HC Game - Indy State

[Jon99]

Well I think we all agree the passing game was off yesterday. Thank goodness our Run Game was able to get going.

UNI is defintely going to stack the line in my opinion and force us to pass next week. So hopefully we can throw some wrinkles in there next week. Beat UNI next week and I think we can go up to SD State and possibly pull off an upset. If Illinois can go into Purdue and win there then we can go into SD State

SDSU might be better than Purdue

 

[TIMMY]

When the weather won't cooperate and the game comes down to running the ball and defense I like our chances and the Redbirds did not disappoint.

The Good, the bad and the "I don't understand". In reverse order

I have disagreed before with our lack of rushing the punter and I still don't understand it. Our punter has to get the ball off quickly because he gets rushed. Our opponents don't. The Ind St. punter bobbled one snap and if we had any rush at all it would have been blocked or he would have been tackled. As it was he managed to gain control of the ball and get the kick away. The next time we did mount a rush but after that we went back to token pressure. I know they don't want a roughing the kicker but you have to train your special teams not to do that. You wouldn't quit rushing the QB for fear of getting a roughing the passer call. We're giving up more than we get by not rushing the punter.

Also I don't understand why our team didn't start the game by putting overcoats on everyone that isn't on the field. It isn't about comfort, it's a performance issue. If your uniform stays drier you're going to be able to move better and faster. Also cold muscles get tired more easily. We didn't break out the coats until the 2nd half.

I don't like the sacks of Brady Davis. That's bad. The protection could be better but Davis needs to have a clock in his head and get rid of the ball when time is up. I see lots of QB's that have that knack of feeling the pressure and holding the ball until the last moment and then either completing a pass or throwing it away. I don't know if you can develop that or if you have to be born with it. Right now we don't have it.

James is good. Really good. Nothing new there. He knows HOW to score a TD*** I'll explain that in another post because it's not what you think. The three straight wins are good. Really good. Most everyone expected us to win these games but the SIU game in particular is starting to look really good. Just ask Youngstown St. and South Dakota.

The punt block stuff baffles me. OK you want to try and set up a return. But you should always try and put pressure on the punter. One guy from the right trying to block it. One guy from the left looking to scoop and score. And a guy up the middle looking to clean up a mess. Fumbles, bobbles etc.

The QB clock thing. Yeah he sure does need to get rid of the ball. I think the other problem we have is no one gets open and watching from the end zone TR it's alarming. They just don't get open. If I were Beathard I might throw it even less. It's really sad that losing Edgar and Grimes has made such a big difference in our ability to chuck it. I wish I knew how to fix it. You can't wish a receiver open.

Robinson is special. Put him back there with Proctor at a wing. Run some single wing and shorten the game?

 

[MadBird]

Riffing on Total Red's stuff, one thing I don't understand is how some freshman RB can come in and wildcat our tough defense, especially on a day when passing was not a threat, it was run all the way. Geez, dig in guys!

Hard to criticize the passing game on such a crappy weather day, but that effort was pretty sad. If TIMMY is right (and he usually is) and no one's getting open, then more Proctor please, as a wing, or as a receiver, whatever, in the same backfield with J Rob. More Kevin Brown. Get some playmakers on the field. We get into them 3rd and longs, and I gotta say, I do not feel very good when Davis drops back. Or rolls out. I don't like dumping on one of our guys either, calling him out by name. But .. . . . .

Felt terrible for McCloyn for his fumble, he gets finally a chance to carry the ball, makes an outstanding run at a critical time, and them fumbles. Yow! That guy's a horse, very little recognition for all he does.

We're 6-2 and looking back it's hard to argue with it, we probably could've/should've beat NIU, upsetting Bison is always something to dream about, but realistically it's where you'd have to figger we'd be.

UNI has a worse record than us, by one game, and they know they have to make a push to make the playoffs, no different than us.
They close out on the road vs. us and SDSU, and at home to Sycamores and Leathernecks. So, a split would leave them at 7-5 and very much on the bubble. They take us out and win the two home games, 8-4 and looking much better. We can maybe afford a split in our final four, but losing at home to UNI would put some major pressure on to win on the road at YSU and/or SDSU, both of which aren't the easiest places to play or teams to beat. So we gotta get it done next week.

 

[fourthandshort]

I wa fine with the pass vs run count this game, though have no idea why we passed 3 straight times into wind from inside our own 10 .. forget which series, but it made no sense ... sack on first play, followed by 2 incompletions, then had to punt into wind from back of our end zone.

But I like how tough we played, other than our wildcat defense ... I hope that was first game they ever did that, because we had no answer until the last couple runs maybe. Basically, it was combination of tough play, some luck amd oppurtunistic play, and eventually wearing them down by Q4. Loved that strategy this game ... they are decent team and the weather absolutely sucked all game .. I thought we played it very smart and did what we had to do for most part. Yesterday was not the day to work on pass game.

Well done Redbirds ... got 3 straight wins, 2 against middle of road teams (SIU has won 2 straight over decent teams, YSU & USD), 1 against a weak team (WIU). History since 2016 says, we should have lost one of these 3 for sure ... we didn't.

p.s. Robinson continues to show what a dominant player he is .. rain or shine.

