Listening to the game

Post by **SonomaCat** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 1:57 pm

Now into the second quarter, I don't think the offense or the special teams has had one single properly executed play (except for some nice punts). I don't know what it is looking like in person, but it is sounding absolutely pathetic so far.

Good thing we have the "easy" game first. Clearly, this was not a good season to start off with a tough one.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:37 pm

All things considered, going into the half up 12-0 isn't a bad thing at all. Here's to hoping the offense shows up in the second half. Otherwise, our defense is going to set a record for tackles and time on the field.

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:54 pm

So far it looks like the Humbolt State game.

I'm thoroughly disgusted with Bailey's play calling. With all these young guys, wouldn't it make sense to just run a bunch of vanilla plays, and let our bigger, stronger, faster guys beat their guys 1 on 1? Bailey calls a run play, and it gets stuffed, and instead of sticking with it, he calls some sort of play action - like that's going to fool anyone!

Ya gotta get the O line into the flow and you do that by pounding the ball and wearing out their D line. Their D line is big, but they're short and fat. We should be steam rolling by now, but Lulay has thrown 20-passes. I think the Cats have run 7 or 8 times is all - that's just opposite of what I think they should be doing.

And the receivers are horrible! Roosevelt got the TD, but on the replay it sure looked like he was juggling out of bounds. Good thing for no instant replay in college.

Travis looks pretty good...too bad his receivers don't seem to playing with their hands attached.

Later

Post by **SonomaCat** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 4:21 pm

Okay, here's my positive spin from this one. You would hate for the Cats to go into this week of practice thinking to themselves "We just can't think of anything we need to improve upon." This game shook out a few things that need to be worked on, so there shouldn't be a wasted moment in practice this upcoming week.

I hope to hear about a completely new team next week at game time. We got the W, which is great. The first one is in the books, now there is a chance for a lot of improvement.

Bigtime75 · Post by **Bigtime75** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 5:30 pm

What in the hell was that????? That was the most lackluster execution ever. Right now I feel we should be embarrassed. Lulay and the entire offense looked terrible. Where was the Lulay that we have been exited about all off-season? mLet's face it, this should have been a blow out.

It really chaps my as# that the Friz go out and soundly beat two tough IAA teams while we squeak by a team that looks like High school level talent. So far the Ochs/Lulay comparison is pathetic. I have to admit, I was expecting so much more of Travis and the rest of the offense today. Bailey better get his sh$# together quick because this type of performane won't cut it in conference play. I just wish that, for once, we would open up the season with a performance to get excite about...

profisme · Post by **profisme** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 5:58 pm

The offense really did look out of sync today. Lulay's passes were not sharp, and there were a few catchable ones that were dropped. Guinn looks like he can be a very good receiver though, so that might be something to get excited about.

The defense looked pretty good today, I cannot complain about a shutout. I am wondering if we played a 3-4 just to make the option difficult today. Personally, I hope we don't run a 3-4 very often because our biggest strength is our defensive line. I think the DB's will be ok, and will get better when Hunter is ready to play.

The kicking..... other than the 82 yard punt by Lulay, it was awful. I know that Geoff Groshelle and myself are very disappointed in not seeing E.J. on the field whatsoever.

I would grade this game out as a D. We will need to bring a team that wants to win to beat Cal-Poly next weekend.

Bigtime75 · Post by **Bigtime75** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:05 pm

Mark my words, if we play Cal-Poly like we did today WE WILL LOSE. Kramer has a lot of changes to make this week...

Lulay did not look good at all today... Hope to see a better Travis next week. I hate it when the offense makes me this pessimistic...`

catatac · Post by **catatac** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:17 pm

Yes, I've heard of slow starts but that was ridiculous.

Either we have A LOT of work to do to get the O in shape, AGAIN, or Kramer was doing some major strategizing\sandbagging in prep for a HUGE game next weekend.

Because if we play like that, we will get beat. Or wait, the D was awesome today so it would end up a 0-0 tie! I'm guessing we see huge improvement....

Bigtime75 · Post by **Bigtime75** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:22 pm

Are you kidding me?? It was obvious that our problem was a complete lack of strategy......

I hate the fact that I have to go in to work on Monday and hear my coworkers talk about how shi$%y we played and how the griz dismantled another decent opponet. I say we need to start scheduling decent IAA opponents early in the season so that we are forced to get our act together...

I hate to sound negative, but nobody can that we looked like a quality team today...

Post by **SonomaCat** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:48 pm

Of course, if we would have been playing a decent I-AA team today, it would have been ugly. Maybe this was the perfect time to have a weak team on the schedule -- to take a mulligan by having a game that can be won despite a poor performance.

I know that you are suggesting that they lowered their level of play because of the weaker opponent, and that may be true. If it isn't, though, this game was a good thing -- they needed it to work out the obvious problems while not doing any real damage to the rest of the season.

