Another good set of grades, Commissioner. As Bum Phillips once said about the Oilers "the film looked suspiciously like the game itself". In his immediate post-game interview Kevin Norwood (no relation, but we pretend he is) said that the scoreboard looked good to the fans, but the team knew it had a lot to work on. We hear that as the team headed to the locker room, their heads were down as if they had suffered a defeat. Maybe it was just knowing what was waiting for them inside and this week.
A few comments on the grades:
Offense: As you
point out, it was a see saw day. The up
was the four completed touchdown passes.
The down, was, well, everything else.
I keep reading that this is the
most talented offensive line in all of college football and maybe in University
history. OK, I think the stats and
awards speak for themselves. But so does
performance on the field, and by that standard this line is not as good as last
years or even the year before. Some of
the sacks for which the O line takes a demerit were at least partly the fault
of receivers who could not get separation, a qb who could not find them if they
did, and / or holding the football too long trying to make chicken salad out of
chicken feathers. But some of the sacks
were just plain bad scheme and bad technique along the offensive line. This has to get fixed. Lacy does not appear to me to be getting to
and through the holes like he did last year and sometimes the holes aren't
there at all. Everyone is coy about the
status of his recovery from his various leg ailments, but I'll say he's still
short of 100%. Losing Fowler is a blow
that may be evident in the stretch run.
Let's hope the feel-good story that is Kelly can add another
chapter. Let's also hope we don't have
to go to a permanent tight end set just so the greatest offensive line in
history can protect our quarterback.
Defense: The
defense see sawed, too. It is hard to
give a bad grade to a shut out. I mean,
you never lose any game where the other team doesn't score. And the turnovers were not cheap things where
the wide receiver just dropped the ball while running downfield and we were in
the right place at the right time. Those turnovers were forced. Unfortunately, some of those turnovers came
only after WKU had driven deep into our territory. However, without our best nose guard or
defensive back seeing the field and the safety/signal caller in limited duty,
I'd be inclined to award an incomplete.
Special teams: I think Mandell's punt / run was sort of
an illustration of the whole day. He
fields a fine snap cleanly, then suddenly flashes back to his junior high
school basketball days and decides to dribble it. The ball bounces back in his hands, he
flashes back to his pony league days as running back, and takes off for the
first down marker, even having the presence of mind to stick the ball out for
the farthest possible mark before going out of bounds, thus picking up an
improbable first down on a broken play.
All of Saturday felt like that to me.
I hope that the WKU game is one where we look back and
say the team grew up a little bit. And
that the team will remember that the process matters, but so do results, and
while Cousin Kevin is right that there is plenty to work on, there's no reason
to hang your head after putting up a 35-0 score against another FBS team that
may well win its conference.
Roll Tide.
Barbeque the Hogs.
The Correspondent From The Tire Store
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