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Whew!

Nothing like a four hour football game in early September. But hey! At least we played, right? Damn right, right. We got a football game played in a year when a lot of teams won't. And who knows how many we'll get? No tailgating, no Blazerwalk, no halftime field show. Those things were noticeably missing.

That said, once it kicked off, it was all football and I was happy to see it.

Kudos to Mark Ingram for being innovative and getting this game scheduled on short notice. I know he takes his lumps on this board, and I'm fairly ambivalent myself, but his position throughout the pandemic was "we're going to play until we can't." I don't really want to debate the politics of it. I just want to talk about football.

Anywho, on to the observations.

Looking at the boxscore (and while it certainly didn't feel like it) this was a fairly dominant performance. We had 459 total yards, pretty evenly split between passing and rushing (226/233). Any game we run as a team for 200+ yards, I figure we're going to win.

People who saw the score this morning without watching the game might think our D got lit up. They are wrong. UCA managed exactly 1 touchdown on your first unit. One. Uno. They had 137 yards at the half. Finished with 293, and a lot of that was junk yards late against reserves. I am not worried about our defense.

Say this for UCA, they're some tenacious bastards, and their outside receivers are probably the best ones we'll see all year.

It was a frustrating game. I get it. We literally handed them 3 touchdowns. But in the end, we were obviously the better team and I think everyone that watched knew that.

I will say this, though. I think Clark must have peeled the paint off the walls at halftime. I barely remember UCA touching the ball in the 3rd quarter.

Two-headed monster
TJ3 and Bryson Lucero went 24/34 for 226 yards 3 TDs and 1 pick. They were both pretty sharp, Lucero especially so in limited reps. It was good to see him get meaningful snaps in a close game. That will bear fruit down the road. More on TJ3 later.

Three-headed monster
Have you been in a football game? Would you like to rack up 233 punishing yards? Might I suggest the firm of Brown, Stanley, and Brown. They accounted for all but 12 of our rushing yards. Spencer looks amazing, Stanley runs as angry as ever, and Little Brown continues to leave jock straps and broken ankles in his wake.

MM5
I told someone earlier this week with all the attention paid to Austin Watkins, Myron Mitchell might feast. 4 catches and 1 carry for 56 yards and a touchdown. Lord, when I said UCA's wideouts were the best ones we see this year, it's because we don't play us. Watkins was the beast we were expecting. 7 catches for 72 yards, and they all seemed like they were on 3rd down. Speaking of weapons...

The tight end is an eligible receiver
Every year I hear "we need to throw it to the tight end more." Well, how's this for a line item? Hayden Pittman and Garrett Prince combined for 7 catches for 68 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Big Uglies
UCA's front 7 crumpled like the nose of an '86 Ford Tempo. We got good push all night. And our quarterbacks dropped back 34 times with exactly 0 sacks.

Living in a post-Vogeltron world
Freshman Matt Quinn hit all six PATs and the one field goal he tried. Nice work young man. Wilson Beaverstock (yes, that's his name) did a passable job on kickoffs. Fact is, we haven't had to cover a kickoff much in a while. On the subject of putting a foot on the ball, Kyle Greenwell had a nice game, averaging 45 yards on 4 punts.

My hero, Zero
How about Keondre Swoopes? Sets two NCAA records that will never be broken. The first FBS player to ever take the field wearing #0 and the first interception ever recorded by a player wearing #0.

The Good
The Defense. Really. UCA rarely was able to put together anything resembling a drive most of the game.

The Bad
3 turnovers leading to 21 UCA points. A word on each of them, if I may. the muffed punt: an anomaly, in my opinion. Myron Mitchell has shown to have some of the best hands on the team. The strip fumble: I bet that never happens to that guy again. The interception: This one bothered me. I'll have to see a replay, but from my angle it appeared just an atrocious decision by TJ3. This was the one thing I thought we most needed to get cleaned up from last year.

The Ugly
COVID-19. I tried not to let it bother me much last night, and it didn't much. But I missed tailgating with my friends, and I missed the field show, and I missed my good seats and yes I'm bitching and yes, I know how petty it sounds, but in my defense these are intended to be game day observations.

