in any sport there is the tendency to use your best players most and this year we really haven’t been blowing people out early so you can argue they are needed for 60 minutes. But I wonder if there is growing pressure to pad stats of guys who have a chance at the next level to either help them achieve that directly or entice them not to leave for a greener pastures when those play calls or personnel choices are not really relevant to winning the game. Thinking of the Rex tush push and last year keeping Lan in during lots of garbage time.

I think a comment made during the broadcast was that his high completion rate and high sac rate are related because he doesn’t throw the ball away. Perhaps the gift and curse of a mobile quarterback, figuring out when you can and can’t make something out of nothing.

With this counts but doesn’t count gotcha, you might say it was 3/5 of a game.

The player of the game, selected by Idaho announcers and sponsored by Toyota of Spokane… Gbatu. Unusual to pick someone from the away team.

Cannot give away emotional victories to a team fighting for life. When you have the boot on the throat, you have to push down. All the way.

this is the plywood sign that was posted at the site 2004-ish. So at one point it was 16,000 base, expandable to 30,000 and was value engineered back to 10k. It was just built at an inopportune moment. National shortages of building supplies driven by Hurricane Katrina, unfavorable economic conditions, local labor shortage. And probably contributing was the low bid general contractor selected had zero experience with stadiums. They were a strip mall and apartment firm.

I knew that lady didn’t know crap about building when she started talking about disking… that is what farmers do to spent tomato fields. A developer would have probably said “site work”.

I’ll take an overpriced consultant payment if they’re offering lol.

good for him. I’m no position expert but felt like we may have underutilized him in his time with us.

Hulu Live TV is an option. You can also subscribe to “ESPN Unlimited” which includes the broadcast ESPN channels in addition to the streaming-only content (currently in a promo bundle with Disney+ for $29). Or Sling TV has a $5 “day pass” that includes ESPN.

In this case, I don’t know that it is clear which company is the bigger villain. Both sides are flexing.

yes, but he is typically credited as Cal.

there’s something of a paradox, isn’t there? Do you double down on one great player or spread the reps between several excellent ones? Depends if the strategy is an NFL highlight reel or team insurance. The Dakotas and Montanas have built a legacy where players who are good enough will get noticed by the NFL with a regular number of reps so there’s space to be deep. It’s kind of like we need one guy to really hit it—and not on a practice squad, injured reserve, or swapped to 7 teams in 3 years—to unlock the boss level.

I think in the post game Plough admitted to getting greedy, he thought there was time for one more shot for 7 before trying for 3 and we ended up with 0. Not sure how the coaching dynamic works on making those tactical decisions.

I believe we were 1st down at the 23 with 7 seconds left, so would have been a ~40 yard attempt? His long this year is 46 yd so maybe “easy” was an overstatement, but still.

We saw Harper play last week and I don’t know that a different outcome would have resulted. QB might not have been 100%, but i think disasters on defense, special teams, and play calling may have been more definitive than the offense shortcomings. Not taking easy 3 at the end of Q2 turned out to be game point.

What a screw up, right from the first drive.

This is not an ESPN issue. They are online for other games. That blue screen of death was some piece of equipment in the stadium losing signal.

From a strategy point, why didn’t we try for 2 on one of the last two TDs? Being down by 2 (if not successful) is kind of the same as being down by 1 in a shootout.

absolutely agree. When the opportunity comes next September, we just gotta win and they can all cry into their flavorless taco salads and bottom-shelf dollar-itas at the Missoula Applebees on mountain sports tv.

there was a time when you’d need tens of thousands of dollars of equipment to produce quality pressers. These days with led lighting and Bluetooth mics, an iPhone and a few hundred dollars of accessories would be all you need to make these better. Agree the production quality is just one of those little things that would just be so cheap and easy to fix.