Way back when football was kinda fun I put a way too long blog post together for every game. Then I got busy and we mostly sucked, so I quit. But last week it seemed people were wanting posts like this, so I thought I'd put one out again.
1) Go Home Game, You're Drunk.
Seriously, in the first half Houston tried to give us the game and we did nothing with it. Then we tried to give it to them. We easily could have won this by 21. We also could have lost it by 14+. It was beyond weird. But at the end of the day we get to go out with a W and are now set to be at worst 2-1 going into conference play. I think most would have taken that before the season started.
2) This defense...
Yeah, they should have had a couple of picks they dropped. But other than that, they played a heck of a game. Houston scored on a pick 6 and two drives that started with picks. One of them was 7 plays for 12 yards. The other one was 4 plays for 0 yards. Their only TD drive was made by a 63 yard pass that should have been called for OPI. Houston had 2 drives of 7 plays and 1 of 8, that was the extent of it. The final score obscures it a bit and rescues the day for the Overs, but our defense dominated them all night.
3) Who is Donovan Smith?
I don't think we have any idea. Or maybe he is Jekyll and Hyde and that's just it. End of the day, credit to him he clinched the game on his run. He had some other great runs. He had some great throws, including two huge plays that ended in drops (The TD and hitting the WR in the arm on a go route on 3rd and long on our own goal line). But he also had a lot of plays that were head scratchers. Yes, the OL struggled. Yes, he is still young and should keep getting better. But we've absolutely got to have more consistency from the position to win 6+ games.
4) How's that 54% working out for ya?
Dana said last week the team that got the ball first in OT wins 54% of the time. I don't have access to where he is pulling that from, but that seems to be a stat in the line of "there are three types of lies..." What is the context? How often was the team that expected to win the one that won in OT? How many times was it the underdog? Either way, he did it again. Didn't hurt him the first go around, but the second OT we got to pick and chose to be on defense first. Seems like the 46% worked out pretty well for us. Bet Dana wishes he had made a different 4th down decision...
5) We've got some problems on the OL
We all saw it tonight. Houston has legit dudes at DL so we weren't going to win every snap, but they made it a long night. Losing Wright certainly isn't going to help moving forward (read he got put on a cart, so that's not a great sign). Our pass blocking was bad. Our run blocking was probably worse. Going off #3, I don't think our best recipe is having Smith throw it 57 times a game. That's a lot to ask from any QB. But we may not have a choice. Unfortunate, because Brooks and Thompson are flat studs, which we saw several times tonight despite not getting much help.
1) Go Home Game, You're Drunk.
Seriously, in the first half Houston tried to give us the game and we did nothing with it. Then we tried to give it to them. We easily could have won this by 21. We also could have lost it by 14+. It was beyond weird. But at the end of the day we get to go out with a W and are now set to be at worst 2-1 going into conference play. I think most would have taken that before the season started.
2) This defense...
Yeah, they should have had a couple of picks they dropped. But other than that, they played a heck of a game. Houston scored on a pick 6 and two drives that started with picks. One of them was 7 plays for 12 yards. The other one was 4 plays for 0 yards. Their only TD drive was made by a 63 yard pass that should have been called for OPI. Houston had 2 drives of 7 plays and 1 of 8, that was the extent of it. The final score obscures it a bit and rescues the day for the Overs, but our defense dominated them all night.
3) Who is Donovan Smith?
I don't think we have any idea. Or maybe he is Jekyll and Hyde and that's just it. End of the day, credit to him he clinched the game on his run. He had some other great runs. He had some great throws, including two huge plays that ended in drops (The TD and hitting the WR in the arm on a go route on 3rd and long on our own goal line). But he also had a lot of plays that were head scratchers. Yes, the OL struggled. Yes, he is still young and should keep getting better. But we've absolutely got to have more consistency from the position to win 6+ games.
4) How's that 54% working out for ya?
Dana said last week the team that got the ball first in OT wins 54% of the time. I don't have access to where he is pulling that from, but that seems to be a stat in the line of "there are three types of lies..." What is the context? How often was the team that expected to win the one that won in OT? How many times was it the underdog? Either way, he did it again. Didn't hurt him the first go around, but the second OT we got to pick and chose to be on defense first. Seems like the 46% worked out pretty well for us. Bet Dana wishes he had made a different 4th down decision...
5) We've got some problems on the OL
We all saw it tonight. Houston has legit dudes at DL so we weren't going to win every snap, but they made it a long night. Losing Wright certainly isn't going to help moving forward (read he got put on a cart, so that's not a great sign). Our pass blocking was bad. Our run blocking was probably worse. Going off #3, I don't think our best recipe is having Smith throw it 57 times a game. That's a lot to ask from any QB. But we may not have a choice. Unfortunate, because Brooks and Thompson are flat studs, which we saw several times tonight despite not getting much help.
