Todd4State
09-10-2017, 06:39 PM
First of all, seeing 3rd and 93 made this game worth going to. We were rolling in the stands. Definitely have never seen that before. BeastMan- I guess you have to change the name of your blog now.
It was a small stadium, but a pretty easy trip overall. The fans weren't bad but having general admission and then having students mingled in with the visitors is going to lead to people getting ejected from the stadium. Someone compared the seating to a Madison Central football game before I went in and I would have to agree with that.
Fitz started out slow and he missed some WIDE open receivers early. However he finished really strong and had a good game. I could overanalyze the crap out of it- but I think he for whatever reason just had a bad start. And there's not much more to it than that. It happens. Fortunately our special teams and defense made critical plays that actually gave us the lead and allowed everyone to calm down a little bit and once we gained momentum on Simmons blocked punt the game was over.
Aeris looked great running the ball and I would like to see us use Kylin more as the season goes along. I thought Gibson and Lee played well also. It seems like we're slowly using more pro style stuff to go along with the spread stuff- and I like that. Even if it's only 5% of the time.
I think the WR's are the weak link on our team right now. It's not that I think they are bad as much as they are out of position because most of them would be better suited in the slot. And it's a recruiting issue that I think has been corrected with the commitments of Heath and now Guidry. I could see this group improving throughout the year and I'm really impressed with the play of Jordan Thomas who went from 280 pound TE to TE/WR. That was a good move by the staff to cover for the lack of length on the outside.
One thing I wanted to see was if the o-line would improve- and I think they did. I don't remember any sacks and I do remember Fitz getting hit before he threw the ball on his INT. Aside from that, everything else seemed better. The snaps were on target. I thought Story played well and maybe he should start going forward. We did some things to help Reese like use a TE on his side. Like the WR's I could see them also getting better as the season progresses.
The defense was outstanding again. The two touchdowns that they allowed- one was after the Fitz INT on about the 2-3 yard line on a play where La Tech had to bounce it outside to get it in. The other was on our back-ups after the play clock expired and shouldn't have counted. Aside from that, it was basically two field goals on the road to one of if not the best team in C-USA on the road.
Simmons should win Defensive POTW. His blocked punt was unreal and then he showed off his speed when he scored a TD on a fumble recovery. I can't see him spending his senior year at MSU because he's probably good enough to play in the NFL now. Adams and Cory Thomas have both been very good.
Gerri Green had a great game also and his INT was a huge play that helped the offense get back in rhythm. Leo Lewis and Dez Harris were both very solid and Sweat was held all game long but that's probably good practice for Alabama later in the year. Great group of LB's.
The other main thing I wanted to see was the secondary get tested, and I think they did. And I think they passed with flying colors. Peters and Cleveland both played very well. Dantzler is a beast and is going to be awesome.
Jonathan Abrams and Mark McLaurin are both a huge upgrade over what we got out of our safeties last year. It's nice to see safeties actually fly to the ball and make plays instead of "reading and reacting". Or whatever that crap was last year. Good luck Louisville.
I think our special teams unit is solid. Day while not a Lou Groza candidate is better than what we had last year. Cooke is an outstanding punter and kickoff specialist. And the return game for us has been solid- it's hard to do anything when the other team kicks the ball on the ground every kickoff. Myles was steady for the most part returning punts outside of one time he probably should have fair caught the ball. We're also blocking kicks and punts and that is a good thing to see.
The way I see it we went on the road and played a team that some think may win the conference and overcame a slow start on offense to dominate a football game. Obviously LSU will be a huge challenge for us but I expect it to be a close hard fought game. I will say this- the next time we play La Tech I have two requests Cohen- make sure that we have SEC officials for ALL road games against non P5 opponents and the next time we play La Tech on the road- let's do Shreveport and the Indy Bowl. If we can get ULL to move a home game about 2-3 hours or so away to the Superdome surely we can get La Tech to do one hour away like they did for Texas A&M a few years ago. Back to the officials- they were awful. There should be an asterisk to about 7-10 of their points. And obviously this isn't sour grapes since we won going away anyway- but still. Let's get this right.