So, what does this mean, Barbara?
Who knows? We gutted out a win against a scrappy FCS team that we putzed around and let stay in the game. First game yips? Who knows? I'm not too worried about that, though. We won and Clark was clearly disappointed on the post game radio. That makes me think they're going to come out of the tunnel in Coral Gables with fire in their eyes.

I've waffled back and forth over whether or not football would get played this year, and I still don't know how it's going to play out. What I do know is my Blazers played last night, and they won, and I got to be there for it and I'm glad.

That's all I got. For now. I think.
under clack, the first game of the season is always sub par but we win most of the time ,,,,,Will see next week if you are a real top 25 teams or a top 50 teams
Beaverstock did put one kickoff out of bounds. I know it happens, but that’s a free 10 yds to the other team from something you do all day, every day pretty much all year long. There’s a mental boost, too, starting at the 35 instead of the 25. Hate to see it. Hope it was yips.


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I just love Smaug’s game observations!

Our offensive players can’t tackle. On the interception, the UCA ball carrier should have been tackled down around the 35 or 30. I guess our guys closed their eyes and tried to put their shoulder pads on the runner’s legs. It’s like their arms were temporarily amputated.

I thought the band sounded terrific from the south end zone. That’s where they should have been for years, IMHO.

I’m not convinced the receivers from UCA will be the best we see this season.

It was better than the first game last season.
As a former receiver, yea they are pretty darn good from my observations. I dare say UCA could beat about half of CUSA straight up. That team did not quit.

I’m. Calling the upset. They beat Arkansas State.
I'm going to be petty, but I've got to defend the Dutch name: Gerrit Prince
Smaug's $0.02. The Final Touch.

Now the The Fat Lady can sing
(09-04-2020 01:17 PM)BlazerFromMD Wrote: [ -> ]I'm going to be petty, but I've got to defend the Dutch name: Gerrit Prince

Two TDs!!!
I said last night if Tyler was going to throw passes like that, he better learn how to tackle.

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Anyone know where Dylan Hopkins is?

Did not see him on the sideline.
Also, in one of this week's pregame interviews HCBC mentioned Tyler, Lucero, & the walken from Hoover(not Barker's kid), but not Hopkins.
I didn't see him, either unless he's changed numbers.

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(09-04-2020 01:14 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote: [ -> ]As a former receiver, yea they are pretty darn good from my observations. I dare say UCA could beat about half of CUSA straight up. That team did kit quit.

I’m. Calling the upset. They beat Arkansas State.

I'm calling BS on this, the foward pass wasn't introduced till 1906, way passed the time you played.
I almost completely agree with your assessment.

"Two-headed monster TJ3 and Bryson Lucero went 24/34 for 226 yards"
I would add that out of the 10 misses, there were at least 3 drops that hit receivers in the hands. Which brings be to ...

"MM5"
Watkins and Mitchell are good but there appears to be a very big drop off after that. I was completely underwhelmed with Johnson. Receiver depth looks like a problem. Hope somebody emerges. Which brings me to ...

"The tight end is an eligible receiver"
Thank goodness! I am one of those people who has been saying "we need to throw it to the tight end more." Could be we're using the TE more because of the previously mentioned lack of WR depth.

"The Good" ... according to you.
Here's where we differ. I was VERY disappointed in the defensive performance. I left the game with much less confidence in our defense than when I arrived. True, we played a pretty basic defense (not wanting to but much on tape for Miami I guess). True, it was a first game. True, we got better in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. But I remember several occasions when UCA receivers were open and the QB just flat out missed them - better QB - BIG trouble. And UCA should never have even sniffed 100 yards rushing against us.
(09-04-2020 01:50 PM)Smaug Wrote: [ -> ]I didn't see him, either unless he's changed numbers.

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Did he opt out for COVID and our beat writer just missed it?


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Steve Irvine said he was banged up on the podcast
(09-04-2020 09:42 PM)blazr Wrote: [ -> ]
(09-04-2020 01:50 PM)Smaug Wrote: [ -> ]I didn't see him, either unless he's changed numbers.

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Did he opt out for COVID and our beat writer just missed it?


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I'm guessing the "beat writer" had no clue Hopkins was not in uniform.
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