I thought it was 6am west coast today--missed it as it was 3am..but caught the very condensed 2 hr replay later (mostly a few plays between commercials).
My verdict: I rule. Until about 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, our offense was indecisive, clueless weak. From the 2nd half of NIU until late 2nd qtr of bowl game, what happened to the offensive conception that gave us about 35 points per game...instead of goose egg?! On the third play of the game (USU had possession) announcer said both sides go hurry up with USU using a lot of shifts but Ohio goes 'peddle to the metal.' Not hardly.
We kept doing this: TT's leg lifts, TT looking to sideline, TT shouting left and right, whole team rising up and looking to the sideline until late 2nd qtr when we finally got to the line of scrimmage and just immediately snapped it....which got our offense going. How could you watch that game and not see that. It was beyond obvious.
1:42 to go first half. We get the ball at about our 21. First down is pass for 5 yards. 2nd down is Harden run up the middle for 3 yards. By the time that stupid run call (who does not pass only in such situation??!!) there's 45 seconds left and, after incomplete on third down, we've wasted golden opp to get field goal and momentum via 10-9 halftime lead.
What saved us? Defense gave up no points over last 17:51 of the game and Hersey's punts ultimately gave us good field position for our final drive.
I thought the refs called three different things (orig call and 2 reviews) on LaVon's last catch. They actually called four different things--original and THREE review calls.
USU is an okay team. But squeaking by them--well, we're better than that. We should've won more decisively.
Last Edited: 12/24/2011 2:13:54 PM by Monroe Slavin