Too much of a good thing?

[dudeitsaid]

I know some haven't like them much, but I love the tough non-con schedules. It creates some exciting games and shows us where we really stand in terms of competitiveness. But it can be dangerous regarding making the playoffs if we stumble early!

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot/news/newstest.aspx?id=4695314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Rjones61]

I know some haven't like them much, but I love the tough non-con schedules. It creates some exciting games and shows us where we really stand in terms of competitiveness. But it can be dangerous regarding making the playoffs if we stumble early!

http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfoot/news/newstest.aspx?id=4695314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good post :thumb:

"Big Sky power Montana State"

MSU will be a cupcake team next year. Bookmark it.

 

[LDopaPDX]

There's a major red line you don't want to cross with scheduling. Putting two non-con losses on your schedule can damn near ruin your season before it starts. Three losses makes you have to run the table in the Big Sky to assure a playoff bid, and in Eastern's history, that has only happened once.

Ideally, you have one money game, a pair of competitive games you *should* win (for us, Idaho and probably SHSU this year are good examples), and one patsy that you can clobber and work through your depth. The other big caveat, which has been rough for Eastern lately but not in 2014, is you need to have some home games.

 

[EWURanger]

I think scheduling has gotten better. I like playing the Sam Houston, Northern Iowas, etc. Non-conference games against FCS teams that are similar to us in competitiveness.

 

[Rjones61]

There's a major red line you don't want to cross with scheduling. Putting two non-con losses on your schedule can damn near ruin your season before it starts. Three losses makes you have to run the table in the Big Sky to assure a playoff bid, and in Eastern's history, that has only happened once.

Ideally, you have one money game, a pair of competitive games you *should* win (for us, Idaho and probably SHSU this year are good examples), and one patsy that you can clobber and work through your depth. The other big caveat, which has been rough for Eastern lately but not in 2014, is you need to have some home games.

Idaho? Do you mean MSU?

 

[ewueagle2010]

There's a major red line you don't want to cross with scheduling. Putting two non-con losses on your schedule can damn near ruin your season before it starts. Three losses makes you have to run the table in the Big Sky to assure a playoff bid, and in Eastern's history, that has only happened once.

Ideally, you have one money game, a pair of competitive games you *should* win (for us, Idaho and probably SHSU this year are good examples), and one patsy that you can clobber and work through your depth. The other big caveat, which has been rough for Eastern lately but not in 2014, is you need to have some home games.

Idaho? Do you mean MSU?

No, I believe he's talking about the game against Idaho two years ago.

 

[Rontheoldwiseeagle]

Notice, Craig did not give his thoughts on best, least and likely wins for our non conference games?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMM?
I will go with best 4-0 but most likely 3-1
I will be at the UofW yelling my guts out.

 

[eaglesfootball]

Notice, Craig did not give his thoughts on best, least and likely wins for our non conference games?
HMMMMMMMMMMMMM?
I will go with best 4-0 but most likely 3-1
I will be at the UofW yelling my guts out.

most likely, 3-1. i saw some early predictions that have us as 20-30 point dogs against UW.

 

[tomq04]

how many points under oregon state were we? We will be competetive against UW, just like we have been with WSU, OSU, Idaho, and UW over the past 4 years...we won 2 of those 5 games.

 

[93bird]

One big difference. Vernon Adams. BLM did a great job putting us in a position to win at UW in 2011, but Vernon adds another dimension. Same with Padron in 2012 at WSU. The Cougars knew he had to pass his way downfield. With Vernon on the field, the defense is guessing on every down. Add in a little more defense for us, and a win on September 6 is well within reason.

 

[Rjones61]

One big difference. Vernon Adams. BLM did a great job putting us in a position to win at UW in 2011, but Vernon adds another dimension. Same with Padron in 2012 at WSU. The Cougars knew he had to pass his way downfield. With Vernon on the field, the defense is guessing on every down. Add in a little more defense for us, and a win on September 6 is well within reason.

