Positives
Chad Hansen: He is much, much better than I thought and looks like an NFL player. He is a difference maker. In general, the WRs had a very good game, but Hansen obviously stood out.
Muhammed: He had a great game (other than the dropped TD pass, of course, but that was immaterial at the time) and may be our only HR hitter on offense on the ground.
Davis Webb: He got better and better as the night went on. He's not as accurate as Goff especially on deep throws and his release is slower, but he will do great in this offense and made some very nice throws / decisions last night, although it will be interesting to see how he does against better defenses and in tighter games.
Turnovers: No turnovers from us and in particular, no fumbles (ball never even hit the ground). Ball hawking on defense and special teams led to 3 TOs, which made a difference. That is a good sign - this team MUST win TO differential to be successful. Let me emphasize that again: MUST.
Special Teams: Other than punt returns (why are we always so awful at this? With our talent, we should be better), we had a really good night. Recovering the on-side kick was great and something that 3 or 4 years ago never would have happened. Good returns on KOs and good coverage (including a TO), decent kicks (only one or two touchbacks though I think), all FGs and extra points made, and punting was unspectacular but he did get 2 inside the 20, so coverage was untested but they appeared to be downfield en masse. All in all, a great night especially compared to what we've seen in the past.
Going for it on 4th Down: Good calls to do that on both occasions and it was done without hesitation with good play calls. I like.
CBs: Both corners appeared to play OK, especially considering our pathetic pass rush. Franklin had a PI but otherwise looked decent and had several nice PBUs; they pretty much stayed away from Allensworth. I know I'm reaching a bit to find positives on defense, but these guys are fine.
No Injuries: As DRob played late, I assume he's OK. I did not see anyone else get hurt, which is awesome in general and even better for a team with little depth.
Negatives
Defense: Pretty much all of it was not up to snuff and in some cases downright terrible - 31 points against Hawaii. Hawaii. Let me say that one more time: Hawaii. A team that was shut out three times last year. We have zero playmakers. Zero. I did not see one significant TFL or big hit, but did see missed assignments galore, soft coverage (especially by safeties and LBs), tentativeness, inability to shed blockers, and poor tackling. Run defense was shockingly poor (the front seven was really bad and will get demolished against better teams; Stanford will be licking their chops), especially against a team like this. In short, we are not good and borderline 2013 awful. There is no two ways about it.
Pass Rush: While I already pointed out the defense, a special line is needed for our continuing, non-stop weakness in the Dykes era: no pass rushers. None. Zero. Nada. Nunca. I didn't see a lot of blitzing, but when we did, it produced nothing. We are going to get picked apart by the likes of WSU, who will have all day to throw and WRs who can easily beat our secondary. Truly woeful.
Rushing Offense / Blocking: I've heard non-stop about our great OL (CHF regularly froths at the mouth about them), but our run blocking was pretty bad, especially when we needed it (pass blocking was decent, but not exceptional IMO). Other than Muhammed's couple of runs, which were mainly due to his speed, I saw few holes against a team that Michigan will probably rush for 500 yards on. I'm sure I'll hear things like "they stacked the line", etc. but c'mon. Frankly, I'd use Muhammed more and Watson (who had a bad game; I've never been that impressed by him) less.
Running Offense: I was hoping to see more creativity out of Spavital's running offense, but saw basically Franklin's same bland off-tackle runs and even that utterly idiotic ensuing fake pass from the QB. And no fly sweeps (they did fake it once) and only one QB run options (a strange call in the red zone that somehow worked). And would it kill us to run an under-center offense in the red zone at least on occasion?
Almost No Robinson, Stoval Lite: Unless the idiotic plan was to save them for later, or DRob got hurt early, they should have been used more in the offense (I know Stoval was used more late, but should have been used earlier, too - one touch in the first half?). They were the ones causing waves in practice and should therefore get more touches in the game. I like Bug Rivera and all, but c'mon. Get the playmakers the ball more often. Please.
Pull the First String Offense Earlier: Really? No snaps for the back-up QB? None? Double really? Maybe he'll get some when we are losing by 35 to someone.
Coaches Outfits: Fashion police gives them felony offenses. Their overly large, ultra-white, way to big of pockets, don't know how to wear them, thingies (best word I can come up with for them), have got to go. Unless the goal was to cover up Dykes gut, which if that were the case, it failed miserably.
Announcers: Amongst the worst I've ever heard. They spent at least 40% of the time talking about other teams / conferences and the next weekend, the supposed greatest opening weekend ever (wait, I thought the Cal-Hawaii game was the opening weekend - you know, the game you are supposed to be calling!). When they did talk about the game, they often got players wrong or hesitated as they scurried to match a name to a number from the roster. Bellotti even talked about why he was such a great coach on several occasions, which was truly gag worthy. Just awful.
Summary
A win is a win (I guess), but rarely has a team scored 50+ and won by 20 (wait, I thought droski said it was an absolute lock that Cal would cover - oops!) looked more shaky for the future. The offense will have its moments no doubt, but unless things break our way in a game with turnovers or our offense becomes somehow truly unstoppable, I cannot see us beating any good teams. Unfortunately, our schedule is loaded with good teams. In short, I'm not backing off my 3 win prediction, although I would not be surprised if we put it all together for a game and pull an upset or two. But I unfortunately think it is unlikely. We'll see. SDSU will tell us a lot more.
