#2 EWU at #14 MSU Game Thread

[DefendtheRed]

Forte walked off the field, so I hope to hell he that's a good sign and he's going to be able to go next week. I don't have a lot of confidence in our backups yet. Brown is far too fumble prone, and I just haven't seen enough of our other guys to have confidence.

 

[93bird]

I'll give Brown all the doubt in the world. He's the guy who effectively won us a national championship.

 

[DPEagle83]

Wow! Wow! Wow! What a game. Defense did force a couple of to's & came up big in 2nd half on 4th down. Give them a little credit. That's the way the game is played today.

 

[Obzerver]

Wow! Wow! Wow! What a game. Defense did force a couple of to's & came up big in 2nd half on 4th down. Give them a little credit. That's the way the game is played today.

And those plays were made by the talented players we have on the team that we all know we have. Credit to them...not so much on schematic formations/defensive play calling. No surprise to most. Thanks to the guys making the hits and playing hard for the entire game helping to get this hard fought win.

 

[EWURanger]

2 minutes and one TO left. It's not impossible. Difficult without Quincy, but we can do this.

Just sayin. :mrgreen:

 

[MLEagle]

We are so spoiled with VA, Cooper, Quincy and the rest of this offense that we can evaluate them hypercritically, and forget that we are 1 & 1 when we SCORED 52 points!

The defensive side of the ball did just enough today thank God, but needs to improve DRAMATICALLY if we have any chance at a championship.

 

[eaglesfootball]

Forte walked off the field, so I hope to hell he that's a good sign and he's going to be able to go next week. I don't have a lot of confidence in our backups yet. Brown is far too fumble prone, and I just haven't seen enough of our other guys to have confidence.

I just watched the play Forte got hurt on, happened with around 7 minutes left in the game. it definitely looked like it was his right foot that got injured. looked like his foot and ankle got tweaked pretty bad with two defenders coming down on it. hopefully not broken.

 

[JPN17]

Forte walked off the field, so I hope to hell he that's a good sign and he's going to be able to go next week. I don't have a lot of confidence in our backups yet. Brown is far too fumble prone, and I just haven't seen enough of our other guys to have confidence.

I just watched the play Forte got hurt on, happened with around 7 minutes left in the game. it definitely looked like it was his right foot that got injured. looked like his foot and ankle got tweaked pretty bad with two defenders coming down on it. hopefully not broken.

I noticed that it looked like his leg got caught under him on the replay as well. He really didn't look gimpy walking off the field. Obviously that's not a guarantee of anything, but he was able to walk off, so hopefully that's a good sign.

 

[LDopaPDX]

We are so spoiled with VA, Cooper, Quincy and the rest of this offense that we can evaluate them hypercritically, and forget that we are 1 & 1 when we SCORED 52 points!

The defensive side of the ball did just enough today thank God, but needs to improve DRAMATICALLY if we have any chance at a championship.

Yup.

This was a game custom designed for Eastern to lose; VA was out of synch all game long, Forte gets hurt, and our defense did what our defense does. Yet the team showed a ton of heart to find a way to win. That's a big positive, 'cuz Eastern did so many bad things today that it was ugly.

I have the utmost confidence VA will find his rhythm again and Forte will be back. But I am concerned the defense is just going to be a year-long Achilles heel and always give teams opportunities to beat us.

 

[clawman1]

Lets give some credit where it is due... MSU offensive play calling. Our defense seemed to be in the wrong places a lot of the time. They ran some misdirection that we seriously bit on. That reverse screen in the 4th qtr was a thing of beauty. Whoever is making the play calls really had our number and sloppy tackling did not help. Prokup will be a star in this league.
Our defense did step up when they had to and made 4th down stops two series in a row.
While that is going on on one side of the ball VA is overthrowing receivers on a regular basis, hell even Cooper dropped a well thrown ball! Quincy was the bright light in the game. WOW what a performance by him.
If it could have gone wrong in the game it would have and we still pulled out a win.
Interesting that Cat fans complained about most every call and people on the blog feel we were slighted. I though it was pretty fair on both sides.

 

[56n92]

It wasn't so much that that their offense was that great but our defense never changed or was disguised so their OC had a hay day. That's why we looked out of position. They knew what we were doing so they could pick play to exploit holes. It's not a player issue. It gets pretty old seeing other teams get pressure on our offense with extra guys but we line up and play base on nearly every play. And that wouldn't even be that bad if we moved guys around to disguise it a little.
Done with rant. When we needed two 4th down stops they found a way to make it happen. And, winning ugly is way better than losing.

 

[grunyon37]

Just wanted to say that you guys have a special team. Your defense may have struggled a little at times, but that offense is something else! What can a person say about VA? I thought he simply forced his will on us on that 2 point conversion: a great player does what has to be done, and he did it. I hate that we lost, but I was reminded again today how classy your fans are as we had some immediately behind us. They were gracious and showed great sportsmanship throughout. Fans of the Jizzlies should take note...and I hope you absolutely kick the crap out of them. Great team, and it will be cool to see what things look like at playoff time.

 

[EWURanger]

Just wanted to say that you guys have a special team. Your defense may have struggled a little at times, but that offense is something else! What can a person say about VA? I thought he simply forced his will on us on that 2 point conversion: a great player does what has to be done, and he did it. I hate that we lost, but I was reminded again today how classy your fans are as we had some immediately behind us. They were gracious and showed great sportsmanship throughout. Fans of the Jizzlies should take note...and I hope you absolutely kick the crap out of them. Great team, and it will be cool to see what things look like at playoff time.

