I give our team a B- overall. Too many drive-killing penalties, and our protection shouldn't have been expected to be rock solid or anything, and one should expect a higher amount of sacks, but not as much. Terrell to Davis, a couple too many miscues, a FG missed we should have got in a non-pressure situation on home turf, Braverman's dropped TD passed ball, the INT at the end, and to a lesser extent the tipped ball INT to add to it.
In a nutshell, we had too many mistakes where we didn't Have to have them, is my point. With that said, a lot of positives, like Zack muscling thru it all like a championship QB making a lot of great passes, and Davis lighting it up well, and Phillips on the returns early... along with our backup RBs showing Solid + our D stepping up in the 2nd half not letting it get away which was very good. Our run D wasn't "impressive", but it is MSU, and it wasn't bad when it was all said and done -- however a real evaluation is when we'll see how our run D is against GSouthern, and how MSU runs against Oregon who gave up 40+ points to Eastern Washington.
Quote:It is apparent that PJ and his staff can make adjustments at halftime... something that we have whined and whined about for YEARS over the last decade and more of WMU football when it comes to WMU playing a top tier P5 team
We Are capable of that -- we certainly did that against Ball State last year, in which we turned it right around. But certainly not against NIU, which was the opposite. So yes, it was nice to see us be able to be able to be not-the-same 1st half. With that said, it could have been 27-20 at the half with a made FG + Braverman's non-drop. Both of those wouldn't have changed the timescale of the half or field position, really. We wouldn't have seen it as a tale of two halves, even though we Did play better on O the 2nd half, most definitely.
Quote:Davis was GASSSED at the end... and kept pulling from the tank...
I re-watched the game today, and yeah, I noticed that. I'm thinking that played a role in the INT at the end.
Quote:MSU is going to win some games... but honeslty... "Heisman Candidate" Connor Cook... Please... A broken down warrior like Zach Terrell.. was the better QUARTERBACK... the entire game... NO QUESTION...
True. Terrell was the better QB. I think even D'Antonio would say the same -- especially since he didn't have his own superior D going against Cook, but instead an average D (amongst all P5/G5 teams) going after him.
With that said though, I honestly think Cook was off-key. And he'll have another off-key night against a team like Purdue (which he was before) and other teams that he feels no real threat by, along with a night of lighting them up well. I think the off-key part thought too was newer receivers, 1st game... but all in all, yeah, not set to be a Heisman Candidate. He needs to gel and gel Quick with his receivers to be in the running for that. He will next week against Oregon, but by how much? Can't expect him to be a night & day difference, but at the same time, Oregon's D doesn't seem rock-solid as a (top) FCS school lit up their D.
Quote:MSU was way over-rated... probably more of a NIU level team... Its amazing we didn't do much more in the first half.
I don't agree with that. I mean, they COULD be merely a Top 35 team or something this year, who knows. However, 2 years ago opening game at home, they played our 1-11 team, and played worse on offense, and won by 13. They also went to the Rose Bowl. D'Antonio knows how to gel their team as he proved it that year. If you were to end regular season Right now? Yeah, they're not among the Top 5 elite. However, NIU didn't impress many either with their zombie-sleep 1st half against UNLV which made them have to hang on for a victory in the end.
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Quick full review of the review...