If the 2014 Eagles team faced the 2011 Huskies, I have no doubt that we would win that game. Although we have improved (in my opinion), the Huskies will also be an improved team. It will be very interesting.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Bo Levi did a great job managing that game against UW and racking up yards. The Huskies were pathetic on D that year and only survived by piling up yards... or in our case, winning the turnover battle 4-0. I was laughing during that game because the Huskies D was so vanilla you could watch every route unfold from behind the endzone. "Oh look, the corner and safety are up, must be cover 3. Look for the throw down the seam. Oh look, the safety and corner are playing off the ball in cover 2, time for the out."

I'm still not quite sure how Eastern lost that game.

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

 

[Rjones61]

Bo Levi did a great job managing that game against UW and racking up yards. The Huskies were pathetic on D that year and only survived by piling up yards... or in our case, winning the turnover battle 4-0. I was laughing during that game because the Huskies D was so vanilla you could watch every route unfold from behind the endzone. "Oh look, the corner and safety are up, must be cover 3. Look for the throw down the seam. Oh look, the safety and corner are playing off the ball in cover 2, time for the out."

I'm still not quite sure how Eastern lost that game.

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

We shot ourselves in the foot for a couple of reasons. One was the turnover battle, as you have pointed out. The dropped punt return sticks out most in my mind.

The second reason is more of an opinion. I don't have any statistics to back this up, and this opinion is a little up in the air for me. But one thing I remember about having Bo Levi at the helm is that we seemed to really struggle scoring while in the red zone. It seemed as if when coverage got a little more compact was when Bo Levi would throw the majority of his interceptions. This would explain how we would have almost 500 passing yards and only 27 points.

 

[EWURanger]

Bo Levi did a great job managing that game against UW and racking up yards. The Huskies were pathetic on D that year and only survived by piling up yards... or in our case, winning the turnover battle 4-0. I was laughing during that game because the Huskies D was so vanilla you could watch every route unfold from behind the endzone. "Oh look, the corner and safety are up, must be cover 3. Look for the throw down the seam. Oh look, the safety and corner are playing off the ball in cover 2, time for the out."

I'm still not quite sure how Eastern lost that game.

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

We shot ourselves in the foot for a couple of reasons. One was the turnover battle, as you have pointed out. The dropped punt return sticks out most in my mind.

The second reason is more of an opinion. I don't have any statistics to back this up, and this opinion is a little up in the air for me. But one thing I remember about having Bo Levi at the helm is that we seemed to really struggle scoring while in the red zone. It seemed as if when coverage got a little more compact was when Bo Levi would throw the majority of his interceptions. This would explain how we would have almost 500 passing yards and only 27 points.

I think it was more of an issue of our running game being absolutely horrible that year more than anything to do with Bo Levi. The fact that our running game struggled in the red zone is why you saw turnovers in some of those games, IMO. The Montana game from that year stands out.

 

[Rjones61]

Bo Levi did a great job managing that game against UW and racking up yards. The Huskies were pathetic on D that year and only survived by piling up yards... or in our case, winning the turnover battle 4-0. I was laughing during that game because the Huskies D was so vanilla you could watch every route unfold from behind the endzone. "Oh look, the corner and safety are up, must be cover 3. Look for the throw down the seam. Oh look, the safety and corner are playing off the ball in cover 2, time for the out."

I'm still not quite sure how Eastern lost that game.

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

We shot ourselves in the foot for a couple of reasons. One was the turnover battle, as you have pointed out. The dropped punt return sticks out most in my mind.

The second reason is more of an opinion. I don't have any statistics to back this up, and this opinion is a little up in the air for me. But one thing I remember about having Bo Levi at the helm is that we seemed to really struggle scoring while in the red zone. It seemed as if when coverage got a little more compact was when Bo Levi would throw the majority of his interceptions. This would explain how we would have almost 500 passing yards and only 27 points.

I think it was more of an issue of our running game being absolutely horrible that year more than anything to do with Bo Levi. The fact that our running game struggled in the red zone is why you saw turnovers in some of those games, IMO. The Montana game from that year stands out.

True, I do remember the running game being an issue, but I thought a lot of that was due to our OL shattering like glass.

