Like many of you, I didn’t really have any interest in re-watching this game. However, with the season basically a week away, and excitement approaching, I wanted to see how our last game of the season will compare to this upcoming team’s season.
I'm not going to go into the "we wouldn't have lost if we didn't do this" talk, but really, with how much we shot ourselves in the foot in this game, it’s really amazing that we had a chance to win it at the end
OK so besides the obvious stuff like the blocked punt, and all those back shoulder throws which I wont go into, I forgot that OJ wasn’t 100%, Damari was out, and Lucas was out the first half. That really affected us.
However, these were some key potential turning points that could have affected the game in our favor—
1) After being abused by the RPO basically the entire first half, we made second half adjustments, and there is a play at the beginning of the 4th quarter that really could have changed this game.
We had just scored, making it 14-17, there is a throw by Mendoza out to the boundary as a RPO and after being abused all game, O’Connor makes a play on the ball and deflects it. If you watch the replay, this really should have been a pick 6.
He played it rather conservatively, even putting his arm out on the back of the WR, to make sure he didn’t miss it and let them loose, but he HAD a step and COULD have jumped it and it would have been 6 the other way. This would have made the game 21-17 in the 4th quarter with ALL the momentum on our side.
Makes you excited for guys like Donte Wright and Amir Sears coming in. These dudes WILL make those type of plays.
2) Another was IU had the ball with around 6 minutes left in the 4th, score is 21-24, our offense is finally putting together some drives and scoring.
We have them on 3rd and 5 or so, and they are motioning a WR and get the ball to him in the flat and get an easy first down. Our defense looks confused and no one picked him up.
Basically allows them to chew more clock, eventually get a FG, and leave a minute and some change left for us to get a TD. If we stop them there, we get the ball back, only down a field goal, with 5+ minutes left.
We also doinked a FG earlier in the game. Make that and stop this play, its tied 24-24 and you have the ball with all your time outs.
Other thoughts I walked away with-
Without Mendonza, that team doesn’t beat us. He made all the right plays at the right moments and it killed us. Props to the kid. They had a special season, you just have to tip your cap. But I don’t see Josh Hoover having that type of impact, but we’ll see.
I think we need to go tempo this year, strategically (not all the time), in certain situations. In this game we had SO many 3 and outs and at one point were like 0-9 on third down. After the blocked punt our offense basically woke up and it seemed like it was cause were going up tempo as that basically lit a fire under our ****.
Other thing is I don’t think Beck’s arm was 100% this game. Besides the last throw at the end, there was multiple throws he missed where it kind of had you like—What was that? His arm looked way different in that HOF preseason game with the Cardinals.
Malachi Toney – man he isn’t he fun to watch. Lets enjoy the next few years while we have him.
Keelan Marion thank you for the Ole Miss game and CJ Daniels had some key plays in big moments, but we should see a big improvement in this room this year. Will be interesting to see if guys like Upshaw and Moore can be gamebreakers too or will they just be serviceable.
Mensah really has a chance to put up Cam Ward numbers this year, it will be exciting to watch. Offense last year really looked pedestrian at times and especially in this game. We need to hang 40+ on teams and don’t feel bad about it.
I'm not going to go into the "we wouldn't have lost if we didn't do this" talk, but really, with how much we shot ourselves in the foot in this game, it’s really amazing that we had a chance to win it at the end
OK so besides the obvious stuff like the blocked punt, and all those back shoulder throws which I wont go into, I forgot that OJ wasn’t 100%, Damari was out, and Lucas was out the first half. That really affected us.
However, these were some key potential turning points that could have affected the game in our favor—
1) After being abused by the RPO basically the entire first half, we made second half adjustments, and there is a play at the beginning of the 4th quarter that really could have changed this game.
We had just scored, making it 14-17, there is a throw by Mendoza out to the boundary as a RPO and after being abused all game, O’Connor makes a play on the ball and deflects it. If you watch the replay, this really should have been a pick 6.
He played it rather conservatively, even putting his arm out on the back of the WR, to make sure he didn’t miss it and let them loose, but he HAD a step and COULD have jumped it and it would have been 6 the other way. This would have made the game 21-17 in the 4th quarter with ALL the momentum on our side.
Makes you excited for guys like Donte Wright and Amir Sears coming in. These dudes WILL make those type of plays.
2) Another was IU had the ball with around 6 minutes left in the 4th, score is 21-24, our offense is finally putting together some drives and scoring.
We have them on 3rd and 5 or so, and they are motioning a WR and get the ball to him in the flat and get an easy first down. Our defense looks confused and no one picked him up.
Basically allows them to chew more clock, eventually get a FG, and leave a minute and some change left for us to get a TD. If we stop them there, we get the ball back, only down a field goal, with 5+ minutes left.
We also doinked a FG earlier in the game. Make that and stop this play, its tied 24-24 and you have the ball with all your time outs.
Other thoughts I walked away with-
Without Mendonza, that team doesn’t beat us. He made all the right plays at the right moments and it killed us. Props to the kid. They had a special season, you just have to tip your cap. But I don’t see Josh Hoover having that type of impact, but we’ll see.
I think we need to go tempo this year, strategically (not all the time), in certain situations. In this game we had SO many 3 and outs and at one point were like 0-9 on third down. After the blocked punt our offense basically woke up and it seemed like it was cause were going up tempo as that basically lit a fire under our ****.
Other thing is I don’t think Beck’s arm was 100% this game. Besides the last throw at the end, there was multiple throws he missed where it kind of had you like—What was that? His arm looked way different in that HOF preseason game with the Cardinals.
Malachi Toney – man he isn’t he fun to watch. Lets enjoy the next few years while we have him.
Keelan Marion thank you for the Ole Miss game and CJ Daniels had some key plays in big moments, but we should see a big improvement in this room this year. Will be interesting to see if guys like Upshaw and Moore can be gamebreakers too or will they just be serviceable.
Mensah really has a chance to put up Cam Ward numbers this year, it will be exciting to watch. Offense last year really looked pedestrian at times and especially in this game. We need to hang 40+ on teams and don’t feel bad about it.
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