Ok Griz Nation, it’s the next day and there’s plenty of assessment of what happened and what went wrong for the Griz last night. We really did see two Griz teams, the first half team had it going and was doing most all things right. The second half team though... well we all know the end result. I’ve seen suggestions of scheme, fatigue, fans, tackling, drops, poor adjustments, and more and I think really a little bit of everything most likely contributed to one of the most deflating collapses we’ve seen from the Griz in quite a while.
As always I wanted to share some thoughts and takeaways.
- If this is the start of the Gresch Jensen era we’re in great hands. He skillfully moved the offense and didn’t look like an RS Frosh much with some great touch on his passes and some gutsy decisions. His mobility showed up too which forced the EWU defense to always keep an eye on him and keep passing lanes open. It wasn’t all great of course, he was behind WRs occasionally and would rush throws when stepping up in the pocket sometimes that lead to some skipped passes. His INT was a youthful mistake, just trying to force a pass into double coverage to avoid a sack. I’m sure in film they’ll go over that he should’ve just thrown the pass away or take the sack there.
- Dropped passes aren’t the sole thing to pin this loss on, and I don’t think anyone is doing that, but boy it was probably the biggest factor in failures with efficiency on the offense. There were a few drops, some tough contested passes, one by Curran early but they rebounded from that, the 4th down pass to JLM that was in his hands and knocked out. But the drops greatly compounded in the 2nd half and as it’s been said on here already, the two tougher contested passes to Akem and then the wide open drop by LT swung in the 3rd could have broken EWU’s back. Any of those get hauled in and it’s 31-13 with just a little over a quarter to play.
- The improvements to the O-line through solid coaching by Germer and conditioning by Nicholson showed up again. Gresch was sacked just twice and rushed a few other times, but the OL otherwise protected well. Run blocking wasn’t bad either. I was a little frustrated that while the OL was getting a the minimum 2-3 yards per most inside carry that late in the game on 4th and 2 it was opted to throw a slow developing screen pass that wound up being a turnover on downs. Rely on the guys that are doing the work and get that push for another first.
- As suggested to me by another fan after the game it seems like maybe EWU used the 1st half to feel out what the Griz would show them and then they’d counter-punch in the 2nd half. If that’s the case it worked damn well. The Griz defense especially couldn’t seem to find an answer to what EWU threw at them in the 2nd half. Hurry up and quick screens to counter a softer cushion in coverage and no man pressing the slot WR turned into gain after gain after gain. It’s a double-edged sword though, last year the Griz went man most of the time and took those short routes away but then got beat deep over the top way too much. This year they’ve adjusted to account for that but last night those shorter routes and the hurry up offense seemed to stun the D and no adjustment or recovery was made for it.
- Tucker Schye had himself yet another ballgame. 3 sacks, 4.5 TFLs, and another FF and recovery. I have no idea if he can keep this pace all season but if so he’s shaping up to be one of the most feared DE’s in the conference. I was worried teams would key in on him and totally take him out of the game, but with the need to also watch Buss and now with Rodriguez emerging you’d think Tucker’s opportunities are going to continue. Kidder passing down #37 to Tucker seems to have been a great decision.
- I really like the Simis wildcat series and it resulted in a TD. I’d really like to see that come out more than once a game. Additionally Makena can throw it as we all know, so if we can get some sets where he passes it too… man, that could be a fun portion of the offense to develop.
- Rough game at times for Josh Sandry, juked a few times and then a real costly PI on a 4th down pass where the pass was overthrown to the point where he probably didn’t need to pull the WR’s jersey. He’s a young guy and I don’t think this shakes my confidence in him… he’ll learn and rebound from it.
- I was really liking what I saw from the rush defense through most of the game and the RZ defense in the first half at least. EWU made a few trips into the RZ and wound up only being able to attempt fieldgoals. Unfortunately that unraveled as the game went on. It felt like things were working well overall and then suddenly with EWU’s opening 3rd quarter drive it wasn’t.
- Alijah Lee had a great game, I’d posted last week that each week he gets better and better, and last night was no exception. We’ve got a good 1-2 punch with Lee and Calhoun and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see even more of Lee on 1st and 2nd down situations when a guy like him with a faster burst than Calhoun can add some more yards. Calhoun got a little dinged up again but keeps showing he’s a good power back and a downhill runner but still hasn’t been able to break through much and burst out into the open field like Lee does. It’s fine though, as long as we’ve got the two it’s a great mix.
