First of all, this was a very talented young UK offensive team with the exception of their QB. Receivers went up and made great catches when covered tightly by UT's DB's They made plays when they had to.
I believe UK will be a middle of the road SEC team, too much senior talent left. Anxious to see what they will do against the Gators.
As far as the Rockets are concerned, coach went away from the rushing game in the 2nd half. In the first half, too many unforced errors by the offensive line, illegal procedures. I thought Bradley did okay, with more playing time, he will be an outstanding QB. The D had no pressure on their QB. I hate the 3 man rush, that gives the QB all the time in the world to locate a receiver.
One more thought, Guadagni may not be back for awhile I do believe. I hope I am wrong. I think Bradley in practice should run the 1st team offense. We will all see what happens to Eli. Bradley may be the guy to go with if the G-Man isn't ready against the Racers.
I agree with a lot of that. I think the bottom line of the game was that Kentucky was simply bigger and stronger. Kentucky is not a team that is going to finish at the top of the SEC this season, but they wore down our lines and were very difficult to defend against the pass. I mean Wagner was not even really that great of a receiver, but he was so tall and big, it was almost an impossible task to defend him.
I came into this game expecting to see a very disjointed passing game due to the losses at wide receiver, and I didn't know what to expect from Mitch. I also expected our defense to be gutted. I came out of this game feeling much better about the season, depending on how the quarterback situation plays out. I believe Mitch played the game of his life. His pocket presence, which was an issue last year, was spot on yesterday. He stayed in the pocket when he had to, ran when he had to, and made the right throws. I hope his injury is not severe. If it was and he chooses not to return, it does leave a bit of dilemma. You can see the poise and raw talent of Carter is there, but if Peters is really the #2 guy, do you pass him over before the MAC season begins? That's a hard decision to make. It would be so tempting for me to start Carter, because I think experience for him is so valuable.
The receiving corps effort was okay for me. Mitchell and McKinely-Lewis showed the ability to open up the outside. The problem against Kentucky was that no one else could break away from Kentucky's defenders. There should be greater opportunity for that to occur in coming weeks. The O-line had its hands full and were just over-matched, but looks to be adequate enough to get the job done in the MAC. Even though I realize most of his carries come in mop up time, I wish Jones would get more carries.
Defensively, the front seven was not as bad as I thought it might be. Hines was fabulous. Fisher and Blue ended up with decent numbers. There's enough play-makers around that it might just work in conference play. Holt was in the zone during the first half. He was playing lights out. I wish the secondary would turn around a little more, but I believe size was a major factor.
Overall, this is a team that has a legitimate shot at winning the MAC west and maybe a championship. A lot will depend on what ends up happening with the quarterback situation (if there is a situation), the development of the receiving game, and continued improvement of the defensive front. I think a cleared picture will be revealed against BYU.
agree with most of both above posts.
wish we'd run a bit more in the 2nd half. and paired that with a little more lateral passing to make the dline chase more. their defense was good, but they were more tired than us most of the time. if we'd stayed conservative and sustained a couple of those drives another 4 or 5 plays before a punt we would have worn that d down, imo, and broke one. the koback fumble was huge. we had mometum and a long slow drive there would put us ahead and increase our energy.
mitch is good. mitch takes big hits. when he plays our offense can work. definitely, hope some more receiving talent starts to emerge.
seems like peters has some issues to address so I'm assuming bradley #1, Finn #2, Wilkerson #3 and Guadagni injured maybe back for game 3? i'd assume with the starting qbs health in question the staff will use the fcs game to get real game reps for the next 2 guys up. even if guadagni is cleared to play, he probably gets held out.
After watching the game again here are some of my thoughts.
The O line really struggled with edge speed and stunts/blitzes. Otherwise they held their own. Really missed Harris I think. Blitz & Stunt pickups should improve as they play together more. Atariwa was dressed and on the sideline, yet Rosi still played the entire game, so I assume Yazeed he is still not fully recovered - or did Rosi just beat him and Fenn out for the job?
The D line was very disruptive at times, getting a lot of penetration. 7 team tackles for loss. And they played contain much of the time on passing plays (rather than all-out rushing) which held the UK mobile QB from getting a lot of scramble yardage. Hines is a beast, and only a sophomore.
Special teams were very good - especially punt coverage - with the exception of punt returns. DML could have had a lot more return yardage but cut into the defense several times.
Bradley is a work in progress in his first real game experience and it showed. Several poor throws or poor decisions. Will get better with more playing time.
Holt had a spectacular game, except when he was in coverage, where he got beat a few times. Hope to see that kind of play (not the coverage) continue all season.
