What did we learn-Fresno St edition

We are going to see the same gameplan that we saw yesterday at least seven more times this year. We are going to struggle against teams that can line up and stop us when running. When Tommie did drop back I thought he was mostly in form but he still wasn't accurate. This means teams that are talented and physical will force us to win with Tommie and that's going to be tough due to his inaccuracy and bad decision making. At this point, those teams will be Oregon, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Iowa. On the reverse of this, our focus on the run game will better position us to win the games we should win.

Also we need pass rushers in the worst way. It is hard to fairly judge a secondary when the front seven is allergic to pressuring the QB.

 
I'm glad that Riley was upset about how the team played after a 33 point win. Its shows that he thinks this team can be so much better.

 
This is what targeting actually is.


No call in this game, no review from the booth. They gotta get this sh#t fixed.

 
Ozigbo hits the hole a lot better than Newbie. Had more carries, and may look to steal the starting spot if this continues.

Saw some Wisconsin style "guess where we're blitzing from" defense. I like that, but we didn't execute it as well as they do, but would like to continue seeing that.

Not convinced this will truly be the offensive scheme throughout the rest of the season, and it may not even be close to what we will see against better teams, but I can see that Riley is willing to put together a gameplan that gives us the best shot at winning; which is a MAJOR improvement on his part. kudos for that.

 
Aside from what we learned about the football team, I learned how classy of a program Fresno State is. I'm certainly going to be pulling for them the rest of the season.

 
Mavric said:
Undone said:
Our fan base sees what it wants to see in Terrell Newby. I really don't get it. Yes, Ozigbo is really tough and runs hard. But Newby probably had more yards after contact than in any other game is of his career. He ran hard and found holes.

Our offensive line played well in the first quarter for the most part, but then was barely average in the 2nd. They then stepped it up a bit in the third, and the 4th was good as well.

Our rush defense just showed a lot of effort, intensity, and flying to the ball.
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Agree with you on the backs. Ozigbo is a tough runner but I thought Newby looked as good as he ever has. Definitely a spot for both of them.

Ozigbo gets the crowd buzzing with his tough runs but I actually thought he looked more like Cross this year than last year - he moves the pile so it takes more than one guy to get him down but he didn't make the first man miss very much. Ozigbo's stats were a little better but he also benefited from being in the game on a couple plays that were simply blocked really well. For example, on his longest run of the night he didn't have to do anything but run straight ahead. He got good yardage but the first guy he got to tackled him. Just a little juke to the outside and he might have been gone.

Newby on the other hand I thought did a much better job of wiggling out of a tight spot. One play I think he jumped over someone then slid around the next guy for a nice gain. There was also a play where he got hit as soon as he got the ball but got away from that guy and turned a three yard loss into getting back to the line. In my book, that was a much better job of running that Ozigbo's long run but he got credit for no yards while Ozigbo got 17 without having to do much of anything.

I'm not trying to run Ozigbo down. I liked what I saw out of him as well. I think they're both good back and there will be a spot for both of them.
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Both of his TD's involved him juking/hurdling arms to get him in to the endzone... looking for videos now.



That was one of the most impressive jukes I saw last night. The other TD he didn't get tackled by the first man, he trucked him 3 yards back into the endzone. I'll take that just as often as I'll take a juke around them.

 
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For the record, if you exclude his long run (which isn't really playing fair either), Ozigbo still averaged 5.4ypc. I don't think you really pick up 5.4ypc for 16 carries without making some dudes miss. Yes, blocking was great. Newby was great, loved it.

But, imo, Ozigob was easily the most complete back out there, which is what we all said last year too.

 
We're simply a better football team with Ozigbo in the game. Just as we were when we made the move to Cross late last season.

Newby certainly has a place as a change-of-pace guy. He's not the bell cow.

 
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The Dude said:
We're simply a better football team with Ozigbo in the game. Just as we were when we made the move to Cross late last season.

Newby certainly has a place as a change-of-pace guy. He's not the bell cow.
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Not to mention Oz has been better in practice too. I agree with everything you said, Oz should be starting and Newby can be the change of pace and 3rd and long type back.

 
I'll put this comment here I guess - What I'm worried about much more than who the #1 I-Back is would be what kind of real options Riley and Langsdorf have when there's 8-9 in the box to get the ball outside or down the field.

Looking on to Wisconsin (the most important game of the season), hopefully Danny will be able to latch on to high-percentage passing plays that Tommy is capable of so that we can open the running lanes when we start playing teams with good rush defenses.

After the bowl game, and then after Saturday, the vast majority of my fears about Riley "throwing for the sake of throwing" have been calmed. But we still face the reality of what third down passing situations are still like with this offense.

 
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