ISU vs WIU game time.....sets go REDBIRDS!!

[fourthandshort]

Stuffed their run game completely and their pass game ... McGuire was 14 of 35 for 220 yards. QBR of just 106

First downs 22 to 9

James Robinson carried offense.

Big win !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chuckie1980]

33-16....All that bickering about the Leathernecks scoring a TEEN Score?
34-17 was my guess.
Cooksey 34-18.
Adunk...38-17.
"I don't see McGuire/WIU being held under 20"
Phantom 24-16.

Price is Right....DEFENSE!!

 

[Sanantoniobird]

We have a long way to go. We pulled this out, but didn’t really deserve to. Our defense was stout for 3/4 of the game. I’m glad Davis can scramble, but so far...for what, if he can’t see the flat or people standing wide open underneath?
Good win....get your head out of your asses.
Great game for our punter!!

 

[fourthandshort]

33-16....All that bickering about the Leathernecks scoring a TEEN Score?
34-17 was my guess.
Cooksey 34-18.
Adunk...38-17.
"I don't see McGuire/WIU being held under 20"
Phantom 24-16.

Price is Right....DEFENSE!!

hey ... I had 31-20 ... flip the blocked XP for 2 points around and score would have been 31-17.

 

[Hamdonger]

Glad we win a game like this...that's a good thing peeps. Don't forget Davis is still very new to the system and a game like this does not surprise me...at all. Expect another one in there too. I still believe - decisively - that he's the guy to help us play deep into playoffs.

Congrats Redbirds!!

 

[fourthandshort]

Roberson struggled a lot his first 8 games .. he didn't go on a terror until game 9.

that said, I was not sold on Davis heading into final August scrimmage. I thought Kolbe earned the starting spot, but accepted rationale for theiir decision to go with Davis ... his upside. But I think we are at point we need to see what Kolbe can do in this system. Look what WIU did to us 2nd half when we were forced to get predictable .. because our passing playbook dwindled to very little. WIU was stacking the box and daring us to throw .. and we couldnt.

Time to platoon .. start Davis, but game plan for both to play considerable reps and then go with hot hand. I'm no longer buying into idea that Davis has more upside for sure .. maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Give him time to figure this all out and get more comfortable ... but give Kolbe a shot in meantime. Davis isn't what everyone assumed or hoped ... not yet anyway.

 

[Brick]

Don’t forget Davis hasn’t played for two years. He will be fine

 

[Total Red]

33-16....All that bickering about the Leathernecks scoring a TEEN Score?
34-17 was my guess.
Cooksey 34-18.
Adunk...38-17.
"I don't see McGuire/WIU being held under 20"
Phantom 24-16.

Price is Right....DEFENSE!!

we were one shoestring tackle away from giving up 20. oh well, at least I was close on attendance :lol:

 

[ekeyfanclub]

Davis didn't look great today by any means, but Kolbe has not shown anything to change the conversation when he has come in to play this year. I think Kolbe would have struggled a lot today because he does not deal with pressure well. He gets panicky in the pocket. While Davis wasn't great, he does navigate the pocket better under pressure and usually avoids sacks. Frankly this offense today looked a lot like last year's offense when Kolbe was QB.

An issue that I had with the offense today was how many times we were in two tight end sets with a fullback. Every time we went to that formation, WIU was just loading the box for the run leaving very little room for our backs. If we are going to be in that formation than we should have run a lot more play action. I really liked the play call on 4th down at the end when we did just that.

 

[fourthandshort]

Davis didn't look great today by any means, but Kolbe has not shown anything to change the conversation when he has come in to play this year. I think Kolbe would have struggled a lot today because he does not deal with pressure well. He gets panicky in the pocket. While Davis wasn't great, he does navigate the pocket better under pressure and usually avoids sacks. Frankly this offense today looked a lot like last year's offense when Kolbe was QB.

An issue that I had with the offense today was how many times we were in two tight end sets with a fullback. Every time we went to that formation, WIU was just loading the box for the run leaving very little room for our backs. If we are going to be in that formation than we should have run a lot more play action. I really liked the play call on 4th down at the end when we did just that.

you're assuming Kolbe won't make enough throws to keep their defense more honest .. combined with our run game, playbook opens up and defense has to defend more field. Didn't the field seem a whole lot smaller on offense the 2nd half. The pressure came because we lost all confidence in our pass game .. WIU knew this and took advantage 2nd half. We needed blockers .. Beathard didnt want to put game in Davis's hands .. wanted it in Robinson's legs .. which is why the field looked so small 2nd half and why we had 2 TEs a lot.

