(11-25-2020 01:17 PM)Teamduh Wrote: For instance a new safety will get his start vs wmu.
Yeah...an inexperienced secondary is not a recipe for success against us.
One of the things we do well is give our QB time in the pocket. When he has time, he is excellent. He threw a couple of tight gripped balls into the ground early in the CMU game. He's had one interception on the season (knock on wood) and that was on a pass where he put the ball exactly where it should have gone and our TE stopped his route. Eleby is a very efficient and accurate passer. He is right around 70% completions right now and we don't run a dink and dunk offense. He has good touch on short passes, a laser for an arm when he needs to fit it in a window, and can drop it in a coffee cup from 40 yards out without making our receivers break stride. I've been following WMU athletics since the late 80's and he is easily the most naturally talented QB that we have had in that time.
One of the other challenges that we present is we have three receivers (when healthy) that can get open against anyone one on one. It is impossible to double all of them. If you drop extra into coverage, we have the run game to lean on. It is very much like the 2016 Cotton Bowl team. I'm not saying we are as balanced and talented across the board, but if you want to try and stop the run we can throw it all over the field. If you sell out on the pass we will likely average around 8 ypc. The transfers from MSU and Nevada are as advertised. We are still very inexperienced on offense so your best chance of slowing us down would be scheming us into mistakes. That and we have a knack for starting slow.
The interesting thing for this team is that we really don't flinch. Down 10 against Toledo at home with under 3 minutes, we did everything needed to come back and win that game. Down 14 to CMU in the first 3 minutes on the road, we run off 38 consecutive points. You usually only see this in a team with far more experience and upper classmen. It has been fun to see that approach develop.
As you said, the weather as of now should be a non-factor, but this IS Michigan. I just want to see us grow more as a team, make less dumbazz "extra effort" penalties, and see both sides come out healthy.