The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Well, looky here!

What exactly did the football Blazers do yesterday?

They forced 5 turnovers, and scored a TD after every single one (3 directly).

They went 4/4 in the red zone, with 4 TDs.

They were flagged twice for 15 yards.

They completed 77% of their passes to 10 different receivers.

They sacked the quarterback 5 times and hit him at least that many more.

They held the ball for 12 minutes in the 4th quarter. Second week in a row. Twelve long, soul-crushing minutes.

They followed up a wild road win with a well-executed performance at home. That has happened so depressingly seldom in the past that it bears pointing out.

That was a thorough dismantling of a team that probably had us penciled in as a cupcake in August.

So, anywho, on to the observations.

The Good

This is going to ramble enough without renumerating all that was awesome yesterday, so I'll just go with a few things that jumped out at me.

1. There is something surreal and improbably pleasing about a 310 lb man on a breakaway touchdown run. Find the pic on al.com. The look on Morris' face will warm your heart.

2. Cody Clements is a scrapper, and his arm's a lot more lively than I gave him credit for in August.

3. Anybody besides me enjoy watching Jimmy Jean cover punts?

4. The alumni band. Bringing in the original director and first drum major was cool. Very, very cool.

5. The ticket upgrade to the Champions' Club for which I am indebted to Attalla and Frenchy. To you good sirs, I say thank you, buddy, and merci mon frere. It's nice to see how the other half lives, but it's not really conducive to yelling, and I'm a yeller at football games.

6. blazerwkr's chicken bites. Lord, those things ought to be illegal. Speaking of illegal, somebody jacked them during the game.

The Bad

I got nothin'. Really.

The Ugly

1. UNT. They could not get out of their own way. Their poor QB was a deer in the headlights. Tough little running back, though. As hard as it is to believe, they outgained us by 3 yards. Are they as bad as they looked yesterday? I don't know. I'm pretty sure we're not as bad as we looked against FIU.

Best Smack of the Day

From yours truly, "We'll see who's green is meaner."

So, what does this mean, Barbara?

Will we win next week? I don't know. Will we get to 6 wins? I don't know. Will we get that coveted bowl invite? I don't know.

What I do know is I'm watching a team learning to execute on every play and finish games. I expect to get after 'em in Murfreesboro next week.

I know it's the middle of October and I'm as excited about football as I was on August 30.

That's all I've got. For now. I think.

(10-12-2014 10:53 AM)Smaug Wrote:  I know it's the middle of October and I'm as excited about football as I was on August 30.

Isn't that a nice change?

(10-12-2014 10:53 AM)Smaug Wrote:  Well, looky here!

What exactly did the football Blazers do yesterday?

They forced 5 turnovers, and scored a TD after every single one (3 directly).

They went 4/4 in the red zone, with 4 TDs.

They were flagged twice for 15 yards.

They completed 77% of their passes to 10 different receivers.

They sacked the quarterback 5 times and hit him at least that many more.

They held the ball for 12 minutes in the 4th quarter. Second week in a row. Twelve long, soul-crushing minutes.

They followed up a wild road win with a well-executed performance at home. That has happened so depressingly seldom in the past that it bears pointing out.

That was a thorough dismantling of a team that probably had us penciled in as a cupcake in August.

So, anywho, on to the observations.

The Good

This is going to ramble enough without renumerating all that was awesome yesterday, so I'll just go with a few things that jumped out at me.

1. There is something surreal and improbably pleasing about a 310 lb man on a breakaway touchdown run. Find the pic on al.com. The look on Morris' face will warm your heart.

2. Cody Clements is a scrapper, and his arm's a lot more lively than I gave him credit for in August.

3. Anybody besides me enjoy watching Jimmy Jean cover punts?

4. The alumni band. Bringing in the original director and first drum major was cool. Very, very cool.

5. The ticket upgrade to the Champions' Club for which I am indebted to Attalla and Frenchy. To you good sirs, I say thank you, buddy, and merci mon frere. It's nice to see how the other half lives, but it's not really conducive to yelling, and I'm a yeller at football games.

