I think most of us came away from that game thinking we could have beat them if we played better. They clearly had better overall talent, but I really liked what I saw from certain players and units. Here are my thoughts:
- I'll start with the QB situation. I don't think we can continue with Browne as the starter. I don't see any of this "NFL arm talent" or really any other intangible we were promised. I saw throws off his back foot, I saw a guy who was rattled too easily, and I saw throws to no one. I also think we will substantially benefit from DiNucci's mobility. It wasn't all his fault because...
- ...our WRs and TEs didn't catch the ball. I can't find the numbers but I counted AT LEAST 6 drops. 2 were by Weah and 2 were by Flanagan. You need better. They also didn't get any separation. Plenty of times there was a ball that was thrown that I thought was going to be picked.
- Ollison looked good today. I've been on him and have said I think Moss should be starting but he really played well. I'm not sure why you use AJ Davis last week and he doesn't see the field this week.
- The line - holy hell get JJS out of there. He cannot pass block. I watched him get beaten over and over by speed moves all day and especially once they knew we would be passing on the last drive.
- Special teams - Quadree gets no blame in my book. He didn't have an inch to move. Kessman off the schneid with two field goals and Winslow didn't have his one shank a game we are used to seeing. However...
- ...you cannot kick FGs in goal to go situations. You are on the road as a 21 point dog, you need the TD each time. How does everyone feel if the score is 33-21 and we are driving at the end of the game?
- I thought the defense was generally outstanding. With the exception of having Brightwell cover Barkley on his long TD catch, I thought they covered well and tackled even better. We could have had more pressure but we looked better than last week (although Hendrix will get to see his times he lost contain to let Barkley out for a big gain a lot this week).
- We had THIRTY MORE YARDS THAN THEM! We also controlled the ball for 17 more minutes. This wasn't a blow out. This was a tale of one team executing (with obviously better talent on offense) and one team flailing.
- I hate watching players we lost to PSU make plays. I thought of it on the Apke pick and sacke from the DE from philly we lost (his name escapes me now).
- I do love watching Miles Sanders fumble his one carry.
- Franklin's classless comment after the game was betrayed by how he treated it. He had his best player returning kickoffs...which is beyond dumb. Barkley does enough for them, you're going to risk him getting hurt on special teams?
- Oklahoma State is really good but we can beat them. If the D can play another solid game and we can get more than 14 points from our offense, we should be in business.
- I'm actually somewhat encouraged by what I saw and think they can build on it. We are hopefully seeing some of the defensive blueprint Narduzzi is building.
