First of all, what a great opening weekend to Big 10 football. I watched at least a part of the other 6 non-NU games and it just feels great to have the Big 10 teams playing again. A few, very brief thoughts:
1. Wisconsin impressed on Friday night. I know it was against Illinois but for their QB to have the debut he had was impressive. His production will obviously come back down to earth and they clearly do not have Jonathan Taylor anymore. As a brand new fan to Big 10 football I’d have to say they still look like the class of the West but reasonable minds can disagree.
2. Iowa will not want to lose two division games to start this condensed season. We better come ready to play.
3. It will be fun to watch Michigan State and Rutgers compete for the title of “Worst in Conference” this year. I guess, for now, advantage Rutgers? To be fair, Maryland might have something to say about that.
4. Ohio State looked like they were in mid season form and Michigan has a quarterback.
A couple of notes from the rewatch.
I’ve read on here that NU plays a bend but don’t break style on defense and that absolutely shone through on the D’s first drive. Three key plays that I think set the tone for the rest of the game:
1.) 1st&10 from the NU 24. Maryland had moved the ball up to the point. Maryland takes a shot to the end zone and Tagavailoa throws a really nice ball to their number 5 who (per the announcers) is supposed to be a start receiver for them. Play does not have a chance though because Bergin was with him stride for stride. That is an impressive cover for a linebacker.If they deliver on that shot who knows what it does to our confidence.
2.) 2nd&9 from the NU 11. I am not sure if Maryland just whiffed on the blocking or if they were building some type of screen concept into a run play but Leota got through the line with ease.
3.) 3rd&14 from the NU 16. Gallagher sniffs out and absolutely blows up the screen. Perfect execution from a senior linebacker.
One other note from the first drive: Brandon Joseph looks like he will be a really good player for us. I was excited to read that he is only a freshman. He made two solo, open-field tackles on the first drive that could have otherwise been big plays. On the first, he timed his sprint perfectly and met Marylands running back at the line of scrimmage when they ran a toss play to the short side. Maryland had it blocked up pretty well and it could have been a bigger gainer if Joseph misses on that.
On the second play, we were in a single high safety set and he made the tackle on the play when the refs missed the pick play on Maryland. There was a lot of green if he misses that block.
It really feels like we have some playmakers on defense and they showed it the rest of the night. I am excited to see what they can do on the road next week.
Our first offensive drive looks exactly how you hope it would when you have a grad transfer senior QB, a senior WR, I think two really good RBs - Bowser seems like the number one but Drake Anderson has some wheels. Nice change of pace.
I think we ran 14 plays on that first drive (I may have missed one or two). Three key plays that I think showed our offense can do some damage this year:
1.) 3rd&10 from the NU 25. Not to over dramatize but the last thing you want to do on the first drive of the season with a new grad transfer QB and offensive coordinator is go three and out. The first two plays could be boiled down to missed blocking assignments (first game nerves, I suppose because the O Line was outstanding) but 3rd&10 is tough for any team.
Ramsey kept their linebacker (44) frozen just log enough for RC-B to start his break. He throws an absolute dart that hits Ramaud in between the H and the W on his jersey. Huge play to gain some confidence and great execution to make it work on an obvious passing down.
2.) 2nd&7 from the Maryland 23. I liked this play because I think it highlights the fantastic play calling we saw all night. We run a play out of a bunch set for the third play in a row. This time the two TEs are lined up behind the O Line on the right side. We ran the first two times (successfully) so Maryland is likely thinking run but to the other side of the field.
The Maryland defender (19) obviously thought he’d be defending the run and heads up field aggressively. Raine runs right past him and Ramsey hits him right at the sticks before the next level defenders can meet him on his route. Such a great play design to take advantage of what had been working two plays in a row.
There are several more awesome plays (how could there not be - the defense pitched a shut out from this moment on) from just a really solid, wire-to-wire team win. All-in-all my key takeaways were:
Go Cats!
