A little late to the party, but that was a hell of an effort by the kids last night. Not perfect, and not always pretty, but they got stronger and more assertive as the game went along, and put their stamp on the game. Leonard generally played with poise, and managed the game well. Accuracy needs some work, but he showed real toughness on his runs. Beaux Collins was a real pleasant surprise, and is a monster blocking. He laid out an A&M safety on Price’s touchdown run that really helped spring him.
Oh, and how huge was Leonard’s recovery and gain of the fumble on the low snap in the second half? May have been the play of the game as it reversed a potential turnover into the drive that ended with Price’s touchdown.
The offensive line looked very green early, but Denbrock showed why he was worth the money bringing him back. In the first half, things were too slowly developing, and the OL was passive. In the second half, he adjusted to have them play. More moving forward and driving. Once that adjustment was made, they took over the game. The touchdown drive was a fantastic effort across the board, and Love showed some real nifty feet combined with some deceptive power.
The defense was nails last night when they weren’t jumping offsides. The secondary was aggressive and really supported well against the run. Shuler was terrific, and his interception stabilized the game early when the offense was finding its way. Late in the game, the pass rush improved, and I loved Golden playing aggressively after they took the lead inside of 2 minutes. No prevent crap that loses games.
They have to clean up the penalties and the tight ends need remedial training on blocking, but they went in and did what they had to do. Going to A&M and winning when you didn’t play nearly your best game is something to be happy about. Oh, and kudos to Freeman for his aggressiveness tonight. They may have found a formula in this game to be real successful. They need to lay the wood to Northern Illinois, but the sky is the limit.
Great night for the Irish.