ShotgunDawg
08-31-2014, 01:07 AM
First games are always interesting: Game speed is different than practice speed, there are nerves for all players on the field, you are playing a team that may have a few wrinkles that weren't on any tape, etc...
With that in mind, here are my thoughts.
Good:
1. Stadium - Our stadium is now a big boy stadium. It is loud, energetic, nice, and feels big.
2. Students - You guys were electric tonight! Good job, but I do have one issue: I know your new endzone home is comfy, but don't forget that you guys are still supposed to occupy two sections on the East side. The East side is the side you can see on TV, so please spread out a little and make sure you fill the East side as well. I think there were enough students there tonight to fill it, but you guys decided it was more fun to cram into the endzone.
3. Defense - Not sure how anyone could criticize anything here. We looked organized, in position, deep, fast, etc... we just can't get complacent. Get better every week and don't get sloppy on tackling.
4. Receivers - Good job catching the ball tonight. The only fault I can find is that, for some reason, we had two receivers and a referee attempting to catch a deep. Somebody must have run the wrong route on that. Can't miss those opportunities against good teams.
5. Running game - Josh Robinson is outstanding. He can be an all-purpose back for us this year. He gets tons of YAC yards, always falls forward, and has unique ability to run low. Tacklers have a very difficult time getting lower than him in order to tackle him and keep him from picking up positive yardage.
6. No false starts - After watching Ole Miss' offensive line jump about 10 times the other night, it was great to see a well coached, discipline football team play. Again, we are well coached and organized.
Bad
1. Dak on pre-snap reads - Dak put up big numbers tonight, but I think he would even agree that we wouldn't have beaten Alabama tonight with the way he played. I thought he did an outstanding job of going through his progressions and finding the open receiver. However, all of his poor passes tonight see to come off pre-snap reads, and I am not totally sure if it was Dak's fault or if Mullen told him to throw to a certain player quickly. Either way, all of his issues can on quick catch & throw, pre snap read passes. We need to clean this up.
2. Pass protection early in the game - I did not put offensive line because I thought the run blocking was adequate, however, USM was getting pressure up the middle early in the game. If there is one thing that will kill Dak or any offense, it's pressure up the middle. If a team pressures Dak from the outside, he can simply step up in the pocket and run or throw. Pressure up the middle causes problems and Dak was put in some terrible positions due to it. Dillon Day has got to clean this up. Not sure if he made poor calls or if we were missing blocks.
3. Special Teams - I'm not ready to say we don't have a good kicker because his miss was on a poor snap & hold. But, the fact that we have found another problem on our special teams is a concern. We also almost had a punt blocked tonight.
Summery:
All in all, I thought it was a good night, we played hard, and showed some flashes of the kind of team we can become. Many of these issues are minor & fixable, but we are no longer judging this team as a team that's trying to go to a bowl. We are now judging this team against what it will take to beat Alabama, LSU, Auburn, & TAMU. While we showed flashes tonight, I don't feel that we played well enough tonight to beat those teams, had we been playing them. We must get better & cleaner.
Other than our fantastic defense, the thing that impressed me the most was our balance. We have a QB that can throw & run, depth at receiver with some explosive players, & Josh Robinson is the real deal. We can beat teams in many different ways.
We were sloppy at times tonight, and must get better, but we also showed many of the requisite ingredients to develop into a championship type team.
In many ways, I'm happy that we had some problems tonight, because I want this team to stay on it's toes, hungry, and challenged to continue to improve. I don't want us to peak yet. I want us to build for the next 2 weeks & peak for LSU, A&M, and Auburn. Tonight's game was great because we played well enough to believe we are a very good team, but, also, did enough wrong to demand that we stay focused and continue to improve.
After tonight, I don't know if we are good, but I'm fairly positive that we aren't bad.
With that in mind, here are my thoughts.
Good:
1. Stadium - Our stadium is now a big boy stadium. It is loud, energetic, nice, and feels big.
2. Students - You guys were electric tonight! Good job, but I do have one issue: I know your new endzone home is comfy, but don't forget that you guys are still supposed to occupy two sections on the East side. The East side is the side you can see on TV, so please spread out a little and make sure you fill the East side as well. I think there were enough students there tonight to fill it, but you guys decided it was more fun to cram into the endzone.
3. Defense - Not sure how anyone could criticize anything here. We looked organized, in position, deep, fast, etc... we just can't get complacent. Get better every week and don't get sloppy on tackling.
4. Receivers - Good job catching the ball tonight. The only fault I can find is that, for some reason, we had two receivers and a referee attempting to catch a deep. Somebody must have run the wrong route on that. Can't miss those opportunities against good teams.
5. Running game - Josh Robinson is outstanding. He can be an all-purpose back for us this year. He gets tons of YAC yards, always falls forward, and has unique ability to run low. Tacklers have a very difficult time getting lower than him in order to tackle him and keep him from picking up positive yardage.
6. No false starts - After watching Ole Miss' offensive line jump about 10 times the other night, it was great to see a well coached, discipline football team play. Again, we are well coached and organized.
Bad
1. Dak on pre-snap reads - Dak put up big numbers tonight, but I think he would even agree that we wouldn't have beaten Alabama tonight with the way he played. I thought he did an outstanding job of going through his progressions and finding the open receiver. However, all of his poor passes tonight see to come off pre-snap reads, and I am not totally sure if it was Dak's fault or if Mullen told him to throw to a certain player quickly. Either way, all of his issues can on quick catch & throw, pre snap read passes. We need to clean this up.
2. Pass protection early in the game - I did not put offensive line because I thought the run blocking was adequate, however, USM was getting pressure up the middle early in the game. If there is one thing that will kill Dak or any offense, it's pressure up the middle. If a team pressures Dak from the outside, he can simply step up in the pocket and run or throw. Pressure up the middle causes problems and Dak was put in some terrible positions due to it. Dillon Day has got to clean this up. Not sure if he made poor calls or if we were missing blocks.
3. Special Teams - I'm not ready to say we don't have a good kicker because his miss was on a poor snap & hold. But, the fact that we have found another problem on our special teams is a concern. We also almost had a punt blocked tonight.
Summery:
All in all, I thought it was a good night, we played hard, and showed some flashes of the kind of team we can become. Many of these issues are minor & fixable, but we are no longer judging this team as a team that's trying to go to a bowl. We are now judging this team against what it will take to beat Alabama, LSU, Auburn, & TAMU. While we showed flashes tonight, I don't feel that we played well enough tonight to beat those teams, had we been playing them. We must get better & cleaner.
Other than our fantastic defense, the thing that impressed me the most was our balance. We have a QB that can throw & run, depth at receiver with some explosive players, & Josh Robinson is the real deal. We can beat teams in many different ways.
We were sloppy at times tonight, and must get better, but we also showed many of the requisite ingredients to develop into a championship type team.
In many ways, I'm happy that we had some problems tonight, because I want this team to stay on it's toes, hungry, and challenged to continue to improve. I don't want us to peak yet. I want us to build for the next 2 weeks & peak for LSU, A&M, and Auburn. Tonight's game was great because we played well enough to believe we are a very good team, but, also, did enough wrong to demand that we stay focused and continue to improve.
After tonight, I don't know if we are good, but I'm fairly positive that we aren't bad.