It was the best of times... it was the worst of times. Okay, that is overstated, but it was a tale of two halves. Or was it.
Following the game I wondered about our 2nd half lapses. But then I really looked back and realized that we stepped up and forced some 3 and outs, turnovers and also scored about anytime we had to. Sure, we gave up some yards and points, but anytime it got interesting, we made sure the game was in the bag. That is a sign of good game management, smart coaching and players stepping up. I like that more than untested domination.
Observations
1) Wow, we play a lot of defensive starters on special teams. I know we have great coaches doing smart things and yes, special teams is about 1/4 of all the yards and turnovers in a game, but come on - Dillard and Glenn on special teams? We barely know we have back ups in those positions, let alone someone to come in and play at their level. I hope we get more comfortable with our younger guys and give them some special teams assignments.
2) The defensive backfield looked a smidge confused a few times and then it comes out we are playing with 5 of our top 8. Virtually no substitions for the game. This means they were tired and the coaches couldn't pull a guy for a few plays to "coach" and let him return to do it the right way.
3) The O-line was a bit disjointed with 2 unexpected starters and missing our top two tackles. I did see a few mid-series substitutions and that is usually a sign of a guy screwing up and getting yanked. The O-line almost always plays a series with no subs. Caputo our back up center had a nice game. Good to see a newbie stepping up. I think we're still feeling around to see who is really ready to be a 80% of snaps guy. Our pass pro with two new tackles going against some of their best players at DE was really quite good.
4) Our receivers looked very capable. Holt was nice to see and Swift was much more athletic looking this year.
5) Our I-backs. As usual Helu looks capable of starting and it surprised me that Castille didn't have a big game in the sesond half. Lucky had some really nice reads - the TD run was beautiful and the catch for the TD was wide receiver worthy. He is an amazing Wingback and a good running back.
6) Our D-line substituted well and with virtually no drop off == keep those 8 guys healthy and we will have a pretty decent chance against any running team.
7) Yes, Bo seems to know a bit about defensive schemes and knows the right time to make changes. I assume he was operating at about 70% of capability due to not wanting to give too much away and it was his first game in charge of it all.
8) Turner coming from inside on the D-line was a thing of beauty and all the zone blitzes. It is soo nice to "play" defense again.
9) Watson did what we needed to win and uses Ganz very effectively. Ganz needs to not have one "duh" play a game like the interception. Our down-field blocking was Osborne-era quality. Why we struggled quite so much running the ball was perplexing. We take about 12 guys on sweep pitches and we had a huge size advantage for smashing. I won't worry yet, but it would have been really nice to shut down the clock in the 4th quarter with a 10 rushing play drive, but we did not seem capable.
10) This team is going to get soooo much better. We have guys that bought in to the system (note all the defenders on tackles, the downfield blocking, the energy, etc) and coaches willing to teach. We need to be blessed with an injury free season due to lack of player development in the past and lack of depth.
11) Speaking of injuries - why was Ganz in the game at the end. Why no sub? Is Ganz bullet-proof? We needed to sub more at the end for morale and to get some experience. Who cares if they score or we mess up a few end of game running plays?
Overall my prediction wasn't horrible, but I definitely missed on our efforts to run the ball. I figured we'd have 2 I-backs in the game often and I guessed right on them doing an early trick play to burn our young safeties. Luckily they botched it.
San Jose comes here real soon. I expect to see us do about any thing we want in the game.
