First, maybe this is a sad reflection of how this season has been going, but I honestly found that a relatively enjoyable game, glad I traveled back to Evanston to watch even though it ended in an L. I think mostly cause so many games this year have been depressing and downright non-competitive. The below kinda turned into an essay's worth of comments, sorry, but here we go.
Offense.
- I need to eat crow about Hull. I said he was a functional RB but not adding a ton. I said he had good straight line speed but wasn't nimble enough to make guys miss. Well the last couple weeks he's made a strong case that both of those statements were incorrect. #5 is still probably the best player on our offense but Hull has been quite good. He's been a patient runner that can accelerate when a hole materializes, he's learned to pick his way around the inevitable whiffed blocks from the OL to get back to the LoS or for modest positive yards, and he's been really good when given the ball in space on dump-off passes. The latter was huge against Iowa.
- Stephon Robinson was quite good again. Like that we are finding different ways to get him the ball including on the jet sweep. Should have been more yards if not for PI (one called, others not) or a seriously underthrown deep ball when he wasted the CB. Marty could have used a bit of discretion to keep 1-2 of the balls he threw to 5 in his pocket. Malik Washington also solid once again too. We've found our top 2 WRs I think it's fairly clear.
- Our TE position has been a weakness all year. No one is approaching being a dynamic threat in the passing game. Not great blocking. Though on the last O play of the game Marty clearly should have dumped short to the TE (or thrown away) rather than an extremely ill-advised toss-up for a free Int.
- The right side of the OL is like a warp zone. Especially the RT it looks like to me is almost full-on whiffing on a block about once a series. Ruining the flow of the offense. #13 repeatedly was coming through unblocked. On those attempted trick plays (WR reverse pass) it might have been intentional hoping he would crash down, but after he stayed home once maybe we should have schemed to do something about it or not tried it again. Even aside from that the whole right side of the line is bad. Any chance Caleb Tiernan or someone else might be able to slot in at RT and give it a try?
QB deserves its own section..... sigh.
- Marty brought an element to the offense that we had been missing - sure enough his mobility allowed him to extend plays, he can throw on the move some while Hilinski struggles with that, and we had better ball movement overall through the game.
- Buuuuuut (and it's a HUGE but) that was all offset or even outweighed by those 2 terrible 2nd half interceptions (the one in the 1H I view as a "good" interception to the extent you have those). Both were awful decisions and awful throws. 1- First one a hitch and go when the corner is playing 10-12 off the WR and was not only giving up the hitch but also 10 additional yards behind it if he just throws it into the curl flat - instead he threw it up for a free pick, and on 1st down when we were scoring range no less! Throw it away, dump it off, take a sack, try to scramble, any of those are acceptable options in that 1st down situation but chucking it up for grabs was absolutely not. 2- Second one I'm not sure if it's worse, maybe not quite as bad but game situation last possession made it even more painful. Again this is on FIRST DOWN you do not need to force something, you know we are in 4-down territory and we'd moved it decently prior possession so taking an incomplete isn't bad - plus the TE had leaked right in front of his sight line to the fade route and was open for a dump pass, should have been seen. Instead he gives away the game with another horrid throw.
- Marty has his benefits, and I'm nearly certain we wouldn't have won that game with Hilinski in there, but it also became painfully clear on Sat night that the characteristics that drive those benefits (desire to keep the play alive rather than throw away, gunslinger risk-taking mentality) have significant drawbacks at times. We've tried 3 different QBs and it doesn't appear any of them are the answer... I'd probably try Marty again @Wisconsin as at least he gives us some hope for upside with a wide range of outcomes (rather than near-certainty of repeated 3 and outs and curtailed drives)? But I think they are better than Iowa on both sides of the ball right now so it's going to be awfully tough.
Defense
- Played quite well overall. A few execution (or perhaps schematic but looked more like execution) mishaps in the 1st half, but we pretty much locked them down in the second half. They did an admirable job of keeping us in the game possession after possession while our offense struggled to find ways to get points on the board. Liked the game plan too - brought pressure pretty frequently, particularly when we got behind, tried to force them to play the game on our terms rather than being passive and letting them kill clock with long drives. Only real downside is we couldn't find a way to force a game changing turnover - aside from the blocked punt which is more ST... sadly that only turned into 3.
