38-17 Final. Aside from the 2nd quarter, the Hornets looked very unimpressive and sometimes down right terrible. The D was able to get 3 INT’s against a terrible QB who constantly missed his WR’s and over and under throw balls when he had guys open. If he had made a few plays, this outcome could have been different. Seeing as the Hornets didn’t want to accept any free gifts, they felt it was only fair to give ISU three fumbles. A lot of penalties didn’t help their cause either.
On to my notes for the game, my biggest complaint would have to be the play calling. With a 4 TD lead, Sperbeck felt it necessary to air the ball out and take no time off the clock forcing the D to spend almost all of the 2nd half on the field. Unfortunately the pass, pass, pass, punt sequence didn’t come back to haunt them. Also I love the naked bootleg that Sperbeck called with Smith late in the 4th quarter with the game in hand. Smith got crushed by two ISU defenders and went immediately to the bench. I can only pray that he didn’t get seriously hurt on such a stupid play call. :?
But that was topped by the amazing and sometime mind boggling play calling on the defensive side of the ball. After following a great defensive game last week, the DC decided to only rush 3 linemen and play very soft zone (DB’s 10-15 yards off the WR) coverage on long yardage situations. This play calling usually followed an ISU holding or penalty. This also allowed ISU to get all plus a few more yards back to make up for their mistake on the previous play. ISU had no trouble picking of decent chunks of yardage. Had the Hornets played a better team, it would have gotten ugly. (I missed last week's game, did they run a similar strategy?)
What we learned:
A good passing team will abuse the defense if they go with this type of a play calling again. The Hornets travel to Ogden to play Weber State next week, who just throttled EWU today. They will need to blitz hard and often. Not sure of the weather forecast, but something forcing the WSU offense the run the ball more will benefit the Hornets a little. (Now that I think about it, we already knew this.)
Reed is a great playmaker who can get open…if only he would catch the ball to make it mean something.
Dailey has fumble-itis…and looks to have a serious attitude problem with no end in sight. :|
The tackling has improved and so has the defensive line play.
The Hornets need to work on keeping the penalties to a minimum…especially the PI’s.
Due to the lackluster performance in the 2nd half, we now know this team has no killer instinct to finish off teams when given the chance. This needs to change.
And finally, the two Sac announcers who broadcast the games on BigSkyTV are complete morons. They consistently fail to mention the time remaining in the game (especially as the Hornets just seemed to let ISU hang around). Also how about some drive recaps so we know who did what. Also their little side stories about how they talked with so and so who played for Sac State 15 years ago and what was said at the men’s urinal needs to stop. If you guys read this, please stick to the current game and how about a little in-game analysis. Maybe talk about what the teams playing have had success with in the season and what they need to do to win.
With all that said, a win is a win, so I’ll shut-up now. The Hornets are 2-1 in the Big Sky and have a glimmer of hope. They are entering a tough stretch in the schedule where they will have to go to Ogden to play WSU, and then have Montana and NAU at home. Worst case scenario is 0-3 in that stretch. I am hoping they will be able to steal one of those games, two would be even better. :?