I suspect you're right.
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Portland State at Northern Arizona University - Sept. 29
- Thread starter HornyVike
- Start date
VikThunder
Active member
McDonagh has thrown how many interceptions this year?
VikThunderous said:
Seven I think.
DustRunner
Active member
But a couple of those have been deflected passes, so maybe we're reading too much into that? At least I can hope . . .
VikThunder
Active member
Ugh. Another lost season. 0-3 vs. FCS teams.
HornyVike
Active member
After allowing a couple of days to settle my emotions about the game, I re-watched the broadcast and here are some of my thoughts...
First some cold hard truths: Winning out looks like a long shot, which makes our run to a post season very unlikely. The Big Sky Conference is tougher from top to bottom. (Did you see that SUU only lost to Montana State by 7?) I still think any team in the conference is beatable on any given Saturday. I see a ton of negative posts on what the rest of the Vikings' season holds. It's hard to be positive after a 1-4 start, but with the exception of UW, it is not like the team has been blown out or outclassed by another team. They have been in every game. And with one less defensive breakdown or one less special team blunder against SUU or North Dakota State, we would have won those games.
Notes from the NAU game:
By far this was the best defensive game I have seen the defense play. Maybe moving Williams back to corner happened too late. They may have found something with Rothstein at safety. I like the way the kid flies around to the ball. Also, the run defense did an admirable job bottling up Bauman. Sluss is a beast! I really hope that the team can build upon this performance for the rest of the season. It was painful to see another PI call extend a drive, resulting in points. But, if you told me heading into the game our defense would hold NAU to 24 points, I would have taken it and expected a victory by two touchdowns.
I did not expect our offense to put up only 10 points. I think we can all agree this was McDonagh's worst game. That interception he threw right to NAU's defender was especially bad, I really wanted to see him work on his efficiency and his turnovers. Going 17-34 with 2 picks is not what I anticipated; however, I rewatched the game on my DVR after seeing Burton's quote in the Oregonian about McDonagh needing help from his receivers down the field. The second time around, I saw 5+ drops by the receivers and a couple of unfinished routes. It was bizarre rewatching the game because I knew the outcome, and I still felt like PSU was going to put the momentum together and take over the game. In the 2nd half, we scored on our first drive and then in our second drive, we are moving the ball, NAU looks exhausted while we run our hurry up. We go for it on 4th down two separate times during the drive, then we decide to kick a field goal after converting two previous 4th downs? Are you kidding me? The FG of course was not even close. The play calling was suspect as well. Blitzes up the middle every time and yet the team still throws that middle screen for a loss or no gain. Why didnt we keep throwing those bubble screens? Those were open all day. Not to mention why was there not quick slants or drags across the middle with the two backers blitzing so often? If we were under so much pressure, why call routes that take a long time develop down the field? It was very frustrating to see momentum being stopped by playcalling, false start penalties, and lack of execution.
I hope this was just a one time down performance by the offense and the OC. I want to see the prolific offense of previous weeks to show up on Saturday, along with the defense that showed up at NAU. I want to see these Vikings play a COMPLETE game.
First some cold hard truths: Winning out looks like a long shot, which makes our run to a post season very unlikely. The Big Sky Conference is tougher from top to bottom. (Did you see that SUU only lost to Montana State by 7?) I still think any team in the conference is beatable on any given Saturday. I see a ton of negative posts on what the rest of the Vikings' season holds. It's hard to be positive after a 1-4 start, but with the exception of UW, it is not like the team has been blown out or outclassed by another team. They have been in every game. And with one less defensive breakdown or one less special team blunder against SUU or North Dakota State, we would have won those games.
Notes from the NAU game:
By far this was the best defensive game I have seen the defense play. Maybe moving Williams back to corner happened too late. They may have found something with Rothstein at safety. I like the way the kid flies around to the ball. Also, the run defense did an admirable job bottling up Bauman. Sluss is a beast! I really hope that the team can build upon this performance for the rest of the season. It was painful to see another PI call extend a drive, resulting in points. But, if you told me heading into the game our defense would hold NAU to 24 points, I would have taken it and expected a victory by two touchdowns.
I did not expect our offense to put up only 10 points. I think we can all agree this was McDonagh's worst game. That interception he threw right to NAU's defender was especially bad, I really wanted to see him work on his efficiency and his turnovers. Going 17-34 with 2 picks is not what I anticipated; however, I rewatched the game on my DVR after seeing Burton's quote in the Oregonian about McDonagh needing help from his receivers down the field. The second time around, I saw 5+ drops by the receivers and a couple of unfinished routes. It was bizarre rewatching the game because I knew the outcome, and I still felt like PSU was going to put the momentum together and take over the game. In the 2nd half, we scored on our first drive and then in our second drive, we are moving the ball, NAU looks exhausted while we run our hurry up. We go for it on 4th down two separate times during the drive, then we decide to kick a field goal after converting two previous 4th downs? Are you kidding me? The FG of course was not even close. The play calling was suspect as well. Blitzes up the middle every time and yet the team still throws that middle screen for a loss or no gain. Why didnt we keep throwing those bubble screens? Those were open all day. Not to mention why was there not quick slants or drags across the middle with the two backers blitzing so often? If we were under so much pressure, why call routes that take a long time develop down the field? It was very frustrating to see momentum being stopped by playcalling, false start penalties, and lack of execution.
I hope this was just a one time down performance by the offense and the OC. I want to see the prolific offense of previous weeks to show up on Saturday, along with the defense that showed up at NAU. I want to see these Vikings play a COMPLETE game.
I thought 4th in the pre-season Big Sky poll was a little high for this young team. I have felt that this was going to be a learning year for PSU football and have been more interested in the teams progress and improvement over the season. With a true freshman QB and moving players to new positions, I actually think the team is doing fairly well. They have kept it close, made some great plays, have improved in areas where it is needed. Yes, I would love to see them win but I think the wins will happen in the next 3 seasons. For right now, it is exciting watching the development of what I think will be a team that dominates the Big Sky in the future.
HornyVike
Active member
pottystop said:
I agree that maybe the expectations were a little high for such a young team. We had one of the best recruiting classes for 2012, and those kids are already contributing. There will be some growing pains and frustrations for the rest of the season, but I really do believe we will have a stellar team going forward, not to mention the potential of having one of the most prolific offenses in the Big Sky or the entire FCS ranks. I believe Kieran will keep developing and will become a truly special quarterback, he has already shown flashes. I just hope that the rest of the fans or the forum hasn't given up on this team. I think we will come out firing on all cylinders Saturday.
