My thoughts...

[hammb]

* For starters great tailgate! Great to finally meet Lord_Byron, and great to see most of the regulars as well. Freak, you were missed. Hope you had fun at the reception! The bacon explosion was a hit, and gone within minutes. I must say it was intense and a bit over the top for me; it tasted good, but I didn't want any more than one piece. Hilarious watching Vdub take down that Jolokia...not so funny watching Niz's friend who didn't seem to know what he was getting himself into.

* Great crowd for the game! I haven't seen the Doyt so full in a LONG time, and it was great that most people were even in the stadium in time for the game. There were late arrivals, of course, but not as many as I expected...nice to see a full stadium for a change!

* Boise is good. They are really, really, really freaking good. I know that they were the highest ranked team to enter the Doyt, but I have to believe they were also the BEST team to ever play in the Doyt. They had speed to burn and that is what won them the game. We just couldn't contain their speed to the outside. I hope they stay focused...they have no business losing a game at all this season.

* That said, I am going to bitch. There was no excuse for BG to get shutout, despite how great Boise was. Yes, I know we scored 14 points against their backups that were playing prevent, but as far as the meaningful game is concerned it was a shutout. Boise may have a great defense, but we didn't even make them stop us, we stopped ourselves. In fact, I don't think we would have scored many points at all against any team the way we played offensively, we just flat out couldn't get out of our own way and that's NOT excusable regardless of the quality of opponent.

* WAY too many false start penalties. We had a chance to keep the crowd in the game and seize momentum to start. We killed our first drive with false starts, then derailed our 2nd drive with more false starts. That cannot happen. Not at home.

* WAY too many dropped passes. Freddie Barnes has a ton of catches this year, but he's got a ton of drops as well. We cannot have that.

* The turnovers were all terrible and all were caused by our own mistakes, Boise didn't cause them. Kudos to them for taking advantage of our mistakes, but all 3 were on us. One dropped pass for an INT, one staredown throw into double coverage for an INT, and the botched snap for a fumble. Inexcusable.

* Our QB play still sickens me and I don't care what his career, season, or game stats are. I would think long and hard about getting Pankratz some meaningful minutes this season. Tyler may be a good kid, but he stares down WRs and can't make the throws necessary in the redzone. He flat out doesn't see the field. Last night he had time to make his drops, read, and deliver the ball, but he wasn't going to have time to sit in the pocket forever. He did not do a good job of making decisive reads and hitting them...showed a LOT of happy feet. The second INT was as bad a play as you'll ever see a QB make, and he had one or two others like that as well...decided after the snap he was gonna go deep, stared down the guy the entire play, and then delivered the ball into double or triple coverage. Just not good.

* Willie Geter looked VERY good. Good cuts, tough to tackle, good speed/quickness. He could be the best offensive player on the team. I hope he gets healthy and more touches as the season goes on. He's the only one on the team who seems able to make plays.

* Still need lots of work on that kicking game. VERY demoralizing to not come away with points on that opening drive.

* All in all, I'm very anxious to see where we stack up next week against OU. The games start counting next week. I'm willing to chalk this game up as a loss to a vastly superior opponent, and move on. I wish we would have made their defense stop us rather than shooting ourselves in the foot, but some nerves against a top 10 team are understandable, I suppose. I do remember Clawson saying at the beginning of the year that we needed Sheehan to be 1st team all MAC if we're going to be a good team, and I think he was right. He NEEDS to step up his game for this team to win the MAC.

* Oh wanted to add that I envy the hell out of Boise. That is a fantastic team with as much talent and speed as the BCS big boys. Even better their fans have been simply AWESOME. I cannot remember a set of opposing fans that were more fun to interact with than the Boise fans on this site. They join in the fun look-a-like and coach threads, and they talk about their team somewhat objectively. They have every right to be cocky because their team is as superior to ours as OSU or UM could ever hope to be, but they don't look down their noses at anybody. Kudos to all the Boise fans that have been around this week, hope we see you around all year; I assure you I'm rooting for Boise from here on out. Hopefully we'll do our part to help your BCS rankings.

[The Niz]

* For starters great tailgate! Great to finally meet Lord_Byron, and great to see most of the regulars as well. Freak, you were missed. Hope you had fun at the reception! The bacon explosion was a hit, and gone within minutes. I must say it was intense and a bit over the top for me; it tasted good, but I didn't want any more than one piece. Hilarious watching Vdub take down that Jolokia...not so funny watching Niz's friend who didn't seem to know what he was getting himself into.

I thought he did pretty well with it. Didn't make much noise, just one tear drop lol. I couldn't bring myself to eat one but I did handle one that had been cut in half and now there is a burn on my hand. Hot sutff.