- DL strong game against a very good OL. The DTs were dealing with an All-American 1st round pick C in Lindenbaum of Iowa and they lost more than they won, but I don't think got run off the field. DEs held their ground reasonably well and we actually got better pass rush pressure than we have recently (or vs what I was expecting). Pooler started to emerge as a solid player IMO. 99 was good on the pass rush but had some notable misses on backside contain against the run - including the end-around they ran for the TD, where it seemed like no one in our front 7 had any idea they had handed it off. Overall an above average game though from the DL.
- LBs I thought had their best game of the year. I've been critical of this group at times. I thought Bergin was very good bordering on excellent, and Gallagher was bordering on very good too. He and 40 had one mistake where they both ran themselves out of the play on Iowa's first TD, but overall to my untrained eye seemed to do a good job of fulfilling their assignments and for once there was good tackling! I thought 40 was the weakest of the three LBs, but still was improved from the level he had been playing at.
- Secondary- Cam Mitchell got beat once on a sideline route but it was on a pretty good pass. Decent game otherwise. Rod Heard gave up maybe a completion or two early (the tailgating beverage consumption is confusing my recall of which CBs did what) - but I thought had some very nice plays in run support, maybe his best game of the year. Hampton wasn't as noticeable to me in this game either way - but usually that's a good sign for a CB. Though BJo had a solid game, helpful in run support, teams continue to avoid like the plague throwing in his direction. Azema I don't think had his best game.
Special Teams- Kuhbs 2-2 thank goodness, though both shorties. Those haven't been his problem this year. Blocked punt was awesome! And we got close on 1-2 others. Return game not bad. Decent overall effort except for punting - Adams seems to have taken a step back last couple weeks, granted there was some wind, but wonder if he's not 100%.
Refs- That phantom fair catch kickoff at the 3 was something else, that's for sure. And then the blatant missed PI in the end zone was horrible, the one that prompted the 15 yarder from Fitz (wonder what he said, it must have been bad...?). I guess they gave one of those back with the phantom PI call on Iowa on 4th down against Stephon. Piss poor reffing overall though, unfortunate.
Enjoyed the tailgate, enjoyed the game, sucked to lose it that way though. Wisconsin is going to be real tough.
Go Cats!
Offense.
- I need to eat crow about Hull. I said he was a functional RB but not adding a ton. I said he had good straight line speed but wasn't nimble enough to make guys miss. Well the last couple weeks he's made a strong case that both of those statements were incorrect. #5 is still probably the best player on our offense but Hull has been quite good. He's been a patient runner that can accelerate when a hole materializes, he's learned to pick his way around the inevitable whiffed blocks from the OL to get back to the LoS or for modest positive yards, and he's been really good when given the ball in space on dump-off passes. The latter was huge against Iowa.
- Stephon Robinson was quite good again. Like that we are finding different ways to get him the ball including on the jet sweep. Should have been more yards if not for PI (one called, others not) or a seriously underthrown deep ball when he wasted the CB. Marty could have used a bit of discretion to keep 1-2 of the balls he threw to 5 in his pocket. Malik Washington also solid once again too. We've found our top 2 WRs I think it's fairly clear.
- Our TE position has been a weakness all year. No one is approaching being a dynamic threat in the passing game. Not great blocking. Though on the last O play of the game Marty clearly should have dumped short to the TE (or thrown away) rather than an extremely ill-advised toss-up for a free Int.
- The right side of the OL is like a warp zone. Especially the RT it looks like to me is almost full-on whiffing on a block about once a series. Ruining the flow of the offense. #13 repeatedly was coming through unblocked. On those attempted trick plays (WR reverse pass) it might have been intentional hoping he would crash down, but after he stayed home once maybe we should have schemed to do something about it or not tried it again. Even aside from that the whole right side of the line is bad. Any chance Caleb Tiernan or someone else might be able to slot in at RT and give it a try?
QB deserves its own section..... sigh.
- Marty brought an element to the offense that we had been missing - sure enough his mobility allowed him to extend plays, he can throw on the move some while Hilinski struggles with that, and we had better ball movement overall through the game.