UK won the game with their receivers. Rarely did they get wide open but they made almost every big catch or drew pass interference penalties.
As in recent seasons, way too many penalties.
Even so, the game really turned on just a few plays. If the UK fumble at the goal line bounces a different way, Koback doesn't fumble, Womack hangs onto the INT or Bradley connects with DML for that long pass that looked like a sure TD, the outcome could very well have been different.
Agreed, but too many if’s. Different offensive game plan second half would have been nice.
Not too many if's. Just two, the fumble, Mitch's injury and it's a different ballgame. In each case UT was on time move for a score.
It's just an expected reality to lose a QB with that style of reckless play. He is a beast and a game changer but even illegal hits happen more often to that type of QB. Lots of cleaning up to do but against a top 40 team on the road, we played hard. That's okay with me. The MAC as a whole won't stack up talent wise with what we witnessed Saturday. Skill player wise, WMU, NIU and EMU do have some better dudes than we saw.
I re-watched the game last evening down to about the 9 min's to play mark. We had a slight edge in stats at the half. We were actually doing pretty well all the way down to that 9 min mark. In addition to the things Boca Rocket mentioned, it seems like KY completed a couple key passes, and we failed to complete a couple. I really don't have a problem with the way Bradley played, though. Having not seen Peters yet, I have no idea what kind of progress he's made, but I'd be glad to see Bradley get plenty of experience. On D, in addition to Jamal Hines doing so well, it seemed like Saeed Holt was everywhere.
A couple of things that were frustrating to see:
- Guad place a couple long passes out to the middle of nowhere--not a WR to be seen. Don't know who that was on. Seemed like it would have been a strange way to throw it away.
- Watching KY's QB place a pass to a receiver right in the midst of 3 Rocket defenders and all 3 had alligator arms. That happened more than once.
Holt got called for a Bad Pi where he did turn his head after hand checking and the ball was over thrown by 7 yards on third down.
The PI's that I saw seemed like good decisions by the DB's. Give up 6 points or 15 yards and a 1st down (the lesser of 2 evils).
(09-04-2019 10:33 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote: [ -> ]I re-watched the game last evening down to about the 9 min's to play mark. We had a slight edge in stats at the half. We were actually doing pretty well all the way down to that 9 min mark. In addition to the things Boca Rocket mentioned, it seems like KY completed a couple key passes, and we failed to complete a couple. I really don't have a problem with the way Bradley played, though. Having not seen Peters yet, I have no idea what kind of progress he's made, but I'd be glad to see Bradley get plenty of experience. On D, in addition to Jamal Hines doing so well, it seemed like Saeed Holt was everywhere.
A couple of things that were frustrating to see:
- Guad place a couple long passes out to the middle of nowhere--not a WR to be seen. Don't know who that was on. Seemed like it would have been a strange way to throw it away.
- Watching KY's QB place a pass to a receiver right in the midst of 3 Rocket defenders and all 3 had alligator arms. That happened more than once.
Seemed to me at the game, a lot of yards after the catch (YAC) while the DB's had trouble being in position to make the tackle (missed tackles) or bad form tackling trying to bring the receiver down.
(09-04-2019 03:35 PM)UTerry Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2019 10:33 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote: [ -> ]I re-watched the game last evening down to about the 9 min's to play mark. We had a slight edge in stats at the half. We were actually doing pretty well all the way down to that 9 min mark. In addition to the things Boca Rocket mentioned, it seems like KY completed a couple key passes, and we failed to complete a couple. I really don't have a problem with the way Bradley played, though. Having not seen Peters yet, I have no idea what kind of progress he's made, but I'd be glad to see Bradley get plenty of experience. On D, in addition to Jamal Hines doing so well, it seemed like Saeed Holt was everywhere.
A couple of things that were frustrating to see:
- Guad place a couple long passes out to the middle of nowhere--not a WR to be seen. Don't know who that was on. Seemed like it would have been a strange way to throw it away.
- Watching KY's QB place a pass to a receiver right in the midst of 3 Rocket defenders and all 3 had alligator arms. That happened more than once.
Seemed to me at the game, a lot of yards after the catch (YAC) while the DB's had trouble being in position to make the tackle (missed tackles) or bad form tackling trying to bring the receiver down.
Absolutely no pressure on the KY QB all day. Had all the time in the world. That was/is a huge concern going forward IMO.
