Ugh... Vintage Bengals

[biobengal]

Playing sooooo well on defense, USU couldn't do anything.... then, gifting USU points to end the half. Poor contain, penalties and special teams. Ugh.

 

[biobengal]

Outside of a 5 minute period at the end of the 2nd start of the 3rd ISU did well enough to win at the Big Sky level. However, I am not convinced USU is much better than a top tier BSC team.

You can't like the special teams, ISU had some of the best kickers in the nation, no longer. Kramer should do better and look up the history of ISU kickers and the kicking advantage of the dome.

ISU played the USU #1's the whole way, including a pathetic little dance by the Heisman candidate which reveals how stifled USU was on offense.

One last thing, what is the deal with the sideline interference? Just saw one with the BSU game. I have seen more of these at this stage of an early season than any full year I can remember.

 

[up for the challenge]

Defense played well. Offense OL played good. Running game was good. Passing game was good. Punt coverage and Punt / Kick-Off returns not so good. Good luck next week in home opener.

 

[bengalcub]

I liked a ton of what I saw defensively. They look way better than last year to me and light years better than two years ago.

They had a handful of plays in the game that really hurt but I did not see a team that was dominated by Utah State.

From tonight moving forward is how I think we should judge this team.

 

[PBP]

This and that:

Regarding the sideline penalty calls. They are a point of emphasis this year among college football officials for safety reasons as well as watching coaching decorum according to Mike Kramer on the coaches show last week.

I don't think we can really judge this team until they open conference play. They played two programs higher than them from a scholarship, financial and athletic ability stand point and next week they are playing a smaller program which falls below them in those categories. Although I caution everyone, Chadron State is not a bad D-II program. They had a winning record last year, won their season opener Saturday and have a good football history.

 

[Spudhead]

Anybody else notice that Utah put up 59 points against Fresno State? Also, EWU is either really good, or Chris Petersen has his work cut out for him at Washington.

 

[PBP]

Sin:

Probably a little of both. Eastern can put up points in bunches. Had over five hundred yards of offense today. Two turnovers were the difference in the game.

UW also rolled up over 500 yards of offense but they made zero turnovers.

Petersen will do a nice job with the Huskies. Don't judge by what happened today. Eastern can compete and probably beat a lot of lower level FBS teams...they'd destroy Idaho for example.

 

[Skippy]

I love the emergence of Mario Jenkins and Tyler Kudder on defense. Those guys have the potential to have all conference type seasons this year. The young wide receivers are doing a nice job and are being very productive. O line is playing as well as we've seen for awhile -- gotta cleanup those special teams though -- ugh!
Loved Eastern Washington's efforts against UW yesterday. Vernon Adams threw 7 TDs. What a great matchup EWU and North Dakota State would make in a title game.

 

[Bengal Roar]

I quickly rolled through stats. Not too shabby. Equal 1st downs for both teams and total offensive yards were very close. We only allowed 1 sack I believe. O-line looked great. Defense looked solid. Special teams worked us again. Upper echelon speed kills that we're not use too.

I will agree with what was in paper today. The team as a whole needs to believe in themselves more. Have a bit more confidence and DON'T get down when something goes south. First half play was superb until the last 5 min.

I am optimistic about this year.

 

[up for the challenge]

I was surprised to see Arias play the entire game at Utah and Utah State.

 

[boisebengal]

I was really hoping that this would be the year that ISU would be able to beat Weber in November. But as well as the Wildcats are playing I'm not sure that that's going to happen. They played very well against a ranked ASU team and played well in a 24-7 loss to the number 1 team in FCS, North Dakota State. Jay Hill's got their team headed in the right direction in only his first year at the helm.

Also there are many here that are looking for ISU to defeat Northern Colorado this year in Greeley, which would snap their long winless road streak. But I think that the Bears could be better than expected as well, when you consider they just barely lost 13-12 yesterday to an improving UNLV team.

But then again I'm happy with the way that ISU played in losses to two good Division 1 ball clubs. And we didn't get embarrassed by either team -- like Weber did last year against both of those teams. And we fought hard and never gave up.

 

[up for the challenge]

The Bengal offense and defense is looking good in my opinion and should be able to compete in most Big Sky games other than some of the elite teams. The special teams should improve. We have experienced players and depth so that should not be an issue. The only concern I see is our backup QB's to Arias as they have no college playing experience other than CJ Reyes and I doubt he will be the backup QB if Arias is unavailable for any reason. It would appear that our young and inexperienced wide receivers are playing well and should improve throughout the season. They maybe the key to the season as they need to make big plays to get into the end zone. Our running game has been established so now we have a complete offense rather than just a passing game. Field goal kicking - maybe the difference between a win and a loss if it comes down to field goal kicking.

Weber State and Northern Colorado? 50/50 as of today. Wait until game day and see what happens.