My thoughts on the game

[chinngiskhaan]

Coaching: I think everyone did a good enough job to win in this department, but not much more, which is understandable. Ludwig called a good game, but execution on offense (Rising mostly) was poor at times and the result was a game that was not as close as the score indicated.

Scalley gets the best grade of the coaches in my book. The defense, while a bit sloppy wth tackling at times, knew that Colorado had zero shot to beat them through the air, so they put pressure on the QB like crazy. I have never seen a QB get hit so hard so many times and still keep going. Even on the passes he completed (not many of them) he was getting hit just as or just after he threw the ball. Great effort by the defense.

QB: Rising had some good throws, but he royally screwed up on the two failed 4th down conversions. Those conversions probably would have led to enough scoring to put the game away relatively early, and our starters (some of whom got banged up following Rising’s poor decisions/execution on 4th down). Rising is much better than he showed today. He threw to his first option almost every time with the exception of maybe two throws. Missed a number of wide open players often in favor of throwing into traffic. Overall a decent game from him. He still had some great throws, but he needs to play MUCH better if we’re going to win the CCG this time around.

RB: These guys all played great, no surprises here.

WR: Had one drop from this group on a throw that may not have been a TD even if caught, so no big deal. Covey had a great game at WR.

TE: Another solid game from this group. Kuithe is our worst tight end when it comes to completing a catch while taking a hit. It really is awesome that we have three very good TEs with completely unique skill sets.

OL: These guys played a really good game. The holes that our RBs had to run through were massive for most of the game. Colorado has some really good players on defense, and we blocked them well almost every play.

DL: These guys hit the QB in one way or another on just about every pass play. My personal favorite play was when the DT (I think it was Tafuna) shoved his blocker back into the QB much like Star used to do (only this time the QB somehow got a completion off before his own blocker fell on top of him. Some missed tackles/sacks from this group, but that happens.

LB: Great game from both of these guys. Lloyd is easily the best LB we’ve ever had. It’s not really all that close. The others that come to mind are Barton, Sylvester, Hansen, and Gionni Paul, but man… Lloyd is elite as a linebacker in just about every way. Elite size, elite athleticism, elite instinct, elite coverage skills, elite pass rushing, elite run defense. He’s right up there with Weddle as the best all around defender we’ve ever had on the team. Johnson was great at what he is great at (coverage), but didn’t do much else.

CB: Same there, they each had a couple of good/great plays.

S: Cole Bishop was a mixed bag. Clearly his instincts are there. He is almost always in the right place at the right time. When his body catches up to his brain, he’s going to be an all american.

K: Bad

P: No blocked punts again. YAY!

Returns: Great again as usual

Return coverage. If the KR guy was wearing a normal shirt instead of a ridiculously stretchy jersey he would have been tackled by Bernard (or whoever #2 on special teams is). I don’t know why our kickoffs are so dang inconsistent. Noyes has one job to do. Kick the ball as far as you can a couple of times a game. Why is it so hard for him to do it the same each time? Annoying AF.

Overall 

 

[chinngiskhaan]

Rising is 1 off-season entrenched as the starter from becoming an elite college QB. He has the skills, the game just needs to slow down a bit more for him.

[Jake]

Crazy to think that Rising has still not had a full normal offseason with this team. Needs to get more accurate and get better at setting his feet (which will improve accuracy).

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