I'd rather be 1-0 after playing awful and 0-1 after playing awful.

If they come out looking a lot better against Cal Poly and get a win, we won't be worrying about this game at all. Were it a loss, it would linger for the rest of the seaon.

spider · Post by **spider** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 7:30 pm

The offense was sooooo ugly. Don Bailey, like always, is the weak link. The play calling was horrible. Kramer seriously needs to think about firing him at the end of the season if it doesn't turn around. One bright spot, our offensive line played a lot better than we all thought it would.

I wish Lulay would just throw the ball instead of trying to be John Elway. He tried to throw rocket balls way too often. Just throw the ball, it's almost like he is trying to be too accurate. I did like the way our running backs looked.

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 7:45 pm

Well that was much less than I expected.

Our receivers couldn't seem to catch anything that wasn't perfectly thrown...and Lulay very seldom threw anything perfectly. Why does a 5 yard pass have to be 100mph? How about a little touch there Travis?

The running backs couldn't break a tackle until late in the game. I'm not super impressed-seems to be a lack of speed.

My kingdom for a place kicker. But at least we can kick to the endzone. Lets just hope we get some opportunities to actually kickoff other than at the start of a half. With this offense we might not be kicking off too much.

It's a good thing we were playing Adams State-even against them the outcome was very much in doubt until late in the 4th quarter.

The defense did play well-but their offense moved the ball against our defense better than our offense moved against their defense for large stretches of the game.

If things don't improve vastly-Cal Poly is going to blow us out of the water next week.

Why is it that the Bobcats always perform so poorly at home whenever there's a big crowd and nice weather? Here's hoping for snow on homecoming!

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 7:50 pm

1) Offense had major jitters/timing problems in first half. The offensive line was not a cohesive unit early on spelling no time for Lulay. When you have no time to pass, your not gonna complete many passes.

2) When Lulay was able to get a pass of in the first half, the receivers dropped them.

3) THE DEFENSE IS GONNA BE DEEP AND GOOD.

4) We all knew the offense was going to be rusty. Give Adams State some credit. They had some big guys up front and some definate speed at LB and Safety. They played their hearts out first half while our guys were not up to speed. Remember, we have all OUR SKILL guys in the first year in the system right now. You can't even compare our offense to the Griz as they have guys with playing experience last year ... Green/Hilliard/Heidelberger etc. Kramer said he was going to play a HOST of players as a way of determining who would be starters by game 3.

5) We came out 2nd half and moved the ball very well between the 30's. The guys were coming up to speed on what to expect/timing. Give this offense a chance before you get too down on them. The OL did a way better job 2nd half. Lulay had some good time.

In short I knew the Bobcats offense would be RUSTY with so many new faces and being the first game. It wasn't on par to what I would like, but at least we got the W and won 19-0. Our offense will ONLY get better as the season goes on and for those of you who watched the game, you have to give Adams State some credit, their defense was pretty dang good/physical I though. Yes, we should have scored 2 TD's more .. but thats the way it goes. I LIKE WHAT I SAW FROM OUR DEFENSE .. DEEP DEEP DEEP.

I expected more, and yes first half as ugly ... but so was first half of the Griz/Maine game as well. Offense sputtered and they had players back that were in the system.

GO CATS! .. 1 game at a time 1-0

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:04 pm

I thought the D looked as well as could be expected. The rookie corners played soft, but I'd bet money that playing soft was the plan. Don't put the rookies in positions to fail.

The 3-4 was awesome, and, again, I'd bet it was designed to stop the Cal Poly offense and all others like it....I think the 3-4 will be very nice to have this year...you can only do that if you have speed on the front 7 and a killer at nose...yup.

I was taught that if I didn't have anything nice to say, don't say it...Therefore, I won't comment on the offense.

snake · Post by **snake** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:17 pm

ISU was not prepared tonight. Our Hetherington was off; throwing 4 int's. 2 were returned for td's. Middle of the fourth, he was sacked near the end-zone and fumbled which was recovered for a td. Cal-Poly is good, but can be defeated.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:26 pm

There were four question marks coming into this game for MSU. 1) Off. line; 2) skill players; 3) spcl. teams; and 4) secondary. Before anyone jumps off a cliff I think it should be noted that the o-line played pretty good, not great; the spcl. teams did well overall (sans missed XP, but a big return, two blocks, three KO's for touchback; 81-yard punt by Lulay, which 2nd longest in school history and he avg'd nearly 50); secondary had a good day (TD ret.; no pass interference; big hits; but not as good as last year's crew). That's three of four areas that did better than most expected. Other than skill players, that's not bad, but it did look bad.

For as bad as they looked they still gained 294 yards (350 is a decent day) against a good defense and had three long drives (two came away empty). The INT for TD and fumble meant that they didn't get the ball on offense until about 3 mins to go in first Q, then when they did get it they were on the 2-yard line. Then the O started pressing. Both backs Milton/Domineck looked pretty good and started to get going in third Q. The rec. corps looked better than last year's.

