No more easy games. It wasn't easy last week and it won't be easy this week. Even the Sycs like to bury their roots and dig in for a four quarter struggle when you play them in Terre Haute and that's where we have to play them this year.
Western is coming into Normal on a roll with wins over FCS powers Montana and Youngstown St. in their last two games. YSU may be down a bit, but they played for the FCS National Championship in January of '17, so they have glory days more recent than ours. That's still a quality win over YSU and the Mighty Griz are 4-1 and ranked alongside of us so that quality win by Western is even more cause for concern. The 'necks did get both of those teams in Macomb so maybe they won't play as well on the road but I don't think Coach Spack will accept "we hope WIU won't play well" as a game plan.
The Redbirds better be ready and another scoreless first half will almost certainly prove fatal. Coach Beathard reigned supreme with Redbird fans in '14 when had NFL players like O'Shaun and Meredith along with 2 FBS transfer OT's - Barton and Liedtke. Liedtke also collected some NFL paychecks. Beathard was lauded again in '15 when the dynamic duo of Roberson and Coprich returned for another season as the greatest offensive backfield combo in Redbird history and Spelman was the top C in the FCS. It's funny how good coaches coach when they have great players and how badly they coach when the talent drops off.
We have an offense that can throw deep and run the ball but if a good defense takes those away we struggle. What's available are passes underneath the coverage and if you have an accurate QB and a stable of sure-handed receivers you should be able to move the ball from your own to 20 to the opponent's 20 rather easily. That didn't happen in the first half last week. So if Beathard wants the love fest with Redbird Nation to continue he's really going to have to earn his paycheck. He has to find a way to maximize the strengths that Brady Davis possesses (strong arm, scrambling ability, ability to throw on the run) and minimize his weakness (lack of touch in the short passing game). Beathard and Davis have only worked together for 2 months - August and September, so they aren't anywhere near finished collaborating. Davis has already played QB for a lot of years so I don't think he'll become a great touch passer at this point, but he can improve and Beathard can study which passes he does throw well because there have been a lot of those too.
So again we're playing the stubborn cockroaches of Western. They don't die when you take a 14-0 halftime lead, you just have to hammer them until they're completely dead. The revised game plan is that the roaches play a little worse and our offense plays a little better. Still not much of game plan, but we've never won a game with a message board post anyway so what difference does it make.
10/6/18 - quality home win for the Redbirds
Western is coming into Normal on a roll with wins over FCS powers Montana and Youngstown St. in their last two games. YSU may be down a bit, but they played for the FCS National Championship in January of '17, so they have glory days more recent than ours. That's still a quality win over YSU and the Mighty Griz are 4-1 and ranked alongside of us so that quality win by Western is even more cause for concern. The 'necks did get both of those teams in Macomb so maybe they won't play as well on the road but I don't think Coach Spack will accept "we hope WIU won't play well" as a game plan.
The Redbirds better be ready and another scoreless first half will almost certainly prove fatal. Coach Beathard reigned supreme with Redbird fans in '14 when had NFL players like O'Shaun and Meredith along with 2 FBS transfer OT's - Barton and Liedtke. Liedtke also collected some NFL paychecks. Beathard was lauded again in '15 when the dynamic duo of Roberson and Coprich returned for another season as the greatest offensive backfield combo in Redbird history and Spelman was the top C in the FCS. It's funny how good coaches coach when they have great players and how badly they coach when the talent drops off.
We have an offense that can throw deep and run the ball but if a good defense takes those away we struggle. What's available are passes underneath the coverage and if you have an accurate QB and a stable of sure-handed receivers you should be able to move the ball from your own to 20 to the opponent's 20 rather easily. That didn't happen in the first half last week. So if Beathard wants the love fest with Redbird Nation to continue he's really going to have to earn his paycheck. He has to find a way to maximize the strengths that Brady Davis possesses (strong arm, scrambling ability, ability to throw on the run) and minimize his weakness (lack of touch in the short passing game). Beathard and Davis have only worked together for 2 months - August and September, so they aren't anywhere near finished collaborating. Davis has already played QB for a lot of years so I don't think he'll become a great touch passer at this point, but he can improve and Beathard can study which passes he does throw well because there have been a lot of those too.
So again we're playing the stubborn cockroaches of Western. They don't die when you take a 14-0 halftime lead, you just have to hammer them until they're completely dead. The revised game plan is that the roaches play a little worse and our offense plays a little better. Still not much of game plan, but we've never won a game with a message board post anyway so what difference does it make.
10/6/18 - quality home win for the Redbirds
