(11-15-2020 08:14 AM)PTLROCK Wrote:  

(11-12-2020 08:33 AM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  Credit to Western. Great execution on the onside kick (kicked it right at the freshman & charged him, making him react) and then awesome play call for the winning TD. The fact that we didn’t even cover that receiver just made Lester look more of a genius. I doubt we could have pulled that off if the roles had been reversed. We would have gotten an illegal procedure penalty or a delay of game penalty.

Yes, credit to Western. Keep in mind though, Toledo (I believe) beat Lester every time until last Wednesday. Nobody wants to beat Toledo like Lester. His broken leg has healed, but his championship run loss has not. Western is a talented team. I do feel their defense could be exploited. Still a talented unit. I like to be ahead, but don’t like to be in position to use a prevent defense. Unless you are more talented at every position and faster across the board, you have to. Too much risk of getting beat on a one on one match-up otherwise. Western has that guy. What I would like to see is a TE drop into coverage on the check down receiver, just to be disruptive enough in that situation. So much went right for Western on those two drives, which means they executed well. They “won” the game. Toledo had their chances. Toledo is much improved. I say better than early 2019. There are all kinds of reasons to move ahead strong. Go Rockets!!

After rewatching the final 3 minutes, I actually put blame more on in execution than scheme. “#0” appeared to think the game was over and just went through the motions on the last two drives. Missed multiple tackles that should have been made inbounds that would have resulted in a W. The first line of defenders were playing way to far off the receivers on on underneath passes. Not sure I understand this when you have 4 deep defenders as well. Not sure if that was coached or just players not playing aggressively enough thinking game was over. I would hope to see #13 McDonald talking starting role in next game. He is a much better tackler than Womack. Womack was really exposed in those final two drives. I do blame the Special Teams coach on the onside kick. It was really bad having a freshman on the front line in such a critical situation. I don’t recall at any level of football seeing a game more out of reach turn like that. Almost every play in the last three minutes had to be executed to perfection by Western. Toledo just needed to make a couple plays. They made zero. I would rate that loss as the worst in UT History. Team played hard and well for 57 minutes and just gave it away at the end. Can’t imagine a more heartbreaking loss.