[falconfan1999]

Some great thoughts there, if I may, I'd like to add a few of my own....


1. Great crowd! Keep the fans coming! The Doyt is a tough place to play with a big crowd and.....
2. Sustained mental focus by the team! These guys lost focus after that 2nd quarter. Sure it's hard to stay positive after Boise scores 29 points in what seemed like 3 minutes, but that could have been lessened with...
3. Improved special teams play! No excuse for missing a 29 yard field goal. Young Mr.Phillips has struggled the last two games with his kicking. Let's get it ironed out right now. Some MAC games are going to come down to field goals and PAT's. This young man has the leg necessary to kick from across the field. He just needs to....
4. Stay positive! Lots of the guys seemed to be hanging their heads, but a few looked like they really wanted to play last night. I saw a lot from Justus Jones. Some nice grabs and he avoided getting drilled by some big Boise defenders! Willie Geter wasn't going down easily. He's undersized for high school football, let alone college football, but he fought hard last night for every yard he gained.
5. We really need to open up our offense. When Freddie Barnes is in at QB, everyone knows he's running up the middle. It's almost like AT is getting an extra year of eligibility.... We need to get creative with our receivers and our receivers ALL need to finish running their routes, even the ones on the far side of the ball.


Let's kick some Bobcat butt next week!

[Lord_Byron]

Just got back home. I'll echo the sentiments on the game. It was an extremely talented Boise St. team and it really pointed out how far we have to go to compete at that level. Clawson has his work cut out, but I think he's begun planting the seeds.

As for me, it's always great to get back to BG. It was nice meeting everyone at the tailgate and thanks for the hospitality. It's great that a group of 'strangers' can get together and act like family.

My friends were impressed by our game-day atmosphere, but again, they hit a sweet spot with weather and attendance.

All in all, except for the result of the game, it was a great trip.

[ZiggyZoomba]

Just got back home. I'll echo the sentiments on the game. It was an extremely talented Boise St. team and it really pointed out how far we have to go to compete at that level. Clawson has his work cut out, but I think he's begun planting the seeds.

As for me, it's always great to get back to BG. It was nice meeting everyone at the tailgate and thanks for the hospitality. It's great that a group of 'strangers' can get together and act like family.

My friends were impressed by our game-day atmosphere, but again, they hit a sweet spot with weather and attendance.

All in all, except for the result of the game, it was a great trip.

Great to see you again! Glad your friends had fun!

[Falcon Fanatic]

It was nice meeting everyone at the tailgate and thanks for the hospitality. It's great that a group of 'strangers' can get together and act like family.

It was great to meet you too!!! Thanks for coming up and introducing yourself. It was great to finally put a face to the screen name. The tailgate was SOOOOO much fun!!! The fireman's band was FANTASTIC, just like before. Music was awesome, weather was perfect, food and friendship was THE BEST!! Only thing missing was FREAK and a win/or at least a competitive game! It was also great to meet some of the Boise fans. Erika, always a falcon, and I walked down the parking lot to introduce ourselves to a camper of Boise fans and to welcome them to BG! They all said how much they loved it here and how friendly the BG fans were!! I sure hope that we can host Boise again some day.

Best part of the game....HALFTIME!!! Our daughter was in the BGHS band that was on the field!! Very cool when all of those bands, along with FMB did the Thriller song and dance!! Well done band kids!!!!

GO BG!!
BEAT THE BOBCATS!!

[BgWaRrIoR]

I agree, the bands were amazing!!!! Thriller was awesome, the dance almost gave me chills. It was also awesome to hear about 1000 band members playing Forward Falcons and AZZ. I think the bands got more out of the crowd than the football team did!!!! The student section went crazy for the bands. GREAT job to all the bandies.......

[Bleeding Orange]

1. It was great to finally get back to BG again and see at least a few of you. I am disappointed that I had to miss such a great tailgate, though. The aftermath looked phenomenal.

2. I couldn't help but think that our team looked woefully under prepared for this game, and I don't mean physically. I mean, it really didn't look like this coaching staff had watched film of Boise. I've watched two of Boise's games this year, and based upon what I have seen it was damned near inexcusable to not have anyone staying at home on the weak side of the field to prevent the reverses they ran. That being said, it probably didn't matter. We were out sized and out run from the jump, and that can only be credited to how good Boise truly is.

3. Our crowd was large, but a total embarrassment in my opinion. I never knew that 20,000+ people could be THAT quiet. Pitiful.

4. I was absolutely blown away by how classy Boise State was, from top to bottom. Their fans were absolutely fantastic and knew exactly how to support their team. I halfway couldn't believe it when I saw Boise's entire team line up and walk the length of the East sidelines shaking hands with both BG and Boise fans. Classy, classy, classy. We could learn a lot from them.

