That game again felt just overall weird, but I’m floored that the offense came out firing today. Slowed to bit of a crawl in the second half (pretty sure we didn’t have a single first down in the third quarter despite putting 3 points on the field), but then did JJUUUSSSSSTTTTTTT enough to finish out the game.
Kudos to Sullivan. He was making some legitimately good throws, especially in the first half. The TD to Porter was the epitome of “doesn’t matter if it’s ugly” gamer play, as was the scramble pass to Henning when he stood in and took a shot to make a play. Started to see a bit too much of the skitterish/happy feet routine in the second half after Maryland adjusted, but kid stuck with it despite taking a few awkward shots (was clearly limping much of the second half). The kind of gritty effort we will need at this stage in his development as a passer. Kudos to him.
I also hate being this guy, but… this refs were awful. I understand that the game was somewhat chippy early, but the late hit call on Mueller (I think) near the sidelines was especially bad; it was quiet enough in the stadium that you could clearly hear no whistle blown, the WR was still half-standing and very plausibly could have rolled out of the tackle or been on top of the corner. Was also a huge miss to not even take a look at what looked like a hell of a TD catch by Henning. My only thought is that it didn’t look like they had a camera on the east side of the stadium so perhaps didn’t have an angle at it.
Besides that I could quibble with Braun leaving a huge numbers disadvantage to the boundary that Maryland found a couple times and DEFINITELY will quibble with Bajakian getting cute with the 3rd down call from the 1-foot line (as well as Braun kicking the FG afterwards, especially when another 4 points would have been quite helpful later in the game), but for now… wow, what an unexpected and welcome win. Braun is growing on me as HC, even if Bajakian and others would likely have to go.
Kudos to Sullivan. He was making some legitimately good throws, especially in the first half. The TD to Porter was the epitome of “doesn’t matter if it’s ugly” gamer play, as was the scramble pass to Henning when he stood in and took a shot to make a play. Started to see a bit too much of the skitterish/happy feet routine in the second half after Maryland adjusted, but kid stuck with it despite taking a few awkward shots (was clearly limping much of the second half). The kind of gritty effort we will need at this stage in his development as a passer. Kudos to him.
I also hate being this guy, but… this refs were awful. I understand that the game was somewhat chippy early, but the late hit call on Mueller (I think) near the sidelines was especially bad; it was quiet enough in the stadium that you could clearly hear no whistle blown, the WR was still half-standing and very plausibly could have rolled out of the tackle or been on top of the corner. Was also a huge miss to not even take a look at what looked like a hell of a TD catch by Henning. My only thought is that it didn’t look like they had a camera on the east side of the stadium so perhaps didn’t have an angle at it.
Besides that I could quibble with Braun leaving a huge numbers disadvantage to the boundary that Maryland found a couple times and DEFINITELY will quibble with Bajakian getting cute with the 3rd down call from the 1-foot line (as well as Braun kicking the FG afterwards, especially when another 4 points would have been quite helpful later in the game), but for now… wow, what an unexpected and welcome win. Braun is growing on me as HC, even if Bajakian and others would likely have to go.
