reasons to be optimistic

[Slick Manager of Champs]

- Defense looked better against a good PSU offense.

- Defense looked better without Hamlin, Ford & Whitehead. In theory should improve even more when those three are on the field.

- Defensive line is young and showed potential for growth.

- Good stable of running backs.

Reasons to be pessimistic:

- lack of big play capability on offense. Weah and Henderson have to get untracked. RBs are good but not necessarily breaking it for 50-60 yards

- defense improving, but still needs to create a turnover or two. How big would it have been to recover Sanders fumble?

- too many drops/missed opportunities. Weah showing form from first year rather than last in dropping too many. Clark needs to make that catch against PSU

- JJS. Hate to call out a college kid but two weeks in a row getting beat on the end rush.

Overall, more optimistic than pessimistic. Thinking the four things mentioned will hopefully show some improvement as the Coastal schedule starts.

 

[PittMan2003]

- Defense looked better against a good PSU offense.

- Defense looked better without Hamlin, Ford & Whitehead. In theory should improve even more when those three are on the field.

- Defensive line is young and showed potential for growth.

- Good stable of running backs.

Reasons to be pessimistic:

- lack of big play capability on offense. Weah and Henderson have to get untracked. RBs are good but not necessarily breaking it for 50-60 yards

- defense improving, but still needs to create a turnover or two. How big would it have been to recover Sanders fumble?

- too many drops/missed opportunities. Weah showing form from first year rather than last in dropping too many. Clark needs to make that catch against PSU

- JJS. Hate to call out a college kid but two weeks in a row getting beat on the end rush.

Overall, more optimistic than pessimistic. Thinking the four things mentioned will hopefully show some improvement as the Coastal schedule starts.

Agree that more optimistic than pessimistic. Very young team playing without a ton of its key players last Saturday and was toe to toe (even though the game was never really in question). The offense has been bad, but I think there is a chance it gets better-lots of new pieces and key losses from last year. I like that we are running a lot of Canada's stuff.

If our defense last year played like they did on Saturday we might have made the playoff. Sounds ridiculous...But who on our schedule would we have lost to? The only loss that wasn't extremely close was Miami.

 

[rmf05]

I think our OL will improve. Poor JJS really got messed up with that injury and the kid from Texas looks to be not much better. Its too bad Ford got hurt. He was getting good press and I hear one of the Ohio kids from our class this year has looked good but they are trying to redshirt him. The rest have played pretty well but had some stumbles which is the norm for September. If we shore up the LT spot we're set.

 

[VAPITTALUM]

I think our OL will improve. Poor JJS really got messed up with that injury and the kid from Texas looks to be not much better. Its too bad Ford got hurt. He was getting good press and I hear one of the Ohio kids from our class this year has looked good but they are trying to redshirt him. The rest have played pretty well but had some stumbles which is the norm for September. If we shore up the LT spot we're set.

The left side of the OL isn't the issue, Hodges and Jones-Smith are on the right side of the OL.

I'd like to see Bookser out at RT, with Hodges manning the RG position this week. On the left side, Officer and O'Neill have been doing a pretty decent job. JJS was getting brutalized by false starts and the lack of lateral quickness to step in front of Shareef Miller last weekend.

 

[pitts-lament]

# 1. We need an O T that can move, if they want to throw those wr screens and wide curls to the RB, that tackle has to get out. JJS caused that safety , he was late out and missed completely when he did get there. but most of all, NEED a lot better from the QB , whoever it ends up being. Too much staring down receivers , too
slow reading the D, really don,t seem to have a feel for what the hell is going on around him. No Passion.
Playing well and losing is just keeping us where we have been for too long, If we play the same type of game this week, we will get embarrassed.

 

[Mikefln]

- Defense looked better against a good PSU offense. Agree

- Defense looked better without Hamlin, Ford & Whitehead. In theory should improve even more when those three are on the field. Whitehead yes, Ford maybe, I think Coleman will be a better player than Hamlin after their careers are over.

- Defensive line is young and showed potential for growth.Agree but we need more depth. This is where losing Blair and Telani hurts this year.

- Good stable of running backs. Yes they are.

Reasons to be pessimistic:

- lack of big play capability on offense. Weah and Henderson have to get untracked. RBs are good but not necessarily breaking it for 50-60 yards Henderson needs to step up and be more than just a jet sweep glorified running back. He needs to become more of a true WR. I have yet to see him make progressions towards that.

- defense improving, but still needs to create a turnover or two. How big would it have been to recover Sanders fumble? Linebacker play needs to improve also. While I think NA duo giving it their all and for the most part were not embaressed this past week it is bad that they are not second string. Back in the day people use to poop all over Shane Murray from Central Catholic, I would take him over these 2.

- too many drops/missed opportunities. Weah showing form from first year rather than last in dropping too many. Clark needs to make that catch against PSU I am hoping Clark was just a matter of being rusty, because he was very hyped. Weah is what he is, not sure why people are surprised. He is a track guy playing football. Sometimes he brings the ball in, sometimes he does not.

- JJS. Hate to call out a college kid but two weeks in a row getting beat on the end rush. He needs moved inside. Overall the OL played great, almost to the point where they manhandled PSU's front seven at times. Then there were times were PSU came in not blocked at all. There were a couple of times were we pulled and the PSU defense was tackling the qb/rb before our OL even got to that side of the center.

Overall, more optimistic than pessimistic. Thinking the four things mentioned will hopefully show some improvement as the Coastal schedule starts.