Despite the bad news we have had to endure, I am really pumped for this season...

[How_did_this_happen?]

A few comments...

1. I think Dickert is a good coach. I don't know if he is good enough to overcome talent differences we will face, but he's above average (and perhaps a very good coach).

2. I'll forgive him (barely) for that epic Apple Cup disaster on defense last year. It's hard to fathom that collapse, but I'll overlook that for now. It was ridiculous to allow >700 yards by the dogs. I don't care how explosive their offense was.

3. I like how he communicates. No excuses. Very process oriented. Very focused on the controllable aspects of this seson. Those are good leadership traits.

4. We cannot lose to CSU today. That will be a bad sign. We should beat them by at least the spread. We'll see how our offensive line and linebackers perform. That is the key to me for having a good season. I'm not particularly worried about the other positions.

5. The Pac12 is going to be the best it has been for years. This is very frustrating and ironic as it highlights the inept leadership and vision the member schools have had for years. The academic types leading the schools deep down resent the football programs and it has shown. I agree that it has gotten completely out of hand, but either cut it off or aggressively work to make it grow. They (the university leadership) just handed it over to inept and passive conference "leaders" to die off. It was like the old saying..."how did you go bankrupt? First slowly, then suddenly."

6. Looking forward to seeing our new offense under Arbuckle and a better Cam Ward. Much better, I believe.

7. There are so many Pac12 and other games I'm looking forward to watching this season. Even if we are in a bad place for the future of our program.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

When it comes to Dickert, I think his best trait is his authenticity. He is really and truly invested in the program and the kids. The interview after the game was one of the rawest, most authentic things that I've witnessed from a coach.

Item #3 is 100% accurate. Control what you can and don't worry about anything else.

Dickert and his staff have had a couple mistakes and while they do a good job of game planning and prepping for games, we've had too many games where our coaches failed to make in-game adjustments as effectively as opposing coaches.

Last year, we were up 17-9 on Oregon and got outscored 35-24 in the 2nd half. USC was down 14-10 but reeled off 20 straight points. Cougs were leading Utah 7-0 in the 2nd quarter but ended up giving up 21 straight points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Basically tied at halftime of the Apple Cup and outscored 23-6 in the 2nd half. Too many games where we struggled to adapt.

All that said, all of the teams that we've struggled with in that respect were all very good teams. Still, I'd like to see more games where we expand leads in the second half...not hold on. Still happy with Dickert and his staff and I expect that he'll extend our long traditions of coaches getting hired by other programs.

 

[Coug1990]

When it comes to Dickert, I think his best trait is his authenticity. He is really and truly invested in the program and the kids. The interview after the game was one of the rawest, most authentic things that I've witnessed from a coach.

Item #3 is 100% accurate. Control what you can and don't worry about anything else.

Dickert and his staff have had a couple mistakes and while they do a good job of game planning and prepping for games, we've had too many games where our coaches failed to make in-game adjustments as effectively as opposing coaches.

Last year, we were up 17-9 on Oregon and got outscored 35-24 in the 2nd half. USC was down 14-10 but reeled off 20 straight points. Cougs were leading Utah 7-0 in the 2nd quarter but ended up giving up 21 straight points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. Basically tied at halftime of the Apple Cup and outscored 23-6 in the 2nd half. Too many games where we struggled to adapt.

All that said, all of the teams that we've struggled with in that respect were all very good teams. Still, I'd like to see more games where we expand leads in the second half...not hold on. Still happy with Dickert and his staff and I expect that he'll extend our long traditions of coaches getting hired by other programs.

Often it isn't the adjustments, it's just the other team's talent begins to shine through.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Getting back to the original post....I did not think that Ward bailed early on the pocket more than a couple of times, and those were instances when he thought that he either saw a worthwhile seam, or believed that he saw escape avenues closing. I think he and Arbuckle will have some conversations this week about just how long he hangs in there vs. waiting for the seam to close. That is always a tough one to define.

Our O line made some progress. They need to continue to evolve through the season; more to be done there. They missed some blitz coverages. Assignment recognition needs to be exceptional when your blocking is not 100% of what it needs to be. It is one thing to get beat; it's quite another to completely miss an assignment.

It will be interesting to me to see what OSU does about Cam's running. Rush 3 + spy? Rush 4 with a DE contain mandate as opposed to a full on rush? Rush 4 + spy? I'm guessing we see some of all 3 of these. If OSU has enough good safeties, and given our weak run game, I'd expect to see no LB's at all. They can disguise pass coverages with 7 DB's and one of them (never the same guy twice in a row) can be the spy, also doubling as a MLB. If we can't run the ball against 7 DB's, then I'd expect to see OSU stay in that mode for the full game. That said, a safety playing LB will be up against a load when he hits Watson with 3 steps of momentum behind him. Our yards after contact should be good in that scenario.

I was surprised to not see more from the TE's, but that is the kind of choice that you make depending upon what the D is giving you.

Often it isn't the adjustments, it's just the other team's talent begins to shine through.

Usually it is some of both. When I think of "adjustments" at halftime, unless we were really brain dead in our initial plan, I think of the adjustments as being mostly about tweaking the mis-matches. Try to create or emphasize some to help us and neutralize those that worked against us.