It was a small stadium, but a pretty easy trip overall. The fans weren't bad but having general admission and then having students mingled in with the visitors is going to lead to people getting ejected from the stadium. Someone compared the seating to a Madison Central football game before I went in and I would have to agree with that.
Fitz started out slow and he missed some WIDE open receivers early. However he finished really strong and had a good game. I could overanalyze the crap out of it- but I think he for whatever reason just had a bad start. And there's not much more to it than that. It happens. Fortunately our special teams and defense made critical plays that actually gave us the lead and allowed everyone to calm down a little bit and once we gained momentum on Simmons blocked punt the game was over.
Aeris looked great running the ball and I would like to see us use Kylin more as the season goes along. I thought Gibson and Lee played well also. It seems like we're slowly using more pro style stuff to go along with the spread stuff- and I like that. Even if it's only 5% of the time.
I think the WR's are the weak link on our team right now. It's not that I think they are bad as much as they are out of position because most of them would be better suited in the slot. And it's a recruiting issue that I think has been corrected with the commitments of Heath and now Guidry. I could see this group improving throughout the year and I'm really impressed with the play of Jordan Thomas who went from 280 pound TE to TE/WR. That was a good move by the staff to cover for the lack of length on the outside.
One thing I wanted to see was if the o-line would improve- and I think they did. I don't remember any sacks and I do remember Fitz getting hit before he threw the ball on his INT. Aside from that, everything else seemed better. The snaps were on target. I thought Story played well and maybe he should start going forward. We did some things to help Reese like use a TE on his side. Like the WR's I could see them also getting better as the season progresses.
The defense was outstanding again. The two touchdowns that they allowed- one was after the Fitz INT on about the 2-3 yard line on a play where La Tech had to bounce it outside to get it in. The other was on our back-ups after the play clock expired and shouldn't have counted. Aside from that, it was basically two field goals on the road to one of if not the best team in C-USA on the road.
Simmons should win Defensive POTW. His blocked punt was unreal and then he showed off his speed when he scored a TD on a fumble recovery. I can't see him spending his senior year at MSU because he's probably good enough to play in the NFL now. Adams and Cory Thomas have both been very good.
Gerri Green had a great game also and his INT was a huge play that helped the offense get back in rhythm. Leo Lewis and Dez Harris were both very solid and Sweat was held all game long but that's probably good practice for Alabama later in the year. Great group of LB's.
The other main thing I wanted to see was the secondary get tested, and I think they did. And I think they passed with flying colors. Peters and Cleveland both played very well. Dantzler is a beast and is going to be awesome.
Jonathan Abrams and Mark McLaurin are both a huge upgrade over what we got out of our safeties last year. It's nice to see safeties actually fly to the ball and make plays instead of "reading and reacting". Or whatever that crap was last year. Good luck Louisville.
I think our special teams unit is solid. Day while not a Lou Groza candidate is better than what we had last year. Cooke is an outstanding punter and kickoff specialist. And the return game for us has been solid- it's hard to do anything when the other team kicks the ball on the ground every kickoff. Myles was steady for the most part returning punts outside of one time he probably should have fair caught the ball. We're also blocking kicks and punts and that is a good thing to see.
The way I see it we went on the road and played a team that some think may win the conference and overcame a slow start on offense to dominate a football game. Obviously LSU will be a huge challenge for us but I expect it to be a close hard fought game. I will say this- the next time we play La Tech I have two requests Cohen- make sure that we have SEC officials for ALL road games against non P5 opponents and the next time we play La Tech on the road- let's do Shreveport and the Indy Bowl. If we can get ULL to move a home game about 2-3 hours or so away to the Superdome surely we can get La Tech to do one hour away like they did for Texas A&M a few years ago. Back to the officials- they were awful. There should be an asterisk to about 7-10 of their points. And obviously this isn't sour grapes since we won going away anyway- but still. Let's get this right.