of the Wisconsin game. And there's things to like here, particularly on defense. This team isn't big on defense, but it's fast enough and it's scrappy. We might see a bad game or two, but this group is going to keep the Cougs in lots of games while the offense keeps iterating and finding its footing. I expected more from the offense, like everybody else, but I see two positives: the offensive line wasn't quite as bad as I feared against a quality opponent, AND, the inside run is there. Nakia Watson won't be making many big plays, but he'll help us move the ball by virtue of the pressure placed on the outside with that sometimes irritating screen game. Ward has a ways to go, and I think the receivers do too, but I suspect they'll get better as the year goes on. I don't think this is a Wulffian team. The effort on defense alone is enough to dispel that. Jury's out on how the offense will progress though. And it's nice to see Renard Bell get one last go 'round, as a featured guy.
So I watched a 30 min highlights splice
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Definitely a lot to like but a lot of work to do. I appreciate that we have a team that should be favored in some games and will have a puncher’s chance in every game. Dickert has fostered a great “team” mentality.
Agree on the inside run. I suspect that Wisconsin's D is as good as any in the B10 west, and we successfully moved the ball inside when necessary; that first TD was an example. I doubt that the Utah or SC D's are measurably better than Wisconsin. As for our D's size, that is not true on the line, where it really matters. Our D line was so incredibly disruptive, it make the LB's job much easier. I thought the commentators did a fair job, but the thing they kept going to was our D line's effort (which was valid) but didn't note how that made it possible for the LB's to shine (which they did; I bet they grade out well in film review). As for O progression, Ward finished 15-21 with a couple of deliberate throws out of bounds, against a good D at home. We got first downs when we had to have them. Progress will continue. Our receivers did a better job than last week, almost across the board. And to see a TE come up with a big time catch for the first time in a decade was special.
Finally, speaking of special, I gotta say that the special teams made huge strides. Probably the most improved units from last week. They were a net plus in this game.
Finally, speaking of special, I gotta say that the special teams made huge strides. Probably the most improved units from last week. They were a net plus in this game.
I’m still in a holding pattern on our overall W/L record this season, but as we’ve all noticed, it’s great to see the team play so hard for each other. It’s also good to see the defense look so well coached. That’s Dickert’s unit, and it reaffirms that he knows what he’s doing on that side of the ball.
With all of that said, I’m not ready to anoint this team just yet. I don’t know if Wisconsin is all that good, and frankly, they probably deserved to win yesterday. Our offense has to get going. We’ll face at least 5-6 teams with better scoring punch than Wisconsin.
Still, we’re back in line for another 8+ win season. Great start heading into 3 straight home games.
With all of that said, I’m not ready to anoint this team just yet. I don’t know if Wisconsin is all that good, and frankly, they probably deserved to win yesterday. Our offense has to get going. We’ll face at least 5-6 teams with better scoring punch than Wisconsin.
Still, we’re back in line for another 8+ win season. Great start heading into 3 straight home games.
How about Freshman Jaylen Jenkins?
SUPER EXCITED to see more.
SUPER EXCITED to see more.
Did Wulff have any signature wins like this?
I can't think of anything that compares to a road win against a ranked, blueblood-adjacent school.
Agree, but nobody will dig into the statistics to unpack the whys of this win. It just goes down as a win and that's all 99% of CFB fans will ever know or care about.
Also, it would bother me more if we were Alabama or Ohio State or Georgia; doesn't bother me that we "needed" some missed FGs to get a win this big.
rhetorical, of course.
And I get the feeling that if you asked most of the B10 teams' fans if they were blue-blood, they would all answer "yes".
Woulda-coulda-shoulda.
They knew their kicker was gimped up and chose to kick anyway.
Their coaches did exactly what I hoped they would, which is "we do what we want to do and we'll do it on Saturday because we're bigger, tougher and stronger than you." Its hubris that loses a lot of games in CFB, and we were the beneficiaries of an extremely arrogant team and coaching staff.
That being said, any team with a decent tight end (looking at your Stanford) is going to torch us.
Are we grading on the Wulff/Walden curve? You know, where going down by 35 in the second quarter is the close game, and it's Doba's fault.
Well he did beat the Mutts 3-0 in the Apple Cup and UDump had been concensus Preseason National Champions that year (like most years).
I'm tempted to get a tat of Paul leaping into the air in front of Ty and Jay. Small of my back, naturally...
Thanks for posting the link, good stuff as I wasn't able to watch most of the game live.
1. Brown had great coverage on the TE on the first touchdown, great pass by Mertz - TB could have jacked the TE as he released instead of playing patsy
2. Mertz has a pretty deep ball
3. We held them scoreless for 3 full quarters and a complete half, that is impressive
1. Brown had great coverage on the TE on the first touchdown, great pass by Mertz - TB could have jacked the TE as he released instead of playing patsy
2. Mertz has a pretty deep ball
3. We held them scoreless for 3 full quarters and a complete half, that is impressive
Two things in the game thing in the game that I wanted to talk about one that I had trouble with at the time, and the other was something we haven't seen in a while.
First one, there is around 2 minutes to go in the first half, Cougs are backed up on their own goal line, first play is a pass for an 8 yard gain, then they throw 2 incompletions, punt, Badgers get the ball and score quickly just before the half. The running game was working, just run for 2 yards even if you don't make it burns clock, don't let Wisconsin have time to score. They didn't get the first down, and that decision gave Wisconsin the opportunity to score 7 points. It could have been prevented, I'd like to think they won't make that mistake again in a tight ball game.
On the plus side, when is the last time a Cougar football team with a 3 point lead, burned up the last 5+ minutes of a game to end it? That was a thing of beauty and I don't remember the last time a WSU team did that. it does show you the potential in the offense, with a running game, it is the consistency that is the issue right now, which will be corrected with more experience playing together. No holding penalties by the O line as I recall, that is also amazing, considering you were playing against a top 10 defense. I felt our biggest weakness going into the season was running back and Oline, well so far the backs are fine and the OLine has exceeded my expectations.
You know how we were told by Tech fans that drove them and us nuts, that Leach would always win games he wasn't suppose to, but lose a game he wasn't supposed to as well. Dickert just won a game he wasn't suppose to, can he avoid the losing when you're not supposed to?
First one, there is around 2 minutes to go in the first half, Cougs are backed up on their own goal line, first play is a pass for an 8 yard gain, then they throw 2 incompletions, punt, Badgers get the ball and score quickly just before the half. The running game was working, just run for 2 yards even if you don't make it burns clock, don't let Wisconsin have time to score. They didn't get the first down, and that decision gave Wisconsin the opportunity to score 7 points. It could have been prevented, I'd like to think they won't make that mistake again in a tight ball game.
On the plus side, when is the last time a Cougar football team with a 3 point lead, burned up the last 5+ minutes of a game to end it? That was a thing of beauty and I don't remember the last time a WSU team did that. it does show you the potential in the offense, with a running game, it is the consistency that is the issue right now, which will be corrected with more experience playing together. No holding penalties by the O line as I recall, that is also amazing, considering you were playing against a top 10 defense. I felt our biggest weakness going into the season was running back and Oline, well so far the backs are fine and the OLine has exceeded my expectations.
You know how we were told by Tech fans that drove them and us nuts, that Leach would always win games he wasn't suppose to, but lose a game he wasn't supposed to as well. Dickert just won a game he wasn't suppose to, can he avoid the losing when you're not supposed to?
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I re-watched the entire game on FS1 earlier today. First, we looked better watching the replay than it felt live and in-person. Sitting there amongst the Badger faithful, it felt like we were lucky to be in the game. Watching with the knowledge that we were going to win, it felt more like they were just as lucky that we played relatively poorly on third down and failed to convert when we had our chances. We had a lot of third and long failures defensively. Wisconsin is still a very good team that is going to win a lot of games this year.
It's amazing to think that WSU and Wisconsin only had one possession each in the last 12 minutes of that game. Ball frickin' control by both teams.
Cameron Ward has a lot of work to do before I'm going to be excited by him.....but he was great on that last drive when everything was on the line. JDL and Minshew are the only other Coug QB's in the past 20 years (since Gesser) that would have had a shot at converting that third and two when the ball was snapped poorly. And no offense to JDL, but Saturday night showed why we weren't shedding too many tears about his decision to leave. Along the lines of that comparison....Ward has a ton of potential and can sling the rock 100 mph, but he is a lot more like JDL than Minshew at this point. I hope that Colorado State gets him an opportunity to get into more of a groove with his receivers.
The offensive line is generally better than many expected but the play calling has been designed to minimize the chances that their weaknesses are exposed. Ward still took a couple big hits because of poor blocking (and his failure to read a blitz).
Finally, Dickert and his staff appear to be getting pretty damned good at second half adjustments. Here are the second half scores of our recent games:
Wisconsin: 10-0
Idaho: 14-7
Central Michigan: 21-3
Washington: 27-6
Arizona: 23-11
In his first three games as head coach (BYU, ASU and Oregon), we were outscored in the second half. Now, four of the last five opponents haven't been world beaters, but it's still encouraging to see that we've made good halftime adjustments in the last five games. At some point, it means something.
It's amazing to think that WSU and Wisconsin only had one possession each in the last 12 minutes of that game. Ball frickin' control by both teams.
Cameron Ward has a lot of work to do before I'm going to be excited by him.....but he was great on that last drive when everything was on the line. JDL and Minshew are the only other Coug QB's in the past 20 years (since Gesser) that would have had a shot at converting that third and two when the ball was snapped poorly. And no offense to JDL, but Saturday night showed why we weren't shedding too many tears about his decision to leave. Along the lines of that comparison....Ward has a ton of potential and can sling the rock 100 mph, but he is a lot more like JDL than Minshew at this point. I hope that Colorado State gets him an opportunity to get into more of a groove with his receivers.
The offensive line is generally better than many expected but the play calling has been designed to minimize the chances that their weaknesses are exposed. Ward still took a couple big hits because of poor blocking (and his failure to read a blitz).
Finally, Dickert and his staff appear to be getting pretty damned good at second half adjustments. Here are the second half scores of our recent games:
Wisconsin: 10-0
Idaho: 14-7
Central Michigan: 21-3
Washington: 27-6
Arizona: 23-11
In his first three games as head coach (BYU, ASU and Oregon), we were outscored in the second half. Now, four of the last five opponents haven't been world beaters, but it's still encouraging to see that we've made good halftime adjustments in the last five games. At some point, it means something.
Excellent point about the second half adjustments so far during the Dickert Regime. And technically, each team had TWO possessions in those last 12 minutes.....but only if you count the Mejia interception/fumble as a possession. In the official stats, it will count that way but your point is well taken– in reality it felt like each team had one long drive for most of that quarter.
Glad Cougar
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