To say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. We barely edged it out against a middle of the road Pac Ten team. Despite what you saw on Saturday, UCLA isn't very good. Defensively they can pressure the QB, but other than that they stayed in the game via determined, gutsy play and pathetic offensive line play on our part. Like the Washington/USC game before it, this game between us and UCLA didn't say as much about how good UCLA is as much as it says how long we have to go to becoming a decent football team. People are going to say they have a great defense because of all the high rankings they have and whatnot. Go back and look who they have played (Utah, Rice, Washington, Stanford, Arizona, and Oregon). It isn't exactly a great lineup of offenses. Oregon ran the ball all over them last week. Against that competition our defense would be ranked highly as well and we should all know by now that our defense is average, at best. And there is no way they should have scored 7 points on us, much less 17. We're talking about a team that has no pass plays of more than 25 yards on the year and a backup quarterback who's barely taken a snap. And they torch us for two long pass plays? We can't handle a team with any sort of speed at defensive end. Typically the quicker, smaller defensive ends that can get after the passer are susceptible to being sort of pushed around in the running game. Forget about our offensive line outweighing theirs by a good margin, we couldn't push anyone around. Weis said he wasn't going to be miserable about a game like this. He should be, he should use it to point out to everyone on the team how we stack up against the rest of the country...not good. I almost hope we don't go to a BCS game because it could get ugly in a hurry against the likes of Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, OSU, Michigan, USC, LSU, WVU, etc.
Brady didn't look great the whole game in terms of reading coverages but the kid punched it in when it mattered. It's difficult to look good when you spend much of the game on your back. The kid is tough, he is clutch, and he knows what it takes to win. Brady Quinn has ice in his veins. On top of that, he really showed some much improved ability to throw the ball on the run. It's like when we have to have it, he delivers it, sometimes. He's almost at his best when the pressure is on. And there is no better attribute to have in your QB than that. I firmly believed this game will be one that Heisman voters look back at if Smith falters at all. It is a defining moment.
Our offensive line may be the worst in the country. I'm not exaggerating. We can't get push in the running game, we don't get to the second level to block linebackers, and we allow virtually anyone with any sort of decent speed to get to Brady almost at will. I don't know how we could go from our level of play last year to our level of play this year with virtually the same personnel, but it has happened. We do not play physical enough and we don't have that killer instinct that good offensive lines have. Latina has continued to disappoint me and I was very high on him because my cousin played for him at Ole Miss and sang his praises all the time.
I have come to the conclusion that we miss Travis Thomas and RPN. Darius is a fine, nearly complete back but without a change of pace, more downhill runner to complement him we seem to be constrained to what type of running plays we are capable of executing. I think we need to take the reins off Aldridge and Schmidt and let them earn their scholarships. We need someone who is a tough inside runner to show up and start earning us some tough yardage.
Samardzija finally did what we saw him do all of last year. He looked pretty good on Saturday and obviously was as clutch as they come. If he will get rid of the showboating I'd like him that much more.
David Grimes, David Grimes, David Grimes. Oh where have you been? He had more receptions Saturday than the whole year to date and it was much needed. I was impressed by his ability to catch the tough passes and come back to the ball. We need him to keep this up and be Mr. Dependability down the stretch. Even on some crucial plays he came up big.
I'm getting more and more concerned about Weis' ability to handle a team as a head coach. He says all the right things but they just don't show up on the field. There is no reason, after two weeks of preparation, we should have performed that way against a very average team. We haven't come out firing one time this season against anything that resembles a solid defense. We need to start off faster, put teams away early, and play for 60 minutes. I recall his "intelligent, hard working, nasty football team" comment and I don't see the nasty part at all. We are certainly intelligent, and extremely well prepared. And the defense works hard every play. But on offense we aren't nasty and sometimes lack the hard work part as well. That said, I don't know if Weis will ever miss a clock management issue. He is just too well prepared for it. If he doesn't manage the clock well at the end of the game there is no way we win. He did everything you could ask of a coach to put his players in a position to win. Fortunately for us, we were able to come through.
Again, why do we huddle?
How do you blitz as much as we did and not get pressure on their QB? I don't understand how we don't get to the QB more. Victor has been double-teamed (and held) all the freakin' time. Without someone opposite him to provide some sort of quality rush we will continue to not get to the QB.
Landri and Laws were great again, especially on their failed fourth down conversion. That was about 90% due to Landri alone. The kid is so quick off the ball.
Any time you don't sack a team a lot (and get the negative rushing yards for it) and still manage to hold them to like 25 yards rushing you are doing something good. That is impressive by any means. Actually, we held them to less than 250 total yards on offense. That is very respectable no matter who you are playing. We just can't continue to give up the big play and especially not to a team that never has them.
Lambert gets better every game. Don't be surprised to see him become a pretty dang good man-to-man corner next season. His interception was a textbook defensive play and that PI called on him was BS. He has speed to spare. Couple that with improved coaching and instincts and you will get a pretty good defensive back. With him on one side and Walls/McNeil on the other we may have a pretty stout secondary in the near future.
Mike Richardson does so many of the little things to be a good football player. He tackles extremely well, he is physical, and he is nearly never out of position. Kudos to him for being so improved.
Duke didn't look all that good in this game. He doesn't break down well enough when trying to tackle and that is critical for someone his size/height.
Zibby had a respectable game. I won't say good, but respectable.
David Bruton is becoming spot-on on the punt coverage team.
Did anyone see Clemson play on Saturday night? Don't count them out. Their offensive line looked fantastic and they have speed to spare all over the field. If Procter just plays well enough to not get them beat and the defense holds up they may make a run for it. They made Georgia Tech look really, really bad.
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