The Offensive Line clearly has not gelled together yet, and that may be a result of too much player evaluation and rotating up until game time. I know we want to have 10 OL ready to play, but at some point you have to stick with 5 and let them get used to playing next to each other. I thought Clausell played okay, Day had a bad game for him, Beckwith and Senior struggled, and Malone played well. I might be in the minority, but I thought Dak looked a bit tentative at times, overthinking instead of playing, which made his throws a bit late. It may be due to the fact that they clearly told him to limit his scrambling which probably hurt his rhythm a little. I can understand not wanting to get him hurt against a weak non-conference opponent, but its part of his game and I think it disrupted his natural rhythm. Damian Williams looked nervous to start the game, but finished well. I think it will be important to let him run the read-option a couple times before he starts to throw. I think that he is more comfortable running so let him carry the ball a time or two before passing to get comfortable. JRob looked great at fighting through tackles and squeezing out an extra yard or two. While I root hard for Nick Griffin because all he has overcome and his cool personality, he seemed a bit slow to get through the hole. Should be in good shape when Shumpert gets back as well. Receivers were great. Special teams was a mess. Devon Bell did a good job punting, but can't tell anything about the kicking yet because the one field goal was a bad snap and poor hold by Dak. I was hoping that we could find someone to field the ball without dropping it but it doesn't appear that we can. Besides Holloway's issues, what was Jameon doing chasing those short kicks and almost touching the ball several times in a crowd of defenders? Just get away from it. As for the defense, I'm good with the rotation of fresh bodies. I think we have players that can apply pressure and take up blockers on both DLs. The backers looked good, as did the secondary. However, a consistent problem that I have seen is that our blitz packages seem to be less effective than other teams. When our DBs and LBs blitz and get to the QB, they seem awkward and often totally whiff even against less mobile QBs. It happened several times again in this game. I just want to see them blow up the QB on a blitz. All these things noted, the team looks about as good as any first-game MSU team that I have watched, and the potential for more is clearly there.
As for the stadium, it looked beautiful and had no real issues. Yes, I would like the pump up music to sync better with the game etc. We all hate the commercials but they help pay the bills. I think the administration needs to better plan for inclement weather. Parking in BFE because we couldn't park on the wet grass is okay, but let's have more than 1 stinking shuttle operating when I see 20 university golf carts sitting around with drivers eating tailgate food. I can walk it fine, but a lot of the older fans really struggled. A little bit of planning would have removed that negative experience. Secondly, what kind of slobs do we have tailgating in the Junction? Damn, pick up your trash people. That was freaking ridiculous. The event staff directing traffic really needs to take a class, I actually believe they made it worse.
