Too many times it's gone differently. I was preparing the other narrative in my head: "Rutgers killed themselves with penalties. Rutgers coughed it up 3 times, 2 of which were unforced. Rutgers was playing without half of their already struggling secondary. And we still found a way to blow it with 2 special teams disasters, the injection of conservative/aggressive playcalling at exactly the wrong times," etc etc etc.
Fact is, we found a way to win - and with sheets of rain coming down in the 11th hour as we drove to win.
I'm going to hold off pretending to know what it means, because this team has taught me never to extrapolate from a single game, or even 2 or 3.
I will say keeping contain looks to be a huge problem this year, as does tackling. 200 yards rushing! Their RB constantly got to the edge - they killed us with that toss play. Their RB also got as many yards after contact as before, and almost never did we bring him down with just one guy - often he had 3 or 4 Cougs hanging off him before he went down. Their TD (I think it was their first) where he broke about 6 tackles getting to the EZ was a truly pathetic effort. I saw a lot of attempted strips, rather than solid tackling. I even saw us get away with extremely low tackles - do we want to be posterized again, as we were in the AC a few years back when Kasen Williams hurdled Nolan Washington?
And special teams is once again a nightmare. I don't even want GOOD special teams at this point, I just want a bad special teams corps that doesn't spot the other team 7-14 points a game!
But Falk, while he went from pitching machine to statue to forcing some really bad balls (and lucking out), kept his poise and marched the team 90 yards for not one but TWO game-winning TDs (including the one called back).
Yesterday was hopefully the beginning of something beautiful with Erik Powell on FGs.
With only a couple exceptions (QB sneak), the OL seemed to do all right yesterday - Luke wasn't running for his life on every single snap like Connor was. And he seemed to step up (or over) in the pocket when necessary. It looked like he audibled to that initial 4th down sneak though, which was poorly done all around.
Looking forward, I don't want to say Wyoming is a gimme (it might be). I expect everyone to try to rip us apart on contain. They didn't really test us over the top. It would still be nothing short of a miracle to get to 6 or 7. But if we can channel some of this 4th quarter magic throughout the season,perhaps 5 is in the cards.
Fact is, we found a way to win - and with sheets of rain coming down in the 11th hour as we drove to win.
I'm going to hold off pretending to know what it means, because this team has taught me never to extrapolate from a single game, or even 2 or 3.
I will say keeping contain looks to be a huge problem this year, as does tackling. 200 yards rushing! Their RB constantly got to the edge - they killed us with that toss play. Their RB also got as many yards after contact as before, and almost never did we bring him down with just one guy - often he had 3 or 4 Cougs hanging off him before he went down. Their TD (I think it was their first) where he broke about 6 tackles getting to the EZ was a truly pathetic effort. I saw a lot of attempted strips, rather than solid tackling. I even saw us get away with extremely low tackles - do we want to be posterized again, as we were in the AC a few years back when Kasen Williams hurdled Nolan Washington?
And special teams is once again a nightmare. I don't even want GOOD special teams at this point, I just want a bad special teams corps that doesn't spot the other team 7-14 points a game!
But Falk, while he went from pitching machine to statue to forcing some really bad balls (and lucking out), kept his poise and marched the team 90 yards for not one but TWO game-winning TDs (including the one called back).
Yesterday was hopefully the beginning of something beautiful with Erik Powell on FGs.
With only a couple exceptions (QB sneak), the OL seemed to do all right yesterday - Luke wasn't running for his life on every single snap like Connor was. And he seemed to step up (or over) in the pocket when necessary. It looked like he audibled to that initial 4th down sneak though, which was poorly done all around.
Looking forward, I don't want to say Wyoming is a gimme (it might be). I expect everyone to try to rip us apart on contain. They didn't really test us over the top. It would still be nothing short of a miracle to get to 6 or 7. But if we can channel some of this 4th quarter magic throughout the season,perhaps 5 is in the cards.