1. Wisconsin impressed on Friday night. I know it was against Illinois but for their QB to have the debut he had was impressive. His production will obviously come back down to earth and they clearly do not have Jonathan Taylor anymore. As a brand new fan to Big 10 football I’d have to say they still look like the class of the West but reasonable minds can disagree.
2. Iowa will not want to lose two division games to start this condensed season. We better come ready to play.
3. It will be fun to watch Michigan State and Rutgers compete for the title of “Worst in Conference” this year. I guess, for now, advantage Rutgers? To be fair, Maryland might have something to say about that.
4. Ohio State looked like they were in mid season form and Michigan has a quarterback.
A couple of notes from the rewatch.
I’ve read on here that NU plays a bend but don’t break style on defense and that absolutely shone through on the D’s first drive. Three key plays that I think set the tone for the rest of the game:
1.) 1st&10 from the NU 24. Maryland had moved the ball up to the point. Maryland takes a shot to the end zone and Tagavailoa throws a really nice ball to their number 5 who (per the announcers) is supposed to be a start receiver for them. Play does not have a chance though because Bergin was with him stride for stride. That is an impressive cover for a linebacker.If they deliver on that shot who knows what it does to our confidence.
2.) 2nd&9 from the NU 11. I am not sure if Maryland just whiffed on the blocking or if they were building some type of screen concept into a run play but Leota got through the line with ease.
3.) 3rd&14 from the NU 16. Gallagher sniffs out and absolutely blows up the screen. Perfect execution from a senior linebacker.
One other note from the first drive: Brandon Joseph looks like he will be a really good player for us. I was excited to read that he is only a freshman. He made two solo, open-field tackles on the first drive that could have otherwise been big plays. On the first, he timed his sprint perfectly and met Marylands running back at the line of scrimmage when they ran a toss play to the short side. Maryland had it blocked up pretty well and it could have been a bigger gainer if Joseph misses on that.
On the second play, we were in a single high safety set and he made the tackle on the play when the refs missed the pick play on Maryland. There was a lot of green if he misses that block.
It really feels like we have some playmakers on defense and they showed it the rest of the night. I am excited to see what they can do on the road next week.
Our first offensive drive looks exactly how you hope it would when you have a grad transfer senior QB, a senior WR, I think two really good RBs - Bowser seems like the number one but Drake Anderson has some wheels. Nice change of pace.
I think we ran 14 plays on that first drive (I may have missed one or two). Three key plays that I think showed our offense can do some damage this year:
1.) 3rd&10 from the NU 25. Not to over dramatize but the last thing you want to do on the first drive of the season with a new grad transfer QB and offensive coordinator is go three and out. The first two plays could be boiled down to missed blocking assignments (first game nerves, I suppose because the O Line was outstanding) but 3rd&10 is tough for any team.
Ramsey kept their linebacker (44) frozen just log enough for RC-B to start his break. He throws an absolute dart that hits Ramaud in between the H and the W on his jersey. Huge play to gain some confidence and great execution to make it work on an obvious passing down.
2.) 2nd&7 from the Maryland 23. I liked this play because I think it highlights the fantastic play calling we saw all night. We run a play out of a bunch set for the third play in a row. This time the two TEs are lined up behind the O Line on the right side. We ran the first two times (successfully) so Maryland is likely thinking run but to the other side of the field.
The Maryland defender (19) obviously thought he’d be defending the run and heads up field aggressively. Raine runs right past him and Ramsey hits him right at the sticks before the next level defenders can meet him on his route. Such a great play design to take advantage of what had been working two plays in a row.
There are several more awesome plays (how could there not be - the defense pitched a shut out from this moment on) from just a really solid, wire-to-wire team win. All-in-all my key takeaways were:
- We have some playmakers on defense that I am excited to watch this season
- The O Line dominated. A dominating O Line combined with an accurate, smart QB that does not make mistakes is a lethal combination
- Great debut for the new O coordinator. Loved the mix of tempo at times but also had the ability to slow it down and drag it out (see first drive out of halftime)
Go Cats!