6. blazerwkr's chicken bites. Lord, those things ought to be illegal. Speaking of illegal, somebody jacked them during the game.

The Bad

I got nothin'. Really.

The Ugly

1. UNT. They could not get out of their own way. Their poor QB was a deer in the headlights. Tough little running back, though. As hard as it is to believe, they outgained us by 3 yards. Are they as bad as they looked yesterday? I don't know. I'm pretty sure we're not as bad as we looked against FIU.

Best Smack of the Day

From yours truly, "We'll see who's green is meaner."

So, what does this mean, Barbara?

Will we win next week? I don't know. Will we get to 6 wins? I don't know. Will we get that coveted bowl invite? I don't know.

What I do know is I'm watching a team learning to execute on every play and finish games. I expect to get after 'em in Murfreesboro next week.

I know it's the middle of October and I'm as excited about football as I was on August 30.

That's all I've got. For now. I think.

Yes. Well said, as usual. Agree on clements arm having a bit more zip than i originally thought. Not a hackney or jeff george arm but good enough to make marshall sweat about a perfect season having to go through the ham this year.

Clements has better numbers than Hackney through his first 6 starts. I found that interesting. Not saying he is Hackney by any means. Just found that interesting.

Well said by Smaug. I had a 7yo keeping my moving. Family fun zone is not bad.

A couple of things to add to the Bad column possibly:

Kneeing it at the end of the 1st half instead of practicing a last-second FG drill. I understand the idea behind it and not wanting to risk giving up any momentum, but that's a prime time to practice something like that in an actual game situation.

No backup quarterback. If Briscoe isn't injured, it really showed what our stance is on our backup quarterback situation that he didn't make it in to the game in garbage time (and there was a lot of garbage time in the 2nd half). Cody is really coming into his own, but you want to see a capable backup be able to come into the game and practice/close out not only to rest Clements but to prepare the backup in case something happens to our starter. Myles McKee came in for one play and got sacked.

Kickoff return coverage. Could have been much better in this regard. Ty Long was doing his job of placing the ball in the end zone, but when they decided to return it, we couldn't seem to pin them past the 20 yard line.

I can't disagree with any of that. I kept expecting to see Briscoe, too.

Our kick coverage isn't bad, but it's lightyears better than the last several years. We're not giving the opposition 60 yard fields any more, and we're covering punts very well.

(10-12-2014 10:53 AM)Smaug Wrote:  The Good

1. There is something surreal and improbably pleasing about a 310 lb man on a breakaway touchdown run. Find the pic on al.com. The look on Morris' face will warm your heart.

Tie-dye kid in the background is pretty awesome, too.

The bad- the alumni band member on the fifty yard line trying to dance during halftime.

the score was lopsided, for which i am grateful. but i have a hard time calling it a "thorough dismantling" when they had more yardage and more first downs.

don't get me wrong…glad for the blowout win. but the lows often aren't as low as we make them seem and the highs aren't necessarily as high as we want them to be.

we (not necessarily you smaug--you did touch on it, just speaking in general terms) are quick to point out that the FIU game would have been very different if not for the 6 turnovers, but fail to point out that if UNT doesn't have a turnover fest, this game could've been a nail biter

(10-12-2014 11:28 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  A couple of things to add to the Bad column possibly:

Kneeing it at the end of the 1st half instead of practicing a last-second FG drill. I understand the idea behind it and not wanting to risk giving up any momentum, but that's a prime time to practice something like that in an actual game situation.

No backup quarterback. If Briscoe isn't injured, it really showed what our stance is on our backup quarterback situation that he didn't make it in to the game in garbage time (and there was a lot of garbage time in the 2nd half). Cody is really coming into his own, but you want to see a capable backup be able to come into the game and practice/close out not only to rest Clements but to prepare the backup in case something happens to our starter. Myles McKee came in for one play and got sacked.

Kickoff return coverage. Could have been much better in this regard. Ty Long was doing his job of placing the ball in the end zone, but when they decided to return it, we couldn't seem to pin them past the 20 yard line.

