There's really not much to say to summarize a blowout like this. It was pretty clearly expected to go this way today and after a slow start the Griz got rolling and clearly showed who was the better team today. After the opening MVSU touchdown and then the Gus fumble I was wondering if we'd have a game, however a Strahm pick-6 set the tone for the rest of the game and the Griz rolled from there.
Mississippi Valley State served as a division 1 win, which I prefer over beating a division 2 team, but after that this game turned out to be not much of a challenge on the field. I know that the program likes to book a tune-up / bodybag game and this year I'm glad it was a win that counted towards needed division 1 wins. Beyond that, MVSU was a terrible team. I've honestly seen better division 2 teams play in Wa Griz.
A few observations;
- overall a pretty good day again for the o line, just two noticeable breakdowns, both lead to Gustafson fumbles. One was lost, the other ruled a lateral out of bounds. Blocking in the run game was pretty good too.
- a very consistent passing game for Gus, nice to see him dialed in and more accurate today. Hopefully a sign of more to come.
- I liked Homan in the slot in place of a resting JLM. This kid makes a ton of great plays and I like how Stitt and company and trying to find ways to get more of their playmakers on the field at the same time.
-'what an impressive TD catch and run by Keenan Curran. We're seeing more and more our young WRs starting to make plays veteran players usually do.
- Both Bigmham and Horner had good days. These two have settled in to be a dangerous combo of big dudes at the H WR spot.
- Defensively it was a great team effort. Obviously Strahm righted the ship and then we saw almost every linebacker make tremendous plays on the day. The D line had good pressure throughout too.
- it looked to me that the 1st string secondary was on an island the whole game. It worked for the most part but did give up a few longer plays.
- I missed a few of the controversial calls but it sounded like there was some real frustration with officiating. Mostly when Semenza got rocked after a PAT and then real late on a safety... which didn't matter because the defense turned it into a TD a play later.
- some more concerns with kicking and Semenza looked pretty beat up post game...
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Back to conference play next week with Sac State coming to town. The level of speed and skill will dramatically go up and I'm looking forward to seeing how this team takes today's blowout win and builds on it against a conference foe.
Go Griz!
