Sandry had a few missed assignments. Lots of big plays by our defense. Not sure what the game plan was, design to keep it pretty basic or not. Hope so, or things could get rough. Probably the first game we really have any idea of how good we are is EWU. Next week is going to be brutal.
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Post Game: Griz shake off the rust late
- Thread starter BWahlberg
- Start date
mtgrizrule
Well-known member
WOW, egriz never fails to disappoint. After reading through the threads, during and after the Valpo game, I wonder, "Where is the faith, GRIZ NATION?" GRIZ fans, we are better than some of the crap that I saw posted here.
Despite being without key defensive players, having a 1st time starting QB, a lot of Redshirt FR and Sophomores, this team finished strong! There is a lot to like as well, about this GRIZ team.
Yes,this game was much closer for longer than it should have been. The defense has to minimize giving up big plays. They have to generate more QB pressure. The DE's (Favoroso especially) has to set the edge and contain better. Credit to Valpo's qb's for extending plays and minimizing QB pressures. Despite not having many QB sacks, the DL did not give their QB's a lot of time. A healthier Sandry and Strong likely do not give up that many big plays. I do feel the lack of depth in the secondary really hurt the defense. It looked to me, the reason the GRIZ had LB's so often in coverage was due to not having enough secondary depth to play nickel and dime packages. I feel Semore was forced to be very limited and vanilla with defense for this reason. I feel, with better health and depth, the secondary and overall defense will improve. Credit Valpo for recognizing mismatches of LB's in coverage and forcing inexperienced safeties to make decisions. It takes a well coached team and intelligent players to recognize, execute, and capitalize in those opportunities. Fortunately, Valpo fell short physically and depth.
I hope the GRIZ are healthier on defense against the Huskies. Otherwise, the GRIZ offense will have to put up a lot of points. Speaking of offense, Reese Phillips gave us reason to believe in him and the offense. He is an accurate passer that can make most all the throws (needs to improve on outs). He is not afraid to give his WR's opportunities to make plays. He distributes the ball well to many weapons. Even his interception was not his fault. It was nice to see a GRIZ qb be able to show the ability to get rid of the ball quickly and also be able to process multiple reads/transgressions. Folks, we very seldom got to see any GRIZ qb get to reads/transgressions the last few years, due to the OL allowing way too much QB pressure. I applaud the OL for consistently giving Phillips the time to make decisions. That alone was encouraging to this fan. However, they managed to impress me more.
To my surprise and likening, Stitt allowed Jensen to get a few legitimate reps, by doing more than just handing the ball off and running out the clock. I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of getting a young QB that kind of experience. That will pay off down the road. I am glad, I stayed the whole game and got to see Jensen. He looked terrific too. Granted, I was hoping he would get a quarter to a half. Coach Stitt fully took advantage of the opportunity though. I hope we see more of this as the season progresses. I feel Coach Stitt and the QB's did a terrific job.
I really am looking forward to watching the GRIZ WR's develop. Akem, Toure, Corbin, Taylor, Nagler all have the look. As this unit and QB's gain experience, the offense should continue to mature. Then again, how much they mature all depends on how well the OL can play. Speaking of which, I do feel the OL has to improve in run blocking. As for pass blocking, they are well ahead of the last few years.
Special teams was a mixed bag. There were no mistakes in kicking. The kickoff coverage team had a few problems. Punting was TERRIFIC!! Eric Williams did his job as well as a punter can do. His punts were high and long. Bobby Hauck would have been proud of a performance like Williams'.
Biggest opportunities for improvement moving on:
(1) Improved run blocking.
(2) Healthy secondary to allow the coaches to mix things up in personnel and strategy
(3) Continual develop of our QB's and young WR's.
(4) Better DL push and containing the edges.
(5) Fans realizing how young the GRIZ are and have some patience and faith!
Despite being without key defensive players, having a 1st time starting QB, a lot of Redshirt FR and Sophomores, this team finished strong! There is a lot to like as well, about this GRIZ team.
Yes,this game was much closer for longer than it should have been. The defense has to minimize giving up big plays. They have to generate more QB pressure. The DE's (Favoroso especially) has to set the edge and contain better. Credit to Valpo's qb's for extending plays and minimizing QB pressures. Despite not having many QB sacks, the DL did not give their QB's a lot of time. A healthier Sandry and Strong likely do not give up that many big plays. I do feel the lack of depth in the secondary really hurt the defense. It looked to me, the reason the GRIZ had LB's so often in coverage was due to not having enough secondary depth to play nickel and dime packages. I feel Semore was forced to be very limited and vanilla with defense for this reason. I feel, with better health and depth, the secondary and overall defense will improve. Credit Valpo for recognizing mismatches of LB's in coverage and forcing inexperienced safeties to make decisions. It takes a well coached team and intelligent players to recognize, execute, and capitalize in those opportunities. Fortunately, Valpo fell short physically and depth.
I hope the GRIZ are healthier on defense against the Huskies. Otherwise, the GRIZ offense will have to put up a lot of points. Speaking of offense, Reese Phillips gave us reason to believe in him and the offense. He is an accurate passer that can make most all the throws (needs to improve on outs). He is not afraid to give his WR's opportunities to make plays. He distributes the ball well to many weapons. Even his interception was not his fault. It was nice to see a GRIZ qb be able to show the ability to get rid of the ball quickly and also be able to process multiple reads/transgressions. Folks, we very seldom got to see any GRIZ qb get to reads/transgressions the last few years, due to the OL allowing way too much QB pressure. I applaud the OL for consistently giving Phillips the time to make decisions. That alone was encouraging to this fan. However, they managed to impress me more.
