Through the first quarter, I’m not impressed. Some of the play designs have promise, but execution isn’t there. QB numbers are solid (Ward 7/10, Mateer 5/6), but it feels overly scripted.
Hoping they settle in better as it goes on, maybe it gets more organic.
Well, there is hope, but I am not booking my flight and room for the PAC ? Championship Game just yet.
It was a decent day in Pullman, but it did get a bit chilly as the day wore on, at least it did for those of us sitting on the shady side. We enjoyed the format, and the entire event was well done. The one complaint I had and heard form others was that there were no rosters to hand out. Come on guys, you have to do better than that. Also didn't see any posters, which again was disappointing.
With football, it ALWAYS starts with the quarterback. Not sure how the stats ended up for them, but we saw a lot of positives. Some nice long balls and several darts to pretty small openings. Only one pick that I recall, which was the play right after a very nice one, where I think he god greedy down on the goal line. Otherwise, not a lot of bad reads giving throws in coverage.
On the other end, initial look at them indicates that we may have a better receiving core this year. Assuming they all clean up the drops. There was a lot of quickness shown 2-3 of them, and Nunnaly really stood out as a bigger target. They were often able to get good separation due to their quickness, and I think that is going to be fun to watch this year.
Of course, when you are playing your own team instead of a real opponent, you must ask if the WR's getting open is due to their abilities or simply due the defensive backfield being inferior. I guess we'll have to wait and see on that question, but I will note that the DB's did make several excellent plays to break up a pass that was on the money. They had ball awareness and did some hand stripping to knock the ball away from the WR, which was good to see. There was 2 PI calls made, and both were when the DB was right there, just too much hand fighting, I guess. It wasn't when he was getting beat and trying to keep the WR from breaking away.
Note that there were not any holding calls on the O Line, so once again we'll have to wait and see if that is due to the OL performing well or the DL being a weak spot. My fear is that our DL may be a trouble spot this year, but am not enough of an expert (Okay, not an expert at all) to be able recognize which possibility is the correct one at this point. Just have to hope that the OL is really coming together and the DL will be just fine by the time the season starts. I would like to see some help in both areas from the portal before fall camp starts....
I think Stone and Jackson only played the first series.
I think that both Ward and Mateer might do more running this year, bot planned and scrambling. I was impressed with a play made by Ward on the first series (I think) where he was scrambling off right tackle and open area ahead of him but was able to pick up an open target for maybe a 12-15 yard pickup.
I would say that the RB's appear decent, but not outstanding. Possibly somewhat comparable to Wicks, Morrow, and Boobie Williams, with Watson being the bigger back, Schlenbaker being a bit less power but faster, and Jenkins being the shiftier and faster one of the bunch. He will definitely have some big plays this year, but he did drop that one swing pass after tipping it up 2-3 times that would have been a huge gain if he caught it cleanly. Can't have that in the games, you gotta make that play when given the opportunity.
OK, enough babbling from me, must get some things done today. Glad we went down to the scrimmage, it always feels good to be back in Pullman.
