Post Game: Humbling loss

[first11]

BW pretty much nailed it

NAU came out focused, intense, in a zone pushed us around

Griz looked timid and confused....flat footed and got schooled

Lumberjacks still have a long way to go as we, upcoming games this next weekend will tell a lot more about prospects for either of us.

If NAU brings the same intensity to bozeman look out cats, likewise if we "show" up like last evening not ready to compete......gulp!

 

[Rookgriz]

Time to regroup....after they got punched in the mouth last night repeatedly only thing left to do is get up, dust yourself off and look forward to the next game.... maybe this loss will light a fire under these guys and keep them from thinking they can just stroll into other teams stadiums and easily win

 

[spsyk]

Great synopsis of what you saw.

Fair and accurate, more important not projecting what you wanted to see and happen.

 

[big kahuna]

BW is spot on about the decision to not kick the field goal early. Down 14-6, after being worked early, would have been a pretty decent result. Instead, the turnover changes the entire outlook. On the road, early, always take the points.

 

[Huge]

- For supposedly being the best O-line in the conference our guys up front were embarrassed tonight. Lots of sacks, tons of pressure and knockdowns - and usually just rushing 4. Multiple plays were some of our supposedly best linemen like Poole and Kistler whiffing guys or missing their assignment and giving NAU a free shot to Jordy. Multiple false starts, holding penalties, and even a chop-block call. Many times the penalties were drive-killers early on.

Griz had some bad bounces (literally) in this game, but i was shocked by how the O-line got dominated. Looked like they could not handle the quickness of NAU. Poole had a terrible game! It also seemed like the coaches did not respond with plays to counter the pressure (well timed screens, draws, hot routs, etc.) early enough in the game.

Hopefully a wake up call and not just an indication of being over rated from playing crappy teams.

 

[PlayerRep]

I have no problem with the 4th down play call. An aggressive and confident team probably goes for it most of the time in that situation. Mainly because an incredibly unforeseen play happens, i.e. a fumble and 98 yard fumble return for TD, some of you want to question the call after-the-fact. Many of you have wanted UM to be more aggressive and go for it more often. That was the decision. Had the play worked, most of you would be praising the call. This isn't the NFL where the play-calling is very conservative and formulaic.

 

[stubbins]

I have no problem with the 4th down play call. An aggressive and confident team probably goes for it most of the time in that situation. Mainly because an incredibly unforeseen play happens, i.e. a fumble and 98 yard fumble return for TD, some of you want to question the call after-the-fact. Many of you have wanted UM to be more aggressive and go for it more often. That was the decision. Had the play worked, most of you would be praising the call. This isn't the NFL where the play-calling is very conservative and formulaic.

I liked the call as well...in a normal scenario, you either score or set up your defense in great position.

I understand both sides of the equation, but I don't think you go wrong with either call...

 

[GottaluvGriz]

I have no problem with the 4th down play call. An aggressive and confident team probably goes for it most of the time in that situation. Mainly because an incredibly unforeseen play happens, i.e. a fumble and 98 yard fumble return for TD, some of you want to question the call after-the-fact. Many of you have wanted UM to be more aggressive and go for it more often. That was the decision. Had the play worked, most of you would be praising the call. This isn't the NFL where the play-calling is very conservative and formulaic.

I disagree because it was 4th and 4 yards to go. It should have been a no-brainier. Kick the field goal and the game is 14-6 and we are within one possession of a tie. After the start we had, it would be a momentum change and we get the ball to start the 2nd half.
4th and one to go would be a different decision and many would decide to go for it.

 

[Robsnotes4u]

I have no problem with the 4th down play call. An aggressive and confident team probably goes for it most of the time in that situation. Mainly because an incredibly unforeseen play happens, i.e. a fumble and 98 yard fumble return for TD, some of you want to question the call after-the-fact. Many of you have wanted UM to be more aggressive and go for it more often. That was the decision. Had the play worked, most of you would be praising the call. This isn't the NFL where the play-calling is very conservative and formulaic.

Good point. If you have a great defense, which before the game they we put on a pedestal as the best, making the call to go for it makes sense. You score a TD great, if not, your great defense has them pinned up against the goal line. You played aggressive, and field position.

How many times out of 100 does a fumble happen and returned for a TD from there? So little that doesn't even come into the decision process.

I was not happy at first and made a post right away, but once the emotions are out of it, the call was right and I would do it again. The coach needs to say the same thing.
The thing is that play did not win or lose the game.


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[Blgs Griz Fan]

The 4th and goal was a bad call because the Jacks were pushing the defense around earlier. Take the 3 point and live to play another day.
Catsrback...great post.

 

[PlayerRep]

The 4th and goal was a bad call because the Jacks were pushing the defense around earlier. Take the 3 point and live to play another day.
Catsrback...great post.

UM had just driven 86 yards in just over 5 minutes. UM had the momentum. NAU's defense was not pushing UM around on that drive. Again, I'm fine with call. Kicking a FG from the 2 at that point in the game would have been a very conservative, and wimpy, call.

 

[Blgs Griz Fan]

PR, and the NAU lead would have been 8 points. That turnover cost momentum and ultimately the game. Take away the two fumbles for td's and add the 3 point fg and the game is 20 to 19 resulting in a game easily within reach.
Delaney and staff called a horrible game and the players suffered from it. It's time to shorten the leash on Delaney et al. The players deserve better.