Thanks for the post. What a game!

 

[EWURanger]

Forte walked off the field, so I hope to hell he that's a good sign and he's going to be able to go next week. I don't have a lot of confidence in our backups yet. Brown is far too fumble prone, and I just haven't seen enough of our other guys to have confidence.

I just watched the play Forte got hurt on, happened with around 7 minutes left in the game. it definitely looked like it was his right foot that got injured. looked like his foot and ankle got tweaked pretty bad with two defenders coming down on it. hopefully not broken.

I noticed that it looked like his leg got caught under him on the replay as well. He really didn't look gimpy walking off the field. Obviously that's not a guarantee of anything, but he was able to walk off, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Jim Allen tweeted a while ago that he fell on the ball and had the wind knocked out of him. He'll be fine.

Also, I'm thinking he's probably this week's Big Sky OPW.

 

[JPN17]

Forte walked off the field, so I hope to hell he that's a good sign and he's going to be able to go next week. I don't have a lot of confidence in our backups yet. Brown is far too fumble prone, and I just haven't seen enough of our other guys to have confidence.

I just watched the play Forte got hurt on, happened with around 7 minutes left in the game. it definitely looked like it was his right foot that got injured. looked like his foot and ankle got tweaked pretty bad with two defenders coming down on it. hopefully not broken.

I noticed that it looked like his leg got caught under him on the replay as well. He really didn't look gimpy walking off the field. Obviously that's not a guarantee of anything, but he was able to walk off, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Jim Allen tweeted a while ago that he fell on the ball and had the wind knocked out of him. He'll be fine.

Also, I'm thinking he's probably this week's Big Sky OPW.

That's great to hear. I thought initially that might be what happened, but when he never came back on I was worried it might have been something a little more severe. Big sigh of relief.

I agree about BSC OPW honors. He should get it without a doubt.

 

[kalm]

It wasn't so much that that their offense was that great but our defense never changed or was disguised so their OC had a hay day. That's why we looked out of position. They knew what we were doing so they could pick play to exploit holes. It's not a player issue. It gets pretty old seeing other teams get pressure on our offense with extra guys but we line up and play base on nearly every play. And that wouldn't even be that bad if we moved guys around to disguise it a little.
Done with rant. When we needed two 4th down stops they found a way to make it happen. And, winning ugly is way better than losing.

Perhaps I was watching a different game but I saw multiple formations used. We played back sometimes in a soft zone, but we were also up in press coverage on a couple of their last drives. We went back and forth from a 4-3 to 4-2-5 with the safeties sometimes staying back but sometimes coming down and lining up close to the line of scrimmage.

I also saw us get beat a couple times while blitzing.

Prukop had all day to throw at times and we're simply not disruptive enough on d-line. As mentioned before, our lack of experience there and at corner is showing. But I'm still seeing linebackers not getting off blocks or fast enough to drop back in coverage.

We have great coaches on both sides of the ball. We'll get better. :nod:

 

[luckyintheorder]

This was as ugly a win as PSU last year. Breakdowns in every phase of the game. No doubt about this teams heart -- HUGE. Always going to support the players. Graham needs to be addressed. Nearly out coached on both sides of the ball by MSU.

Couple of stats:
MSU kickoff returns: 6 - 195 yds

EWU penalties: 13 - 102 yds :shock:

EWU TO's: 2 picks, 1 fumble late in 4th quarter hno:

EWU pass/rush: 45 pass attempts 25 completions (how many drops and overthrows??); 28 rushes, 3 sacks

http://archive.statbroadcast.com/63618.pdf

D made enough plays through pure effort and will. That isn't a strategy to win games against good coaching and reasonable execution IMO.

Next.

 

[celticcat]

Great game guys! Hats off to Vernon, we tried our hardest to rattle him, and it was looking like we succeeded (more or less) for almost 4 quarters, but he woke up and made the plays he needed to to win.

I hope we have a star in the making as well with Prukop.

Here's to both teams running the conference and beating the Griz.

 

[luckyintheorder]

Great game guys! Hats off to Vernon, we tried our hardest to rattle him, and it was looking like we succeeded (more or less) for almost 4 quarters, but he woke up and made the plays he needed to to win.

I hope we have a star in the making as well with Prukop.

Here's to both teams running the conference and beating the Griz.

Beat the Griz. :nod:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE8gTMhUhNE[/youtube]

 

[Vic E. Wallace]

SE-174,
I bit off what fingernails I had left , Vernon had an off day, still came up with approximately 360 yards passing. Don't care who we are, we will have some off days. Our goal was to win the game, which we did. We must give MS credit, they also played and outstanding game, sad one team had to loose. I don't know how many of you paid any attention, "Vernon didn't have any problem with his legs cramping :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :nod: :nod: :nod: :nod: We are hoping he has grown out of the leg cramping. He is supposed to be drinking Coconut juice/milk, that will make him heal some. Roots Announcers, kind of pissed me off, nothing was said about either team, they just jumped to the Baseball Game. Hope they doesn't announce any more of our games. How many of you noticed Cooper Kupp running interference for Quincy on the 76 yds TD run. That was beautiful to watch :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: Now let us get ready for UC Davis, and hope I can see the ones that can make the Coaches Luncheon tomorrow at Northern Quest. @5:30 pm. Vic Wallace