5. How were we expected to compete with a team that has it's own equipment semi? I guess that is what a few BCS dollars will do for a program!

6. Who is the drooling idiot that decided it would be a good idea to use a road runner sounder after first downs? Whoever it is needs to be fired, and then publicly humiliated. I could have halfway understood if Time Warner was paying for it as an advertising gimmick, but I didn't see any TW branding associated with it.

7. Someone really needs to explain to me where this orange chopper came from. There has to be some kind of story behind that, and I have to imagine that it would be pretty interesting.

8. Our real season starts right now, and I can't wait for it. Getting Jimmy Scheidler back healthy again is going to do wonders for our offensive scheme, and I'm really excited to see what Geter can do to the conference this year - he made it through conference play without a season ending injury!

9. Holy Justus Jones.

[Falcon137]

3. Our crowd was large, but a total embarrassment in my opinion. I never knew that 20,000+ people could be THAT quiet. Pitiful.

Crowd was great to start. 22 points in 2:30 can make 120,000 go silent.

[Falconfreak90]

Sounds like the pregame festivities were great. Dana and I had a blast at the reception all weekend.

Boise State is scary good...real freakin good.

Gotta get after the Bobcats.

[Bleeding Orange]

3. Our crowd was large, but a total embarrassment in my opinion. I never knew that 20,000+ people could be THAT quiet. Pitiful.

Crowd was great to start. 22 points in 2:30 can make 120,000 go silent.

Well, that could very well be. I didn't pull into the season ticket parking spot until the very end of the drive that we missed the field goal, coming late from work. That being said, I got into the stadium immediately thereafter, and you could have heard a pin drop when we were on defense - it was still 0-0 at that point. I have been in that stadium when it was absolutely rocking. Last night was the exact opposite of that, and I thought that was sad. Maybe people were just there to watch Boise, which is extremely probable, I suppose. I just thought our home field advantage was pretty tempered last night.

I really have nothing against anyone that was there - I'm very happy that they bought tickets and braved the traffic getting in. I just thought the fans could have been, and probably should have been more involved from the start.

Just realized that I forgot to add how totally in awe I was of the FMB! Their halftime show was the best I have ever seen, and adding in the high school bands at the end was really, really cool. Kudos to everyone involved!

[gspointer]

[quote="falconfan1999"]Some great thoughts there, if I may, I'd like to add a few of my own....


1. Great crowd! Keep the fans coming! The Doyt is a tough place to play with a big crowd and.....
2. Sustained mental focus by the team! These guys lost focus after that 2nd quarter. Sure it's hard to stay positive after Boise scores 29 points in what seemed like 3 minutes, but that could have been lessened with...
3. Improved special teams play! No excuse for missing a 29 yard field goal. Young Mr.Phillips has struggled the last two games with his kicking. Let's get it ironed out right now. Some MAC games are going to come down to field goals and PAT's. This young man has the leg necessary to kick from across the field. He just needs to....
4. Stay positive! Lots of the guys seemed to be hanging their heads, but a few looked like they really wanted to play last night. I saw a lot from Justus Jones. Some nice grabs and he avoided getting drilled by some big Boise defenders! Willie Geter wasn't going down easily. He's undersized for high school football, let alone college football, but he fought hard last night for every yard he gained.
5. We really need to open up our offense. When Freddie Barnes is in at QB, everyone knows he's running up the middle. It's almost like AT is getting an extra year of eligibility.... We need to get creative with our receivers and our receivers ALL need to finish running their routes, even the ones on the far side of the ball.


Honestly guys this team is probably skill wise where we should be at 1-3. Just do not have the horses in the trenches. We recruited all those O linemen who are now RS freshmen. It would seem to me you woould not be losing much bystarting one of them and swithing Mintrum back to defense where he started. Just my opinion. I watched the Marshall game and those guys were being pushed back big time late in the game. We will not win many games with that happening game in and game out. We sold out and stopped the run early against Boise- but you saw the eventual result. Our D is just a bit weak- well coached but weak up front. Just my opinion- I would move Mintrum.

[daspollak]

Here is a little tidbit:

Two of the teams we played this season are undefeated. (Boise and Missouri)

All of the teams we played have a .500 or better record.

Our SOS has to be near the top this year since the teams we played have an overall record of 13-3. (Yes I know it will go down once we start playing the MAC)

1-3 is bad, but we played some decent competition. Now is the time our guys need to step up and shine. Our goal every year should be to WIN the MAC.

Beat Ohio

[JH5]

Alright, my turn. Here’s a note though, I only watched the first half. I was too disappointed to stay any longer, so if something drastically changed in the second half I apologize.