 

[StLRedbird]

Our WR situation makes it even more confusing why we don’t try ways to others into the mix. I love the suggestion about Pryor in the slot. Also, as said many times, what about the TEs?

Our Mizzou tailgate this year was at UK yesterday, which is of no interest to anyone here. What might be of interest is that the weather in Lexington was similar to BNs and they had about 20% rate of butts in seats.

Nice git-er-done win by the ‘birds! Looking forward to UNI

 

[StLRedbird]

I think we know Spack's MO by now. We're going to see another conservative game plan Saturday. My sense of it is this. When Spack thinks he has better talent, he's gonna play it straight up. No gimmicks, smash mouth football. He's gonna run right at you with his huge OL and All-American RB and dare you to stop him. We used to love this about him, but a few 6-5 seasons have, uhh, taken the bloom off that rose.

Stumps 6
'birds 24

Wooooo! Beautiful!

Kinda makes one ponder the likelihood of the blind squirrel finding an acorn, doesn’t it?

 

[TIMMY]

Agree Proctor and Robinson are our play-makers. They need the most touches. So how do you get them the ball in a way that doesn't require them to block for each other? :shock: I like Proctor as a wing. We're going single or double TE or FB so it's easy to run a counter back with Proctor. That'll make the opposing LB's hold their water and open things up more for Robinson. A well run counter is tough to stop. You can try to get that wing (Proctor) open in space and dump the ball to him. A bootleg where a LB is on an island between Davis and Proctor would be nice. It's hard to cover all the gaps with that stuff. We're not scaring anyone over the top. Safeties are not respecting us vertically. Alright stretch them horizontally and make them pay for it.

 

[JHBird]

Just curious. How many people actually sat through that whole game outside in the rain? I'll take that Blizzard vs SDSU any day over cold rain. It never let up either. I need to get better outdoor gear. I'm just glad we won.

 

[DaveBird10]

Just curious. How many people actually sat through that whole game outside in the rain? I'll take that Blizzard vs SDSU any day over cold rain. It never let up either. I need to get better outdoor gear. I'm just glad we won.

I sat outside in the rain the entire game last Saturday!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[fourthandshort]

Just curious. How many people actually sat through that whole game outside in the rain? I'll take that Blizzard vs SDSU any day over cold rain. It never let up either. I need to get better outdoor gear. I'm just glad we won.

I sat thru entire game. I also sat thru Bison game 2 years ago .. that was brutal too. I thought the "blizzard game" was USD ?? I was not at that game. To me cold, rain, and wind is worse than cold, snow, and wind.

 

[ISUBU]

Just curious. How many people actually sat through that whole game outside in the rain? I'll take that Blizzard vs SDSU any day over cold rain. It never let up either. I need to get better outdoor gear. I'm just glad we won.

I got there after kickoff, but sat outside the whole way. Sometime in the second half I counted 60 people in the entire West stands excluding the band and a couple of ushers.

I forgot waterproof gloves, otherwise I was fine. Ya gotta have rain gear. At least the temps weren't in the thirties. Nothing is worse than 33 degrees and wind and rain.

 

[TIMMY]

I stood the entire game. Not exactly IN the rain. Kinda damp though.

 

[JHBird]

Just curious. How many people actually sat through that whole game outside in the rain? I'll take that Blizzard vs SDSU any day over cold rain. It never let up either. I need to get better outdoor gear. I'm just glad we won.

I sat thru entire game. I also sat thru Bison game 2 years ago .. that was brutal too. I thought the "blizzard game" was USD ?? I was not at that game. To me cold, rain, and wind is worse than cold, snow, and wind.

I hate to admit it, but I left that Bison game at the end of the 3rd Qtr. My hands were so cold I could barely work the key to my door. Rain turning to ice and snow might be worse than straight rain.

 

[redbirdfan04]

My father in law sat through the whole game. It was so wet. I think half way through the 4th quarter we counted 20 people on the west side of the stadium and maybe 150 on the east side. That was the wettest game ever but that NDSU that went from rain to sleet to snow was worse. The Blizzard game was against USD.

 

[redbirdfan04]

I will take the cold, rain, and sleet over extreme heat any time. Not sure how many of you were at the Iowa game a few years ago but that was the worst.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

Just curious. How many people actually sat through that whole game outside in the rain? I'll take that Blizzard vs SDSU any day over cold rain. It never let up either. I need to get better outdoor gear. I'm just glad we won.

I sat thru entire game. I also sat thru Bison game 2 years ago .. that was brutal too. I thought the "blizzard game" was USD ?? I was not at that game. To me cold, rain, and wind is worse than cold, snow, and wind.

I hate to admit it, but I left that Bison game at the end of the 3rd Qtr. My hands were so cold I could barely work the key to my door. Rain turning to ice and snow might be worse than straight rain.

I left at halftime. Didn’t realize how wet I was until I went to the restroom and discovered that my underwear were soaked. So decided to drive back home to Rochester, take a shower, and head over to watch the Rochester high school playoff game. Weather was much nicer for that game.

 

[WoodlandWarrior]

My hometown buds and I left with five minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. Then we warmed up with hot coffee at Denny’s and food. I opted for meatloaf.