I'd say about 800-1000 fans braved the less than favorable conditions to catch this evening's scrimmage which lasted about 90 minutes total. It felt like a late fall kind of day for sure. I tweeted quite a few of the individual plays so check my twitter account for those, here's some general impressions:
1. Ryan Burke had two of the more impressive plays on offense. Burke had two catches but both were huge. One was on a 3rd and 5 where SSH read the blitz and hit Burke on a quick inside slant. It was a high thrown ball but Ryan made an out-stretched grab to get the 1st down. The other play was a beauty of a TD pass thrown by Ryan Gustafson through double coverage, Burke leaps over the defender and makes a great TD grab. I noticed on another play as well where SSH threw the ball away he missed seeing a wide open Burke running into the endzone about 30 yards down field.
2. Tucker Schye and Kendrick Van Ackeren were on fire. I believe between the two they had a forced a fumble and I know Schye recovered one. Van Ack's best play might've been where he blew up a screen pass to Jordan Canada. Canada looked like he had space but Kendrick shot through the two OL upfield blockers and hit Canada right in the mid-section, sending him up in the air and landing down on the ground for just a few yard gain. Schye was rushing into running lanes and had a few good stops, this guy is the real deal.
3. IMO I think Harrison Greenberg has moved slightly ahead of Ben Worst for the #1 fieldgoal spot. Greenberg had 1 miss and that was a bobbled snap. From there he made everything and his last kick from 40 out was one of the best looking kicks from any kicker of the evening. Lider his the uprights once, Worst twice. Both though had some good kicks too later on.
4. The O-line was up and down, opened up some good running lanes but we saw a lot of the same issues that we saw last year. Mostly that runs outside of the tackles went for little to no gain, two of the three lost fumbles came on outside runs where the ball carriers were hit by multiple tacklers and lost the ball. There was a TFL for a safety on a run play. There was a touch-sack for a safety, and two other touch sacks given up.
5. John Nguyen.... John Nguyen.... great at times, not great at other times. With the RBs down to just 2 guys as best I could tell (Favors, Counts, & Van didn't play), he had a ton of touches. Nguyen I bet finished with 60-80 yards or so, including a scrimmage ending 40 yard TD dash. At times you saw good power from him where he pushed guys back and some good cuts and moves. But then there's two lost fumbles. Bad stuff.
6. Good game for the D-line, two touch sacks for Wags, one for Johnson, a forced fumble for Peevey plus another that was called off by the refs. Kidder was back out there, Takai batted down a JJ pass. The backups did get worn down as the game went on though.
Some younger/newer guys that made some plays:
#2 Ryan McKinley picked a pass, SSH tried to go to the sideline on a broken play and McKinley was in the right position and picked it.
#25 Shane Moody had a TFL on a quick throw to a wide receiver, also was credited for a few pass breakups.
#42 Nate Bradley forced a late fumble which was recovered by #57 Keenan Watt
#39 Jake Dallaserra had some nicely defended passes and even though it was a penalty for a late hit (I think he was called for it) I liked the aggressiveness at safety, had some hard hits.
#20 Herbert Gamboa was in on some tackles and having a good day, it would've been a great day for him if he would've caught a sure-fire pick six late in the scrum.
---------------------
Overall it was a very interesting scrimmage to watch there were some good stuff and some good hope for the team moving forward. Depth is really nicely developing here and I think that this team is going to come out of the spring in great shape moving forward. One thing that really impresses me is the defense and how it's really swarming well to the ball. There were not a lot of badly missed tackles and only just a few big gains.
One more scrimmage, this Thursday, not sure the time yet. Looking forward to seeing this team finish strong.
1. Ryan Burke had two of the more impressive plays on offense. Burke had two catches but both were huge. One was on a 3rd and 5 where SSH read the blitz and hit Burke on a quick inside slant. It was a high thrown ball but Ryan made an out-stretched grab to get the 1st down. The other play was a beauty of a TD pass thrown by Ryan Gustafson through double coverage, Burke leaps over the defender and makes a great TD grab. I noticed on another play as well where SSH threw the ball away he missed seeing a wide open Burke running into the endzone about 30 yards down field.
2. Tucker Schye and Kendrick Van Ackeren were on fire. I believe between the two they had a forced a fumble and I know Schye recovered one. Van Ack's best play might've been where he blew up a screen pass to Jordan Canada. Canada looked like he had space but Kendrick shot through the two OL upfield blockers and hit Canada right in the mid-section, sending him up in the air and landing down on the ground for just a few yard gain. Schye was rushing into running lanes and had a few good stops, this guy is the real deal.
3. IMO I think Harrison Greenberg has moved slightly ahead of Ben Worst for the #1 fieldgoal spot. Greenberg had 1 miss and that was a bobbled snap. From there he made everything and his last kick from 40 out was one of the best looking kicks from any kicker of the evening. Lider his the uprights once, Worst twice. Both though had some good kicks too later on.
4. The O-line was up and down, opened up some good running lanes but we saw a lot of the same issues that we saw last year. Mostly that runs outside of the tackles went for little to no gain, two of the three lost fumbles came on outside runs where the ball carriers were hit by multiple tacklers and lost the ball. There was a TFL for a safety on a run play. There was a touch-sack for a safety, and two other touch sacks given up.
5. John Nguyen.... John Nguyen.... great at times, not great at other times. With the RBs down to just 2 guys as best I could tell (Favors, Counts, & Van didn't play), he had a ton of touches. Nguyen I bet finished with 60-80 yards or so, including a scrimmage ending 40 yard TD dash. At times you saw good power from him where he pushed guys back and some good cuts and moves. But then there's two lost fumbles. Bad stuff.
6. Good game for the D-line, two touch sacks for Wags, one for Johnson, a forced fumble for Peevey plus another that was called off by the refs. Kidder was back out there, Takai batted down a JJ pass. The backups did get worn down as the game went on though.
Some younger/newer guys that made some plays:
#2 Ryan McKinley picked a pass, SSH tried to go to the sideline on a broken play and McKinley was in the right position and picked it.
#25 Shane Moody had a TFL on a quick throw to a wide receiver, also was credited for a few pass breakups.
#42 Nate Bradley forced a late fumble which was recovered by #57 Keenan Watt
#39 Jake Dallaserra had some nicely defended passes and even though it was a penalty for a late hit (I think he was called for it) I liked the aggressiveness at safety, had some hard hits.
#20 Herbert Gamboa was in on some tackles and having a good day, it would've been a great day for him if he would've caught a sure-fire pick six late in the scrum.
---------------------
Overall it was a very interesting scrimmage to watch there were some good stuff and some good hope for the team moving forward. Depth is really nicely developing here and I think that this team is going to come out of the spring in great shape moving forward. One thing that really impresses me is the defense and how it's really swarming well to the ball. There were not a lot of badly missed tackles and only just a few big gains.
One more scrimmage, this Thursday, not sure the time yet. Looking forward to seeing this team finish strong.