Post Game Reflections: Montana State

[Rjones61]

Use this thread to discuss our performance against the Montana State Bobcats.


So... another really shaky first quarter. MSU was our chance to really test the waters and see if we can put a team away early. If we can't put MSU away in the first half, then we cannot put any team away in the first half. At this point we have to ask if this is a coaching issue or are teams really just amped up to play EWU? Do our coaches need to change how we prepare for teams or are teams just extra fired up to play EWU and get worn down by the talent on the field. I don't have the answer, but it's something we need to address, because the next two games have huge implications for the rest of the season.

Now, in these threads, fans have a tendency to automatically jump down the throats of the defense. They gave up two ugly touchdowns to start the game. I mean, really ugly touchdowns. Then, they seemed to be giving up first down after first down. HOWEVER, as I type this, there is 5:35 left in the fourth quarter and MSU hasn't scored since the beginning of the second quarter. EWU has a +3 turnover margin coming entirely from the defense. Even with the offense sputtering in the second half and MSU getting lots of opportunities to score.... they haven't. Also, this isn't Montana State's best offensive performance. Not even close, really. We have said for years that we only need a middle of the road defense to get deep into playoffs. Well, this performance was definitely middle of the road and still a huge improvement from previous games and last season. Hell, I would even be willing to call it top half . Good work defense! :thumb:

Now... penalties penalties penalties! The refs really hated us this game. Sure, some were justified, but I am inclined to say that the majority of calls were absolute bull****. This killed a lot of drives, but I am still concerned about our offensive performance today, but I am still willing to give them a pass, I guess :|. I was really looking forward to a blowout.

SO I guess I have mad a lot of excuses for our team for NOT having a blowout, so I'll tear into someone.... let's see.... ROLDAN ALCOBENDAS GET YOUR COLLECTIVE SH** TOGETHER AND KICK IT BETWEEN THE POLES. THANKS.


Edit: Now our defense has produced a +4 turnover margin.

 

[EWU98]

Penalties!!!!!!!
Clean it up

Keep waiting for Gage to come back down to earth but he keeps proving me wrong!
Unreal performance by all great game pumped to be there next week!

 

[ewueagfan]

Offense - B
Defense - D
Special Teams - C

 

[KJEagle]

The biggest area of improvement needs to be cleaning up the penalties.

Off-B
Def-C
ST-C

 

[Seattle Eagle]

Offense: 596 yards of offense, but still a B for me. We just didn't look sharp or make plays we usually do.

Defense: 5 TO's created and zero points given up in the second half. It's a B (-).

Special Teams: C. A priority for recruiting this year should be finding a kicker. Kick coverage is still a problem.

 

[EWURanger]

Positives - We ended up being +5 in the TO margin with that pick at the end of the game, without turning the ball over on offense. Good stuff.

Negatives - Penalties, penalties, penalties. We definitely showed some rust coming off of the bye week in that regard. I also think Gubrud and the WR's maybe weren't on point with their timing. I also thought the offensive line kind of showed their youth, but we got a few players back this week that haven't played in several weeks.

Another slow start. We simply need to come out stronger in the first half of games against teams that we are considerably better than. Against Montana and Cal Poly it's not going to work.

Special teams did not play well and need to improve considerably.

 

[Obzerver]

That early td by msu was a helleva play and a couple of big plays was the reason MSU made us look bad. That play may have worked on anybody and the big play by qb was cause that guy can RUN. I'm not really concerned other than we need to get better each week!

 

[eaglesfootball]

the rough starts continue to be frustrating. what exactly is the issue? why do we have to wait until the half to make adjustments? I simply don't get it.

offense was "ok" but looked really out of synch at times.
defense was "ok", but not great or even approaching good.
special teams, again the biggest issue is our kicking. only 2/4 from the field. I've just kind of accepted that we're not going to improve there.

 

[Hambone]

:lol:

We won 41-17 and shut them out in the second half.

What would be an acceptable margin of victory?

