Gents, sorry for the delay in getting this out. Had a buddy get married yesterday and this is the first time I've been on the board today. Been a hella long but awesome weekend.
1. BIG win. It's a big step forward for this program. Nice payoff to finally win that kind of game at home after so many close losses in those games the last 3 seasons. Some of us knew what this team had, but a lot of others thought we had to beat UT to prove it. Well, it's been proven now, MFers. And I don't wanna hear any more of you whiny bitches complaining about being 6-0 and looking for something to complain about. We're bowl eligible in mid-October and will play meaningful games in November. Can't ask for anymore.
2. Other than the 3rd quarter, we dominated the game. And I'm blaming the 3rd quarter on my buddy. He cut the game off at half when he closed up at work and left so he could get home to see the 4th. When he got it cut on at home for the 4th, we got it back together. Seriously, though. the 3rd was a combination of things. Give credit to UT, they don't quit. You knew they'd fight back, and they did. Also, we dropped into our bad habit of coasting with a big lead. That has to stop. It's one of the few bad things this early season run of easy games has bred into this team.
3. Mullen needs to fire himself as ST coach and hire a real ST coach in the offseason. We're ridiculously inconsistent in that phase of the game, but more often than not we're just bad. We have little return threat. And our KO coverage blows bovines. The only part of of STs that's consistent is punting & punt coverage. Then we make huge plays, like Calhoun jumping on the pooch kick & JB making the insane grab on the punt to save us a ton of yards late.
4. On the same note, just when I'm getting comfortable with Bell, he misses the chip shot FG. But I'll cut him some slack, he's a true frosh at a position notorious for head cases.
5. I love what we did on offense, especially in the first half. Text late in the half from a buddy: "I'm gonna need a cold shower at halftime, this offense is getting me hot." The re-emergence of the TE was awesome. And we finally used Perk as a receiver out of the backfield. My only tiny nitpick is still not getting Tubby involved.
6. Speak of Perk, he's a 17ing BEAST. He killed it Saturday night. Ran hard, broke tackles, made big runs. Showed some nice power between the tackles. He's an every down back, and it's time everyone knew it.
7. Welcome back, Malcolm F'n Johnson! He was awesome. Creates a mismatch we've been missing. His TD catch to seal it was insane. I'm ending my relationship with Sportscenter for not putting it in their Top 10 Plays. No way in hell they could find 10 better, especially after they freaking tweeted he had a spot in it, according to a buddy.
8. Loved what I saw from Josh Robinson. Kid is going to be a very good player for us. Showed nice vision and patience on the TD run. Breaks tackles like a champ. As I've said before, he runs angry. And he always falls forward for extra yards. He's clearly our #2 back right now, as afar as I'm concerned.
9. Big props to Bump. He finally showed up for a big game. Made several good catches, kept drives alive. He finally looked like the guy we thought we signed 4 seasons ago.
10. Big game for Marcus Green, too. Like Bump, he made several big catches. He continues to be a big factor for us in the redzone this season. Just wish he hadn't dropped the 4th down pass from Russell.
11. Russell had the best game I've personally ever seen from an MSU QB, with *maybe* the exception of Fant in the 2001 Egg Bowl or 2001 BYU games. But I'd personally put it ahead of those because of what this win means for our season. And his completion percentage was better than Fant's those 2 games. He's proving that he's an upper echelon QB in this league. He deserves to be mentioned in that elite group with McCarron, Murray, Wilson, and Bray. I can't say just how great he was. My only complaint are the 2 sacks he took. He had time to get rid of the ball on both, but held it too long instead of throwing it away.
12. Not enough people are talking about how well our OL played. They were nasty. We got nice push against a BIG DL in the run game and gave TR a ton of time to throw. They wore down UT's DL. Their play in the last 5:22 when we were playing keep away to seal the W was a thing of beauty. Dillon Day gets a special shout out for his job against that 6'7 380 freak. He whipped him routinely all night, despite a nearly 100 LB difference. Also, Justin Malone looked good after Tobias went down. He's going to be a good one for us.
13. I thought the D played pretty well overall. We really only gave up 24 to their O. 7 came from the kicking game. Considering how good UT's O is, that's about the best you can hope to do.
14. Give it to Patterson, the dude is an absolute BEAST. He'll be 1 and done. He's NFL ready now. As far as I'm concerned, he's a top 5 player in the nation. We won't see a better individual player this season. If we didn't recruit him, we should be whipped. Not saying we'd have signed him, but he'd be the best WR we have and it wouldn't be close.
