Trav's Ten Takeaways: Hawaii Win

Via Travis Rooke-ley

Solid win Saturday and most importantly, escaped with no new injuries. The real grind starts now with a marquee matchup with the Buffs at Autzen.  I feel good about the team entering a tough stretch of games, but there are definitely some concerns that need to be addressed. 

1. Offensive Clunkiness: After a nearly flawless week one, the offense just hasn’t seemed in sync for large portions of the last two weeks. There are certainly reasons for that, largely takeaway #2 below, but this has to be the week we get back to efficient clean football. It hasn’t been one thing, but rather something different each drive: penalties, lack of efficiency in the run game, missed shots by Bo, and something else. Hopefully, a full playbook, conference play, and more will bring a cleaner and more explosive operation beginning this week. 

2. OL Continuity: Really hoping the return of Strother can bring better consistency to this group. While our pass protection has generally not missed a beat, we seem to be struggling to run between the tackles a bit. I’m not truly concerned, and believe there are a lot of correctable things going into this weekend. That said, I think a dominant run game is what can set us apart from the other elite offenses in the conference and I hope we can establish that in the next few games. 

3. TE usage: Given Stein’s history, I’ve been very surprised at the amount of 2-3 TE sets that we’ve been running so far. To their credit, I think all four of our TEs have been solid, and Herbert’s development as a second reliable TE has been a pleasant surprise. That said, I hope we find opportunities to open things up a bit moving forward. I’d like to see Bryant, Holden, and Johnson all get more touches as we’ve seen flashes of how dynamic each can be with the ball in their hands. Situationally, it certainly makes sense to have some 13 personnel packages, but I’m hoping/guessing we’ll also see more 3-4 WR sets against a Colorado defense that we should be able to carve up. 

4. Defense Looks Good: Overall, I thought the defense played very well against Hawaii. Hawaii has a good passing offense, which we held way below their season averages. I thought the back end continued their strong play as there were very few instances of open receivers or yards after catches. With the elite passing offenses of Colorado, UW, and SC looming ahead, it is super encouraging to see the DBs turning into a strong and trusted unit. 

5. Pressure: With those elite offenses in mind, the recipe for slowing them down is proven and simple: pressure the QB with four. If we can collapse the pocket and get home without allocating extra bodies, I think we beat all those teams. Can we do that? Time will tell. We’ve seen flashes from Burch, Matayo, Purchase, and Tuioti so far. Dorlus is a known commodity, but isn’t going to change a game off the edge. Our DTs, namely Popo and Taimani, have been playing really well. We absolutely need Burch or one of the frosh to start making a more consistent impact in terms of pass rush. 

6. Defensive Rotation: We are still playing a ton of guys on defense, and I’m expecting this to be the week that we begin to pair down some rotations. It has made sense so far, given two of the opponents and the heat in Lubbock, but we need our top guys out there in conference play as much as possible. Depth is great, and we’ll certainly need it, but I hope we’re not seeing a ton of snaps for the Winston and Shipley’s of the world in competitive games. 

7. Camden: I think he might be good. Do I dare say I trust our kicker?

8. Buffs: I watched almost every snap of the second half and OT on Saturday night and left pretty unimpressed with Colorado. Shedeur is definitely better than I expected and he’s a tough competitor given all the hits he’s been taking. Their OL and DL are not very talented and they don’t have much depth at either. They really struggle to run the ball and have given up a ton of sacks so far this year. CSU threw the ball very effectively against their secondary, and I expect we’ll do the same. If we play clean, this game is over at halftime and never truly in doubt. I think Deion will have them pretty fired up for the road environment at Autzen so it’s important we start strong and don’t give them a reason to believe they can compete. I think we will give up a few plays defensively, but believe our offense will find its rhythm and score pretty much at will. Ducks 45-24. 

9. Conference and National Takeaways: Starting to feel like a 2007-type year in CFB. Bama looked terrible, Georgia looked beatable, FSU should have lost, and Texas was tied with Wyoming in the 4th. There’s definitely an opportunity to make a push, but getting through this conference with zero or one loss is going to be an incredible challenge. This weekend has a bunch of crazy good games, and I think we’ll have some answers about the top 10 on Sunday. What’s clear to me is that it’s looking like the game in Seattle on 10/14 is going to be two undefeated top 5-7 teams. Could anything be more stressful? Speaking of questions that have an obvious answer….
   
10. Fall Weddings: What is the deal with people having fall weddings? Seriously why? Really, why does it happen? Someone ban them.