If we don't beat everyone by 50 points, does that make us a bad team?

 

[Palm Springs Eag]

421-152 yardage advantage after the first quarter. Defense gave up less than 20. Offense sputtered in spots but did plenty. Field goals were an adventure but no missed PAT's. A couple of good returns on kickoffs but quite a few touchbacks and some great coverage too. The punt right before the Njoku fumble recovery early was a boomer! Took a while to get there, but a convincing road win. I'll take it! on to Montana!

 

[Eaglefanatical]

This is the first game this year that I thought our offensive line looked really shaky in. I didn't feel like they did a great job with the pass rush, and most of the penalties that were called in the game was on that unit.

 

[Eagle Talon]

:lol:

We won 41-17 and shut them out in the second half.

What would be an acceptable margin of victory?

If we don't beat everyone by 50 points, does that make us a bad team?

I think most people are more upset about the slow starts than they are the final score.

 

[JPN17]

:lol:

We won 41-17 and shut them out in the second half.

What would be an acceptable margin of victory?

If we don't beat everyone by 50 points, does that make us a bad team?

I think most people are more upset about the slow starts than they are the final score.

Indeed. At no point did I think the Eagles would lose or were even in danger of losing. That said it would be nice to see this team come out and smash a team in the mouth to start a game. They can obviously overcome slow starts against teams like Davis and MSU. Will they be able to against a Montana or Cal Poly? Hopefully we won't need to find out.

The penalties were the biggest negative for me today. They have got to get that cleaned up. I don't know how many holding calls they had in this game, but it was far too many. They must have had around 100 yards of offense on the drive where Descalo missed his fg attempt, but they stalled at the 30, because they kept backing themselves up.

 

[LDopaPDX]

I have no explanation why Montana State's coaches benched the Murray kid in the first half. I thought he was playing great. They brought the other kid in who was a nightmare. By the time they switched back to Murray, he appeared demoralized or out of synch-- whatever it was, he was only the half the player he was before he got benched.

All in all, sort of another Eastern-type of game. Very shaky in the first half and very solid in the second. I don't think our offensive line had a good game despite all of the yards. Our QB and receivers bailed us out a lot by making some huge plays. I didn't think our LBs had a particularly good game either, muffing a lot of tackles both in the gap and downfield.

On a separate note, how ridiculous was it that they called a timeout at end of the game to get another play in? It was poetic justice that they threw a pick on the last play.

 

[Rontheoldwiseeagle]

You do realize that OB set an offensive record today, right. Cupp had 13 catches and Hill over a 100 yds.
The defense held them scoreless for over 2 1/2 quarters. Come on guys they had two great plays. Just Two.
A Montana Freshman caught TD and plays for EWU. Montana lost big time to NAU.
Take a deep breath. This team is getting better each and every game. Please remember this team is very young but very talented.
Try and remember your expectations at the first of the season, we are way past that. What I like best about this group is their attitude, you watch the side lines and this team is as intense as the 2010 team. They just need to keep growing.
Have a great week because it is Grizzee week and the weather will be super. I may have to get to the field on Thursday and start formal Tailgating

 

[Atomic Eagle]

You do realize that OB set an offensive record today, right. Cupp had 13 catches and Hill over a 100 yds.
The defense held them scoreless for over 2 1/2 quarters. Come on guys they had two great plays. Just Two.
A Montana Freshman caught TD and plays for EWU. Montana lost big time to NAU.
Take a deep breath. This team is getting better each and every game. Please remember this team is very young but very talented.
Try and remember your expectations at the first of the season, we are way past that. What I like best about this group is their attitude, you watch the side lines and this team is as intense as the 2010 team. They just need to keep growing.
Have a great week because it is Grizzee week and the weather will be super. I may have to get to the field on Thursday and start formal Tailgating

Those are all fair points. I think a lot of fans just have such a bad taste in the mouth from last season. We want to see this team get back to where it belongs, which is winning Big Sky Championships and making deep runs in the playoffs.