- Brandon Purdy still hasn’t missed a PAT or fieldgoal. Awesome
- I thought Ryan McKinley had a good game breaking up passes and sticking on his guy. Some fans around me were a little frustrated with him though in situations where he wouldn’t very aggressively get after WRs that had just made a catch. He stuck to his cover well and had some key breakups through the game. Markell Sanders also was good when EWU attacked downfield, a very nice pick to end a drive where EWU was threatening to put some points up.
- I’m not sure what the kickoff return blocking scheme was but every time Toure got to the 20 yard line he faced 5 to 6 totally unblocked EWU players. Someone posted that Toure “played scared” back there… I disagree, I think he just was tired of getting destroyed by a group of white jerseys that were flying at him full speed and unblocked. That was a punishment he took last night. Not sure what the breakdown was but that needs to be analyzed on film.
- Safety is now paper thin depending on the health of Evan Epperly who went out late. Mick Delaney appeared to suffer a pretty major injury based on seeing him in street clothes, on crutches, and with his whole leg in a brace, and then Ep hits the wall funny and appeared to also hurt his leg. Sandry re-aggravated his ankle injury too, Strong still has that club on. That puts us down to very few fully healthy safeties.
- On the injury front I’m really hoping that some of the others seen last night weren’t too bad. Calhoun and Curran both didn’t return, and I think as evidenced by some dropped passes by less experienced players Curran was missed out there in the 3rd/4th quarter. Buss got hurt but came back. I think we had a few OL guys looking pretty banged up late as well.
--------------------
OK Griz Nation – where do we go from here? The Griz hit the road for a pivotal 2 game stretch that promises to test the hell out of them and while it’s still early to talk about “must win” you feel that sentiment creeping in. And while we’re all pissed and fuming today, believe me, so are the players and so is the coaching staff.
We’ve seen Griz teams lose in bad/frustrating fashions before and we’ve seen two outcomes. The first is that the team rallies to each other, builds from it, and gets better. The second is essentially the opposite and they continue to lose focus and things just get worse. I have faith that these guys can rebound and get things back on track. Don’t give up on these guys Griz Nation! They need your support!
Go Griz!
As always I wanted to share some thoughts and takeaways.
- If this is the start of the Gresch Jensen era we’re in great hands. He skillfully moved the offense and didn’t look like an RS Frosh much with some great touch on his passes and some gutsy decisions. His mobility showed up too which forced the EWU defense to always keep an eye on him and keep passing lanes open. It wasn’t all great of course, he was behind WRs occasionally and would rush throws when stepping up in the pocket sometimes that lead to some skipped passes. His INT was a youthful mistake, just trying to force a pass into double coverage to avoid a sack. I’m sure in film they’ll go over that he should’ve just thrown the pass away or take the sack there.
- Dropped passes aren’t the sole thing to pin this loss on, and I don’t think anyone is doing that, but boy it was probably the biggest factor in failures with efficiency on the offense. There were a few drops, some tough contested passes, one by Curran early but they rebounded from that, the 4th down pass to JLM that was in his hands and knocked out. But the drops greatly compounded in the 2nd half and as it’s been said on here already, the two tougher contested passes to Akem and then the wide open drop by LT swung in the 3rd could have broken EWU’s back. Any of those get hauled in and it’s 31-13 with just a little over a quarter to play.
- The improvements to the O-line through solid coaching by Germer and conditioning by Nicholson showed up again. Gresch was sacked just twice and rushed a few other times, but the OL otherwise protected well. Run blocking wasn’t bad either. I was a little frustrated that while the OL was getting a the minimum 2-3 yards per most inside carry that late in the game on 4th and 2 it was opted to throw a slow developing screen pass that wound up being a turnover on downs. Rely on the guys that are doing the work and get that push for another first.
