Ouch!! TSN Poll 9-19

[clawman1]

Team (First-place votes) Record Points Previous Rank
1. Georgia Southern Eagles (115) 2-0 3,742 1
2. Northern Iowa Panthers (15) 1-1 3,485 2
3. Appalachian State Mountaineers (9) 2-1 3,402 3
4. Montana State Bobcats (1) 2-1 3,179 5
5. Richmond Spiders (11) 3-0 3,082 6
6. William & Mary Tribe (1) 2-1 3,078 4
7. Delaware Blue Hens (1) 2-1 2,918 7
8. North Dakota State Bison (1) 2-0 2,728 8
9. Wofford Terriers 1-1 2,637 9
10. Montana Grizzlies 2-1 2,353 12
11. New Hampshire Wildcats 1-1 2,290 11
12. James Madison Dukes 2-1 1,927 13
13. Chattanooga Mocs 2-1 1,855 14
14. Southern Illinois Salukis 1-1 1,614 15
15. Lehigh Mountain Hawks 2-1 1,596 16
16. Jacksonville State Gamecocks 2-1 1,466 17
17. Massachusetts Minutemen 2-0 1,247 21
18. South Dakota Coyotes 2-1 955 24
19. McNeese State Cowboys 1-1 846 23
20. Sam Houston State Bearkats 2-0 688 NR
21. Eastern Washington Eagles 0-3 594 10
22. Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks 1-2 568 19
23. Southern Utah Thunderbirds 2-1 546 NR
24. Murray State Racers 2-1 446 NR
25. South Carolina State Bulldogs 1-2 336 25
Others receiving votes: Liberty 332, Jackson State 260, Central Arkansas 249, Old Dominion 240, Youngstown State 228, Towson 184, Maine 105, Indiana State 102, Sacramento State 101, Holy Cross 82, Weber State 52, Bethune-Cookman 50, Tennessee Tech 41, Alabama State 41, Eastern Kentucky 37, Yale 37, Hampton 37, Elon 31, South Dakota State 27, North Dakota 26, Portland State 26, Cal Poly 23, Brown 20, Rhode Island 19, Western Illinois 18, UC Davis 13, Central Connecticut Stae 13, Stony Brook 11, Penn 10, Villanova 9, Dartmouth 8, Idaho State 7, Campbell 7, Delaware State 6, UT Martin 6, Lafayette 4, Monmouth 3, Southeastern Louisiana 2, Jacksonville 2, Dayton 1, San Diego 1, North Carolina Central 1.

I expected that we would drop in the polls and deservedly so. It is going to be hard to climb back up enough the get a high seed in playoffs even IF we run the table and finish at 8-3.

 

[bcatfan1]

I'd say that actually shows a lot of respect for EWU. Most teams don't stay in the top 25 after starting 0-3. Granted 1 of those losses was to an FBS team and the other was to UM (who the polls are in love with).

 

[RockTheRed]

I'm surprised we didn't drop out of the Top 25. I expected as much.

I haven't given up on this team, but it is beyond obvious that our defense is going to have to carry us, like they did 10 out of 12 games last season. I was pretty hard on BLM last year - but after watching the UW game, I believed he was "a million times better" as he stated in a Spokesman Review interview. When I watched the SD game, I felt like I was seeing flickers of his bad decision making and was questioning the "million times better" statement. Then to come on here and read his pop say he wants his brother to play and that may be messing with him a bit, well it made me wonder what his intentions are. After watching this game, it is more than apparent that BLM and Brandon Kauffman are not on the same page, hell, they're not in the same book. And what's more, it appears the BLM is INTENTIONALLY not throwing it to Kauff. That's what it LOOKS like. That doesn't mean that's what it is. I will admit I also expected someone to get on here and throw around "twisted ankle", "sore arm" or "flu" to save face. Sh*t, it may still come - I imagine many are still too shocked to comment at this point.

Nick Edwards and Jordan Talley were extremely bright spots in this match up, but we didn't utilize the triple threat and get the ball to Kauffman.

This needs to get figured out. It's been said that we have a defensive lineman that's become a bit of a cancer as of late, and for all intents and purposes, it appears they are "dealing" with it. On the outside looking in, it appears there's a cancer growing on the offense as well and the worst thing the coaches can do is let this cancer run it's course, because it just seems to be getting worse as the weeks go on. And I certainly hope they don't cave to our not "a million times better" QB's wishes as far as his brother goes. Though, they did put him in the game this past weekend. It would be tragic to let a player call the shots. Moral would plummet.