(09-04-2019 10:08 PM)RangerRocket Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2019 03:35 PM)UTerry Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2019 10:33 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote: [ -> ]I re-watched the game last evening down to about the 9 min's to play mark. We had a slight edge in stats at the half. We were actually doing pretty well all the way down to that 9 min mark. In addition to the things Boca Rocket mentioned, it seems like KY completed a couple key passes, and we failed to complete a couple. I really don't have a problem with the way Bradley played, though. Having not seen Peters yet, I have no idea what kind of progress he's made, but I'd be glad to see Bradley get plenty of experience. On D, in addition to Jamal Hines doing so well, it seemed like Saeed Holt was everywhere.
A couple of things that were frustrating to see:
- Guad place a couple long passes out to the middle of nowhere--not a WR to be seen. Don't know who that was on. Seemed like it would have been a strange way to throw it away.
- Watching KY's QB place a pass to a receiver right in the midst of 3 Rocket defenders and all 3 had alligator arms. That happened more than once.
Seemed to me at the game, a lot of yards after the catch (YAC) while the DB's had trouble being in position to make the tackle (missed tackles) or bad form tackling trying to bring the receiver down.
Absolutely no pressure on the KY QB all day. Had all the time in the world. That was/is a huge concern going forward IMO.
maybe, i saw that as a defensive strategy to keep a running QB in the pocket and make you beat him w his arm. often, we didn't rush to put pressure just stay in lanes and obstruct some routes. there's some talent on the line but it might be a year away from coming together. i'd rather our dbs forced them to make the tough catch than get the PI. most of the penalties were on dbs in single coverage but pretty good position who panicked against bigger receivers instead of playing the hands and ball. kentucky did have the long td completion but other than that I don't remember many balls caught in tight coverage. it seemed like completions were mostly open receivers and PI calls on the covered ones. I'd say most of those were legit calls, although the last one was questionable and crucial.
(09-05-2019 03:04 AM)pono Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2019 10:08 PM)RangerRocket Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2019 03:35 PM)UTerry Wrote: [ -> ] (09-04-2019 10:33 AM)Toledo Football 1st Wrote: [ -> ]I re-watched the game last evening down to about the 9 min's to play mark. We had a slight edge in stats at the half. We were actually doing pretty well all the way down to that 9 min mark. In addition to the things Boca Rocket mentioned, it seems like KY completed a couple key passes, and we failed to complete a couple. I really don't have a problem with the way Bradley played, though. Having not seen Peters yet, I have no idea what kind of progress he's made, but I'd be glad to see Bradley get plenty of experience. On D, in addition to Jamal Hines doing so well, it seemed like Saeed Holt was everywhere.
A couple of things that were frustrating to see:
- Guad place a couple long passes out to the middle of nowhere--not a WR to be seen. Don't know who that was on. Seemed like it would have been a strange way to throw it away.
- Watching KY's QB place a pass to a receiver right in the midst of 3 Rocket defenders and all 3 had alligator arms. That happened more than once.
Seemed to me at the game, a lot of yards after the catch (YAC) while the DB's had trouble being in position to make the tackle (missed tackles) or bad form tackling trying to bring the receiver down.
Absolutely no pressure on the KY QB all day. Had all the time in the world. That was/is a huge concern going forward IMO.
maybe, i saw that as a defensive strategy to keep a running QB in the pocket and make you beat him w his arm. often, we didn't rush to put pressure just stay in lanes and obstruct some routes. there's some talent on the line but it might be a year away from coming together. i'd rather our dbs forced them to make the tough catch than get the PI. most of the penalties were on dbs in single coverage but pretty good position who panicked against bigger receivers instead of playing the hands and ball. kentucky did have the long td completion but other than that I don't remember many balls caught in tight coverage. it seemed like completions were mostly open receivers and PI calls on the covered ones. I'd say most of those were legit calls, although the last one was questionable and crucial.
I agree completely with this. From what I could tell, we were playing more contain than a true all out pass rush. We happened to be at the game with a few who are current D1 linemen who played earlier in the week and made it to our game and they said that they felt this is exactly what was game-planned based on what they were seeing. IMO, they were not really able to abuse this too much as Wilson is just not that accurate. If we paired it with a different offensive gameplan in the second half and were able to run the ball and control the clock, I can see where it may just have worked.
(09-05-2019 07:22 AM)SylRocketFan Wrote: [ -> ]I agree completely with this. From what I could tell, we were playing more contain than a true all out pass rush. We happened to be at the game with a few who are current D1 linemen who played earlier in the week and made it to our game and they said that they felt this is exactly what was game-planned based on what they were seeing. IMO, they were not really able to abuse this too much as Wilson is just not that accurate. If we paired it with a different offensive gameplan in the second half and were able to run the ball and control the clock, I can see where it may just have worked.
Maybe not a
great passer, but with some good play calling, he was good enough make the key plays they had to make to keep their drives going.