fourthandshort
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2017
- Messages
- 9,751
Got the 2-1 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks this week ... game time is 6:30pm CST. Spme of you may vaguely recall our loss to them in 2017 at their place. WE came out fast and aggressive on defense, and out a lot of pressure on their QB .. but our energy faded as game wore on. Our offense struggled to get run game going despite them not being a strong run defense. The game gradually slipped away from us. Have to believe Spack has thi game circled on his calendar ... not just payback game but also a key game we need to win before heading into MVFC conference season.
That was then, this is now ... not to mention, we aren't playing this game at 6,000 foot elevation. I really believe, this caused our breakdown defensively 2 years ago. I recall what their stud Qb Cook said after the gane when told he threw for 380 yards ... something like, "Really ? Against that defense ? It didn't feel like it.".
They've played MoST (won by 14 athome) a decent FBS Arizona (got smoked 65-41, but put up yards/points), and a weak D-II West NM St (0-10) again giving up some points 55-21. Against MoST .. score was 37-23, total yards were 351 to 289, 1st downs were 22-20 .. so MoST gave them hard time on road. Neither team ran with any success, but both passed well.
We need to be ready to open up our pass attack somewhat because they figured our offense out 2 years ago. We ran 29 times for 63 yards, Robinson has 10 carries for 21 yards, Smith was only a little better. Our OL needs to be ready to play. Kolbe threw for 25 of 45 for 225 yards, since run game was going nowhere that day .. but he had 3 picked... 1 was tipped ball by our receiver, 1 was late desperation thrown, 1 was bad throw. Play calling was highly suspect .. Dicken game plan was out the window because we all logically assumed we would be able to run on them.
On other hand, their QB is lighting it up ... #1 in passing yards, top 10 in QBR, avergaing 400 yards per game. Their run game seems pretty weak, so we shouldn't have to stack the box too much. They will probably come out slining the ball with quick drops having seen what our defense is capable of .. I don;t think they have a lot of returnees on offense, but their QB is healthy after being injured most of last year.
Going to be an interesting chess match of game strategies. But we will probably want to slow it down some to be sure our defense is rested for their pass attack. But we need a nice mix oof run and pass , they will force us to throw it after watching any of our game tape and seeing our stats.
That was then, this is now ... not to mention, we aren't playing this game at 6,000 foot elevation. I really believe, this caused our breakdown defensively 2 years ago. I recall what their stud Qb Cook said after the gane when told he threw for 380 yards ... something like, "Really ? Against that defense ? It didn't feel like it.".
They've played MoST (won by 14 athome) a decent FBS Arizona (got smoked 65-41, but put up yards/points), and a weak D-II West NM St (0-10) again giving up some points 55-21. Against MoST .. score was 37-23, total yards were 351 to 289, 1st downs were 22-20 .. so MoST gave them hard time on road. Neither team ran with any success, but both passed well.
We need to be ready to open up our pass attack somewhat because they figured our offense out 2 years ago. We ran 29 times for 63 yards, Robinson has 10 carries for 21 yards, Smith was only a little better. Our OL needs to be ready to play. Kolbe threw for 25 of 45 for 225 yards, since run game was going nowhere that day .. but he had 3 picked... 1 was tipped ball by our receiver, 1 was late desperation thrown, 1 was bad throw. Play calling was highly suspect .. Dicken game plan was out the window because we all logically assumed we would be able to run on them.
On other hand, their QB is lighting it up ... #1 in passing yards, top 10 in QBR, avergaing 400 yards per game. Their run game seems pretty weak, so we shouldn't have to stack the box too much. They will probably come out slining the ball with quick drops having seen what our defense is capable of .. I don;t think they have a lot of returnees on offense, but their QB is healthy after being injured most of last year.
Going to be an interesting chess match of game strategies. But we will probably want to slow it down some to be sure our defense is rested for their pass attack. But we need a nice mix oof run and pass , they will force us to throw it after watching any of our game tape and seeing our stats.
ray: