Fryowa
Administrator
Not even in the same zip code as the unit I mentioned. And it showed last night.
Disagreement is fine.
Grades: offense B+; defense B
- Thread starter uihawk82
- Start date
Disagreement is fine.
Not in the same zip code because there's no Jewell. The guys now are pretty comparable to Bower. I think Cobert is better.
Fryowa
Administrator
You’re leaving out Niemann who will end up as a veteran NFLer.
In my opinion there’s no substitute for having three starters getting the vast majority of playing time together, especially over multiple years. Jewell has said in interviews before that the reason those guys had so much success and had the middle locked down like they did was because they played well as a unit and always knew where the other guys were, what each others’ assignments were, and the other guys playing styles.
You don’t get that with 6 or even 7 guys rotating in and out of a game. It’s impossible to gel for one, but even more importantly you don’t have a leader that stands out and manages the backfield like Jewell/Angerer/Greenway, et al. I was hoping Doyle would be emerging soon as that guy, and maybe he will.
WinOneThisCentury
Well-Known Member
Bower was solid...but I think you may be overrating him. I'd take Colbert any day of the week. I still have a hard time forgetting Bower trying to run down guys at Penn State a few years ago...he ran alot of 40-50 yard sprints in that game and was memorizing the back of several Penn State players jerseys.
Neiman was the one that was way underrated...that dude could play...and it's why he's still on the Kansas City roster. He made the three LB defense work as he was phenomenal in pass coverage. Out of the AJ Eads mold.
The penalty was on the coaches. This offense is going to struggle big time this year. That defense we faced was god awful, as was the team in general. Not sure about the run game. Our backs still have trouble seeing holes, and there is no break away speed, other than Goodson. He is by far the quickest of our backs, and he is going to be special. Looks like he is playing in a different gear than Sargent and Young. He made a few guys miss, and has great footwork. He needs to see the field more this year if KF is going to burn his redshirt. Stanley is what he is. He will be decent against crap teams, and have good stats due to throwing 5 yard passes for half his completions and dumping the ball off, but against a decent defense he will be bad. Hock and Fant are going to be greatly missed. Our receivers still struggle to get open consistently, and now we don't have any tight ends to throw to. On defense we miss Hooker and I don't think they will use the Cash position as much. We just don't have a Hooker on the team that can play that position. Still not much for a pass rush, even against a bad team. AJ didn't do anything all night, and he wasn't being double teamed a majority of the night. Happy for Martin. He isn't a speedster, but he might be the one guy that can get open hopefully. He runs good routes. Still lack a real threat on offense. I think Goodson will be a game breaker for sure. Defense will be good enough to win games, but our offense is going to struggle mightily this year.
I pretty much agree with your post. But it has nothing to do with your original post about missing Bower. If you would have originally said that this year makes us miss Jewell or Niemann, I would have agreed with that too.
Stanzi
Well-Known Member
I'm not going to be overly negative or get overly excited after one game. The first game is usually a slow starter. I believe last year we were up 3-0 at half before turning it on, much like last night. It makes sense that we wouldn't be fully in sync on defense right away. I thought we looked much better in the second half which is promising.
Stanzi
Well-Known Member
Jesus Christ man, go root for another team then. It was the first game of the season. We won by 24 and there were plenty of positive takeaways from this game. Your negativity is ridiculous at this point of the season.
HawkeyeTech
Well-Known Member
You mean a decent P5 team like the Clowns, Purdue, the Fuskers, or Tennessee?
It was the first game of the season breaking in a lot of new faces, especially with Jackson's injury. Most teams struggle to be consistent in the first half of their first game. Give it a rest.
Fryowa
Administrator
Bower as a senior was as good or better than any of our current linebackers. We can disagree on that.
Look they had over 70 yards in penalties. They converted 4 3rd downs, almost 5. A couple of which were long. They converted 1 4th down. They did that in 10 drives.
I'm not saying it's the end of the world. I'm not saying it's all doom and gloom.
I'm saying there is a lot to work on. I stand by my statement, if we had been playing someone like Northwestern or Stanford, we would have gotten into a shoot out, or just gotten our arses handed to us.
Uh did you watch the Stanford-NW game? They looked HORRIBLE.
We were far from perfect, but definitely had the 2nd best performance of the B1G West this weekend.
Our win margin was the same as OSU's and more than Michigan's too.
And that game was at minimum 2 middle of the pack p5 teams!!
We saved face in the second half. I'm not saying we didn't. I'm not saying we didn't look good in the second half. But remember what level of competition we were playing.
let's also wait and see how Miami looks as the season goes on. maybe their O line is pretty good and will the qb be pretty good all season. the hawks handled their Dee pretty well most of the game.
the hawks need to finish those early drives and not have two good drives come away with three points.
the hawks need to finish those early drives and not have two good drives come away with three points.
HuckFinn
Well-Known Member
Like I said, 4 third down conversions...from Dolph and Eddie.
