I think it’s possible to be creative while still playing conservative. We got nearly 400 yards of offense against a pretty good defensive team and had no turnovers. We had a variety of rushing plays. We averaged nearly 14 yards per completion. We threw the ball 9 times on first down vs 20 rushes but we got over six yards a carry when we ran on 1st down,
What led to our defeat were drive killing penalties against us and drive sustaining penalties for them combined with our inability to get stops in the first part of the game. By stops I mean drives not ending in a score. Three of their first four drives, they scored. And of course our failure to get into the end zone where we turned it over on downs. Even that play where Larison didn’t get in there likely was an option for Tompkins to keep that ball and he chose not to.

Ok, so that’s the season. Very disappointing we couldn’t beet Weber or Eastern.
I don’t think we either exceeded or fell short of expectations. We finished about where projected.
Pluses are that we have found two offensive stars in CJ Hutton and Lan Larison. At QB, we now have the QB controversy. We have to remember that Rodrigues is still the guy who completed his first 16 passes, and was an effective scrambler. Tompkins is certainly a dynamic athlete. It’s a plus that we have two guys who have upsides. Run game was best of the Hawkins era, and we might have had a better performance with Gilliam in addition to Larison. Play calling was creative, we were obviously emphasizing short passes and the run game. The fly sweep plays worked better than ever, Crawford Babb and Hutton are pretty good ball carriers. We took some downfield shots but not many. I think they were trying to not put too much of a burden on the QB. Maybe this will change now they have some experience, I think they’ll be forced to.

While the defense is improved it’s not near good enough. Multiple long drives against it in this game, high percentage of third and fourth down conversions. In the first half, our offense had the ball less than 9 minutes and had 5 first downs, it wasn’t just three and outs. Meanwhile the D was giving up long time consuming drives ending in scores. While the offense bears responsibility for giving the defense a break, the defense has to get the ball back for the offense in some way other than a kickoff. Our interception bounced of their receivers hands so can’t take too much credit for that.

I can’t imagine one of the coordinators decides whether to kick a field goal or go for it. That’s on the head coach

To give Hastings a shot. And then Tompkins later. Game was not progressing toward a victory and there are other goals

How can you review plays without a call on the field? Think how that could work on other infractions.

It’s because of Covid

Barrier’s a slippery devil. Makes me laugh when the emphasis is on making him move out of the pocket, it’s usually worse for us when he does

If we ever get a chance to pin a team deep, we should decline it.

We don’t have evidence he can’t pass. Undetermined

We just wanted them to feel overconfident

look at that. Combine their perfect on fourth down with 60% on third and you see why the defense never gets off the field

In this game we have not converted on a third or fourth down. Other than that we’re doing fine.

The defense isn’t doing any better than the offense. We get the ball back only after they score.

Bad field position never seems to matter much to our opponents.

I love the type of review where statements are made without supporting argument similar to “ The Eagles defense could play a huge role and end this game early if they can control the line of scrimmage against UC Davis.”
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts

And perhaps another freshman on offense deserved mention, CJ Hutton made the first and biggest play on the game winning drive. He’s another freshman who should get the ball.

Now they’re missing more practice. I assume they’re not practicing again until summer.

But why did it take them a year and a half? Contrast that to our 2017 transition where we recruited a new QB as the first order of business. This limited season would have been a good time to get players oriented to the new system, and they’ve missed that opportunity.
I don’t doubt they’ll get the team righted because they have a proven coaching staff, but how long will it take?

I think this stuff happens fairly often, just not with starting quarterbacks. The new coaching staff not getting any style points to offset their poor performance on the field. If they weren’t proven coaches one would think the wheels were coming off the bus.

Eastern isn’t as big on the defensive line as they were last time we played, I think we win the battle between our offensive line and their defensive line, if we run right at them. Pretty good pass rush.
Their linebackers aren’t big either. Having Ojoh out will likely help.
Their offensive line looks pretty good, that will be a battle.