The great thing about Thursday night games is it gives more time to reflect upon the game and come up with more witty things to say. And then I remembered I’m a football coach and those witty things are usually directed towards officials and often laced with extremely colorful language.
The Good -
Man did the defense look good. And I’m not just talking about beating up on an inferior opponent I’m talking the players, the scheme, and everything in between. While they were pretty consistent in the same personnel (mostly 2-4) but they presented multiple fronts and timely movement that brought a new level of dynamics to the defense. Positive signs that the additions up front are going to pay dividends as new transfers Mason Reiger, Parker Peterson, and Jay’viar Suggs along with a newly invigorated Brandon Lane created matchup problems through power and movement. A better front lead to improve linebacker play and a defense that rallied to the ball no matter where it went. Sure it was Miami (OH), but good defense is good defense.
The Bad -
Another QB injury derailed a solid start by Billy Edwards. Your favorite grading service or reporter may grade Billy’s game at below average but he started strong by showing good command of the huddle, standing strong in the pocket, and navigating first game jitters from his teammates, and at times the officials. Just at as the defense got stronger and stronger as the game went on I have no doubt Billy would have finished strong. Not to take anything away from Danny O’Neill, I think he played well in relief, but a sudden change in game plan focus between two radically different QB skill sets is tough. Let’s hope Billy is fully healed for Alabama because we are going to need his leadership because regardless of his athletic ability Danny’s youthful mistakes will cost us way more dearly in Tuscaloosa.
The Ugly -
Offensive line woes strike again. Let’s just get the obvious out of the way, Davis Heinzen looked terrible. He looked so slow and unathletic that it makes you really question the abilities of the people below him on the depth chart that this was the best option they had. It’s easy to say (as people have said since Heywood’s injury) just kick Brunner outside, but if they were to do so it would cause a need to totally rebalance the offensive line. Heinzen would probably be better at RG, which is fine because Emerson Mandell had a terrible game and looked lost in pass protection. Kodanko and Benzschawel have been banged up so are either of them a viable candidate at guard at the moment? Leyton Nelson looked ok in some late reps at LT, but is he fully healthy and ready to be thrown to the wolves?
Middle Tennessee is your classic get back game. Danny O’Neill and the offense has to come out with the mandate of a blow out. They can’t play vanilla they have to go for the kill shot early. Defensively they need to continue to grow and build upon their solid start. Mixing in some different personnel packages to go along with the improved scheme will go a long way to preparing this team for B1G play, because as this weekend has shown maybe that schedule is not as difficult as we have been lead to believe.