Recap/Thoughts
This week we would see how this team would respond following a God-awful performance…and they followed it up with another God-awful performance. With another loss, the Hornets will need to figure things out on both sides of the ball as this team has been almost nonexistent since week 1.
Offense
The game plan was terrible for this one. Aside from the last drive in the first half, I think there were maybe 2 passes by Fleming. Hilliard is good but he can’t carry the full load himself and the Hornet OL isn’t dominant enough to control the game against a good defense. The passing game has regressed to last season’s inadequacies and Sperbeck appeared reluctant to call a pass until the Hornets were in a very deep hole. Sperbeck needs to be batter at mixing up the play calling if
- • Fleming: 17 of 39 for 230 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT’s, 57 rushing yards on 8 carries
• Hilliard: 19 carries for 73 yards, 1 TD
• McCowan: 7 carries for 47 yards, 4 recs for 34 yards
• Deadder: 2 recs for 20 yards, 1 TD
• Croxdale: 4 carriers for 27 yards
• Norrise: 6 recs for 91 yards
• Hendershott: 2 recs for 44 yards
• Carter: 2 recs for 28 yards
• Reed: Nothing
• Heaslet: Nothing
• Howard: 1 rec for 13 yards
• OL: Allowed 0 sacks
The offense needs to get going. There has been no balance and the passing game has been completely ineffective when it matters. With a load of seniors on the offense, the lack of execution is inexcusable.
Defense
The defense had a half decent first half but gave up a late first half TD that opened up the flood gates for WSU. Lack of pressure up front, lack of aggression, poor coverage, and poor tackling plagued the defense. I didn’t like the passive play calling in the 1st half. The DB’s were giving up too much ground on the coverage and we have seen how ineffective this style is in the past.
- • Smith: 10 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 sack
• Badger: 8 tackles
• Davis: 8 tackles
• Larche: 7 tackles
• Monson: 7 tackles
• Fernandez: 6 tackles
• Allen: 5 tackles, 1 TFL
• McMahon: 5 tackles
• Nash: 3 tackles
• Odiase: INJ
The defense will have to find a way to regroup; they are allowing too many yards and too many points. The defensive coaches need to look at shaking some things up to generate a better team effort. Right now the defensive unit is lacking its aggressive style of play from a season ago and this unit needs to find its swagger quickly.
Special Teams
The special teams had some issues on the coverage. The punt coverage team allowed a 17 yard return which is an issue when Heath only averaged 35.9 yards per punt. The kick coverage didn’t allow a TD this week but WSU was still able to average almost 20 yards per return. The Hornet kick returns were better yardage wise but that is probably because WSU’s coverage teams got tired from having to cover so many kickoffs.
- • Heath: 7 punts for a 35.9 ypp avg. 1 inside 20
• Kick Coverage: Allowed 59 yards on 3 returns (19.6 ypr)
• Punt Coverage: Allowed 2 returns for 15 yards
• Diniz: 2/2 PAT’s, 1/1 FG’s
• McCowan: 2 kr’s for 34 yards (17.0 ypr)
• Hendershott: 4 kr’s for 71 yards (17.7 ypr)
• Carter: 2 kr’s for 53 yards (26.5 ypr)
• Monson: 1 pr for 6 yards
Heath continues to struggle to have booming punts which mean opponents will have good field position. This will continue to be an issue throughout the season. The kick return yardage increased. Diniz got on the board with his first FG of the season.
Injuries
Odiase was out, as was Shaw. Through the 35 minutes of the game I watched, I didn’t see any Hornets go out with an injury. Did we lose anyone this week?