A few thoughts.
The Griz couldn't defend the swing passes to the sidelines. The EWU receivers, or some of them, are good blockers, but UM needed to make more of those plays. From the upper deck, I could hear the Griz coaches screaming in the second half, for the secondary to read quicker and come up faster. Don't think this was only for the swing passes.
Gabrud wasn't always on with his longer passes, but he sure was good at moving and scrambling, and then finding the open receiver. Did this time and time again. Thank good the south end zone back line was not 18 inches longer.
The sequence before and after Jensen's pick was just a killer. Think I read that EWU scored 14 in 27 seconds.
The plays weren't coming in fast enough for the D to get set up. Were slow getting in position multiple times. EWU took advantage of us at times with their super hurry-up. Too many missed tackles, especially in space. Those usually aren't easy tackles, but we needed to do better.
The conference needs to do something about EWU constantly faking injuries to slow down the Griz O. Happened multiple times. After being down for a bit, the players would get up and walk off and not even go to the trainers or training table. I wonder if any of them didn't come back in the game right away. Total BS.
Giving up the long kickoff return to start the second half was a bad way to start the half, and led to EWU getting off to a good start with a TD.
As Brint noted, the KO return game was pretty weak. Either EWU's coverage was super, or our guys weren't blocking. I would have put in JLM for KO's later in the game.
FG's and extra points continue to be perfect.
We needed Williams to get off some 50 plus yard punts. Didn't happen. 6 for 35.5 with a long of 40..
Nice game by the backers, especially Buss. Strahm played well, but he would have been better and more up to game speed and condition, if he had played more this season. AS I thought would occur, Strahm started the second series and played the rest of the game.
Thought our D seemed to tire a bit. 96 plays by both teams.
Note sure I would have gone for it on 4th down, I think the first time we did it. We were ahead. Why not pin EWU pack, and give the defense a better start.
EWU is better than I thought, as is Gabrud. The top EWU receivers had 18 and 13 receptions.
Longest pass given up was 50. The two top receivers' longs were only 28 and 27.
Griz run defense continued to be terrific.
Didn't like seeing one of the frosh receivers slide with feet forward to avoid a hit, and then not picking up an easy first down. We got the first down on the next play, fortunately.
Lee ran very well, and his TD was excellent.
Very good crowd. Nice night for football. Not as cold as I thought it might be.
I certainly won't give up on the team or the coaches, but it looks like every game will be a battle. Jensen will improve. As Brint noticed, safety depth is a problem. By the way, I thought Delaney got hurt celebrating the KO coverage, or whatever play it was, when he jumped and pushed his teammate who must have made the tackle, and then must have come down wrong.