UMass Game

[Falconfreak90]

Lucked out today. WMU, Toledo and Akron will beat this team if we continue to play like this....maybe Ohio and UB. I'm glad we won but man are we in trouble.

[Schadenfreude]

I'm trying to keep in mind that UMass really came close at Colorado and Vanderbilt. This team has improved. They may win their next two games against Miami and Eastern Michigan.

Also, I think we can already see that Roger Lewis may play on Sundays.

But all those penalties? That Falcon defense? Ugh.

Akron is looking pretty scary right now. And, honestly, so is Buffalo.

[MarkL]

Quick post game thoughts ....

When the offense gets moving, they are darn near impossible to stop. They are so pace-based. When the pace isn't there, the offense doesn't do a ton.
Knapke grew up a lot today. Learn from the picks and move on.
Our ground game is awesome.
We do have to rethink what to do late in the game with a lead. We tried slowing the pace down to eat some clock and that didn't do much good. We kept the ball on the ground and the whole defense stacked the box because they knew what we'd be doing. I think we need to run the same offense, just slightly more conservatively late in the game because our lack of ability to pick up first downs in the last five minutes nearly cost us the game.
Defense .... yeah. Run D was stout. It's nice to not play Wisconsin's O line. I expect more offenses to resemble the one we saw today than the ones we saw the last two weeks.
Secondary has got to tighten up a lot. Not that this is news.
But for a positive ... from mid third to mid fourth, we stopped them. On four straight drives. When we blitz consistently and from multiple directions, our secondary can get away with mistakes. Their only TD drive from mid third on was when we played that soft zone that I hate so much. For whatever reason they went back to the soft zone on that last drive but Gabe Martin made the play of the day in forcing that fumble.
Our injuries on D are really stacking up. But ... Turner played well when he was in. Then he got hurt. Then Gourdine stepped in and played pretty well. And did I hear that Ballew got in? I know we have some talented freshmen, so it's good to get them game experience. It will add up down the road.
There were a ton of penalties on the team but most were on the team. But with the exception of a dumb taunting penalty, the D cleaned up on those four drives from mid to late fourth quarter.
And quick side thought ... nobody expected after last year that we'd be playing so many freshmen, but then nobody expected our best D lineman, best linebacker, and best defensive back to all go down with injury. In a way this feels like the 2010 defense (which is not a good thing by any stretch). The results look like a bunch of freshmen playing out there ... because there's a bunch of freshmen playing out there. Wait until they're sophomores, juniors, etc. Flipside, we don't have an offense resembling the 2010 offense, so a porous defense can largely be compensated.
I was unhappy with the defensive scheme ... until mid third quarter. Everything started to work then. I do believe if our front seven applies pressure instead of playing prevent, we can be successful. I do not believe we can drop back and play soft zone all year and expect to get any stops. Seriously, if you rewatch this game, watch our D from mid third up until that late TD drive and try to pretend you don't see good D being played. The coordinators need to call more of that and less of the prevent.

We're 1-0 in conference play. Our offense can light up scoreboards when they keep the pace high and the mistakes low. Our D has got to step up because if they improve as the year goes on, we could easily repeat as champions. Our whole season will hinge on the play and the scheming of the D.

[musicman2343]

I'm usually willing to give coaches the benefit of the doubt. I defended Clawson when a lot of people were lighting him up for poor performance.

That being said, I am actually not going to give Babers the benefit of the doubt... This is flat out awful. I hope I am proven wrong - I really hope I am.

I know Clawson's first season was good and his second was terrible, but he lost a hell of a lot of players from one to the next.
This is different in my mind because we had a championship team on both sides of the ball and now there is no semblance of that left. This is ridiculous.

[Flipper]

We returned five starters on defense and three got hurt...this isn't last year's squad. That said...they gave up way too any big plays today. They did a better job of tackling and we brought some pressure on the qb..we also racked up some TO's and a number forced number of neg yard plays.

The offense was inconsistent...again leaving a s**t ton of points on the field.

The penalties were frustrating...and inexcusable.

It's a win against a team that had this one circled on the calendar...take it an build on it.

[Flipper]

And what's up with Mike Minns...he was a 2nd team DT at the end of the year and he hasn't played a down...

[Dayons_Den]

I liked that we forced some Turnovers today

[jpfalcon09]

We returned five starters on defense and three got hurt...this isn't last year's squad. That said...they gave up way too any big plays today. They did a better job of tackling and we brought some pressure on the qb..we also racked up some TO's and a number forced number of neg yard plays.

