aeroxx
New Member
(No, not a reference to Clint Eastwood's own bizarre performance)
I feel the all too familiar taint of disgust that I had when watching the 94 buffs losing to a weaker Husker team where CU could barely manage a few first downs, despite having more than half the offense matriculate into the NFL.
I think the cries for jumping ship or self-immolation are a bit too reactionary, however. Give it a season before taking irrevocable action I say...
I fault the coaching staff for four things:
• Not recruiting a linebacker last year, as well as another receiver/returner once Payton Williams was injured. After the injury to P-rich and the Jeff Thomas situation, our offense is hobbled.
• Giving a scholarship to Goodson: we had already filled our quota of small, quick football players. He has got to feel terrible after today. I feel terrible for him, but even without the unfortunate events today, I think it was a mistake for the coaches to put him out there, especially on returns.
• Offensive playcalling and inability to make adjustments. Despite the upsetness of the fans here, I don’t think EB is hopeless. The Cal game and others last year were well conceived, even if Prich hadn’t torn off the lid of the defense. We do lack playmakers, but still we still could be less predictable--are we running another trap on second down and 10…?
• Embree stating that the goal this season is a bowl game. This is setting huge expectations for a team and fanbase and smacks of wishful thinking-not what we want to see in a coach, not ever again. It would be much better to focus on the things we can control like blocking and legal tackling. If a player can’t play with discipline and without getting frustrated, he shouldn’t be playing D1. Our goal should be to improve in every facet of the game—to work on becoming a bowl-caliber team. This doesn’t mean lowering one’s standards of excellence, nor losing one’s ambition and aggression (legal) on the field.
The ugly offensive line blocking, especially by the tight ends, was cringe-worthy. The problem is a longstanding and systemic one: If our defense lacks high-caliber pass-rushers they have very little they can practice during the offseason. How is Marshall or anyone supposed to coach in the abstract? This is why rebuilding takes years, not weeks. Still, it looked like regression from the Utah game—I hope this is just rust and cobwebs and not a harbinger of things to come. I can understand getting beat by a superior athlete (not that CSU has any/many of them), but it is hard to fathom just missing blocks altogether on practically every play.
Tony Jones looked slow and tentative. Agreed he might be a change of pace player, but not a workhorse. It is looking like Powell, Abron, and Crowder are going to get a lot more action early. Creer made a nice play or two, but still looks tentative and not all the way back.
The good news is that Crawley, Mosley, and Powell all gained good experience (I can’t believe stupid Fox didn’t show a replay of Crawley’s return). Tupuo cut his teeth on a very good center and I thought acquitted himself fairly well.
Also except for the 4’th down pass out of the stadium, Jordan Webb played well. He looks a bit better than Hansen, even this early in the season.
Let’s remember it took Coach Mac five or six years to turn the program around, we need to be patient this year, as our young talent learns to play the game on a high level. Next year should be the real litmus test.
If we aren’t blocking and running well next year, I might lead the posse of pitchforks into Dal Ward.
I feel the all too familiar taint of disgust that I had when watching the 94 buffs losing to a weaker Husker team where CU could barely manage a few first downs, despite having more than half the offense matriculate into the NFL.
I think the cries for jumping ship or self-immolation are a bit too reactionary, however. Give it a season before taking irrevocable action I say...
I fault the coaching staff for four things:
• Not recruiting a linebacker last year, as well as another receiver/returner once Payton Williams was injured. After the injury to P-rich and the Jeff Thomas situation, our offense is hobbled.
• Giving a scholarship to Goodson: we had already filled our quota of small, quick football players. He has got to feel terrible after today. I feel terrible for him, but even without the unfortunate events today, I think it was a mistake for the coaches to put him out there, especially on returns.
• Offensive playcalling and inability to make adjustments. Despite the upsetness of the fans here, I don’t think EB is hopeless. The Cal game and others last year were well conceived, even if Prich hadn’t torn off the lid of the defense. We do lack playmakers, but still we still could be less predictable--are we running another trap on second down and 10…?
• Embree stating that the goal this season is a bowl game. This is setting huge expectations for a team and fanbase and smacks of wishful thinking-not what we want to see in a coach, not ever again. It would be much better to focus on the things we can control like blocking and legal tackling. If a player can’t play with discipline and without getting frustrated, he shouldn’t be playing D1. Our goal should be to improve in every facet of the game—to work on becoming a bowl-caliber team. This doesn’t mean lowering one’s standards of excellence, nor losing one’s ambition and aggression (legal) on the field.
The ugly offensive line blocking, especially by the tight ends, was cringe-worthy. The problem is a longstanding and systemic one: If our defense lacks high-caliber pass-rushers they have very little they can practice during the offseason. How is Marshall or anyone supposed to coach in the abstract? This is why rebuilding takes years, not weeks. Still, it looked like regression from the Utah game—I hope this is just rust and cobwebs and not a harbinger of things to come. I can understand getting beat by a superior athlete (not that CSU has any/many of them), but it is hard to fathom just missing blocks altogether on practically every play.
Tony Jones looked slow and tentative. Agreed he might be a change of pace player, but not a workhorse. It is looking like Powell, Abron, and Crowder are going to get a lot more action early. Creer made a nice play or two, but still looks tentative and not all the way back.
The good news is that Crawley, Mosley, and Powell all gained good experience (I can’t believe stupid Fox didn’t show a replay of Crawley’s return). Tupuo cut his teeth on a very good center and I thought acquitted himself fairly well.
Also except for the 4’th down pass out of the stadium, Jordan Webb played well. He looks a bit better than Hansen, even this early in the season.
Let’s remember it took Coach Mac five or six years to turn the program around, we need to be patient this year, as our young talent learns to play the game on a high level. Next year should be the real litmus test.
If we aren’t blocking and running well next year, I might lead the posse of pitchforks into Dal Ward.
