Last night's game had more hype attached to it than any I can remember in recent history. Then there ended up being so many highs and lows that I still feel like I'm on a roller coaster. My thoughts - there may be several....
1. Eli vs David. I still don't know. Every day it's different. Eli can do incredible things in the passing game, but he still does not react well to pressure. 2 throws that absolutely shouldn't have happened. The first one we could have gotten away with because it was almost like a punt (was it 3rd down anyway?). The 2nd one in all honesty could have nailed the coffin even that early in the game but we were resilient.
Blough is the better leader IMO. He also has limitations in his ability to run the offense to Brohm's design. You could see it with all the short throws and bubble screens. There was one point when a screen to Moore went nowhere (loss?) and then he did the exact same thing on the other side of the field for another loss or no gain.
2. Play-calling. A few things to quibble with. I didn't like the decision to try the 53 yard FG. I have no idea what the wind was doing but I'm guessing not much since ESPN never showed it. They were too busy showing Trent Green and his hot wife. Then in the 2nd half the run game started to work well with Blough and Knox but then in the 4th we went away from it completely. As I pointed out above, we suddenly became fixated on getting Rondale back into the mix. The trouble was that NW was keyed on him too much at that point. I did smell the trick play coming out of the timeout though! Someone on here probably got my text predicting it. Too bad Blough didn't have enough time.
3. Refs. They didn't make us lose the game. Clearly. But the blown OPI was huge. Besides that egregious mistake I thought they were ok. But I have a rules question/beef. When we accepted the holding penalty on NW on their last possession, we were basically forced into using an extra timeout. Effectively NW got an extra play to kill the clock. It baffles me that a team with the lead can commit a penalty, and yet be at an advantage because of the time situation. There should be a rule that forces the clock to stop in the 4th quarter when the leading team commits a penalty. I suppose the counter is that we could have declined the penalty since the play was for no gain, but other times it could be a decent gain.
4. Big ups to the defense for standing up in the 2nd half. We never really got any pressure on either QB though which is concerning. I thought Blackmon played a whale of a game. Two huge stops in a row but with a lot of time between. One to force a punt on 3rd and short, and then an open field tackle on the kickoff return after we scored.
1. Eli vs David. I still don't know. Every day it's different. Eli can do incredible things in the passing game, but he still does not react well to pressure. 2 throws that absolutely shouldn't have happened. The first one we could have gotten away with because it was almost like a punt (was it 3rd down anyway?). The 2nd one in all honesty could have nailed the coffin even that early in the game but we were resilient.
Blough is the better leader IMO. He also has limitations in his ability to run the offense to Brohm's design. You could see it with all the short throws and bubble screens. There was one point when a screen to Moore went nowhere (loss?) and then he did the exact same thing on the other side of the field for another loss or no gain.
2. Play-calling. A few things to quibble with. I didn't like the decision to try the 53 yard FG. I have no idea what the wind was doing but I'm guessing not much since ESPN never showed it. They were too busy showing Trent Green and his hot wife. Then in the 2nd half the run game started to work well with Blough and Knox but then in the 4th we went away from it completely. As I pointed out above, we suddenly became fixated on getting Rondale back into the mix. The trouble was that NW was keyed on him too much at that point. I did smell the trick play coming out of the timeout though! Someone on here probably got my text predicting it. Too bad Blough didn't have enough time.
3. Refs. They didn't make us lose the game. Clearly. But the blown OPI was huge. Besides that egregious mistake I thought they were ok. But I have a rules question/beef. When we accepted the holding penalty on NW on their last possession, we were basically forced into using an extra timeout. Effectively NW got an extra play to kill the clock. It baffles me that a team with the lead can commit a penalty, and yet be at an advantage because of the time situation. There should be a rule that forces the clock to stop in the 4th quarter when the leading team commits a penalty. I suppose the counter is that we could have declined the penalty since the play was for no gain, but other times it could be a decent gain.
4. Big ups to the defense for standing up in the 2nd half. We never really got any pressure on either QB though which is concerning. I thought Blackmon played a whale of a game. Two huge stops in a row but with a lot of time between. One to force a punt on 3rd and short, and then an open field tackle on the kickoff return after we scored.
