A bit stream of consciousness, forgive me…
One couldn’t help a bit of deja vu after the first UTEP drive marched down the field for a touchdown.
Was very nice to see a quick answer from our offense, especially with a commitment to the run game. Cam Porter is the kind of RB you can feed and wear down a defense.
That said… the rest of the first half was ROUGH for the offense. Had trouble doing anything up front, particularly in pass protection. Franks was particularly bad.
It’s a bit odd to me that Azema is the safety who comes off when we go to 3 LB. In the 4-2-5 it is Azema and Turner playing high with Heard in the slot, but when we run Soares in Azema comes off and Heard plays up high.
Saka flashes. A lot. Dude is still quite raw, but has some physical skills. Pate is also noticeably larger this year.
Franks got replaced by Thompson for the second half and the offense suddenly started clicking. We went run heavy, which is Thompson’s strength, but I would hope/expect we see that change become permanent starting next week. I actually remarked to my dad next to me that Thompson was walking around the sidelines pissed off during the first half, good to see it translate to the field.
Bryant seemed to ding up his shoulder on the botched snap before his sneak TD, came back to the sidelines thereafter but without his helmet. I was surprised to see Hilinski come in in his place, but sounds like Sullivan was a bit dinged up again. That’s a concern.
Lausch showed some wheels. So did Himon (even if he looks the size of an 8th grader out there).
Cam Porter good. Give him ball.
The INTs were gift wrapped, but a very welcome sight to see.
This OL and (especially) DL are going to be absolutely eaten alive in the B1G.
Cullen Coleman didn’t even have his helmet on or join the defensive huddle. Disappointing.
Doost physically looks the part on the sidelines.
Weird that Azema is our KR instead of Henning.
Strangely this game could have been a lot different had UTEP receivers not stepped out of bounds twice and gotten illegal touching flags.
The Gordon TD was fun both because it was actually schemed and because it required blocks to hold up, which actually happened.
Good to see Henning involved on offense in a couple different ways.
UTEP was scheming ways to make Heard tackle bigger RBs in the hole 1 on 1. He wasn’t usually up to the task. I’m sure other OCs were taking note.
All in all… good to see a convincing win and happy for Braun, but tough to see this team doing much at all against B1G competition.
One couldn’t help a bit of deja vu after the first UTEP drive marched down the field for a touchdown.
Was very nice to see a quick answer from our offense, especially with a commitment to the run game. Cam Porter is the kind of RB you can feed and wear down a defense.
That said… the rest of the first half was ROUGH for the offense. Had trouble doing anything up front, particularly in pass protection. Franks was particularly bad.
It’s a bit odd to me that Azema is the safety who comes off when we go to 3 LB. In the 4-2-5 it is Azema and Turner playing high with Heard in the slot, but when we run Soares in Azema comes off and Heard plays up high.
Saka flashes. A lot. Dude is still quite raw, but has some physical skills. Pate is also noticeably larger this year.
Franks got replaced by Thompson for the second half and the offense suddenly started clicking. We went run heavy, which is Thompson’s strength, but I would hope/expect we see that change become permanent starting next week. I actually remarked to my dad next to me that Thompson was walking around the sidelines pissed off during the first half, good to see it translate to the field.
Bryant seemed to ding up his shoulder on the botched snap before his sneak TD, came back to the sidelines thereafter but without his helmet. I was surprised to see Hilinski come in in his place, but sounds like Sullivan was a bit dinged up again. That’s a concern.
Lausch showed some wheels. So did Himon (even if he looks the size of an 8th grader out there).
Cam Porter good. Give him ball.
The INTs were gift wrapped, but a very welcome sight to see.
This OL and (especially) DL are going to be absolutely eaten alive in the B1G.
Cullen Coleman didn’t even have his helmet on or join the defensive huddle. Disappointing.
Doost physically looks the part on the sidelines.
Weird that Azema is our KR instead of Henning.
Strangely this game could have been a lot different had UTEP receivers not stepped out of bounds twice and gotten illegal touching flags.
The Gordon TD was fun both because it was actually schemed and because it required blocks to hold up, which actually happened.
Good to see Henning involved on offense in a couple different ways.
UTEP was scheming ways to make Heard tackle bigger RBs in the hole 1 on 1. He wasn’t usually up to the task. I’m sure other OCs were taking note.
All in all… good to see a convincing win and happy for Braun, but tough to see this team doing much at all against B1G competition.
