C'mon Hastings...

Offense has to figure something out here

Go Ags! Beat the Hornets!

I guess to me it's how they use O'Hara. When the quarterback platoon becomes 1 dimensional, it becomes predictable and easier to stop. Our platoon, without HR playing, is 1 dimensional. Overwhelming chance Hastings is gonna throw or hand it off and an overwhelming chance TT is going to run. TT obviously still finds success with that because he is an excellent athlete, but it looks like the Hornets still give O'Hara plenty of chances to throw the ball. While O'Hara hasn't been as efficient as Dunniway in terms of passing, he scares me more with the unpredictability. Dunniway is a better version of Hastings, you know what his game plan is when he takes the field.

We've struggled against QBs who are mobile and who are able to extend plays in the backfield.

Not just his rushing yards but how many of his passing yards were on extended plays in the backfield? We've had trouble in bringing down the shifty QB all season. Maybe thats just what makes them shifty. If NAU's QB hadn't gotten hurt it may have been a different outcome.

I imagine that they will try to take advantage of such a glaring weakness of ours.

I'm curious how Sac will run their QB split against us. Dunniway has about twice as many pass attempts as O'Hara, but doesn't seem to be much of a runner. O'Hara, on the other hand, leads the team in rushing. With how much we struggle defensively with QB mobility it'll be interesting if we see more O'Hara or not.

Good for the Vandals. They've suffered his tenure long enough.

I really really wish I had more confidence going into this game because beating Sac is always a goal even in years where a post season isn't in play.

I feel like the general consensus is fairly accurate though.

To be totally fair, my confidence was waning way before the EWU game! I sure hope the Aggies can pull off a victory headed into the post season, but I'm not sure it will happen with how inconsistent the offense has been over the course of the season. They haven't looked straight up good in a long while and have bounced between serviceable and borderline dysfunctional. Not to mention Sac is surging at the right time. They not only have a good team, but the confidence coming into it.

Yeah high tackles for defensive backs isn't necessarily a good thing. Typically means the other team is moving the ball down field frequently. As river said, Budgett was the primary defender on at least 2 of EWU's TDs.

In what is surely a good omen for this week, Lamont Johnson-Burrell has committed to Sac State

After game 4 or so I admittedly had start to write them off already. They were sitting 2-2 with not so convincing wins over Dixie and ISU (although we all know how ISU went for us as they now sit at 1-9). They really figured it out mid season though and it's been pedal to the metal for them. I agree that we are the underdogs in this game.

I specifically said earlier in the thread that the defense was doing what they could. While, objectively, allowing over 600 yards of offense isn't great, I was pretty clear I put most of this loss on the offense. Teams were playing in the same weather conditions, but we were only able to put up 1 offensive TD. That won't cut it even against poor teams.

They have a history of success. They find themselves in the playoffs most seasons and have won the national championship relatively recently. Players like playing for winners. I haven't looked this next part up, but I am going out on a limb and guessing that they don't have some of the academic requirement constraints that we might have. This isn't a dig at any specific player, but when you have a bigger pool of players to look at you will find some gems.

OL has to help the QB out, but I think it's also important to note that (at least in my opinion) we don't have THE guy at QB on the roster. Jake Maier was THE guy. Eric Barriere is THE guy. I think the ship has sailed with Rodrigues. You don't typically get replaced mid season if there are zero questions about your ability to handle the position. Hastings lacks the mobility most modern QBs are expected to have. Jake also lacked mobility but was a prolific passer which Hastings hasn't shown yet. He's a freshman so there is time to grow, but right now I'm not totally sold. Tompkins has insane mobility, but it raw as a passer despite putting up insane passer numbers in high school. He seems jumpy in the backfield even when given passing attempts.

I don't know what the answer is for this problem. Does Dan hit the junior college ranks to find an ace? Do we just give Hastings as many reps as possible and hope he improves? Do we continue to rotate quarterbacks? Maybe I'm just a downer after the loss, but it really seems like we don't have an identity on offense.

If offense can't figure it out that is a loss as well.

Frankly, this is exactly what I was worried about coming into this game. Defense hasn't been tested all season and didn't look great against a prolific offense. Offense is not good, plain and simple. 1 offensive touchdown will rarely if ever win you a game. The Hastings INT felt like a huge momentum shift. Kudos to Larison though. Single handedly gave us a little bit of life.

The defense is doing what they can against a very good offense. At the end of the day you cannot win a game scoring a singular offensive touchdown. That is where I'm placing most of the blame in this one.