15. We held Patterson & Hunter to a combined 4 catches. That's insane. JB & Slay locked them down all night. Most of Patterson's damage came on the kick return and run plays.
16. How the HELL can UT not run the ball better than they do? Their offensive line is mammoth. Mediocre RBs should look good behind them. They get decent push, but not what you'd expect, especially considering they have at least 2 NFL OL, according to the experts. Screams coaching, to me. And a failure to recruit any decent RBs.
17. I thought our D did an OK job of getting pressure on Bray. We didn't get any sacks, but we put him on the move some and didn't let him get overly comfortable in the pocket.
18. Bernardrick McKinney is going to be a stud. 14 tackles? Just sick. He looks like a LB you'd expect to see at Bama, LSU, Jawja, etc.
19. Our depth continues to impress me, on both sides of the ball. It's one of the biggest reasons for this 6-0 start. Mullen has done an amazing job recruiting and developing players.
20. Welcome back to the Pick List, Corey Broomfield! He played a PERFECT CF on that pick. Got deep enough so Patterson couldn't get behind him, then floated to the ball and made a nice play.
21. Johnthan Banks. What more can you say? He's the leader of this team. When we needed a huge play, he goes out and made it. It'll be fun watching him in the NFL next season.
22. All that said about the D, we've GOT to tackle better. Too many missed tackles for me. Gotta get better at making 1-on-1 plays. I love gang tackling, but the first guy should be getting the stop on a gang tackle, not getting driven backwards waiting on other guys to show up.
23. Our crowd was ELECTRIC. Excellent job. The maroon-white cheer in the 4th was 17ing loud as hell. I normally don't post about pregame stuff, but we should ditch the manufactured M&W cheer. It sucks and the crowd just isn't into it. Also, can we PLEASE get a new intro vid ASAP? The current one sucks hard. The last 3 were infinitely better.
24. Don't expect us to blow out MTSU, for those of you into "style points." I don't give a **** about style points, but don't come here bitching if we only win by 7-10. It's a classic trap game, and we poured a ton of emotional energy into the UT game. I expect a very robotic performance next week.
25. DAK ATTACK!!! Told you we've been setting up the QB play-action dive, and it would be WIDE open when we finally used it. His touch on the pass was a thing of beauty. Loved it!
That's how I see it. Feel free to add, comment, or flame. 6-0, bitches!!!
In Mullen We Trust,
WMD
ETA: #25
1. BIG win. It's a big step forward for this program. Nice payoff to finally win that kind of game at home after so many close losses in those games the last 3 seasons. Some of us knew what this team had, but a lot of others thought we had to beat UT to prove it. Well, it's been proven now, MFers. And I don't wanna hear any more of you whiny bitches complaining about being 6-0 and looking for something to complain about. We're bowl eligible in mid-October and will play meaningful games in November. Can't ask for anymore.
2. Other than the 3rd quarter, we dominated the game. And I'm blaming the 3rd quarter on my buddy. He cut the game off at half when he closed up at work and left so he could get home to see the 4th. When he got it cut on at home for the 4th, we got it back together. Seriously, though. the 3rd was a combination of things. Give credit to UT, they don't quit. You knew they'd fight back, and they did. Also, we dropped into our bad habit of coasting with a big lead. That has to stop. It's one of the few bad things this early season run of easy games has bred into this team.
3. Mullen needs to fire himself as ST coach and hire a real ST coach in the offseason. We're ridiculously inconsistent in that phase of the game, but more often than not we're just bad. We have little return threat. And our KO coverage blows bovines. The only part of of STs that's consistent is punting & punt coverage. Then we make huge plays, like Calhoun jumping on the pooch kick & JB making the insane grab on the punt to save us a ton of yards late.
4. On the same note, just when I'm getting comfortable with Bell, he misses the chip shot FG. But I'll cut him some slack, he's a true frosh at a position notorious for head cases.
5. I love what we did on offense, especially in the first half. Text late in the half from a buddy: "I'm gonna need a cold shower at halftime, this offense is getting me hot." The re-emergence of the TE was awesome. And we finally used Perk as a receiver out of the backfield. My only tiny nitpick is still not getting Tubby involved.
6. Speak of Perk, he's a 17ing BEAST. He killed it Saturday night. Ran hard, broke tackles, made big runs. Showed some nice power between the tackles. He's an every down back, and it's time everyone knew it.
7. Welcome back, Malcolm F'n Johnson! He was awesome. Creates a mismatch we've been missing. His TD catch to seal it was insane. I'm ending my relationship with Sportscenter for not putting it in their Top 10 Plays. No way in hell they could find 10 better, especially after they freaking tweeted he had a spot in it, according to a buddy.
