09-30-2003, 02:02 PM
Quarterbacks: C+. Darian played well for most of the game, but he made some key mistakes, too. That lost fumble was extremely costly. He almost fumbled another one to the wuffies reaching for that first down, but luckily we got on top of that one. We still had too many stalled drives. Baker did a great job in the last minutes of the game (but we should have just run a play there at the end instead of spiking the ball with two seconds left).
Running Backs: C. Jacque Lewis had another nice run for a TD. Parker had a couple of nice runs. Scott even caught a couple of balls. I think we did a decent job, but nothing exceptional.
Receivers: B-. Pollock was his usual steady self. It's obvious that we'll be seeing Durant-to-Pollock a lot this season. I thought the three freshmen played great -- Bowman did a great job on that TD catch-and-run. Blizzard looked like he was still trying to shake off his illness. We're gonna need him to step up big in the coming weeks.
Offensive Line: C. Durant was running for his life in the first and third quarters, which really concerned me. But, the O line settled down in both halves and really allowed our offense to make plays. You can see the guys growing up, slowly but surely.
Defensive Line: C-. I still have to give most of the praise here to the tackles -- they are proving that they have the ability to stuff runs up the middle. That goal-line stop in the second quarter was really nice to see. The DE's are still too slow to shed blocks and keep guys from going around the outside on us. We might not be able to improve the speed there, but we can improve the technique.
Linebackers: D-. No speed. That's about all I can say about that.
Cornerbacks: D+. They made a few plays here and there, but they have the talent to do more. I realize they are put in a bad position with a supbar front seven, but they still got burned way too much.
Safeties: C. Carey played well again, and Dex made a lot of tackles again. I think our safeties were out of position a few times, and that contributed to our getting burned a lot.
Special Teams: C-. That blocked punt was ugly, but I'm not sure that's the fault of the special teams. Not many teams would be able to get off a punt against State in a situation like that. I still think we should have floated a man or two up the middle and lobbed a pass to them -- State was so concerned about getting to the punt, I'm not sure they could have reacted to it. It wouldn't been risky, but so is punting from inside your own endzone without any room. Other than that, S.T. were okay.
Coaching: C-. This is always a tough category to grade, because so much of the game really comes from this grade. For all I know, the deficiencies in the other areas could come straight from here (I don't think so, though). I think our coaches made a lot of mistakes on Saturday, but one thing they did right was in keeping our guys' heads in the game. It would've been easy to give up and play like we wanted to just get out of there, but we played like we wanted to win. We weren't good enough to do it that day, but I liked that effort. If the coaching staff can get that from the team each Saturday, we will be successful soon.
-JD
Running Backs: C. Jacque Lewis had another nice run for a TD. Parker had a couple of nice runs. Scott even caught a couple of balls. I think we did a decent job, but nothing exceptional.
Receivers: B-. Pollock was his usual steady self. It's obvious that we'll be seeing Durant-to-Pollock a lot this season. I thought the three freshmen played great -- Bowman did a great job on that TD catch-and-run. Blizzard looked like he was still trying to shake off his illness. We're gonna need him to step up big in the coming weeks.
Offensive Line: C. Durant was running for his life in the first and third quarters, which really concerned me. But, the O line settled down in both halves and really allowed our offense to make plays. You can see the guys growing up, slowly but surely.
Defensive Line: C-. I still have to give most of the praise here to the tackles -- they are proving that they have the ability to stuff runs up the middle. That goal-line stop in the second quarter was really nice to see. The DE's are still too slow to shed blocks and keep guys from going around the outside on us. We might not be able to improve the speed there, but we can improve the technique.
Linebackers: D-. No speed. That's about all I can say about that.
Cornerbacks: D+. They made a few plays here and there, but they have the talent to do more. I realize they are put in a bad position with a supbar front seven, but they still got burned way too much.
Safeties: C. Carey played well again, and Dex made a lot of tackles again. I think our safeties were out of position a few times, and that contributed to our getting burned a lot.
Special Teams: C-. That blocked punt was ugly, but I'm not sure that's the fault of the special teams. Not many teams would be able to get off a punt against State in a situation like that. I still think we should have floated a man or two up the middle and lobbed a pass to them -- State was so concerned about getting to the punt, I'm not sure they could have reacted to it. It wouldn't been risky, but so is punting from inside your own endzone without any room. Other than that, S.T. were okay.
Coaching: C-. This is always a tough category to grade, because so much of the game really comes from this grade. For all I know, the deficiencies in the other areas could come straight from here (I don't think so, though). I think our coaches made a lot of mistakes on Saturday, but one thing they did right was in keeping our guys' heads in the game. It would've been easy to give up and play like we wanted to just get out of there, but we played like we wanted to win. We weren't good enough to do it that day, but I liked that effort. If the coaching staff can get that from the team each Saturday, we will be successful soon.
-JD