better.
2. Baker was part of that, he got better as the game wore on.
3. Defense played better. DL is really talented. Amazing what happens when you rush your 4 best pass rushers, consistently, with some stunts mixed in. Cough cough, Clark Lea.
4. Kyren and Tyree really are really talented backs. We need to find a way to start faster to get them more involved early.
5. I really like Coan's resolve. That's 2 weeks in a row where he just kept playing and more specifically kept giving his guys chances to make plays. Which is what this offense needs right now. Gosh, I hate to write this but if Ian Book had that quality...
6. DJ Brown with a nice bounce back game. He was horrendous versus FSU. So, they sat him against Toledo and then got him on the field against Purdue and he played much better. I really liked that approach and it seemed to work for him.
7. I don't know, I might be in the minority here but I like the CB's. I think these guys just compete their butts off. And, I think they're reasonably talented. We have these guys for, probably, 2 more years. I like them. Now, if some of the mistakes don't get cleaned up along the way, then we might be having a different conversation this time next season. But, I expect some mistakes, we get them, and then they battle right back. And, maybe our DC can help them out a bit.
8. Avery Davis. Kudos young man.
Negatives:
1. The OL needs to start games better. We simply cannot start games that poorly and expect to win, against good teams. My take is they are a well conditioned unit that lack technique and toughness. As the opposition gets tired, the game comes easier to them. Either we find guys on our roster that can start faster or we make changes to how we start games to protect them. Not ideal but probably doable. I don't see them getting tougher overnight as that probably needs to be addressed in recruiting.
2. I still can't get on board with Freeman the play caller. Love Freeman the coach, the recruiter, etc. but not the play caller. I just don't think he's very good at it. The defense is getting better because he's doing less of it. I'm so over watching our Vyper drop to LB and our LB drop to S. Somebody post if I'm wrong here, but I have not seen a single play where our best off ball LB, Bertrand, and our best pass rusher, Foskey, have had any impactful plays from this look. They are two of our best players, period. It seems like a total waste of both of their best qualities and I'm really curios how the conversations are going inside the Gug when they watch the tape. Or, the, slant the entire DL and replace the edge with a CB. I don't see the need for these plays calls. Like Lax said, too high risk and not enough reward. I get that he's trying to leverage the offense but in turn he puts a lot on the line to do it. This really is BVG eque level play calling. It's unnecessary and sometimes he's just wrong. Why risk it when you have a superior team and athletes. Doesn't make sense. If we're playing Bama in a title game and we are doing this to get an edge, sure. But against these teams it's just non-sense. I truly believe that if we just played a fairly vanilla 4-2-5 with some timely LB blitzes, DL stunts, etc (Lea's defense), we'd all be much happier with the product.
3. WR's, woof. That was a pathetic showing, in front of your home fans, for Austin and Lenzy. I'm close to wanting this Lenzy WR experiment to end. He's not a natural hands catcher for WR and I don't believe he's physical enough for another position. So, I find myself thinking he's just an athlete playing football. This is where I think Keys playing slot and Davis at X makes sense. But, I guess we'll never know. Keys is better than Lenzy, maybe that is my hot take on the issue.
Solutions:
1. I'd really like to see Buch start the game against Wiscy. I think they should really try to stretch the field horizontally in the run game which could open up the middle of the field for him as a runner. I'd like to get their LB's moving side to side and then start to attack them vertically. I'm very worried, if the OL doesn't start significantly better, we could be looking at a goose egg of a 1st Qtr. Let's see if Buch can get a couple first downs grinding it out and see how it goes from there.
2. I really hope we dial it back on defense even more. Enough of the crappy play calls and crazy leveraged situational football. I think the defense is very talented up front. Let's let them play like such. I think we have plenty of talent on D to stop Wiscy. This game goes south if we continue to play bad situational football. Offense starts slow and defense gives up some dumb big plays early because we had to get cute with our defensive play calls.
3. When Carmody is healthy, Lugg to the bench seems about right. Baker at RT. Lugg is a 5th year Senior who plays with poor technique and is soft. Baker is a true Sophomore who plays with poor technique but has started to show a little more toughness. Let's see what he has for the future. Lugg has had his chances, time for him to become the Hunter Bivin of this OL.
4. Put the Dolla defense out of it's misery, for now. Let's come back to it next season. I know this won't happen but gosh my eyes want it too.