8. Loved what I saw from Josh Robinson. Kid is going to be a very good player for us. Showed nice vision and patience on the TD run. Breaks tackles like a champ. As I've said before, he runs angry. And he always falls forward for extra yards. He's clearly our #2 back right now, as afar as I'm concerned.
9. Big props to Bump. He finally showed up for a big game. Made several good catches, kept drives alive. He finally looked like the guy we thought we signed 4 seasons ago.
10. Big game for Marcus Green, too. Like Bump, he made several big catches. He continues to be a big factor for us in the redzone this season. Just wish he hadn't dropped the 4th down pass from Russell.
11. Russell had the best game I've personally ever seen from an MSU QB, with *maybe* the exception of Fant in the 2001 Egg Bowl or 2001 BYU games. But I'd personally put it ahead of those because of what this win means for our season. And his completion percentage was better than Fant's those 2 games. He's proving that he's an upper echelon QB in this league. He deserves to be mentioned in that elite group with McCarron, Murray, Wilson, and Bray. I can't say just how great he was. My only complaint are the 2 sacks he took. He had time to get rid of the ball on both, but held it too long instead of throwing it away.
12. Not enough people are talking about how well our OL played. They were nasty. We got nice push against a BIG DL in the run game and gave TR a ton of time to throw. They wore down UT's DL. Their play in the last 5:22 when we were playing keep away to seal the W was a thing of beauty. Dillon Day gets a special shout out for his job against that 6'7 380 freak. He whipped him routinely all night, despite a nearly 100 LB difference. Also, Justin Malone looked good after Tobias went down. He's going to be a good one for us.
13. I thought the D played pretty well overall. We really only gave up 24 to their O. 7 came from the kicking game. Considering how good UT's O is, that's about the best you can hope to do.
14. Give it to Patterson, the dude is an absolute BEAST. He'll be 1 and done. He's NFL ready now. As far as I'm concerned, he's a top 5 player in the nation. We won't see a better individual player this season. If we didn't recruit him, we should be whipped. Not saying we'd have signed him, but he'd be the best WR we have and it wouldn't be close.
15. We held Patterson & Hunter to a combined 4 catches. That's insane. JB & Slay locked them down all night. Most of Patterson's damage came on the kick return and run plays.
16. How the HELL can UT not run the ball better than they do? Their offensive line is mammoth. Mediocre RBs should look good behind them. They get decent push, but not what you'd expect, especially considering they have at least 2 NFL OL, according to the experts. Screams coaching, to me. And a failure to recruit any decent RBs.
17. I thought our D did an OK job of getting pressure on Bray. We didn't get any sacks, but we put him on the move some and didn't let him get overly comfortable in the pocket.
18. Bernardrick McKinney is going to be a stud. 14 tackles? Just sick. He looks like a LB you'd expect to see at Bama, LSU, Jawja, etc.
19. Our depth continues to impress me, on both sides of the ball. It's one of the biggest reasons for this 6-0 start. Mullen has done an amazing job recruiting and developing players.
20. Welcome back to the Pick List, Corey Broomfield! He played a PERFECT CF on that pick. Got deep enough so Patterson couldn't get behind him, then floated to the ball and made a nice play.
21. Johnthan Banks. What more can you say? He's the leader of this team. When we needed a huge play, he goes out and made it. It'll be fun watching him in the NFL next season.
22. All that said about the D, we've GOT to tackle better. Too many missed tackles for me. Gotta get better at making 1-on-1 plays. I love gang tackling, but the first guy should be getting the stop on a gang tackle, not getting driven backwards waiting on other guys to show up.
23. Our crowd was ELECTRIC. Excellent job. The maroon-white cheer in the 4th was 17ing loud as hell. I normally don't post about pregame stuff, but we should ditch the manufactured M&W cheer. It sucks and the crowd just isn't into it. Also, can we PLEASE get a new intro vid ASAP? The current one sucks hard. The last 3 were infinitely better.
24. Don't expect us to blow out MTSU, for those of you into "style points." I don't give a **** about style points, but don't come here bitching if we only win by 7-10. It's a classic trap game, and we poured a ton of emotional energy into the UT game. I expect a very robotic performance next week.
25. DAK ATTACK!!! Told you we've been setting up the QB play-action dive, and it would be WIDE open when we finally used it. His touch on the pass was a thing of beauty. Loved it!
That's how I see it. Feel free to add, comment, or flame. 6-0, bitches!!!
In Mullen We Trust,
WMD
ETA: #25
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