 

[CV Griz Fan]

Clearly this was a humbling loss for the griz, but as wise posters have shared, one game does not a season make. Suffice it to say that the griz are not as bad as this loss nor the Cats as good as their win. Still more to be seen, but the field is indeed leveling out and we are seeing more and able to really get a read on the conference. It's a good season that is shaping up before us!

This is a good and realistic post from a rival. I said it a few weeks back. The BSC race will be a war this year. It will probably come down to the last weekend of the season. Now that the "can the Griz beat NDSU?" nonsense will die down, the Griz can focus on the more realistic goal of competing for a BSC championship.

 

[grizcountry420]

The 4th and goal was a bad call because the Jacks were pushing the defense around earlier. Take the 3 point and live to play another day.
Catsrback...great post.

UM had just driven 86 yards in just over 5 minutes. UM had the momentum. NAU's defense was not pushing UM around on that drive. Again, I'm fine with call. Kicking a FG from the 2 at that point in the game would have been a very conservative, and wimpy, call.

:roll:

 

[mtgriz]

Didn't like the 4th down call to go for it, and said so while they were huddling for the ill-fated roll out option play. NAU had just stuffed two runs in a row, regardless of the Griz driving it down to there. I thought it was a sign of premature desperation, much like all the chucks down the field.

 

[tnt]

Brint nailed it. If this team has the character everyone says, we"ll be fine maybe even better. No one in the BSC will be undefeated this year. Those days are gone forever. A lot of us were quiet this week because we could almost feel it coming. In the two weeks we basically had no action, you could see attitudes changing in not only the players but in the fans. I hate to use the "pride goes before the fall" BUT this is a time where it fits.

The latter part of Brints post was dead on. There were ac few players taking a position of importance they hsdn't earned yet.

I'll disagree with Brint on the 4th and goal call. Missing the first down would have been preferable to missing an angled chip shot for a true frosh kicker in his first start. At the time no one could predict whether the line could have protected him anyway. I wasn't convinced they could have held back Hellgate at that point. BTW who fumbled and could have predicted it would have been returned 99 yards. At that point there should have been a mass exodus to buy power ball tickets.
'

 

[grizatheart]

The couple of impressions I'm taking away are this: The two D-Tackles for NAU played in beast mode last night. We simply had no answer for them. We still suffer from sub par safety play. Poor angles, missed tackles, and just being out of position is haunting us.
NAU played man free and did nothing is disguise it last night. We need to have the ability to take advantage of this when we see it. I think we can beat these guys if we don't beat ourselves. Also, even tho NAU moved this game to family weekend so they could get a big crowd and a sell out, they are not that loud of a crowd.

 

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

The 4th and goal was a bad call because the Jacks were pushing the defense around earlier. Take the 3 point and live to play another day.
Catsrback...great post.

UM had just driven 86 yards in just over 5 minutes. UM had the momentum. NAU's defense was not pushing UM around on that drive. Again, I'm fine with call. Kicking a FG from the 2 at that point in the game would have been a very conservative, and wimpy, call.

Man I fu*king hate agreeing with you and its kinda sick that you of all people are the only one that gets it.............but you are 100% correct.

Its very telling that we lost by 18 points and these guys are complaining about one FG. NAU missed a FG so it evened out. Hell looking back at the game even if we score a TD on that play we still lose because they physically kicked our asses.

It was a great call and still is.

 

[griznation23]

:roll: I agree... we got our A$$@$ handed to us. Oline sucked A$$@$, recievers couldnt catch a freaking pass, nothing worked for the Griz period. One critical item that we lost, "Baumen" he wasn't down with anybodys shoulder bumps. Was Freaking useless with D. Griz lost period. now time to get back in the game.

 

[Chester Cheetah]

I mentioned this on another thread but why are we not running it right at a team like NAU that's smaller up front (other than their massive nose tackle)? That is the strength of this O line. One play stood out when a blitzer who was probably at least 80 pounds lighter stood Poehls up and pushed him straight back. That is not using these guy's best skills.

It was like last year, running east/west stuff when north/south is our forte. You can do some east/west with Van, other than that file 13. Pound it with quick hitters and use play action off of it. It may not be sexy but it works best for this group on offense. It sucked that we hardly used the power set with the fullback and extra TE. Geddes, Charlie and I and also almost choked when the fullback shifted out to the slot. That is not what he does best.

How about we ram it down people's craw, it plays to our Oline's best skills.....working pretty well for Stanford. Let's take it out on PSU next week. I'll be there...

I may be wrong but I think the Griz running game sucked all night except for maybe one or two plays. They tried a couple similar, if not the same runs up the middle to the right on 2nd and 3rd down before that 4th down blunder. Time to take Jordan Tripp's name of the Buck Buchanen watch list too. Bauman completely ran him over to score that one TD. It reminded me of that big muscle head on the movie, The Program, getting ran over after he stopped juicing. The Griz do not have the best front seven in the Big Sky, let alone the FCS, so let's stop that nonsense right now. This team may be good, but thus far are far from great.

I'm drunk so don't take it personally but you say to take Jordan Tripp off the Buchanen Watch List. I'm Drunk but are you High? Seemed like he made several score saving tackles tonight and a INT. Props to JP and Coyle Too. Hope you are not suggesting JT is juicing with your movie reference either.

NAU used a couple of plays that took advantage of Tripp's tendency to not stay home and overpursue. That was probably by design.