Speaking of Wildcat, I think we need to rethink TT - many of his plays are getting blown up this year.

can’t say I disagree. I think teams have figured it out and it’s time to rotate him in more as a receiver or true running back and less of the wildcat. We obviously need him on the field but figuring out how to make that happen is the question.

I thought that the replay showed that the FG from the 1 yard line was not tipped, it was just shanked low and wobbly.

Yeah, TT and the wildcat is scouted out by everyone in the stadium. Work him into an option type play. I noticed today MSU has several option plays. Where was our backfield pass trick play? But lets face it, Weber has a hella good defense. Their D did what they needed to do. And several of us early on agreed we could end up 1-4 during the first 5 games. Brutal schedule.

I just don’t see us winning a lot of games with Hastings. Lots of completions today but too many bad passes in huge situations. Easy TD pass to wide open Gilliam and a couple other deep balls were short. Very frustrating loss just like SD State game. I think it’s great that we are much more competitive with the top teams than before but frustrating because we could have easily won them.

Yeah, this is a different team than when I started watching in the Gould years because we’re not losing due to being hopelessly outmatched on the field anymore, we’re losing because of very specific issues of bad execution.

Ironically doesn’t feel less frustrating

What movielover said, but with the addition of we were letting huge chunks of clock run without calling timeouts. Shot ourselves in the foot with time management. Hawkins was notoriously un-Hawkins like tonight and avoided going for it on 4th and short situations. The one time we went for it on 4th and short we actually had a good play set up, Hastings just overthrew Gilliam for what would have been a TD.

I'm getting tired of trying to make stipulations for the team in justifying their performance. Oh we're playing a FBS team this week. Oh we're playing a ranked team this week. But I'm done giving them the benefit of the doubt there. Why? Because we're going to be playing ranked teams consistently in this conference year in and year out and you know what? The conference is only getting stronger. Weber seems to always have an elite defense. Montana, Montana State, and Sac State are all looking like top 10 maybe even all of them in the top 5. Idaho is already looking much improved with a new head coach.

I don't know where my rambling is going at this point. I guess my point is where is the direction on offense man especially consider we lose Gilliam for sure after this season. Shoot, if he had actually ended up transferring this season we'd really be up a creek without a paddle. I will give kuddos to the offensive line who held up well even with injuries against a very good defense.

This team has to execute...and CH has to prepare and call a better game. A dropped 2 pt. conversion and a missed chip shot field goal. Come on, you gonna nut up or shut up?

Red Zone offense was dreadful...and credit to Weber, played very well defensively, completely neutralized Tompkins. Davis had no x-factor, but there were missed opportunities.

I'll also say, losing Pettek on the 2nd play didn't help things one bit on offense. They still kept Hastings clean most of the night, and Hastings looked to be on a very strict clock last night...you could count the dropbacks and deep shots on one hand.

The only thing I will really give Hastings credit for is that he's managed to keep a clean sheet in terms of interceptions over the last 2 games. You're not going to win a lot of games when you only have 6.6 yards per completion and 4.5 yards per attempt. Hastings is simply too limited in his skill set to take this team to the playoffs.

Preseason my gut said we needed Newman (few INTs, mobile), Babbs and UG. A new user sent me a DM weeks ago that said Newman didn't "fit in". ??? Seems he got 40% reps at Blue Gold game and did well. We're a deeper team that may go .500 w average QB play the next few years.

If we could make FGs we're at least 2-2. End of half play calling frustrating. Aggie fans booing rare. The fast tempo seemed to help, why not punch it in w UG at the one? Our whole offense seems to operate within 5 yards of the LOS. This feels like the Randy Williams era. Yearly scoring seems to show the impact of Keelan Doss.

Senior George Moreno leads the team in tackles?! Great job by Freshman DB Cotton. I don't get giving TT more WR attempts than studs Thorpe and Babbs.

"We're a deeper team that may go .500 w average QB play the next few years."

Our defense is playing at a playoff level right now. We're allowing just over 20 points per game against the 2 ranked FCS teams we've played. In those 2 games we are winning the turnover battle 6-1 (2 INTs and a fumble recovery against SDSU, 1 INT and 2 fumble recoveries against Weber, 1 pick thrown against SDSU).

Miles Hastings is a sophomore, there is simply no way in my mind that we can't upgrade at the position. If we roll with him for another 2-3 seasons I think we see some of the stars on defense transfer out of the program. The offense (outside of UG who is done after this season) including the kicking game is massively letting the rest of the team down. This includes the offensive coaching staff.

Here are a few quotes from the Bob Dunning article in today's Enterprise:

“I hope we do all hurt, because that means we care,” said Aggie head coach Dan Hawkins afterward."

“We were in it, and we did some good things against a great football team, but the margin of error is small. We need to give Weber State credit and not hang our heads.”

Noted Weber State head coach Jay Hill, “It’s hard to go on the road against a very, very good football team and come away with a win. Our defense did bend, but it didn’t break. I told the Davis quarterback that’s about as good of a performance anyone has ever given against us.”

Dunning noted that we had 25 first downs, had more total yardage 417 to 356 and won the TO battle 3-0. However, he didn't say anything about how we were only 2-5 on FG's and he didn't mention the controversial decision by Hawkins to try a FG from the one yard line on the last play of the first half. That we continue to struggle with our kicking game is simply a statistical fact. Aggie fans would like to know about Hawkins' uncharacteristically conservative decision and that's completely missing in the article.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/football-aggies-drop-heartbreaking-conference-game-to-wildcats/

I’m frustrated but also heartened by the close loss. The team matched up with Weber very well. We could run the ball against a really good defense, And we didn’t get run over. Our DBs are more athletic.
I think the coaches own this loss, but for little things like the play calling when we were not quite in make-able field goal range and ran Larison wide for a loss, and the two complete passes that got us back to 4th and 8. We have too many passes complete for yardage that doesn’t help, might as well have tried something downfield. An interception downfield is better than setting up a fifty yard field goal attempt when you have a kicker that doesn’t have the range.

