Game impressions.
First, my son and I went to the game, but after the second delay he called it and we went home. Where the game wasn't on tv. So all this is based on watching the game film.
The Good
• We ran the ball well. We do need to decide on who will be the 20 carry guy, but it was ok to split duties against these people.
• The WRs are stars. We shape up well there against any opponent, imho. Plenty of speed and we can catch. Even (gasp!) the TEs.
• King has some oddities in how he sets up and throws, as noted above, but he does deliver the ball and he has a live arm. This was an improved performance, even given the competition.
• Birr kicked the ball well. I don't know what is wrong with Stewart.
The Bad
• The D. The whole performance sucked. Again, the DL got no push to speak of. Kennard had some good moments, but that's about it. I know we are grading on the curve here due to the opponent, but it didn't sound like Key was as down on the D as many of us here. I'd give them a C- overall. We were scoring fairly quickly and giving them back the ball resulting in more ToP for them. Either way, we should have kept them out of the end zone.
• Why did we keep calling tunnel screens when it was plain as a pikestaff that SCS was laying for that very play? Half of their TFLs must have come on that play. Oh, well. Maybe the OC thought we should run it until we got it right. <<This actually could be the reason - we needed to practice it against a real opponent and particularly one we expected to handle relatively easily.
• And, btw, why is a team that ran the thing for 11 years having a hard time defending option plays? Perhaps because the team and coaches we have actually didn't run the option for 11 years? I don't think we have some sort of institutional knowledge on how to defend it. Its frustrating, but I suspect our coaches didn't want to devote much of our precious practice time on defending it against an overmatched opponent. Especially since SC state isn't a pure option offense like The Citadel was. Also, it seemed to me like we did defend it better as the game progressed.
• Oh, I failed to mention that the tackling Did. Not, Improve. Why is it so hard for our D to simply line up with the O player, hit him, and wrap up? We've been trying to knock people off their feet by a shoulder hit for years. It doesn't work. Full Stop.
Overall, this was a better performance, however. We'll see what we actually have over the next two weeks. It'll depend on the D improving, imho.