Back to "it" ... "it" is a very fickle thing. Looks good when things go well .. not so much, when things go bad. We need a game manager at QB who can complete 10-15 yards passes consistently, and throw an occassional deep ball. Davis is not an accurate passer .. we saw that in August. And he can not run like everyone presumed .. I never believed he could. Kolbe did much better in the pocket in 2017 compared to 2016 .. despite having a very weak OL and WR group. This year's OL is much better .. 2nd half was not good, but 1st half was very good, and Davis still couldn't help us with his arm or legs. 2nd half deterioration was a direct consequence of 1st half play .. all run, no pass .. WIU adjusted.

We won because we deserved to win, but the margin was lucky. Our defense was better than their defense. our un game was better than their run game. Their special teams return game was much better than ours, but our defense stepped up big time .. all 3 groups ... secondary had another very good game.

First downs tell a lot ... 22 to 9 .. imagine if we could have consistently passed better the first half .... would have stopped them from stacking the box 2nd half.

Time to platoon and see what Kolbe can do with week of prep and a game plan with 1st string.

 

[DaveBird10]

Davis didn't look great today by any means, but Kolbe has not shown anything to change the conversation when he has come in to play this year. I think Kolbe would have struggled a lot today because he does not deal with pressure well. He gets panicky in the pocket. While Davis wasn't great, he does navigate the pocket better under pressure and usually avoids sacks. Frankly this offense today looked a lot like last year's offense when Kolbe was QB.

An issue that I had with the offense today was how many times we were in two tight end sets with a fullback. Every time we went to that formation, WIU was just loading the box for the run leaving very little room for our backs. If we are going to be in that formation than we should have run a lot more play action. I really liked the play call on 4th down at the end when we did just that.

you're assuming Kolbe won't make enough throws to keep their defense more honest .. combined with our run game, playbook opens up and defense has to defend more field. Didn't the field seem a whole lot smaller on offense the 2nd half. The pressure came because we lost all confidence in our pass game .. WIU knew this and took advantage 2nd half. We needed blockers .. Beathard didnt want to put game in Davis's hands .. wanted it in Robinson's legs .. which is why the field looked so small 2nd half and why we had 2 TEs a lot.

Back to "it" ... "it" is a very fickle thing. Looks good when things go well .. not so much, when things go bad. We need a game manager at QB who can complete 10-15 yards passes consistently, and throw an occassional deep ball. Davis is not an accurate passer .. we saw that in August. And he can not run like everyone presumed .. I never believed he could. Kolbe did much better in the pocket in 2017 compared to 2016 .. despite having a very weak OL and WR group. This year's OL is much better .. 2nd half was not good, but 1st half was very good, and Davis still couldn't help us with his arm or legs. 2nd half deterioration was a direct consequence of 1st half play .. all run, no pass .. WIU adjusted.

We won because we deserved to win, but the margin was lucky. Our defense was better than their defense. our un game was better than their run game. Their special teams return game was much better than ours, but our defense stepped up big time .. all 3 groups ... secondary had another very good game.

First downs tell a lot ... 22 to 9 .. imagine if we could have consistently passed better the first half .... would have stopped them from stacking the box 2nd half.

Time to platoon and see what Kolbe can do with week of prep and a game plan with 1st string.

My problem with Kolbe is what happened in the Missouri State game. He goes in, get a the offense moving and then on one play he holds the ball for 10 seconds before taking a 16 yard sack. He's a 5th year senior who has played a lot football. The clock in his head is not always there. By now he should know to throw the ball away and take another play.

Regards to this game Robinson ran like a man possessed and Kirk made a huge play. It seemed like our d-line wore the wiu o-line down and we were able to make just enough plays to win the game. Good to see a hard fought game and come out on top.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

[TIMMY]

The only thing worse than platooning 2 Quarterbacks is platooning 3 Quarterbacks. Robinson is the best player on the team. He reminds me more of Walter every week. I'm glad they put the ball in his hands.

AND when he's wide frickin open in the flat, throw the damn ball to him QB! Stop trying to make a "bigger" play. Take what they give you.