Maybe in seasons past I would have also been heartened by a loss like this. I'm starting to lose patience at not being able to close out these games though. If we want to be a top dog, then we have to actually beat some of these top dogs and right now we're shooting ourselves in the feet trying to do it.

How many times did Ulonzo bail us out? 12, 14?

Reich had a good day punting.

Sacramento Bee: "Hastings played perhaps his best game for the Aggies, completing 39 of 57 passes for 256 yards and no interceptions against the top intercepting team in the FCS (with 10 picks coming into Saturday’s game)."

Progress, but I believe staring down one receiver isn't wise. Looking off has to make DBs hesitate and think twice.

I wouldn’t call this a noteworthy statline for Hastings despite the yards and lack of TOs. Weber was probably happy to give him short or no gain passes all day considering they knew by now we wouldn’t go downfield, struggle in kicking, and use a throughly scouted fourth down play on short yardage.


Weber played exactly how they needed to except they maybe didn’t count on the Aggie defense just being that good. With an average Aggie D from prior years this would have been 24-12 or 31-12 and I think that would make the Aggie offense seem much worse in comparison

They surely didn't plan on three turnovers.

We’ve lost the last six games against teams at our level or higher. Hard not to find that discouraging. But none of those were we favored to win.
These games this year looked like football games and not the routs we experienced at the end of last year. It’s better to be frustrated with the coaches decisions than with the lack of talent on the team.
We played too conservatively on offense, making too many dump off passes, completing passes on third down short of the first down line , and the field goal decisions. Game plan was to avoid turnovers and not beat ourselves and that beat us. Defense isn’t good enough to play like you don’t need touchdowns.

I tend to think if you have a RB who can dive over top, and the lineman make contact with the defensive lineman to bring them down closer to the turf, then it is almost impossible to stop a 1 yard plunge overtop.

If we make 4 of 5 FGs, it's a different game.

Puzzling why we didn't have 2 strong plays at the one yard line. If we don't have a TE adept at blocking, can't we bring in a reserve OL as a designated TE? Then have UG or LL go over the right side, or even 2 TE set.

Overall the ball control passing (plan) worked great, but within that plan there have to be ways to keep them honest. Ulonzo going low for the one first down was beautiful.

The expected field goal percentage of a kicker with an average leg at 50 yard in college is going to be very low. Hawkins may have an idea from practice that he can make them but most kickers would not. It makes a huge difference if you can get just a few yards closer.

I wouldn’t call this a noteworthy statline for Hastings despite the yards and lack of TOs.

I wouldn’t call this a noteworthy statline for Hastings despite the yards and lack of TOs.]

Totally agree. Seems the passing offense consists entirely of swing passes out of backfield, drag routes at 5-10 yards - no wheel routes, post patters or anything downfield and when seldomly tried inaccurate. There were several near interceptions. I would say Hastings is getting slightly better but he seems to play (maybe with influence of OC) just to go for sure, quick, short passes and hope for the best. Just no threat of a big passing play whatsoever.

Weber was stacking their D all night and did t have to worry about vertical coverage. If the goal is a high passing percentage, then the Ags are pretty much a success- last I checked it was scoring more points than opponent. The telling stat is 4.5 yards per pass attempt. Bronson was 6.7. Something needs to change. As all have noted, Gilliam is just carrying this
this team’s whole offense. He is a real player - what a pleasure to watch.

The most disappointing thing for me, aside from the tough loss, was the low attendance of only 8822 which nearly 6000 less than last week even though we were playing a highly regarded and ranked opponent. That tells me the students probably won't be showing up in any sizeable numbers and that the general public attendance appears low as well. That may change if we start winning and have a chance to be in the playoffs but I'm not optimistic that we're going to come anywhere close to last year's average of 10,422 a game.

We can still challenge for the Big West title!

What surprised me last year was how predictable our offense was, and that Hawk didn't instruct his offensive staff to mix things up. You can establish a run game without mimicking Ron Gould. That slowed the development of CH.

One more tough game, and then a well-timed Bye.

So who is calling the plays? I assume the OC? What are the responsibilities of the HC during the game if there are designated assistants managing their specific unit? I remember Hawk making a comment a few games ago about giving Cody an ear full for burning a time out. Time out management was certainly a problem in the second half against Weber.

Some thought the drive to end the first half wasted some valuable time.

I just happened to be watching the end of the first half series. The last three plays before the blocked field goal were Hutton’s reception after a Hastings scramble where he got out of bounds, and then his reception where he almost got a TD but didn’t get out of bounds, forcing use of a time out with 10 seconds left, and then the pass to Castles for no gain. That Castles play started with 10 seconds left and ended with 3 seconds and a timeout. That was a slow developing play to run with 10 seconds left, and Castles didn’t cross the line of scrimmage. That play took up enough time that they could only run one more play, which they chose to be the field goal.
Some may see something different to complain about, but from about the fifty with a little over a minute to play they completed two passes to Chaz Davis, ran Gilliam once up the middle to call timeout because the refs had started the clock after moving the chains, had two completions to Hutton and got to the one. Not bad, except the last Castles play and the field goal choice.

I couldn't have said it better myself...excellent summary.