Ugly win

It took me a couple of days to fully digest BSU's 21-14 win over 1-AA Portland State. While I'm satisifed with a win, I'm certainly not satisfied with another "pull the rabbit out of a hat" trick.

Observation 1: PSU is a well coached team, especially on defense. Their "closing" skills and tackling are first rate. Too many times the PSU defenders stuffed what appeared to be big plays by BSU running backs - often before the back got into the secondary.

Observation 2: BSU is not a well coached team - at least if you go by this game. PSU came out with fire in their eyes, BSU did not. Now, some opponents bring with them built-in motivation, and the coaching staff can just let it feed itself. Other opponents - like a lower division team after 4 high profile games - require some nudging in the motivation area. Which was conspicuously missing Saturday night.

This lack of fire and brimstone is a huge worry. If you look at the five games so far, only the Bowling Green game can be considered a coaching success. The Georgia game was over early because of player screw-ups, and the Oregon State game was lost because of poor execution as well. Hawaii - that's really a toss-up between poor coaching and poor execution. Hell, we had a dozen procedure and holding calls against PSU because of brain farts - not the kind of smooth play you expect by game 5.

Come on Hawk, get those boys prepared to play!!

Observation 3: Portland State running back Joe Rubin is the real deal. He sees the holes and makes the play. Sure, we stuffed him in the second half, but it's only because we put 7 or 8 guys in the box, and our defensive players are more athletic. Put Rubin on BSU's team, and he's got 200+ yards per game guaranteed.

Observation 4: Our backs need to watch Joe Rubin's game films. I like our backs. They are very talented. But too many times I've seen them take too many stutter-steps, or cut the wrong way, or (shudder) run into their own blockers before the running play develops. (And please - quit trying to run Marks up the middle. He is an outside back. He's just not big enough to blow through a solid defensive line).

Observation 5: Statitics don't lie, but liars cite statistics. Sure most teams would be happy to have a QB complete 22 of 29 passes. But, having 250+ yards passing and only 7 points doesn't cut it. Put another way, a good QB could be 4 of 20 if those 4 completions result in, or lead to, scores. Now, I'm not knocking 'Z' as so many are fond of doing right now, but there's something not right in the offense when you have nearly 500 yards of total offense and only 21 points (normally, we'd have 45+ points by then). Perhaps some adjustments need to be made to account for the lack of a vertical passing game. Many of the slants and screens seemed to work pretty well against PSU, as well as the rollouts and the option plays. Let's face it, 'Z' is not a drop back passer. Let's quit trying to make him one.