 

[eaglesfootball]

Bo Levi did a great job managing that game against UW and racking up yards. The Huskies were pathetic on D that year and only survived by piling up yards... or in our case, winning the turnover battle 4-0. I was laughing during that game because the Huskies D was so vanilla you could watch every route unfold from behind the endzone. "Oh look, the corner and safety are up, must be cover 3. Look for the throw down the seam. Oh look, the safety and corner are playing off the ball in cover 2, time for the out."

I'm still not quite sure how Eastern lost that game.

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

We shot ourselves in the foot for a couple of reasons. One was the turnover battle, as you have pointed out. The dropped punt return sticks out most in my mind.

The second reason is more of an opinion. I don't have any statistics to back this up, and this opinion is a little up in the air for me. But one thing I remember about having Bo Levi at the helm is that we seemed to really struggle scoring while in the red zone. It seemed as if when coverage got a little more compact was when Bo Levi would throw the majority of his interceptions. This would explain how we would have almost 500 passing yards and only 27 points.

I think it was more of an issue of our running game being absolutely horrible that year more than anything to do with Bo Levi. The fact that our running game struggled in the red zone is why you saw turnovers in some of those games, IMO. The Montana game from that year stands out.

True, I do remember the running game being an issue, but I thought a lot of that was due to our OL shattering like glass.

our running game that year was terrible and that certainly had a lot to do with all the injuries there, but i think more than anything we were playing to our strengths that year which was the passing game. You look at the UW game, we passed for around 500 in that game.

 

[EWURanger]

Bo Levi did a great job managing that game against UW and racking up yards. The Huskies were pathetic on D that year and only survived by piling up yards... or in our case, winning the turnover battle 4-0. I was laughing during that game because the Huskies D was so vanilla you could watch every route unfold from behind the endzone. "Oh look, the corner and safety are up, must be cover 3. Look for the throw down the seam. Oh look, the safety and corner are playing off the ball in cover 2, time for the out."

I'm still not quite sure how Eastern lost that game.

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

We shot ourselves in the foot for a couple of reasons. One was the turnover battle, as you have pointed out. The dropped punt return sticks out most in my mind.

The second reason is more of an opinion. I don't have any statistics to back this up, and this opinion is a little up in the air for me. But one thing I remember about having Bo Levi at the helm is that we seemed to really struggle scoring while in the red zone. It seemed as if when coverage got a little more compact was when Bo Levi would throw the majority of his interceptions. This would explain how we would have almost 500 passing yards and only 27 points.

I think it was more of an issue of our running game being absolutely horrible that year more than anything to do with Bo Levi. The fact that our running game struggled in the red zone is why you saw turnovers in some of those games, IMO. The Montana game from that year stands out.

True, I do remember the running game being an issue, but I thought a lot of that was due to our OL shattering like glass.

our running game that year was terrible and that certainly had a lot to do with all the injuries there, but i think more than anything we were playing to our strengths that year which was the passing game. You look at the UW game, we passed for around 500 in that game.

It's not like we were going to run for 200 against UW with their size advantage on the DL. I don't think there was some fundamental difference in the offensive approach. We wanted to be balanced that year, we just couldn't. Losing most of your O-Line will do that.

 

[clawman1]

Look for UW to be MUCH better on D this year.

Look for the Eagles to be MUCH better on O this year.

 

[Screamin_Eagle174]

how many points under oregon state were we? We will be competetive against UW, just like we have been with WSU, OSU, Idaho, and UW over the past 4 years...we won 2 of those 5 games.

Fair point, but Idaho stands out like a sore thumb in that group of "which one of these isn't like the others." :lol:

 

[marceagfan5]

how many points under oregon state were we? We will be competetive against UW, just like we have been with WSU, OSU, Idaho, and UW over the past 4 years...we won 2 of those 5 games.

Fair point, but Idaho stands out like a sore thumb in that group of "which one of these isn't like the others." :lol:

Ya, I don't consider our win over Idaho an FBS win, they are not very good. They would have finished middle of the road in the big sky the past two years...

We will probably be 20 point dogs this year at UW. This UW team will be better than the UW a couple years ago and better than OSU and WSU the past two years. We will have our hands full but will definitely have a shot...