Because I'm apparently a glutton for punishment, I went back and rewatched the ISU game on Sunday. Waited a few days to mull things over before posting because the rewatch probably made me more angry than watching live and in person (though we did leave early in the fourth quarter to get home in time for kiddo's bedtime routine; we NEVER leave early, but were almost searching for excuses).
Anyway, here goes:
1) The biggest problem I see is a top-to-bottom lack of physicality and even aggressiveness. Besides Anderson's block to open the second half and a few glimpses from a handful of guys (Prater and Wyatt were at least trying; Lancaster on occasion), the ISU game was one of the softest performances I've ever seen on the football field. The OL won't punch anyone and still takes the SOFTEST PASS SETS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE; the DL are just accepting blocks and/or running straight down the middle of blockers without much of a pass rush plan; the WRs are accepting re-routes without fighting at all; corners refuse to play much of anything besides a bail technique; LBs and DBs won't touch anyone in coverage for fear of getting a flag; nobody on defense is tackling with any kind of authority.
On offense, part of the problem is scheme and part of it is personnel. It's hard to really inflict your will on a defense when you're running mostly lateral zone plays (which play to Jackson's strengths as a runner), but the OL can at least hit someone while running it. Didn't see that once. Instead saw ISU DL getting underneath our OL and jolting them backward after uncovered OL essentially retreated a yard and pulled at the snap. Awful.
There's just no excuse on defense. We lost Lowry and Gibson, but the guys who are back have all played plenty of football while Miller and Gaziano look to belong physically. Walker, Prater, Hall, and Jones have played tons of football. Same for Igwebuike and Queiro. They just have to start doing it.
2) The most frustrating example of lacking physicality and aggressiveness was a pass in the middle of the second quarter where ISU hit a corner route to the west sideline between Hartage and Queiro. Both guys were in position to make a play, but both were content to keep shadowing the WR without making a play on the ball. I screamed about it in person and almost broke my television during the rewatch. Baffling from guys who thought highly enough of themselves to continue with the "sky team" motif.
3) I continue to maintain that Thorson is not the problem on the offense. He snapped off some pretty impressive throws and had a LOT of drops from the wideouts. He wasn't terribly effective on long passes downfield, but the wideouts weren't doing many favors by struggling to get separation (and when they did get loose, the OL had already missed their blocks so Clayton was running around; see the Wilson downfield pass). Even the scheme was a bit better, including moving the pocket and some quick-hitting slants/outs. Without significant improvement from the WR and OL, we may be in danger of wasting a very talented young arm and/or stunting his development.
4) There were too many baffling coaching decisions to list them all in detail. Most egregious to me is having Harris downfield on KO coverage (if you want him as safety go for it, but running down the middle of the field? At least he wasn't returning punts) and not taking the points when available in lieu of going for it on fourth down. We also seemed to get both cute (trying to run traps from a goal line set coming out of our own end zone) and aggressive (why three straight throws into the end zone from 16 yards out before the missed field goal?) when the game situation dictated exactly the opposite.
Overall, it was an incredibly flat performance when we should have come out with our hair on fire regardless of the opponent. The defense didn't do anything special, but weren't awful. The offense was just flat-out bad, getting their collective tail whipped by an FCS opponent. If you're going to talk about going 11-1 and winning national championships after losing your home opener to WMU, you don't have any room for error. Coming out flat against an FCS opponent is flat-out unacceptable.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to fix it. I had worried about the offense finding an identity going into the season, but had no such concerns about the defense. Instead, the entire team needs to do some soul searching to figure out how they want to respond. While changes can be made without personnel changes (coaching staff and players), I won't be convinced anything has really changed until and if we start putting together much better and more consistent on-field performances one way or another.
Anyway, here goes:
1) The biggest problem I see is a top-to-bottom lack of physicality and even aggressiveness. Besides Anderson's block to open the second half and a few glimpses from a handful of guys (Prater and Wyatt were at least trying; Lancaster on occasion), the ISU game was one of the softest performances I've ever seen on the football field. The OL won't punch anyone and still takes the SOFTEST PASS SETS I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE; the DL are just accepting blocks and/or running straight down the middle of blockers without much of a pass rush plan; the WRs are accepting re-routes without fighting at all; corners refuse to play much of anything besides a bail technique; LBs and DBs won't touch anyone in coverage for fear of getting a flag; nobody on defense is tackling with any kind of authority.
On offense, part of the problem is scheme and part of it is personnel. It's hard to really inflict your will on a defense when you're running mostly lateral zone plays (which play to Jackson's strengths as a runner), but the OL can at least hit someone while running it. Didn't see that once. Instead saw ISU DL getting underneath our OL and jolting them backward after uncovered OL essentially retreated a yard and pulled at the snap. Awful.
There's just no excuse on defense. We lost Lowry and Gibson, but the guys who are back have all played plenty of football while Miller and Gaziano look to belong physically. Walker, Prater, Hall, and Jones have played tons of football. Same for Igwebuike and Queiro. They just have to start doing it.
2) The most frustrating example of lacking physicality and aggressiveness was a pass in the middle of the second quarter where ISU hit a corner route to the west sideline between Hartage and Queiro. Both guys were in position to make a play, but both were content to keep shadowing the WR without making a play on the ball. I screamed about it in person and almost broke my television during the rewatch. Baffling from guys who thought highly enough of themselves to continue with the "sky team" motif.
3) I continue to maintain that Thorson is not the problem on the offense. He snapped off some pretty impressive throws and had a LOT of drops from the wideouts. He wasn't terribly effective on long passes downfield, but the wideouts weren't doing many favors by struggling to get separation (and when they did get loose, the OL had already missed their blocks so Clayton was running around; see the Wilson downfield pass). Even the scheme was a bit better, including moving the pocket and some quick-hitting slants/outs. Without significant improvement from the WR and OL, we may be in danger of wasting a very talented young arm and/or stunting his development.
4) There were too many baffling coaching decisions to list them all in detail. Most egregious to me is having Harris downfield on KO coverage (if you want him as safety go for it, but running down the middle of the field? At least he wasn't returning punts) and not taking the points when available in lieu of going for it on fourth down. We also seemed to get both cute (trying to run traps from a goal line set coming out of our own end zone) and aggressive (why three straight throws into the end zone from 16 yards out before the missed field goal?) when the game situation dictated exactly the opposite.
Overall, it was an incredibly flat performance when we should have come out with our hair on fire regardless of the opponent. The defense didn't do anything special, but weren't awful. The offense was just flat-out bad, getting their collective tail whipped by an FCS opponent. If you're going to talk about going 11-1 and winning national championships after losing your home opener to WMU, you don't have any room for error. Coming out flat against an FCS opponent is flat-out unacceptable.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to fix it. I had worried about the offense finding an identity going into the season, but had no such concerns about the defense. Instead, the entire team needs to do some soul searching to figure out how they want to respond. While changes can be made without personnel changes (coaching staff and players), I won't be convinced anything has really changed until and if we start putting together much better and more consistent on-field performances one way or another.
