Wow, what a rollercoaster of a game.
Second quarter we were hot garbage. The first blame goes to Gubrud's odd decisions, but in all honesty, it was a whole team flounder. UC Davis broke through our line on every offensive play and lots of dropped balls. Our defense switched to a zone coverage that left the center field wide open and we missed tackle, after tackle, after tackle.
Not sure what was going on, but as usual, our coaches made the necessary adjustments. We scored 35 points in the third quarter and had such a commanding lead by the fourth, everything else was garbage time. What changed?
1. Cooper Kupp: I think the first half of the game we decided to lean more on spreading the ball to all of our receivers. Cooper was in on a lot of plays, but nothing like the second half. In the second half, UC Davis decided to try to play one on one with Cooper to cover the whole field. Bad decision. Cooper saw the ball almost every other play in the third quarter.
2. Offensive line: something changed with the offensive line. I'm going to need some help identifying what changed, but something was different. Did they just come out pissed? Did UC Davis stop blitzing? Anyway, Gubrud had more time to think. They even cleared some room for Custer to gain some yards. I think playing a lot more screens helped the O-line quite a bit. Maybe it forced UC Davis to think twice before pinning their ears back and going gun hoe to the quarterback.
3. Gage Gubrud: Coaches made the right decision. Gubrud is the lead guy and one bad quarter shouldn't put him on the bench. They did a great job showing that they had confidence in him and he showed he deserved it. Gage had a dominant second half and went to the bench in the fourth quarter with the respect of EWU fans.
In the third quarter, we forced two turnovers including a pick six. Eastern played far more disciplined and shut down the UC Davis momentum. It looked like we were still playing a lot of zone, but we did it right this time around. In the future, the linebackers need to play more disciplined. Aggression is good, but the second quarter was a good example of what too much aggression opens up. Our cornerbacks started hot, died, then rose from the grave to dominate.
Special teams was on and off today. I will mark this up as a good thing, seeing as they weren't just off as we've seen in previous games. The weird flub kick offs were unnecessary and gave UC Davis good field position. We had some seriously bad returns in the first half, but Custer started returning them for some huge chunks which was nice to see. The missed field goal hurt, and wouldn't be acceptable if we had a tougher opponent. Having Kupp back on the punt return was nice as well. Kupp has such a great football IQ and makes great decisions every time the ball is in his hands.
Based on our first and second half averaged out, plus the fact that we were playing a far inferior opponent, I would give the following grades
Offense B+
Defense B-
Special Teams C+
Second quarter we were hot garbage. The first blame goes to Gubrud's odd decisions, but in all honesty, it was a whole team flounder. UC Davis broke through our line on every offensive play and lots of dropped balls. Our defense switched to a zone coverage that left the center field wide open and we missed tackle, after tackle, after tackle.
Not sure what was going on, but as usual, our coaches made the necessary adjustments. We scored 35 points in the third quarter and had such a commanding lead by the fourth, everything else was garbage time. What changed?
1. Cooper Kupp: I think the first half of the game we decided to lean more on spreading the ball to all of our receivers. Cooper was in on a lot of plays, but nothing like the second half. In the second half, UC Davis decided to try to play one on one with Cooper to cover the whole field. Bad decision. Cooper saw the ball almost every other play in the third quarter.
2. Offensive line: something changed with the offensive line. I'm going to need some help identifying what changed, but something was different. Did they just come out pissed? Did UC Davis stop blitzing? Anyway, Gubrud had more time to think. They even cleared some room for Custer to gain some yards. I think playing a lot more screens helped the O-line quite a bit. Maybe it forced UC Davis to think twice before pinning their ears back and going gun hoe to the quarterback.
3. Gage Gubrud: Coaches made the right decision. Gubrud is the lead guy and one bad quarter shouldn't put him on the bench. They did a great job showing that they had confidence in him and he showed he deserved it. Gage had a dominant second half and went to the bench in the fourth quarter with the respect of EWU fans.
In the third quarter, we forced two turnovers including a pick six. Eastern played far more disciplined and shut down the UC Davis momentum. It looked like we were still playing a lot of zone, but we did it right this time around. In the future, the linebackers need to play more disciplined. Aggression is good, but the second quarter was a good example of what too much aggression opens up. Our cornerbacks started hot, died, then rose from the grave to dominate.
Special teams was on and off today. I will mark this up as a good thing, seeing as they weren't just off as we've seen in previous games. The weird flub kick offs were unnecessary and gave UC Davis good field position. We had some seriously bad returns in the first half, but Custer started returning them for some huge chunks which was nice to see. The missed field goal hurt, and wouldn't be acceptable if we had a tougher opponent. Having Kupp back on the punt return was nice as well. Kupp has such a great football IQ and makes great decisions every time the ball is in his hands.
Based on our first and second half averaged out, plus the fact that we were playing a far inferior opponent, I would give the following grades
Offense B+
Defense B-
Special Teams C+
issed: 
