Yeah, I have a few gripes about today--and that horrible pass play call on fourth and very short is one of them.  The third down before that wasn't great either.  About 2.5 yards to go and running up the middle with Daz.  Need a bigger back there.

Generally, again, I'm very enthused after today.  D will be there all year and I believe that the O will develop.

Too many pass drops today but our O-line did a pretty good job, espec for the last three quarters. 


I've doubted Daz's power but his yards after catch on that pass reception right before our field goal were very impressive.  Dude would not go down--dragged the pile about 6-8 yards.

First, the gameday experience was pretty good at Commonwealth. Friendly fans, sunny skies, SEC-light atmosphere. Then the Biblical downpour that was actually kind of refreshing after all that heat and humidity.

The offense is just the opposite of dynamic. It does everything slightly below average. That nay work gutting out wins in the MAC this season, but this team isn't going to beat really good teams. It will feast on the mid-tier and lower-tier MAC teams. 

I think Ohio may get housed in Huntington, unfortunately.

Sprague at least gave the offense a chance by extending plays. VIck will be better against MAC schools where he'll have more time in the pocket and more space. I still think Vick is the answer in the relative long-term, but Sprague was the better choice today.

The drops were maddening. That's a different game if Patterson catches that surefire TD early.

The defense still has my confidence. Not a bad showing. A bit disturbed that a gigantic, slow bulky QB was getting into the second level of the defense regularly, however.

http://www.athensohiotoday.com/blogs/bobcat_blog/final-ke...

I mentioned in the game chat (and this is NOT a "Fire Albin" post) that the scheme we're trying to run (adopted from the Troy debacle) is askew from the OC's natural tendencies. The first year we ran it (2011) we had some great success, I think because it was new and it took some teams time to adjust, plus Albin was still learning it himself and probably followed the Troy script a bit more.

Now that it's 3 years later, there's plenty of film of us, and Albin may have reverted to his more natural tendencies in personnel and playcalling. So, you get an offense that is very effective in spurts, but also goes 3 and out in spurts.

I just hope DUTM doesn't become the new BUTM. Since we have at least 2 QBs who seem like they will run, I don't think it will. But there were definitely some frustrating moments Saturday offensively, and I don't think it's entirely due to youth, inexperience, or a size/athleticism disadvantage.

The core problem on offense is the five guys that are easiest to forget about because they never carry the ball. When the offensive line gets a good push, they create space for the running backs to operate. They give the qb time to throw. They give the receivers time to get open. Then, and only then do you really get time to see what the skill players can do, and if they are indeed playmakers.

How many times against Kentucky did a running back take a handoff and have someone in his face? Ideally that never happens, but against Kentucky it happened a lot. How many times did Ohio attempt to throw a deep ball? Maybe once? When you know the QB isn't going to have time, you don't throw deep very often, or you get sacked a lot. Of course, when the D knows that throwing deep isn't an option, they can play tighter and then even the short stuff is tough to complete, and Kentucky knew that, and played tight.

That's what we saw against Kentucky. Ohio ended up running 3 step drops and quick passes at closely covered receivers, and running options and misdirection to try for some rushing yards. Both worked, to an extent. While it may have been somewhat predictable, it was also the best option. Had the offensive coordinators tried to do more, like more deep passes, I think you'd have seen more sacks and turnovers, and things could have been a lot worse.

The bottom line is that on the one hand, I'm impressed with Ohio's true freshmen who are having to already play offensive line (since it's not a total disaster), but I also recognize that any team playing three true freshmen at offensive line against SEC teams is not going to fare all that well.

As each game progresses these young linemen will get more battle tested, and they will learn some lessons and improve. No, they won't suddenly have the benefit if 4 years of college lifting, nor be suddenly turned into 5th year Seniors, but they will most certainly improve. As they do, the rest of the offense will show amazing improvement. All those non-playmakers will show that they indeed are playmakers.

Even better, they will just keep getting better, year after year. Remember, this is supposed to be a rebuilding year offensively, so patience will be needed as we go on. Look for steady improvement from game to game. Look for the defense to hold the games close, and the offense to be opportunistic and score some points here and there, and Ohio to win more games than the 5-7 you might expect, hopefully enough to win the East. And, look for next year to be even better.

We're 10 years into Frank's tenure. Why is the offensive line depth still an issue? Save for maybe 2010 and 2011, I feel like this has been a problem since Solich arrived. Maybe it's injuries and maybe it's turnover, but I feel like we should be recruiting enough offensive linemen every year to combat this problem.

If you're waiting for this offensive system to get daring, you're going to be waiting awhile. The pistol look is simply cosmetic. Under the hood is a deeply conservative offense. Which I'm fine with. I just gave up on them ever taking the governor off. Beau/Daz up the middle is their new fullback dive. The problem is the only time it's really clicked is when they had a bowling ball in Blankenship for inside running and the added threat of Tettleton keeping it. The system has a low ceiling but also low variability.

So once it didn't work, what were the adjustments? Sprague came in, and like I said I think that was the right call, but the gains in offense seemed to me to be due more to his improv skills than a change in playcalling. It really didn't seem like we were trying anything different when it was 7-0, 14-0, or 20-3. Maybe the coaches decided it was too late and the game was unwinnable at that point, I don't know.

Like I said, I'm not calling for anybody's head. In the long run, losing to Kentucky isn't the worst thing ever...in fact I expected it, just as I expect a loss to Marshall this weekend, which also will not be the worst thing ever. And if the coaches made the conscious decision to keep it vanilla in pursuit of more important objectives **cough** MAC championship **cough** then that's fine. It's just frustrating as a fan to want to see positive results and instead watch our 177 lbs. running back run into a 300 lbs. tackle over and over and over.

Towles is actually deceivingly fast. He has been clocked by gps in the 40 at 4.4. He is actually one of the fastest kids on UK's team. I agree that with his size (6'5") he doesn't look real fast.

Superbowl? You got it backwards pal. Usually the team that is in the polls and getting hype and projected to be undefeated and in the fiesta bowl is the superbowl for the other team.

Usually.

"Cato was pretty succinct about what the game means as part of a season of great expectations for the Herd.

“We’ve just got to approach the game as the biggest game of the season,” the senior quarterback said."


straight from the mouth of your QB.


http://www.herdzone.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/090814aa...