Chad Hansen: He is much, much better than I thought and looks like an NFL player. He is a difference maker. In general, the WRs had a very good game, but Hansen obviously stood out.
Muhammed: He had a great game (other than the dropped TD pass, of course, but that was immaterial at the time) and may be our only HR hitter on offense on the ground.
Davis Webb: He got better and better as the night went on. He's not as accurate as Goff especially on deep throws and his release is slower, but he will do great in this offense and made some very nice throws / decisions last night, although it will be interesting to see how he does against better defenses and in tighter games.
Turnovers: No turnovers from us and in particular, no fumbles (ball never even hit the ground). Ball hawking on defense and special teams led to 3 TOs, which made a difference. That is a good sign - this team MUST win TO differential to be successful. Let me emphasize that again: MUST.
Special Teams: Other than punt returns (why are we always so awful at this? With our talent, we should be better), we had a really good night. Recovering the on-side kick was great and something that 3 or 4 years ago never would have happened. Good returns on KOs and good coverage (including a TO), decent kicks (only one or two touchbacks though I think), all FGs and extra points made, and punting was unspectacular but he did get 2 inside the 20, so coverage was untested but they appeared to be downfield en masse. All in all, a great night especially compared to what we've seen in the past.
Going for it on 4th Down: Good calls to do that on both occasions and it was done without hesitation with good play calls. I like.
CBs: Both corners appeared to play OK, especially considering our pathetic pass rush. Franklin had a PI but otherwise looked decent and had several nice PBUs; they pretty much stayed away from Allensworth. I know I'm reaching a bit to find positives on defense, but these guys are fine.
No Injuries: As DRob played late, I assume he's OK. I did not see anyone else get hurt, which is awesome in general and even better for a team with little depth.
Negatives
Defense: Pretty much all of it was not up to snuff and in some cases downright terrible - 31 points against Hawaii. Hawaii. Let me say that one more time: Hawaii. A team that was shut out three times last year. We have zero playmakers. Zero. I did not see one significant TFL or big hit, but did see missed assignments galore, soft coverage (especially by safeties and LBs), tentativeness, inability to shed blockers, and poor tackling. Run defense was shockingly poor (the front seven was really bad and will get demolished against better teams; Stanford will be licking their chops), especially against a team like this. In short, we are not good and borderline 2013 awful. There is no two ways about it.
Pass Rush: While I already pointed out the defense, a special line is needed for our continuing, non-stop weakness in the Dykes era: no pass rushers. None. Zero. Nada. Nunca. I didn't see a lot of blitzing, but when we did, it produced nothing. We are going to get picked apart by the likes of WSU, who will have all day to throw and WRs who can easily beat our secondary. Truly woeful.
Rushing Offense / Blocking: I've heard non-stop about our great OL (CHF regularly froths at the mouth about them), but our run blocking was pretty bad, especially when we needed it (pass blocking was decent, but not exceptional IMO). Other than Muhammed's couple of runs, which were mainly due to his speed, I saw few holes against a team that Michigan will probably rush for 500 yards on. I'm sure I'll hear things like "they stacked the line", etc. but c'mon. Frankly, I'd use Muhammed more and Watson (who had a bad game; I've never been that impressed by him) less.
Running Offense: I was hoping to see more creativity out of Spavital's running offense, but saw basically Franklin's same bland off-tackle runs and even that utterly idiotic ensuing fake pass from the QB. And no fly sweeps (they did fake it once) and only one QB run options (a strange call in the red zone that somehow worked). And would it kill us to run an under-center offense in the red zone at least on occasion?
Almost No Robinson, Stoval Lite: Unless the idiotic plan was to save them for later, or DRob got hurt early, they should have been used more in the offense (I know Stoval was used more late, but should have been used earlier, too - one touch in the first half?). They were the ones causing waves in practice and should therefore get more touches in the game. I like Bug Rivera and all, but c'mon. Get the playmakers the ball more often. Please.
Pull the First String Offense Earlier: Really? No snaps for the back-up QB? None? Double really? Maybe he'll get some when we are losing by 35 to someone.
Coaches Outfits: Fashion police gives them felony offenses. Their overly large, ultra-white, way to big of pockets, don't know how to wear them, thingies (best word I can come up with for them), have got to go. Unless the goal was to cover up Dykes gut, which if that were the case, it failed miserably.
Announcers: Amongst the worst I've ever heard. They spent at least 40% of the time talking about other teams / conferences and the next weekend, the supposed greatest opening weekend ever (wait, I thought the Cal-Hawaii game was the opening weekend - you know, the game you are supposed to be calling!). When they did talk about the game, they often got players wrong or hesitated as they scurried to match a name to a number from the roster. Bellotti even talked about why he was such a great coach on several occasions, which was truly gag worthy. Just awful.
Summary
A win is a win (I guess), but rarely has a team scored 50+ and won by 20 (wait, I thought droski said it was an absolute lock that Cal would cover - oops!) looked more shaky for the future. The offense will have its moments no doubt, but unless things break our way in a game with turnovers or our offense becomes somehow truly unstoppable, I cannot see us beating any good teams. Unfortunately, our schedule is loaded with good teams. In short, I'm not backing off my 3 win prediction, although I would not be surprised if we put it all together for a game and pull an upset or two. But I unfortunately think it is unlikely. We'll see. SDSU will tell us a lot more.