- As suggested to me by another fan after the game it seems like maybe EWU used the 1st half to feel out what the Griz would show them and then they’d counter-punch in the 2nd half. If that’s the case it worked damn well. The Griz defense especially couldn’t seem to find an answer to what EWU threw at them in the 2nd half. Hurry up and quick screens to counter a softer cushion in coverage and no man pressing the slot WR turned into gain after gain after gain. It’s a double-edged sword though, last year the Griz went man most of the time and took those short routes away but then got beat deep over the top way too much. This year they’ve adjusted to account for that but last night those shorter routes and the hurry up offense seemed to stun the D and no adjustment or recovery was made for it.
- Tucker Schye had himself yet another ballgame. 3 sacks, 4.5 TFLs, and another FF and recovery. I have no idea if he can keep this pace all season but if so he’s shaping up to be one of the most feared DE’s in the conference. I was worried teams would key in on him and totally take him out of the game, but with the need to also watch Buss and now with Rodriguez emerging you’d think Tucker’s opportunities are going to continue. Kidder passing down #37 to Tucker seems to have been a great decision.
- I really like the Simis wildcat series and it resulted in a TD. I’d really like to see that come out more than once a game. Additionally Makena can throw it as we all know, so if we can get some sets where he passes it too… man, that could be a fun portion of the offense to develop.
- Rough game at times for Josh Sandry, juked a few times and then a real costly PI on a 4th down pass where the pass was overthrown to the point where he probably didn’t need to pull the WR’s jersey. He’s a young guy and I don’t think this shakes my confidence in him… he’ll learn and rebound from it.
- I was really liking what I saw from the rush defense through most of the game and the RZ defense in the first half at least. EWU made a few trips into the RZ and wound up only being able to attempt fieldgoals. Unfortunately that unraveled as the game went on. It felt like things were working well overall and then suddenly with EWU’s opening 3rd quarter drive it wasn’t.
- Alijah Lee had a great game, I’d posted last week that each week he gets better and better, and last night was no exception. We’ve got a good 1-2 punch with Lee and Calhoun and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see even more of Lee on 1st and 2nd down situations when a guy like him with a faster burst than Calhoun can add some more yards. Calhoun got a little dinged up again but keeps showing he’s a good power back and a downhill runner but still hasn’t been able to break through much and burst out into the open field like Lee does. It’s fine though, as long as we’ve got the two it’s a great mix.
- Brandon Purdy still hasn’t missed a PAT or fieldgoal. Awesome
- I thought Ryan McKinley had a good game breaking up passes and sticking on his guy. Some fans around me were a little frustrated with him though in situations where he wouldn’t very aggressively get after WRs that had just made a catch. He stuck to his cover well and had some key breakups through the game. Markell Sanders also was good when EWU attacked downfield, a very nice pick to end a drive where EWU was threatening to put some points up.
- I’m not sure what the kickoff return blocking scheme was but every time Toure got to the 20 yard line he faced 5 to 6 totally unblocked EWU players. Someone posted that Toure “played scared” back there… I disagree, I think he just was tired of getting destroyed by a group of white jerseys that were flying at him full speed and unblocked. That was a punishment he took last night. Not sure what the breakdown was but that needs to be analyzed on film.
- Safety is now paper thin depending on the health of Evan Epperly who went out late. Mick Delaney appeared to suffer a pretty major injury based on seeing him in street clothes, on crutches, and with his whole leg in a brace, and then Ep hits the wall funny and appeared to also hurt his leg. Sandry re-aggravated his ankle injury too, Strong still has that club on. That puts us down to very few fully healthy safeties.
- On the injury front I’m really hoping that some of the others seen last night weren’t too bad. Calhoun and Curran both didn’t return, and I think as evidenced by some dropped passes by less experienced players Curran was missed out there in the 3rd/4th quarter. Buss got hurt but came back. I think we had a few OL guys looking pretty banged up late as well.
--------------------
OK Griz Nation – where do we go from here? The Griz hit the road for a pivotal 2 game stretch that promises to test the hell out of them and while it’s still early to talk about “must win” you feel that sentiment creeping in. And while we’re all pissed and fuming today, believe me, so are the players and so is the coaching staff.
We’ve seen Griz teams lose in bad/frustrating fashions before and we’ve seen two outcomes. The first is that the team rallies to each other, builds from it, and gets better. The second is essentially the opposite and they continue to lose focus and things just get worse. I have faith that these guys can rebound and get things back on track. Don’t give up on these guys Griz Nation! They need your support!
Go Griz!