The offense was inconsistent...again leaving a s**t ton of points on the field.

The penalties were frustrating...and inexcusable.

It's a win against a team that had this one circled on the calendar...take it an build on it.

Yeah the injuries suck but eventually a good coaching staff figures out ways to work with what they've got. We saw some nice blitz packages today and forced turnovers, but I don't see any improvement from Week 1 to Week 4. These guys have had two months to learn the scheme and understand the packages. I still saw blown assignments from guys who have played every game this year. Either the coaching staff isn't preparing them well enough or there simply isn't much talent on that side of the ball which I find difficult to believe.

Today was an ugly, ugly game. We made an average quarterback look like Peyton Manning. Every team is going to scheme us to go pass heavy and dare us to stop them. Not much you can spin from it. If this is what we're going to expect every week then many people are going to be turned off. I'm more so disappointed in the lack of discipline that anything else today. Taking 13 penalties for over 100 yards is bad football and bad coaching, simple as that. I hope Babers makes mention of it and takes responsibility to correct it.

[MarkL]

I don't see any improvement from Week 1 to Week 4.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Week 1 I couldn't tell what our scheme was. We look disorganized, almost like chickens with their heads cut off running around. This week I can tell what we were doing. I could see the pressures we were bringing and the coverage. If we were healthy, we may be far better but we aren't so young guys are getting time and learning the schemes and the pace of the game. If we play like we did mid third to mid fourth on D, we'll be fine. Problem is we got away from that scheme late in the game and nearly coughed up the lead.

[Globetrotter]

Falcon FAST!

[Globetrotter]

I don't see any improvement from Week 1 to Week 4.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Week 1 I couldn't tell what our scheme was. We look disorganized, almost like chickens with their heads cut off running around. This week I can tell what we were doing. I could see the pressures we were bringing and the coverage. If we were healthy, we may be far better but we aren't so young guys are getting time and learning the schemes and the pace of the game. If we play like we did mid third to mid fourth on D, we'll be fine. Problem is we got away from that scheme late in the game and nearly coughed up the lead.

They had 630+ yards.

[kdog27]

And what's up with Mike Minns...he was a 2nd team DT at the end of the year and he hasn't played a down...

Probably another undisclosed injury

[kdog27]

I don't see any improvement from Week 1 to Week 4.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Week 1 I couldn't tell what our scheme was. We look disorganized, almost like chickens with their heads cut off running around. This week I can tell what we were doing. I could see the pressures we were bringing and the coverage. If we were healthy, we may be far better but we aren't so young guys are getting time and learning the schemes and the pace of the game. If we play like we did mid third to mid fourth on D, we'll be fine. Problem is we got away from that scheme late in the game and nearly coughed up the lead.

They had 630+ yards.

It's the bend but often break D.

[jpfalcon09]

I don't see any improvement from Week 1 to Week 4.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Week 1 I couldn't tell what our scheme was. We look disorganized, almost like chickens with their heads cut off running around. This week I can tell what we were doing. I could see the pressures we were bringing and the coverage. If we were healthy, we may be far better but we aren't so young guys are getting time and learning the schemes and the pace of the game. If we play like we did mid third to mid fourth on D, we'll be fine. Problem is we got away from that scheme late in the game and nearly coughed up the lead.

Allowing 600 yards, 550 which were through the air, isn't a sign of improvement. Although maybe for the defense this year, it is. Still way too many big plays allowed. You let a team score twice on you on one play drives. That's inexcusable no matter who you have on the field. This program needs a convincing win in the worst way. I'm happy the defense buckled down on that final drive and got a huge turnover, but you can't simply rely on that every game and expect to win. Consistency is a huge problem with the team so far this year.

[MarkL]

I don't see any improvement from Week 1 to Week 4.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Week 1 I couldn't tell what our scheme was. We look disorganized, almost like chickens with their heads cut off running around. This week I can tell what we were doing. I could see the pressures we were bringing and the coverage. If we were healthy, we may be far better but we aren't so young guys are getting time and learning the schemes and the pace of the game. If we play like we did mid third to mid fourth on D, we'll be fine. Problem is we got away from that scheme late in the game and nearly coughed up the lead.

They had 630+ yards.

Yet for mid third to mid fourth they shut UMass out. It was a mix of better scheme (hey coaches!!) and better play. They CAN play well but I've not seen a consistent effort even in a game yet. I do believe the D will continue to improve as the year goes on. And they also started at a low, low point so improvement is necessary. Secondary needs to play tighter so the front seven doesn't have to bail them out all the time.