 

[MacyRyder]

:clap:

Not going to beat North Dakota State or South Dakota State without a passing game. Couldn’t beat Missouri State without one.

 

[rdt99]

Robinson was amazing. He has it all.

 

[saxman210]

Thoughts on this one:

At one point, I too was wishing for Kolbe to get a series. Davis missed some wide open receivers, held onto the ball too long and did not use his legs at all. That last one is my biggest beef. If you have open field in front of you, RUN for positive yardage. I don’t know if he’s afraid of contact or if he’s been told NOT to run but the idea of football is to gain yards towards the goal. Sometimes you need to use your legs rather than throw up a jump ball.

Robinson. My biggest concern is that he wouldn’t be back next year at this point. He’s playing his ass off, excuse my French. Some of those runs were just unreal.

Defense. Other than that 71 yard pass where Uphoff got beat, the secondary held up. Romeo continues to be a handful up front. I’m still angry with Tyree Horton because if he were there too, those two would be a handful.

We won ugly yesterday. But in the Valley, winning ugly is better than losing pretty. Bring on SIU before the gauntlet really starts.

 

[ekeyfanclub]

I am never a fan of platooning QBs. It makes it difficult for each QB to get into a rhythm and it can lead to them playing scared because one mistake could lead them to not playing. Obviously the coaches saw something in Davis that prompted them to replace a SR 2 year starter.

I also don't see how looking at completion % from practice reports gives us any type of info that we can use to judge who looked better in practice. Completion % is not a great way to judge QBs anyway. Sam Bradford set the all time single season completion % record by throwing checkdowns and short passes. Didn't mean he was even close to the best QB in the league that year and he didn't even make the Pro Bowl.

 

[Phantom]

Defense was solid throughout and kept us in it until our offense finally found some sync in the 4th Q. I was concerned about them running out of steam until McGuire's mistake that Luther capitalized on. JRob was a stud, again. WIU is a good team and this league is more brutal than usual right now.

Wins are wins, boyos.

 

[Chi-bird]

I didn’t get to see much of the game, but I was happy with the outcome. I Don’t know why we try to get that extra touchdown There, though. I have to wonder if It was personal. Western Illinois early in the game sure seemed really cocky from what I could see. The moment we scored the final touchdown my thought was hoping it would not lead to cheap shots the rest of the way resulting in injury.

In regards to QB play, Davis has a way to go, but I think you’ll see him peak towards the end of the season.

5 years on campus and Kolbe is pretty much going to give you a solid C- to B or B+ performance week in and week out. He is kind of a Kyle Orton – like quarterback and that he has weaknesses and his value is from making the decisions and not turning the ball over.

Davis on the other hand is going to give you a D+ to A- performance every week. He can win your game and not just manage it. He can also stink it up. Davis’ best is superior to Kolbe’s best, but perhaps Kolbe’s worst is better than Davis’ worst.

The challenge for Spack and Beathard is to find ways to get Davis to play his best as routinely as possible. That might mean the threat of benching might be one angle. Maybe letting him play through mistakes makes more sense.

I would like to see Kolbe be a little bit more to see if he’s improved and also to see how Davis responds. I think davis should feel a little pressure that he must perform in order to keep starting....he doesn’t have to be perfect, but he can’t stink it up.

 

[RBFANTOO]

Robinson was FANTASTIC. However, don't overlook the performance of JT Bohlken the punter.
His effect on field position in this game was major.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

Don’t forget Davis hasn’t played for two years. He will be fine

The team is 5 games into the season with 6 games left...how long do you wait?

The problem I see with the comment that he has not played in two years is that he does not appear to be getting better. Kolbe has not played much since last season. One series against MoState does not give him a chance to get in the groove or get his timing either. Somehow we have to wait half a season for Davis to find his timing and touch but Kolbe should turn it on in a half second coming cold off the bench with the team not playing well. Bottom line is the Davis needs to start playing better or he should be pulled and give Kolbe a chance. I have stated on this board before I do not like platooning QBs (Kolbe/Broadnax). It really never work long term just as a surprising thing. Beathard is the O Coordinator...he needs to gets this sorted out and quick. The season is half over and the games coming up are going to be brutal (NDSU/SDSU). The coaching staff needs to figure the QB position out and do it very quickly. Everyone was raving about Beathard returning to the team including me. This fall directly on his and Coach Spack's shoulders. This is not a Davis/Kolbe problem it falls on the coaching staff.