Just early observations, Ralph Green and Darius Latham are very disruptive. Those two along with Mangieri and our DL is very good. The only scores FIU had were on three-step drop fades or when we had our backups in along the DL.
So even with how good our DL is, we will get burned all day long against a team that can take 3 step drops and get rid of the ball, which is what we'll be facing next week. All of FIU's rushing yards either came when we had our backups in or we blitz and their QB flushed and picked up yards, which, for how often we blitzed, we should have had way more sacks and their QB should not have had 7 carries for 30 yards rushing. It should have been negative. We need to land more often on our blitz, which hopefully Scales helps out with next week, and our secondary should be way more aggressive when we know their QB is going to hit the hot read, like on the first quarter TD play.
Our WRs cannot get separation. Nate might trust Mitchell Paige but man, he is just not going to get separation. Only WR that seems to get separation is Ricky. Wish we had Camion but we need to bring along Westbrook in a hurry, someone needs to step up because Nate threw at a 57 percent completion rate this week, and 59 percent the first week not because he wasn't accurate, but because he had to throw the ball away too many times. If our WRs can't get separation, it's an incompletion and we're behind schedule. I'd rather feed the ball to Howard 40 times and stay on schedule.
If we can get through the bumps our secondary is going to take in the non-conference schedule with Williams, Brown, Cook and Crawford out there, then I think we'll be in great shape for the Big Ten. I think we only get one out of our next two though. I don't think that kills the season. I could still see us getting 3 wins in Big Ten play pretty easily, but I just think our secondary is going to cost us a game in non-conference. Although, I don't think I've seen one mistake from Crawford. He's been really good. Brown and Williams are nowhere near where they need to be fundamentally. Padmore isn't any good. Fant is a poor tackler. Kiante is a step slow to get to his assignments and then when he gets there can't tackle. Fields looked good. We need Dutra back by next week.
I love seeing Cook make a play like he did last night, but then it upsets me too. A true freshman makes a game changing play easily, because it was obvious he wanted to make the play. But then we have veterans in our secondary that just seem incapable of making a play. Fant makes a terrible effort at a tackle on a slant route that stretches it from 6 yards to 18. Kiante can't make a play that stretches a 5 yard hitch into a TD. It'd be nice to see one of those guys make a play.
So even with how good our DL is, we will get burned all day long against a team that can take 3 step drops and get rid of the ball, which is what we'll be facing next week. All of FIU's rushing yards either came when we had our backups in or we blitz and their QB flushed and picked up yards, which, for how often we blitzed, we should have had way more sacks and their QB should not have had 7 carries for 30 yards rushing. It should have been negative. We need to land more often on our blitz, which hopefully Scales helps out with next week, and our secondary should be way more aggressive when we know their QB is going to hit the hot read, like on the first quarter TD play.
Our WRs cannot get separation. Nate might trust Mitchell Paige but man, he is just not going to get separation. Only WR that seems to get separation is Ricky. Wish we had Camion but we need to bring along Westbrook in a hurry, someone needs to step up because Nate threw at a 57 percent completion rate this week, and 59 percent the first week not because he wasn't accurate, but because he had to throw the ball away too many times. If our WRs can't get separation, it's an incompletion and we're behind schedule. I'd rather feed the ball to Howard 40 times and stay on schedule.
If we can get through the bumps our secondary is going to take in the non-conference schedule with Williams, Brown, Cook and Crawford out there, then I think we'll be in great shape for the Big Ten. I think we only get one out of our next two though. I don't think that kills the season. I could still see us getting 3 wins in Big Ten play pretty easily, but I just think our secondary is going to cost us a game in non-conference. Although, I don't think I've seen one mistake from Crawford. He's been really good. Brown and Williams are nowhere near where they need to be fundamentally. Padmore isn't any good. Fant is a poor tackler. Kiante is a step slow to get to his assignments and then when he gets there can't tackle. Fields looked good. We need Dutra back by next week.
I love seeing Cook make a play like he did last night, but then it upsets me too. A true freshman makes a game changing play easily, because it was obvious he wanted to make the play. But then we have veterans in our secondary that just seem incapable of making a play. Fant makes a terrible effort at a tackle on a slant route that stretches it from 6 yards to 18. Kiante can't make a play that stretches a 5 yard hitch into a TD. It'd be nice to see one of those guys make a play.
