C
CougarClawYes we lost a game we might have won but this game should not be depressing at all. Nevada is just good this year. Fifth-year senior, Kaepernick was very good. Take away the inexcusable pick he threw in the 3rd quarter and he practically played a perfect game on the road . He hurt us with his feet and with his arm. He threw very accurately and controlled the game.
Nevada is ranked in the top 5 in rushing yards and top 4 in scoring including embarrassing a ranked Cal team last week and was averaging FIFTY points in their first 3 games. Our 'lousy', 'no good', defense held them to just over half their season average including a near second-half shut-out. Our defense managed that, despite the offense not being to score very often.Aginast their run attack, our D was on the field (on a hot day) for most of the game and we still held that prolific offense the 27 points. I would not be surprised at all if that ends up being Nevada's lowest score all year.
Quezada! - Dude can run. This may have been his coming out party for the coaches. DiLuigi may have been our only offense (again) but when he got dinged up in the second or third and Quezada went in. wow. I could tell. Diluigi dances. Quezada attacks. There were SEVERAL times he pushed the pile 5 extra yards just cause he's that violent of a runner. I tried starting "Juice" calls in the stands whenever he was in. The fans will catch on. :D
Play-calling and the up-tempo offense. Heaps was allowed to throw down field all day. All of them were fade routes and NONE of them worked today. That's how the Coug's day went. Chalk half of those up to bad throws, but the other half to just bad catching and a few PI calls. Either way, I like the aggressiveness and I love how many times we went for it on fourth. (and there was NOTHING wrong with calling for a FG when your'e down 3 scores). There were glimpses of what this team is capable of and I think we started to see that for the first time. Very soon, those long balls will work cause we had some wide open guys.
Penalty yards - BYU = FIVE. shocking after what we saw last week and NO cadence problems.
Sacks - Heaps threw a number of balls away and was monumentally better at using check-downs and managing his pocket timing than last week.
Jacobsen - Finally got involved and had some very nice returns. I LOVED, loved, loved the lateral on the kickoff return (to Hoffman I think). We very nearly had it backfire on us, but I still love the aggressiveness. ANd....on a sad note. I did not see McKay get very much separation on his routes. Seemed like every time he was 1:1 with the D, he was pretty well covered. Makes me wonder if he has lost a step as an earlier poster insinuated.
Chambers- Our boy OC was on the FRONT ROW decked out in BODY PAINT and CHEERING for his team. He's not allowed to be with the team and he could have been home. He could have been sulking or a number of other things. but no. he was at the game. Bravo OC. well-done. In fact, I think this deserves another thread.
Anyways... I enjoyed this game. I expected to lose, because we're not ready to beat Nevada. Blame the QB controversy or whatever but we are where we are and as badly as things went for us today, this was still a winnable game against a VERY good team. That bodes well for us.
Nevada is ranked in the top 5 in rushing yards and top 4 in scoring including embarrassing a ranked Cal team last week and was averaging FIFTY points in their first 3 games. Our 'lousy', 'no good', defense held them to just over half their season average including a near second-half shut-out. Our defense managed that, despite the offense not being to score very often.Aginast their run attack, our D was on the field (on a hot day) for most of the game and we still held that prolific offense the 27 points. I would not be surprised at all if that ends up being Nevada's lowest score all year.
Quezada! - Dude can run. This may have been his coming out party for the coaches. DiLuigi may have been our only offense (again) but when he got dinged up in the second or third and Quezada went in. wow. I could tell. Diluigi dances. Quezada attacks. There were SEVERAL times he pushed the pile 5 extra yards just cause he's that violent of a runner. I tried starting "Juice" calls in the stands whenever he was in. The fans will catch on. :D
Play-calling and the up-tempo offense. Heaps was allowed to throw down field all day. All of them were fade routes and NONE of them worked today. That's how the Coug's day went. Chalk half of those up to bad throws, but the other half to just bad catching and a few PI calls. Either way, I like the aggressiveness and I love how many times we went for it on fourth. (and there was NOTHING wrong with calling for a FG when your'e down 3 scores). There were glimpses of what this team is capable of and I think we started to see that for the first time. Very soon, those long balls will work cause we had some wide open guys.
Penalty yards - BYU = FIVE. shocking after what we saw last week and NO cadence problems.
Sacks - Heaps threw a number of balls away and was monumentally better at using check-downs and managing his pocket timing than last week.
Jacobsen - Finally got involved and had some very nice returns. I LOVED, loved, loved the lateral on the kickoff return (to Hoffman I think). We very nearly had it backfire on us, but I still love the aggressiveness. ANd....on a sad note. I did not see McKay get very much separation on his routes. Seemed like every time he was 1:1 with the D, he was pretty well covered. Makes me wonder if he has lost a step as an earlier poster insinuated.
Chambers- Our boy OC was on the FRONT ROW decked out in BODY PAINT and CHEERING for his team. He's not allowed to be with the team and he could have been home. He could have been sulking or a number of other things. but no. he was at the game. Bravo OC. well-done. In fact, I think this deserves another thread.
Anyways... I enjoyed this game. I expected to lose, because we're not ready to beat Nevada. Blame the QB controversy or whatever but we are where we are and as badly as things went for us today, this was still a winnable game against a VERY good team. That bodes well for us.