When RS fielded that punt over his shoulder running backwards towards the EZ, I screamed "what are you doing??!!" at the TV. As soon as he was tackled, I turned to my friend and said "that play is going to cost us". Look, everything in sports is easier said than done. I understand that when a punt is kicked that far and you have to run backwards it's easy to lose where you are on the field. Warning tracks in baseball exist for a reason. It's too bad there isn't one on the 10 YDL. I would love to have seen us make it a non-issue by running positive plays from the get go. There is no rule that says you can't. However, when you run every play from pistol or deep snap, starting from the 5 is a huge deal. It emboldens defenses to take chances because they have a ton of field behind them and the opposition is starting the play in safety territory. It places enormous pressure on every offensive player, especially the QB. HK has been really good with his decisions so far this year. That was his worst to date. But, once again, things happen really fast on the field (while I am sitting on my couch eating snacks, obeying our school fight song in the way of liquid diet, and second guessing everything) especially at that position. He was under extreme duress and just reacted. If you slow the film down and watch the play develop from the booth, if he just floated the ball with air 5 yards down the field and gave a squatting MR a chance to run forward to it, he would still be running. If it fell to the ground, it's incomplete, no harm no foul. In my mind, this was the sequence that altered the course of the game and made it un uphill battle the rest of the way. It was easily preventable. Every 4th down decision and every play call gets tougher on offense when you are playing from behind.
In truth, I am really encouraged by the way we played. Third down defense was much much improved. We got them off the field a lot. I would rather we give up a couple huge plays, like we did, than allowing a huge number of conversions and an endless moving of the chains. 17 points allowed is a really good showing against a team like that. We took one phase away from them (the run game) for the most part, made them one dimensional, and got their QB off his spot with regularity. While moving his feet he wasn't that really imposing. It was a really good game plan and I give the coaches a lot of credit.
Besides the fateful series from paragraph 1, I was generally pleased with the offense for how they produced. They did a good job of taking what the defense gave them. It looked to me like L'ville made up their mind to blow up our run game and take whatever damage they would endure through the air. All this is well and good, but a team needs to have something it can go to in the run game when the field compresses. Obviously, that is an area for us to focus on over the break. There has been contention in this thread surrounding going under center or not. I am of the opinion that EVERY TEAM in the country needs to be able to go under center at certain points of a game. The pistol formation is great, for a lot of reasons, but it does create a 4 yard deficit from the start and gives the defense the luxury of time to react and potentially penetrate. Additionally, as far as play calling in short yardage, I would like to see a speed option play and or a load option with someone like a motioning TE lead the play outside the box, from the pistol. Adding this to the mix will make defenses have to respect and defend sideline to sideline. Our players have the skill set to do this. I would also like to see a package like this for ZP. I really like HK as a runner and think we are lucky to have him, even in goal to go situations, but ZP to my eye is a tad more physical runner who is adept at getting the tough yards.
In closing, this was a tough loss to swallow. It's looks to me like we should beat this team a majority of times if we were to play that many. We just didn't get it done. For sure, we are not a powerhouse football team ready to steamroll the landscape, but we are a good and developing team who is capable of beating anybody. I really look forward to rest of the season.