I'm not optimistic about this weeks game at this point. I'm not thinking we'll lose either. It's just very apparent that we are in for another year of not winning until the 4th quarter, which is unfortunate for the defense. Unfortunate for everyone really.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Montana was a tough matchup for Kaufman because he had the best corner he'll see all season glued to him and he was also given safety help more often than not.

The sad thing is Montana was doing this and sending 5 guys upfield, leaving the rest of our corps in man coverage. It never equated to comletions though, and we were misfiring even with guys running all alone down the field.

 

[clawman1]

Rockthered;
I'm with you in that the team chemistry is not there especially on the offensive side of the ball. As far as not throwing to Kaufman in the Griz game, bear in mind he had arguably the best defensive back in the BSC covering him so getting open was probably tough and I would think Bo was not going to risk an int by throwing that direction unless Kaufman was really open. In the Montana game Bo threw a number of balls way off target and the receivers did drop some balls that should have been caught so the blame spreads around but fact remains we are very inconsistent. It appears what we are lacking is LEADERSHIP in the offensive huddle.
I feel for the defense who are working their asses off and really did a great job in MT only to come up with another loss. I will be really surprised if any other team can hold Montana to 17 or less points the rest of the season.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Then to come on here and read his pop say he wants his brother to play and that may be messing with him a bit, well it made me wonder what his intentions are. And what's more, it appears the BLM is INTENTIONALLY not throwing it to Kauff. That's what it LOOKS like. That doesn't mean that's what it is. .

I cut a lot of your quote apart, but these two statements are things I don't agree with. I think Mitchell knows Kaufman's talents and actually keys on him too much. Kaufman is a little bit of a one-trick pony with his come-back-to-the-ball-and-try-to-spin-upfield move that he seems to use with every play. I know Kaufman has more game moves than that, but we sure haven't seen them this season.

Bo Levi didn't play well at Montana, but in his defense, our entire offense right now depends on Mitchell so if he has an off day there is no one to help carry the load like Taiwain did last year. Also, what happened to sprinting Mitchell out to the right like we did so effectively at UW? We seemed to do that less against South Dakota and I don't think we even did it once against Montana.

As for wineguy saying he wanted Cory playing more, I get it. He didn't suggest his older brother was sabotaging the offense, which isn't happening at all and would be asinine to even think about. Cory was great in Spring and Summer ball and probably deserves a bit more of a shot. Maybe we can use him as a kick returner? He seems to have the requisite skills for that.

 

[kalm]

Then to come on here and read his pop say he wants his brother to play and that may be messing with him a bit, well it made me wonder what his intentions are. And what's more, it appears the BLM is INTENTIONALLY not throwing it to Kauff. That's what it LOOKS like. That doesn't mean that's what it is. .

I cut a lot of your quote apart, but these two statements are things I don't agree with. I think Mitchell knows Kaufman's talents and actually keys on him too much. Kaufman is a little bit of a one-trick pony with his come-back-to-the-ball-and-try-to-spin-upfield move that he seems to use with every play. I know Kaufman has more game moves than that, but we sure haven't seen them this season.

Bo Levi didn't play well at Montana, but in his defense, our entire offense right now depends on Mitchell so if he has an off day there is no one to help carry the load like Taiwain did last year. Also, what happened to sprinting Mitchell out to the right like we did so effectively at UW? We seemed to do that less against South Dakota and I don't think we even did it once against Montana.

As for wineguy saying he wanted Cory playing more, I get it. He didn't suggest his older brother was sabotaging the offense, which isn't happening at all and would be asinine to even think about. Cory was great in Spring and Summer ball and probably deserves a bit more of a shot. Maybe we can use him as a kick returner? He seems to have the requisite skills for that.

Our ground game at Montana was good enough to take pressure off the passing game, and it did. And we did roll out BLM a few times. Those were a couple of open throws he missed on or had the opportunity to run for big gains. I'm also guessing that Montana's blitz packages and our o line injuries limited things a bit.

 

[clawman1]

It appeared one Montana's defensive strategies was to send pressure from different directions to get Bo rattled so he would not stand back there and pick them apart. It worked! We can expect the Bobcats to do the same thing and if we don't burn them on their blitzes it will be a long day again.It is not like this is a new or tricky strategy and I am confident our coaches will come up with a plan to offset those blitzes, maybe back to something similar to UW game.
Go Eagles!!!