-Boise is a great team and I’m not taking anything away from them; but I don’t think we’re THAT bad.

-Issue #1 I had with Saturday night: QB play. Pretty much everything that haamb said…we’re seeing the same things from Tyler as we did 2 years ago. He still looked shaky in the pocket and showed his inability to scan the field to find open receivers. And he doesn’t have that natural leadership ability we need him to have. He can’t put the team on his back and will us to win and that’s what this team needs. I feel like I’m beating a dead horse, but although we may compete for a championship in the MAC, we aren’t going to win big games if we don’t find a QB who can lead. I hate talking bad about the kid but he just needs to show more confidence. I talked to someone who hadn’t seen BG play in a few years and the first thing he told me was that our QB wasn’t as good as his stats indicate and that he looked way to shaky in the pocket.

-Issue #2: The playcalling. Checkdown, short routes, checkdown, screen, run the ball right into the offensive line with the QB (in the wildcat). Sound familiar? Is GB calling the plays from VA? Seriously, this needs to change. In the first two series, we threw the ball past 10 yards ONE time. One time. I’m not sure what is going on here. What peeved me the most though was on the first drive and particularly inside the redzone. This is a must score drive for the offense. First series of the game, the crowd is as pumped as ever. And what do we do? First and goal from the ten…false start. First and fifteen from the 15…checkdown, complete to Geter for 10 yards, down to the 5. 2nd and Goal from the 5..false start. 2nd and 10 from the 10…incomplete pass (I believe it was a screen pass). 3rd and 10 from the 10…screen pass? What? Seriously? And to the weak side of the field. WOW. Straight out of the GB guide to coaching. What I’m trying to get at here is that we did not take ONE SINGLE SHOT at the endzone. Not one. And then you know the rest, missed field goal. I can’t express how much that took out of the crowd, especially the student section. You score there, and it’s a completely different football game. But no, we run a screen pass that has about .001% chance of working. Complete letdown. I’m still trying to figure out why he didn’t at least take a shot at the endzone. And I want to see more I formation run with that leading to the play action.
What I’ve come to is this conclusion: Clawson doesn’t trust Sheehan to make plays down the field so he feels he has to call short quick passes and run plays. When those things aren’t working, you’re going to see what you saw in that first half.

Other random thoughts..
-too many penalties
-we knew our defense was going to struggle, but our offense hasn’t looked award winning either. That’s a bad recipe.
-overall, we’re a pretty young team. Hodges and Spencer are going to be good players here. Jones looked good (from what I have heard). We have seen glimpses from Hutson. Geter still has another year. Pettigrew could be a stud. Not to mention all the talent that we redshirted. There is hope. We have a lot of talent for after this year, we just need to find a QB for all that talent. That’s not a discredit to Sheehan, and I’m not saying bench him because he gives us the best chance to win, but he is a senior.
-we need to find an identity. What I see now is a team that just doesn’t know what it wants to do. Are we a spread, or are we a traditional running team? I don’t think anyone really knows because nothing has consistently worked. But I think by the end of the season we’ll have a good idea what we’re going to look like in 2 or 3 years.
-The students really want to see the team do well, but they still have that opinion that BG is going to be overmatched in every game they play. The only thing that will solve that is consistent winning.
-I’m disappointed thus far, but you have to think we have the talent to win the MAC or at least compete. I haven’t given up on the season.

[Falconfliccbone]

I thoguht the crowd was ridiculously quiet for the whole game. At the Troy game, the student section was loud and rocking the Doyt from the start of the game. For this game, half of the students didn't show up until 15 before the game started and I think they forgot to bring their voices. I thought Boise was silly to not go for the TD at the end of the first quarter because it would put them in front of the student section, which should have been loud. Nope...they were pretty silent. Then came all the points and it was silent. My high school football team has never had a game that was as quiet as the Doyt was. I have no voice today because I think I was the only one in my section to be consistently yelling.

The FMB did rock!!! I do appreciate the fact that most of the fans enjoyed the show and cheered for the band!! Kudos to the FMB for being the shining moment of the game and keeping the spirit up during the 4th quarter.

I too feel that we need to open up the playbook. Same play 3 or 4 times in a row? The defense will figure that out.

The O-line needs to get their act together. I think the center was having issues with the counts and that is part of the problem. On the dropped snap by Tyler, my dad said Tyler was still looking at the sideline and the center snapped. We can't afford those errors.

Jerry needs to get some kicks in. I feel like this the kicking team from a few years ago. But Nick did a great job at punting...especially on the one with the dropped snap.

Willie Geter....you are my hero!! He's a beast and is fun to watch. I hope he's okay to play this week!