2024 Week 2: Texas A&M Commerce (0-1) @ UC Davis (0-1) Positives
- There are obviously things that I can nitpick, but credit where credit is due... this was a much cleaner game from Miles Hastings if you just look at the stat line and not necessarily the full context of the game. Accuracy was improved from the Cal game and just 1 turnover that came off of a blindside hit. Now he did still miss some passes that a starting QB at this level should be hitting, made some questionable passing decisions like throwing into triple coverage, and will need to improve going forward, but this wasn't a horrendous outing.
- Larison started to get his feet churning. After his slow(ish) game against Cal it was nice to see him drop 123 in this one. He also had that amazing diving catch in the first half.
- Run defense was on fire. TAMC had 22 rushing attempting for a gain of 35 yards, but loss of 44 yards for a total of -9 yards or -.4 yards per rush. Tough to beat that.
- We won the turnover battle
- Kicking (all-around) was much better than the Cal game
Negatives
- Pass defense, oh my goodness. Either Rex Connors is the only thing holding secondary coverage together or TAMC are world beaters in the pass game (even compared to Cal). As a reminder, this was the Lions back up QB playing and he torched us for 457 yards. Big oof.
- Red zone offense. Things improved in the 2nd half, but the first half was a painful experience to watch. Having to settle for field goals that often isn't a sign of a healthy offense.
- Finishing the defensive plays. Man, we had their QB wrapped up for sure fire sacks it felt like at least 5, 6, 7 times, yet the stat sheet shows that we finished the game with... ZERO. The guy was elusive and strong on his feet, but just freaking sack the guy.
Overall, there were definitely areas that we improved upon from the Cal game, but also found some new glaring weaknesses that are going to make Big Sky play brutal if they don't get cleaned up. We'll take the win though!
GO AGS!