- Buuuuuut (and it's a HUGE but) that was all offset or even outweighed by those 2 terrible 2nd half interceptions (the one in the 1H I view as a "good" interception to the extent you have those). Both were awful decisions and awful throws. 1- First one a hitch and go when the corner is playing 10-12 off the WR and was not only giving up the hitch but also 10 additional yards behind it if he just throws it into the curl flat - instead he threw it up for a free pick, and on 1st down when we were scoring range no less! Throw it away, dump it off, take a sack, try to scramble, any of those are acceptable options in that 1st down situation but chucking it up for grabs was absolutely not. 2- Second one I'm not sure if it's worse, maybe not quite as bad but game situation last possession made it even more painful. Again this is on FIRST DOWN you do not need to force something, you know we are in 4-down territory and we'd moved it decently prior possession so taking an incomplete isn't bad - plus the TE had leaked right in front of his sight line to the fade route and was open for a dump pass, should have been seen. Instead he gives away the game with another horrid throw.
- Marty has his benefits, and I'm nearly certain we wouldn't have won that game with Hilinski in there, but it also became painfully clear on Sat night that the characteristics that drive those benefits (desire to keep the play alive rather than throw away, gunslinger risk-taking mentality) have significant drawbacks at times. We've tried 3 different QBs and it doesn't appear any of them are the answer... I'd probably try Marty again @Wisconsin as at least he gives us some hope for upside with a wide range of outcomes (rather than near-certainty of repeated 3 and outs and curtailed drives)? But I think they are better than Iowa on both sides of the ball right now so it's going to be awfully tough.
Defense
- Played quite well overall. A few execution (or perhaps schematic but looked more like execution) mishaps in the 1st half, but we pretty much locked them down in the second half. They did an admirable job of keeping us in the game possession after possession while our offense struggled to find ways to get points on the board. Liked the game plan too - brought pressure pretty frequently, particularly when we got behind, tried to force them to play the game on our terms rather than being passive and letting them kill clock with long drives. Only real downside is we couldn't find a way to force a game changing turnover - aside from the blocked punt which is more ST... sadly that only turned into 3.
- DL strong game against a very good OL. The DTs were dealing with an All-American 1st round pick C in Lindenbaum of Iowa and they lost more than they won, but I don't think got run off the field. DEs held their ground reasonably well and we actually got better pass rush pressure than we have recently (or vs what I was expecting). Pooler started to emerge as a solid player IMO. 99 was good on the pass rush but had some notable misses on backside contain against the run - including the end-around they ran for the TD, where it seemed like no one in our front 7 had any idea they had handed it off. Overall an above average game though from the DL.
- LBs I thought had their best game of the year. I've been critical of this group at times. I thought Bergin was very good bordering on excellent, and Gallagher was bordering on very good too. He and 40 had one mistake where they both ran themselves out of the play on Iowa's first TD, but overall to my untrained eye seemed to do a good job of fulfilling their assignments and for once there was good tackling! I thought 40 was the weakest of the three LBs, but still was improved from the level he had been playing at.
- Secondary- Cam Mitchell got beat once on a sideline route but it was on a pretty good pass. Decent game otherwise. Rod Heard gave up maybe a completion or two early (the tailgating beverage consumption is confusing my recall of which CBs did what) - but I thought had some very nice plays in run support, maybe his best game of the year. Hampton wasn't as noticeable to me in this game either way - but usually that's a good sign for a CB. Though BJo had a solid game, helpful in run support, teams continue to avoid like the plague throwing in his direction. Azema I don't think had his best game.
Special Teams- Kuhbs 2-2 thank goodness, though both shorties. Those haven't been his problem this year. Blocked punt was awesome! And we got close on 1-2 others. Return game not bad. Decent overall effort except for punting - Adams seems to have taken a step back last couple weeks, granted there was some wind, but wonder if he's not 100%.
Refs- That phantom fair catch kickoff at the 3 was something else, that's for sure. And then the blatant missed PI in the end zone was horrible, the one that prompted the 15 yarder from Fitz (wonder what he said, it must have been bad...?). I guess they gave one of those back with the phantom PI call on Iowa on 4th down against Stephon. Piss poor reffing overall though, unfortunate.
Enjoyed the tailgate, enjoyed the game, sucked to lose it that way though. Wisconsin is going to be real tough.
Go Cats!
