My thoughts...
The Good
- Our corners played VERY well today IMO, and thats without starter Travis Howard. Clarke has a knack for playing the ball in the air and played very well, and Bradley Roby had excellent coverage on his man and only allowed 1 catch for 7 yards.
- Pass protection by the offensive line.
- Bauserman not turning the football over.
- John Simon playing like a man possessed on the last couple of series after missing extended time due to cramps.
- Chris Fields PR for a TD. Dude showed some wheels that I didn't know he had.
- Devin Smith looked very impressive to me today. He was able to get open multiple times down the field, caught the ball well, and ran well after the catch.
The Bad
- Running backs weren't very good today. They are our 4th and 5th stringers and both are very young guys, but they missed a lot of wholes today and ran into the back of their lineman, or into a defender when they had an open lane, more times than i can count. Rod Smith's fumble was at a very very bad time, and its his second one in two weeks. I'm just wondering why Jamaal Berry is healthy enough to return kicks and play a couple snaps at RB, but not healthy enough to carry the ball? He could've made a difference today. To point out the obvious though, this team really misses Boom. His vision is just irreplaceable IMO and he almost never goes down on the first contact.
- Defensive line outside of John Simon. Very hit or miss, either they swallowed people up, or they got gashed or stood up in rushing the passer. Nathan William's absence was very noticable, and it shows big of an impact he can have.
- I think the LB's played very poor today. They didn't tackle well and struggled to get off their blocks. Tyler Moeller really struggled getting off of blocks and that was why Toledo had so much success with the swing screen.
- Bauserman. While he didn't turn the ball over, he really didn't do too much offensively outside of the first drive TD to Stoneburner. He didn't throw many good balls after that, and overall could not get the offense moving.
- Braxton not seeing the field. Kid balled out last week and he doesn't touch the field this week? Bauserman simply was not getting it done and it wouldn't have hurt things IMO to give Braxton a shot at it in the 3rd quarter.
- Philly Brown going down with an injury. Just a sprain apparently, but we need him with our lack of proven depth at WR.
The Ugly
- Offensive line was abysmal in the run game today. They were getting dominated at the point of attack by Toledo when we tried to run it.
- Our defense against the swing screen. Easy 5 yards for Toledo every time.
- Drew Basil again. He's now 0/3 on FG's this year and 0/4 for his career with one being blocked.
- The punt team. The blocked punt was almost a killer. Missed block let it happen, and the formation is an awful design as well. Hopefully they work on this and get everyone on the same page, or just implement a brand new formation.
Overall, bad bad game played by tOSU. Worst I've seen in a while, and they were lucky to escape with a win.
But at the same time, a win's a win and we're 2-0. Probably in for a nice drop in the polls, but as long as we get the W thats all that matters. We only had about 60 scholarship players with all of the injuries and suspensions that we dealt with, hopefully we get some back and the offense gets back on track for next week's game against Da U.