Offense D-; Defense A; Spcl teams B.

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:42 pm

I thought the O line had the best game on the offensive side. I was dissappointed that so many pass plays were called in the first half. With these guys, my opinion is that you just let them get after people - even if the D is stacking 8 in the box. I think that would help the passing game, too.

I think the most frustrating thing was the fact that so many passes were dropped...some of those were due to Travis forcing the ball, but then it seemed like when the receivers were open, Travis would drill the ball at their feet.

I would disagree most emphatically that the receiving corp looked better than last year - HOWEVER, Chaz appears to be the go-to guy, and once he got up to game speed, and got his confidence, he caught the ball much better.

Another bright spot, I thought, was the fact that all the RB's finished their runs. Didn't see that at all last year from the tailback spot - saw from Ryan Elliot though.

Can't wait 'til Saturday!

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 10:59 pm

I was just going to chime in on that one Snake. I see Cal Poly beat ISU 35-20. Boy if we play them next week like we played against Adams St we will lose worse than that! We fumbled at least 4 times but only lost one...the first snap of the game Lulay fumbled!

The good news is we won, the bad news is I don't know if we can grow up fast enough to play like we need to against Cal Poly.

The game thoroughly pointed up where we were young. First of all our receivers. Beau Clark told me they (receivers) came in kind of cocky and this might be a little bit of a wakeup call for them to start paying attention to catching the ball and running the right routes. Jr Adams said that they are real young and were out there today "swimming" ...I think he meant that they kind of found themselves in the middle of the ocean without a life preserver. They have to learn to run routes and catch passes against D backs who are seriously trying to keep them from doing it. Travis is looking for the go to guy...the Jr Adams....Scott Turnquist. So far they are only looking at each other like deer in the headlights! Somebody has to step forward and be the guy. Chaz Guinn seems to get the most balls throw tro him...but he's not physical enough to grab it away from the defender. Brandon Roosevelt is fast enough to get open...but he has to catch balls that are catchable. Rick Gatewood has to learn how to get open with moves, because he's finding he can't run away from defenders.

Second the D backs did play soft...but coach Berryhill said that they ran only four coverages all day to keep it simple and keep the receivers in front of them. I actually liked what they brought. A lot of the CB's got reps today and some of them looked pretty good. I really was impressed with Toph Grenfell when he came in for Demond Goins. And you could tell that Ryan force had some experience.

Third the Kickers...I was impressed with Travis Dorowski (sp)? and his kickoffs. We finally have that taken care of. As far as placements...well I can't see how a kid can kickoff like that and hit placements so bad. Even though they are off the ground instead of a tee. I was impressed...(as impressed as you could be) with Tyler Bolton although he missed a 48 yarder...it was far enough and high enough but just wide left.

The running backs...I thought that Justin Dominek ran hard, but Adams St was coming from all different angles and the young line didn't pick up the run blitzes. I was impressed with Mo Milton...he looked quick and had some speed to the outside. If he can lose the Plantar Faciitis, I think he will be the feature back. Dominek will be the short yardage guy.

Travis was kind of frustrated. I think the lack of confidence in his receivers threw him into a funk. He threw behind , below and above receivers. When he was on target they dropped them. He threw one so hard on a slant that it almost stuck to Brandon Roosevelt who didn't even see it. He missed wide open receivers throwing passes at their feet. I think everyone has a day like that. He has to gain confidence in someone or he will flounder again like this. Adams St had quick Linbackers who tripped him up when he pulled the ball down and ran. I think this was a good wake up call for everyone on the offense. I'd rather have them looking forward to a long week of practice than thinking they were a fine tuned machine!

Next week the "D" gets Clive Lowe back from the wisdom tooth fairy! I wish we would stop scheduling these option teams that use the wide splits and angle blocks, but what I'm really worried about is the Cal Poly Defense who runs that flex and comes from everywhere. I'm not sure these young OL guys will be up to the test, but todays game gave them an idea of what it will be like.

HelenaCat95 · Post by **HelenaCat95** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 9:11 am

Hate to say it, but the offense looked terrible. I read somewhere where Kramer said that Birkland and Figueroa made enough mistakes to get benched, but then made enough plays to stay in....either way, I thought the O-Line was not opening holes, nor was giving Lulay enough time.
That being said, Travis was off his game, and the receivers were dropping balls.
Defense was once again bending, but not breaking - good job D.

Here's a question I've been wondering about for a while that may effect our passing game - we practice on a flat field, but play on a severely crowned field. With a timing passing game like ours, that has to have an effect. Travis is throwing uphill or downhill, and the receivers are running uphill or downhill. Am I off base, or does anyone else think that this has an effect on our timing?

GO CATS - by the way, gameday experience was fantastic.