To my surprise and likening, Stitt allowed Jensen to get a few legitimate reps, by doing more than just handing the ball off and running out the clock. I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of getting a young QB that kind of experience. That will pay off down the road. I am glad, I stayed the whole game and got to see Jensen. He looked terrific too. Granted, I was hoping he would get a quarter to a half. Coach Stitt fully took advantage of the opportunity though. I hope we see more of this as the season progresses. I feel Coach Stitt and the QB's did a terrific job.
I really am looking forward to watching the GRIZ WR's develop. Akem, Toure, Corbin, Taylor, Nagler all have the look. As this unit and QB's gain experience, the offense should continue to mature. Then again, how much they mature all depends on how well the OL can play. Speaking of which, I do feel the OL has to improve in run blocking. As for pass blocking, they are well ahead of the last few years.
Special teams was a mixed bag. There were no mistakes in kicking. The kickoff coverage team had a few problems. Punting was TERRIFIC!! Eric Williams did his job as well as a punter can do. His punts were high and long. Bobby Hauck would have been proud of a performance like Williams'.
Biggest opportunities for improvement moving on:
(1) Improved run blocking.
(2) Healthy secondary to allow the coaches to mix things up in personnel and strategy
(3) Continual develop of our QB's and young WR's.
(4) Better DL push and containing the edges.
(5) Fans realizing how young the GRIZ are and have some patience and faith!
I'll just say this:
If we're back to complaining constantly about ugly wins, we may finally be back to our dominance of old. :lol:
If we're back to complaining constantly about ugly wins, we may finally be back to our dominance of old. :lol:
Is it ever "nice" for the first game? I always sweat my ass off. I can't wait for winter.AZGrizFan said:
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Copper Griz
Well-known member
The DE's (Favoroso especially) has to set the edge and contain better.
This is one of the key things that drove me nuts yesterday. Cleaning this issue up would go a long way. Favoroso will be on hell of a player is he commits to assignment football. The secondary concerns me greatly. I realize there are players who are hurt and dinged up, but how many damn times did receivers get behind our safeties? It was clear there was some confusion and Valpo's coach exploited the hell out of what he saw as opportunities. JS needs to figure it out. A lot of what I saw yesterday falls on the back of the D Coordinator.
This is one of the key things that drove me nuts yesterday. Cleaning this issue up would go a long way. Favoroso will be on hell of a player is he commits to assignment football. The secondary concerns me greatly. I realize there are players who are hurt and dinged up, but how many damn times did receivers get behind our safeties? It was clear there was some confusion and Valpo's coach exploited the hell out of what he saw as opportunities. JS needs to figure it out. A lot of what I saw yesterday falls on the back of the D Coordinator.
Jaredkuehn
Well-known member
get'em_griz said:
I had that same thought yesterday. We had our 2 year old with us and had to bail early because of the heat.
mtgrizfankb
Well-known member
We should have won by 130, Phillips shouldn't have a incomplete pass. We should average 12 yards per carry. We should sack the QB every play and never give up any points. We're supposed to be perfect game 1. ............okay now for real, this was what we needed. It was a tune up game and that's exactly what we did. We started shaky and got some things together and ended the game playing pretty darn well. However, we would have liked the D to be a little more. Dominating but we had a lot of changes for the D. By time we play EWU a lot of what we saw on D will be corrected
uofmman1122 said:
:thumb:
grizaremoregooder said:
I'm quite certain the reason it wasn't a night game was because of travel logistics for Valpo. Make that a night game, and they're going to demand another night's hotel stay from us. Figure 200 people at $100 per, and it's pretty easy to see why UM wouldn't want to do that. Sucks for the fans, but you gotta pay the bills.
polsongrizz
Well-known member
This^^^get'em_griz said:
GrizzleMoose said:
This is my Growler impression. I was sitting next to a former Griz starting o-lineman from several years. He liked the o-line play, including the holes created in run blocking, the number of times the team ran "power" earlier in the game, and the pounding it early at the goal line. He thought the Griz should have run the ball more. Chuck Burton. I felt that defenders caught our backs too my times on low tackles after the back had gotten through a nice hole. Should have gotten more yardage out of some of those runs. Not blaming the backs; this just seemed to happen too often.
Copper Griz said:
Said same thing about edge contain in the game thread. He looked like a high school kid trying to make a glory sack instead of assignment football. If their QB had more speed it would have been ugly. Just because the tackle let's you go inside doesn't mean you should. His outside arm was sucked in numerous times, no way to fight off the blok and get outside contain. If Semore doesn't see this and fix it he is worthless. Randy R was far superior in assignments
griznative24
Well-known member
uofmman1122 said:
Not at all. Sanders got burned 4 times in a row. Cowans is going to be good
grizaremoregooder
Well-known member
When they had a home and away with App St. a few years back it was a night game. You are right about the travel logistics for Valpo and the cost associated with it. I was in the North Endzone and the older fans really, really struggled with the heat. I saw one elderly gentlemen damn near pass out and fall down the stairs that was some scary stuff. It was hotter than the inside of Satan's asshole on Saturday.EverettGriz said:
mtgriz said:
He's my new favorite player. Does all the little things right. Loves football, the Griz, and his team. Listened to a colter interview and he said Sammy's enthusiasm is contagious and he's already developing as a leader.
