What did we learn?

I learned that Quincy Enunwa is very difficult to tackle. He dragged three or four guys about 8 yds on that first qtr catch. :thumbs :

 
We have a long way to go before we know what we have with this team. Some things looked good, some looked bad, but to quote everyone's favorite coach, "It was just one game."

That would be Barney Cotton saying that, BTW.

Taylor looked like they said he looked all spring and fall. It was encouraging. But, "It was just one game." What if Taylor's good game was the mirror image of Maher's bad game? Nobody truly believes that Maher is going to stink it up all year. He'll fix this - he was too good last year to make this game's woes a bellweather for the whole season. But if Taylor "just had a good game," and if Rex is out for any length of time.... where are we?

Too early to tell. I'm not going to get too excited about that offense yet - although it's really hard not to! And I'm not going to get too worried about the kicking game - and it's really not hard not to. The defense will be better as the season wears on.

Long way to go yet. Good first step. I expect a win next week, where I was completely up in the air prior to this game.

 
We have a full arsenal of weapons on offense (new nickname for offense swiss army knife?) and it is very tempting to get real excited about it. I know that Bo was going for an "Oregon" style of offense, and it seems that he might be getting there quicker then I thought we would....

 
Atbone95 said:
That according to a lot of people on this board, I'm seeing we only allowed 13 pts...

Did I miss something?
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The team gave up 20 points, but the defense only gave up 13. It's one of the reasons I'm not as concerned about the D as some posters are.

 
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Husker_x said:
It's sort of funny. Gerry DiNardo (sp?) basically said everything that was going to happen on Saturday. The offense was going to carry the team. The defense would be better but they would also get better as the season went along.
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I thought it was funny that he kept emphasizing that Taylor wouldn't show any substantial improvement in his passing, and the success of the offense will depend on how he can run it.

I was kind of concerned that he's lost a lot of his speed because he didn't really run the ball yesterday. But that play where he scrambled about 10 yards to pick up a first down, and that Kenny Bell reverse where he turned around to go block, he was outrunning everyone on the field.

He fast.

 
The Dude said:
Husker_x said:
It's sort of funny. Gerry DiNardo (sp?) basically said everything that was going to happen on Saturday. The offense was going to carry the team. The defense would be better but they would also get better as the season went along.
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I thought it was funny that he kept emphasizing that Taylor wouldn't show any substantial improvement in his passing, and the success of the offense will depend on how he can run it.

I was kind of concerned that he's lost a lot of his speed because he didn't really run the ball yesterday. But that play where he scrambled about 10 yards to pick up a first down, and that Kenny Bell reverse where he turned around to go block, he was outrunning everyone on the field.

He fast.
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Yeah, forgot to mention that about DiNardo. I saw him on a Big 10 Network wrapup show going bugeyed like everyone else. I think Taylor's passing has improved beyond anyone's expectations, excepter perhaps people on the team. I thought he would be better. What I didn't expect is to see him going through his progressions, making consistently the best possible decisions even in bad situations. It was really shocking how different he looked, how much more confident. I think he didn't run because he didn't have to. Which is good. Save it as long as you can, then pounce on the first underprepared opponent.

 
What I learned is that Martinez has never had the same offense two years in a row. After hearing that, it makes sense as to how he looked confused over the past two years. If he can focus on running the offense because he is comfortable, who knows what he can do.

As for the d-line....jesus........I thought this new coach would get us better. But, I will wait until a couple more games.

That qb for Southern Miss was good. good tune up for dennard robinson. Boy did he get his caged rattled last night.

 
akita said:
I learned that a certain girlfriend of the receiver that separated his shoulder was an emotional wreck in the tunnel. ABC sideline reporter broke that news/lol. Great job reporting that/lol.
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I wanted to launch the remote during that great bit of journalism.

 
mwj98 said:
As for the d-line....jesus........I thought this new coach would get us better. But, I will wait until a couple more games.
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I think Husker_x makes a good point in regards to the defensive line.

Husker_x said:
Look, I don't know what people expect of the defense at this point, but considering that you're playing a team with actual, by-God-it's-for-real talent, but you have NO FILM to study, there's room for slack. Our D-line is not going to be confused with Alabama's this season. That's just the fact of the matter. That doesn't mean our defense can't be serviceable, somewhere in the top 20. When you play a team you can't prepare for, you're bound to look a little unprepared.

But let's consider: Out of the 20 points scored, 13 of them were from Southern Miss's offense. 260 yards. Not great. Not terrible, especially when your team is racking in six hundred and change. It's really not that terrible. Not for a first game. Not against a team that had eight months to prepare for you. Not against a team putting three quarterbacks with three skill sets on the field.
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That said, mwj98, I don't believe we have great talent on the defensive line right now. Nobody is explosive or dynamic. Ankrah is often lauded for his athleticism, but it doesn't correlate to the field, Steinkuhler has been good-not-great over the last couple of years, and Meredith isn't a force either. We're pretty average across the line.

Maybe they made huge strides over the off season, and the lack of film coupled with three different quarterbacks would have done a number on any good line. I don't know.

 
Enhance89 said:
That said, mwj98, I don't believe we have great talent on the defensive line right now. Nobody is explosive or dynamic. Ankrah is often lauded for his athleticism, but it doesn't correlate to the field, Steinkuhler has been good-not-great over the last couple of years, and Meredith isn't a force either. We're pretty average across the line.

Maybe they made huge strides over the off season, and the lack of film coupled with three different quarterbacks would have done a number on any good line. I don't know.
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I think that's the 64,000 dollar question. Just exactly how much impact did the circumstances of Southern Miss affect our DL's ability to showcase improvement?

I will say this though: You're absolutely right no one will ever as of yet confuse our DL with what Alabama has. That DL is on a whole other level of awesome.

 
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