Offense
QB - sigh. I've read some of the chatter on here and I can't believe there are people supporting Mullen's decision to play Williams in the first half. Cortisone may have been the reason, but Dak looked 100% to me, and he needed to play until we were cruising. Bright side: Dak running our offense with J-Rob looks pretty unstoppable. Even on what was honestly a bad day for Dak throwing the football, he still went over 200yds and 4 scores. Bleak side: I wish I could believe we won't make these bone-headed personnel decisions when the schedule gets tough, but Mullen has rotated QBs every year. Our only chance at leaving a mark this year is riding Prescott and Robinson. Irony: After a century of not being able to throw a vertical pass, we finally have a capable passing game, and the entire fanbase is begging our coach to run the ball. I just thought that was funny. This is as dangerous as we have been running the football since Boobie left, and I hope we start using it more to set up the pass, rather than vice-versa.
RB - aGAIN, had J-Rob been used as our 1st and 2nd down back last year and Perk on 3rd, we might've won a few more. He is a monster. Despite being a bowling ball, he has the ability to get small in the hole the same way that J-Rock did. He squeezed through one hole on Saturday that defied the laws of physics. Do a physics of football video on that, professor. We ran a couple of decent plays with Holloway, then lined him up as the one-deep an ran him right at the A gap. That'll do, Mullen. Shump and Griffin are both solid and capable fill-ins to give Robinson a breather, and that is how they should be used. Each getting about 4-5 carries a game. Holloway should get about 2 and maybe a few targets in the passing game. That's it.
WR - not the best week for these guys but they are progressing. Would like to see Brown or Ross get loose behind the secondary the way UAB did us, but outside of Bear's drop, we were solid. Glad RoJo showed he still has something to offer. He could make a living this year over the middle. Tough receiver.
TE - Hello Walley World. Man that dude looked good out there. Just another weapon at TE for us. aGAIN, Hill continues to be an underrated pass catcher. Didn't target Malcolm much in this one and that's ok with me.
OL - nothing earth shattering here. Performed better than last week.
Defense
DL - Preston Smith. Ok, we are good there right? Would like to see a little more pressure from the DE group, outside of that they have simply excelled in the run game. AJ Jefferson in particular is not scared to crash down the line and kill someone. Man, what about Nick James going to the ground, getting up and running down that play on the sideline. Light bulb has gone off there. Chris Jones is dying to play some football. I hope we are just saving him. Solid yet unspectacular games from Eulls and PJ. Nelson Adams continues to flash potential, particularly in the run game.
LB - freaks. McKinney came up with a big 2nd half, but didn't have a great 1st half. Got sucked in a few times and couldn't get off blocks. Beni Brown might be our best LB right now and that is scary. Wells had a couple of huge plays, as usual. Richie was great in the run game. Zack Jackson made a couple nice plays.
Secondary - ouch. Lot of blame to go around here. They hit us pretty quick on those bombs, but it would have been nice to see a little more pressure from the front. Play action gave us fits a few times. That said, I would like to know yardage gained vs. our first team as opposed to the 2nd - has anyone charted that? Redmond had a tough day, getting burnt twice, and Sills for the last one. One of Redmond's he actually made a good attempt at and just got beat in the air. Granted our 1st team gave up one of the bombs, I believe, but I bet there is a consequential discrepancy there. Love at least held his own. I hope we get Market back this week. We can afford to sit Cox and get him ready for LSU. I doubt we will put our corners, outside of Love, on an island too much going forward.
Special Teams
Nothing can be said here that hasn't already.
Bright Side: Bell's punting, Graham's receiving. Graham just has that steadiness that you can immediately notice when he fields a punt. He knows when he can field it and get us an additional ten yards, and looks comfortable catching the ball.
Miscellaneous - damn it was hot. Better job with the music this week.
QB - sigh. I've read some of the chatter on here and I can't believe there are people supporting Mullen's decision to play Williams in the first half. Cortisone may have been the reason, but Dak looked 100% to me, and he needed to play until we were cruising. Bright side: Dak running our offense with J-Rob looks pretty unstoppable. Even on what was honestly a bad day for Dak throwing the football, he still went over 200yds and 4 scores. Bleak side: I wish I could believe we won't make these bone-headed personnel decisions when the schedule gets tough, but Mullen has rotated QBs every year. Our only chance at leaving a mark this year is riding Prescott and Robinson. Irony: After a century of not being able to throw a vertical pass, we finally have a capable passing game, and the entire fanbase is begging our coach to run the ball. I just thought that was funny. This is as dangerous as we have been running the football since Boobie left, and I hope we start using it more to set up the pass, rather than vice-versa.
RB - aGAIN, had J-Rob been used as our 1st and 2nd down back last year and Perk on 3rd, we might've won a few more. He is a monster. Despite being a bowling ball, he has the ability to get small in the hole the same way that J-Rock did. He squeezed through one hole on Saturday that defied the laws of physics. Do a physics of football video on that, professor. We ran a couple of decent plays with Holloway, then lined him up as the one-deep an ran him right at the A gap. That'll do, Mullen. Shump and Griffin are both solid and capable fill-ins to give Robinson a breather, and that is how they should be used. Each getting about 4-5 carries a game. Holloway should get about 2 and maybe a few targets in the passing game. That's it.
WR - not the best week for these guys but they are progressing. Would like to see Brown or Ross get loose behind the secondary the way UAB did us, but outside of Bear's drop, we were solid. Glad RoJo showed he still has something to offer. He could make a living this year over the middle. Tough receiver.
TE - Hello Walley World. Man that dude looked good out there. Just another weapon at TE for us. aGAIN, Hill continues to be an underrated pass catcher. Didn't target Malcolm much in this one and that's ok with me.
OL - nothing earth shattering here. Performed better than last week.
Defense
DL - Preston Smith. Ok, we are good there right? Would like to see a little more pressure from the DE group, outside of that they have simply excelled in the run game. AJ Jefferson in particular is not scared to crash down the line and kill someone. Man, what about Nick James going to the ground, getting up and running down that play on the sideline. Light bulb has gone off there. Chris Jones is dying to play some football. I hope we are just saving him. Solid yet unspectacular games from Eulls and PJ. Nelson Adams continues to flash potential, particularly in the run game.
LB - freaks. McKinney came up with a big 2nd half, but didn't have a great 1st half. Got sucked in a few times and couldn't get off blocks. Beni Brown might be our best LB right now and that is scary. Wells had a couple of huge plays, as usual. Richie was great in the run game. Zack Jackson made a couple nice plays.
Secondary - ouch. Lot of blame to go around here. They hit us pretty quick on those bombs, but it would have been nice to see a little more pressure from the front. Play action gave us fits a few times. That said, I would like to know yardage gained vs. our first team as opposed to the 2nd - has anyone charted that? Redmond had a tough day, getting burnt twice, and Sills for the last one. One of Redmond's he actually made a good attempt at and just got beat in the air. Granted our 1st team gave up one of the bombs, I believe, but I bet there is a consequential discrepancy there. Love at least held his own. I hope we get Market back this week. We can afford to sit Cox and get him ready for LSU. I doubt we will put our corners, outside of Love, on an island too much going forward.
Special Teams
Nothing can be said here that hasn't already.
Bright Side: Bell's punting, Graham's receiving. Graham just has that steadiness that you can immediately notice when he fields a punt. He knows when he can field it and get us an additional ten yards, and looks comfortable catching the ball.
Miscellaneous - damn it was hot. Better job with the music this week.
