Offense:
Your turn?
- Ertz ran quite a bit less tentatively, but still looks like a guy who will do most of his damage as a scrambler, rather than in the QB run game....
- ...which leads to: is he scrambling too much? Sometimes the line is breaking down, sometimes he seems not to see the field or trust what he sees, sometimes he just gets happy feet. Hubs stays in the pocket almost dangerously long...Jesse, today anyway, was a bit quick to move. Maybe the coaches focused on the sacks he (and Joe) took last week, and he was trying to avoid negative plays?
- But more than anything else that concerns me about Jesse is that he continues to struggle with anything down field (or even mid). He is neither accurate, nor on time. Yes, he has rust. But I'm not convinced that's ALL it is. Either way, I expect B12 defenses to crowd the box and play man on the edges until we show we can throw it deeper, and when that happens, against better defenses, we are going to need a lot more to run effectively than what I have seen from Ertz and Jones.
- Heath just looks damn good out there. Quick, crisp, sure-handed, and making people miss in the open field. He's a very smooth athlete. @yelee tells us he played hurt most of the year last year. Well, he does look like a different player, and is still, IMO, the unheralded star of this offense so far. Need to get him more touches, IMO.
- While it DOES look like Dana is gratuitously feeding his boy in the red zone, it's hard to complain given the result. Today. Something to watch going forward, but Winston has always been a tough runner.
- We're obviously waiting for Pringle to show something...but he was at least sure-handed fielding some punts today.
- OL still showing it will have some work to do. They didn't make much room for Jones--who needs it, and the pocket collapsed early often. This is a BAD defense, so...
- ...it's important to keep the breakout games by both Warmack and Barnes in perspective, but they are simply different-level athletes than Jones, and even Silmon. I like both Jones and Silmon, probably like Jones more than most here. But there are two guys who capable of big plays from the backfield against better defenses, without a schematic breakdown, and they are Warmack and Barnes. As bad as this defense was, Jones still couldn't break anything. If Dalvin (and Barnes) have deficiencies, it is on the coaches to (a) get their buy-in, (b) correct it, and (c) keep it in perspective, because EVERY player has flaws. So either way, it's on the guys in the windbreakers. Also, it's one thing when a player just plain refuses to block and is generally insubordinate (Bryce Brown. Hard to believe either of those guys falls into that camp. It's another when it is simply a weakness, and the importance of correcting it might best be illustrated on the game field.
- Isaiah Harris...wow, easy to see why they are excited about him. Hope we can get him the ball, too.
- DJ Reed is a really, really good cover corner. Great ball awareness--something we have not had in a while.
- Loved seeing Kendall Adams anticipate that ball and get the pick! Great play.
- Geary continues to push people around. He didn't pad stats today, I don't think, but I watched him quite a bit, and he was making life hell for people.
- Willis continues to play consistent and well
- Our DL was just dominant
- Trent Tanking looked pretty good--that fourth-down stop was nice.
- While we did not give up an early score, we opened the game soft and weak, yet again, which resulted in our offense starting at the 11. A defense good enough to hold a team to 211 yards has NO BUSINESS giving up 60 on the first possession, unless it is coached to play soft, and/or is mentally or schematically unprepared. FAU is terrible. A better team would likely have scored, and once again, put us in a hole to start (well, even worse than starting on the 11). It's just embarrassingly predictable.
Your turn?
