After an enjoyable live viewing from Memorial.
Very pleased with the teams performance. As the game went on, our mastery of the LOS increased. Our running game in particular was exceptional in the 2nd half when SDSU knew we wanted to run and could not stop us much less slow it down. I thought Goff was on fire all game. The one ill advised INT to the contrary, his other incompletions were almost all drops.
SDSU gave us a good test. A big, physical OL and some nice speed to go with some exotic schemes on defense. They killed themselves with silly PF penalties, something that had they not had them would have materially changed the shape of the game.
I was pleasantly surprised in the improved performance of our OL game over game. Much improved blitz pick up and as mentioned above they ran the ball down hill with alacrity. Happy to see Trevor Davis have a break out game as his vertical game is a huge piece of this offense. Defensively, our DBs had another strong game. White and Allensworth dominated the less than stellar Aztec WR crew.
Impressed with Lasco's running and Enwere on that 4th down run was the play the broke the camel's back.
I thought we showed some vulnerability with our RBs blitz pick up. And our LBs had a rough game. Nickerson in particular had the blown coverage on the TD and struggled to get off blocks in the run game. Some missed tackles by Jefferson, Downs and Nickerson as well. More concerning going forward are our DEs. We've got a double negative at that position. Undersized DEs who were exploited in the run game and yet are not plus pass rushers. Davante Wilson in particular struggled against the run. Kragen got a few pressures but the entire group was glaringly ineffectual on 3rd and long situations. Watching the game, I would change up our substitution patterns at this position. Johnson is our best pass rusher right now and it's not even close. He needs to be in the game on every obvious passing down, matched with Kragen who is our 2nd best pass rusher IMO. If I'm Texas, I'm building my game plan around a lot of off tackles, sweeps and QB keeper runs to take advantage of our DEs.
Our special teams continue to be glaring weakness. Tommerdahl is really struggling. KO coverage is every bit as bad as it appeared to be vs. Grambling and don't blame Matt Anderson. Vast majority of his kickoffs had good hang time and were deep enough. We struggle with lane consistency and to get off blocks. Inexcusable. We have plenty of good athletes out there. I think Anderson's missed FG was less about him and more about how rushed and disorganized we appeared.
All in all, I'm happy with where we are and like our upside. I see only one major talent deficiency and that's at DE. I think we go into Texas feeling good about ourselves but not so good that we're not hyper focused on the game. I can see the crowd and atmosphere giving us a few issues but I believe we will prevail.
Very pleased with the teams performance. As the game went on, our mastery of the LOS increased. Our running game in particular was exceptional in the 2nd half when SDSU knew we wanted to run and could not stop us much less slow it down. I thought Goff was on fire all game. The one ill advised INT to the contrary, his other incompletions were almost all drops.
SDSU gave us a good test. A big, physical OL and some nice speed to go with some exotic schemes on defense. They killed themselves with silly PF penalties, something that had they not had them would have materially changed the shape of the game.
I was pleasantly surprised in the improved performance of our OL game over game. Much improved blitz pick up and as mentioned above they ran the ball down hill with alacrity. Happy to see Trevor Davis have a break out game as his vertical game is a huge piece of this offense. Defensively, our DBs had another strong game. White and Allensworth dominated the less than stellar Aztec WR crew.
Impressed with Lasco's running and Enwere on that 4th down run was the play the broke the camel's back.
I thought we showed some vulnerability with our RBs blitz pick up. And our LBs had a rough game. Nickerson in particular had the blown coverage on the TD and struggled to get off blocks in the run game. Some missed tackles by Jefferson, Downs and Nickerson as well. More concerning going forward are our DEs. We've got a double negative at that position. Undersized DEs who were exploited in the run game and yet are not plus pass rushers. Davante Wilson in particular struggled against the run. Kragen got a few pressures but the entire group was glaringly ineffectual on 3rd and long situations. Watching the game, I would change up our substitution patterns at this position. Johnson is our best pass rusher right now and it's not even close. He needs to be in the game on every obvious passing down, matched with Kragen who is our 2nd best pass rusher IMO. If I'm Texas, I'm building my game plan around a lot of off tackles, sweeps and QB keeper runs to take advantage of our DEs.
Our special teams continue to be glaring weakness. Tommerdahl is really struggling. KO coverage is every bit as bad as it appeared to be vs. Grambling and don't blame Matt Anderson. Vast majority of his kickoffs had good hang time and were deep enough. We struggle with lane consistency and to get off blocks. Inexcusable. We have plenty of good athletes out there. I think Anderson's missed FG was less about him and more about how rushed and disorganized we appeared.
All in all, I'm happy with where we are and like our upside. I see only one major talent deficiency and that's at DE. I think we go into Texas feeling good about ourselves but not so good that we're not hyper focused on the game. I can see the crowd and atmosphere giving us a few issues but I believe we will prevail.