I'm really hoping Briscoe was injured. We quickly saw why McGee is the 3rd stringer. I still have hope from the Briscoe we saw against Mississippi State and A&M. Hoping the guy against Rice was just a freshman learning.

(10-12-2014 11:28 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  Clements has better members than Hackney through his first 6 starts. I found that interesting. Not saying he is Hackney by any means. Just found that interesting.

Well said by Smaug. I had a 7yo keeping my moving. Family fun zone is not bad.

AB, I draw the line at comparing members.

(10-12-2014 11:47 AM)LairDweller Wrote:  the score was lopsided, for which i am grateful. but i have a hard time calling it a "thorough dismantling" when they had more yardage and more first downs.

don't get me wrong…glad for the blowout win. but the lows often aren't as low as we make them seem and the highs aren't necessarily as high as we want them to be.

we (not necessarily you smaug--you did touch on it, just speaking in general terms) are quick to point out that the FIU game would have been very different if not for the 6 turnovers, but fail to point out that if UNT doesn't have a turnover fest, this game could've been a nail biter

Ask a NT fan if they think it was a "thorough dismantling".

It's OK to sometimes call a thing what it is. You don't have to always mix your ifs 'n butts in with the candy and nuts.

i don't know any NT fans…but i don't need their opinion

when a team that averages 141 yards passing throws for 291 (their highest total of the season), and puts up 451 yards of offense (previous average 320), i fail to see how we totally dismantled them.

after the FIU game, "we won't win another game"
Now, we're back to "running the table"

I'm just saying…i think we're somewhere in the middle

See. That's what happens with an I phone. I corrected it.

(10-12-2014 11:54 AM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  See. That's what happens with an I phone. I corrected it.

but it will be forever quoted in this thread.

Even if it is deleted in sure two posters have already saved a copy for a rainy day.

(10-12-2014 11:44 AM)BandGrad Wrote:  The bad- the alumni band member on the fifty yard line trying to dance during halftime.

I was watching the one in front of you that is very skilled at dancing & very blessed with "other stuff".

(10-12-2014 11:48 AM)stc Wrote:  

(10-12-2014 11:28 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  A couple of things to add to the Bad column possibly:

Kneeing it at the end of the 1st half instead of practicing a last-second FG drill. I understand the idea behind it and not wanting to risk giving up any momentum, but that's a prime time to practice something like that in an actual game situation.

No backup quarterback. If Briscoe isn't injured, it really showed what our stance is on our backup quarterback situation that he didn't make it in to the game in garbage time (and there was a lot of garbage time in the 2nd half). Cody is really coming into his own, but you want to see a capable backup be able to come into the game and practice/close out not only to rest Clements but to prepare the backup in case something happens to our starter. Myles McKee came in for one play and got sacked.

Kickoff return coverage. Could have been much better in this regard. Ty Long was doing his job of placing the ball in the end zone, but when they decided to return it, we couldn't seem to pin them past the 20 yard line.

I'm really hoping Briscoe was injured. We quickly saw why McGee is the 3rd stringer. I still have hope from the Briscoe we saw against Mississippi State and A&M. Hoping the guy against Rice was just a freshman learning.

No. We actually saw how Clark is a class coach & person.

McKee was in the game because he is a senior & deserved his minutes. Clark gave it to him on McKee's last homecoming dressed as a player.

(10-12-2014 11:53 AM)LairDweller Wrote:  i don't know any NT fans…but i don't need their opinion

when a team that averages 141 yards passing throws for 291 (their highest total of the season), and puts up 451 yards of offense (previous average 320), i fail to see how we totally dismantled them.

after the FIU game, "we won't win another game"
Now, we're back to "running the table"

I'm just saying…i think we're somewhere in the middle

Who said these things?

My only concern is the sometimes generalized feeling that "we're somewhere in the middle".

It's OK for us to identify when we do well and when we do not. It's how we make critical decisions like WHEN TO FIRE A SORRY ASS COACH.

And when to identify that WE NOW HAVE A GOOD ONE.

Lets continue to call things by their proper names. Like Madeline, let us smile at the good and frown at the bad. And to the Lion in the zoo always say "poo poo"!