 

[Hodor]

You do realize that OB set an offensive record today, right. Cupp had 13 catches and Hill over a 100 yds.
The defense held them scoreless for over 2 1/2 quarters. Come on guys they had two great plays. Just Two.
A Montana Freshman caught TD and plays for EWU. Montana lost big time to NAU.
Take a deep breath. This team is getting better each and every game. Please remember this team is very young but very talented.
Try and remember your expectations at the first of the season, we are way past that. What I like best about this group is their attitude, you watch the side lines and this team is as intense as the 2010 team. They just need to keep growing.
Have a great week because it is Grizzee week and the weather will be super. I may have to get to the field on Thursday and start formal Tailgating

I totally agree with this. Seems some are not satisfied with the fact that we are a missed field goal from being 7-0.

 

[Rontheoldwiseeagle]

You do realize that OB set an offensive record today, right. Cupp had 13 catches and Hill over a 100 yds.
The defense held them scoreless for over 2 1/2 quarters. Come on guys they had two great plays. Just Two.
A Montana Freshman caught TD and plays for EWU. Montana lost big time to NAU.
Take a deep breath. This team is getting better each and every game. Please remember this team is very young but very talented.
Try and remember your expectations at the first of the season, we are way past that. What I like best about this group is their attitude, you watch the side lines and this team is as intense as the 2010 team. They just need to keep growing.
Have a great week because it is Grizzee week and the weather will be super. I may have to get to the field on Thursday and start formal Tailgating

Those are all fair points. I think a lot of fans just have such a bad taste in the mouth from last season. We want to see this team get back to where it belongs, which is winning Big Sky Championships and making deep runs in the playoffs.

You can see that this team feels the pain of last season more than any fan can. This goes for the beat down in Montana last year. Montana is in for one hell of a battle this Saturday. It just maybe 2 losses in a row. Every team member that was in Montana last year will make that clear to any and all team mates. I hope the damn students storm the field again. It's childish I know but I just love it

 

[Screamin_Eagle174]

:lol:

We won 41-17 and shut them out in the second half.

What would be an acceptable margin of victory?

If we don't beat everyone by 50 points, does that make us a bad team?

I think most people are more upset about the slow starts than they are the final score.

Indeed. At no point did I think the Eagles would lose or were even in danger of losing. That said it would be nice to see this team come out and smash a team in the mouth to start a game. They can obviously overcome slow starts against teams like Davis and MSU. Will they be able to against a Montana or Cal Poly? Hopefully we won't need to find out.

The penalties were the biggest negative for me today. They have got to get that cleaned up. I don't know how many holding calls they had in this game, but it was far too many. They must have had around 100 yards of offense on the drive where Descalo missed his fg attempt, but they stalled at the 30, because they kept backing themselves up.

We also had slow starts against WSU, NDSU, and UNI...


We will be fine. :thumb:

 

[talon38]

I see quite a bit of bitching about a 41-17 WIN here! Yes, it was considered a SLOPPY performance on both sides of the ball, but REALLY, after 2 broken play TD's from MSU, the defense ONLY gave up 3 points the last 3 quarters and like 150 of offense, not to mention 5, YES FIVE turnovers EWU created. It was a bus ride and road game to Montana after a bye week. Yes, the defense played at practice level speed the 1st quarter, but that shit happens after a bye week. Tell me they didn't turn it on after that. Yes they gave up some yards, but they did not give up ANY points, that's the mark of a good team. Nobody on this forum would have said EWU would be 6-1 at this point in the season with an OT loss to NDSU. Yes, there is always ways to get better, and this team will for next week. But really, all the bitching about the offense and defense is the way football happens, take the good with the bad. I'm proud of our coaching staff and players to this point. Bring on the GRIZ!!!!!!!!!
P.S. Here's a quote from a poster on the Griz forum: "Just watched EWOO score a TD in the 3rd qtr, seems like they scored 3TD's on that drive with the penalties, WOW!"