So those new freshmen players, who are probably redshirting, must have been replacing someone out due to injury.
Babb came in I think briefly when Kraft went off with some injury.
Any idea what the status of Khris Vaughn was/is ?
Or Hawk is cagey enough, knew we had flexibility with Northern Iowa at home, and wanted to give some R&R to a few guys that are dinged up in preparation for an epic war in Cheney?
The main key to the game to me is the how well we do on both sides of ball in the trenches. Jake needs time to make his reads. I think we'll be in trouble if they are able to consistently bring pressure and Jake has to throw early because the pocket is collapsing.
Our D line will have to be more stout than they were in the first game too. We need to be able to slow their running attack down a bit at the LOS so their RB's aren't slashing through the holes and getting up to a full head of speed in the first few yards . They were running ball at will on us in the second half of the first game.
The dual threat that Barriere poses for us is a tough problem for any defense. Will our D line be able to get some pressure on him and make him make a few unwise, hasty decisions and will we be able to keep containment if and when we are able to bring some pressure?
We won't win a shootout with them. We need our defense to make a few big plays and create a couple of turnovers that, hopefully, our offense can take advantage of.
The refs we had in the UNI game were from the Patriot league and it looks like the refs for the EWU will be from the Southern Conference. The Southern Conference crew previously worked the Duquesne @ Towson game and the JMU @ Colgate game.
The UNI game is the only game for Patriot league crew for the entire playoffs. I think they're receiving additional training in judging FG accuracy... :rage:
BlueGoldAg hit the nail on the head, its about the trench play. Eagles rattled JM in the first game as he didnt have a lot of time. Tuili is a monster and has to be accounted for (and likely doubled) on every play. I do think the OL is improving each week, and held up pretty nicely against a pretty damn good DL last week. LW + seeing these guys once bodes well for better performance. Throw in some wrinkles/game planning and as ive said a few times already i think the offense will play better/have more success.
Gonna come down to the D what what number they can hold EWU to on Sat. I personally think 30-35 would be a giant success, which is a sign of great respect to this explosive EWU offense. UCD gonna have to out score them something like 40-38 or 35-31 if they want to win. (barring a whole bunch of turnovers). Barriere is a stud, mobile with a rocket for an arm. His biggest opportunitity is around the consistency with accuracy which seems to be improving by the week. Also, putting him in spots where he had 3rd and long or has to make quick decisions is going to be the best bet so I expect UCD to take more chances, send more guys from all over at different times to try to confuse/pressure and get the ball out quickly.
Part of what I'm most excited about is seeing the chess match and what adjustments each coach makes. So much of the success in a game starts with the film work, strategic adjustments, and understanding tendencies as the team prepares for Saturday. Then you gotta execute. It's rare you play a team twice in a season at the college level, especially just 4 weeks apart.
I honestly dont know the details about the DL & who is banged up. This late in the year likely to be a number of guys suffering from some sort of injury. EWU isnt without their share of stuff too, perhaps missing a couple of key starters from when they played just a couple weeks ago.
EWU poster here, As far as the Portland State goes and the thought of running up the score!
Yes, EWU won like 74-23. Something you all didn’t see in the post game stats was EWU only had the ball on offense for 17:55 of the 60 minutes of the game on OFFENSE. They scored 5 TD’s on possessions of 65 seconds or less. Our kicker was injured for the game, so they went for 2 on most TD conversions. With the lopsided score, in a rival game, PSU was still doing onside kicks and calling timeouts in the 4th, while EWU was only running the ball. 3 of the runs went for TDS with the 3rd and 4th string RBs. So Coach Best was not trying to run up the score. It was just the players being players. Also, the injuries to our players in that game came before the half with the score at 27-13.
Wasn't even aware that PSU and EWU were rivals! Good to know
As for the game on Saturday, I can't be up in Davis, got the Company wide Christmas party Friday night through Saturday night in Sausalito. Will be checking furiously, and looking for a high tech sports bar to flip ESPN3 up on the screen.