couple post-game thoughts:
- nothing but credit to navy. i can't remember the last time i've been so impressed with the fight and desire in a team. they wanted it more than us today, but our talent won out.
- i still saw a lot of positives and am fairly encouraged going forward. pryor is improved and looked especially good on rollouts, for the first time in years it looks like we might be realizing that TEs and backs are eligible receivers and those plays were very successful, saine, duron, pettrey and gibson (just off the top of my head) all looked very strong, we created turnovers, etc.
- i for one am glad the game was close and this team was tested a bit. we haven't been in enough truly close games the past couple years and our teams have been weak when it comes to dealing with adversity. part of me wanted navy to convert that 2 point conversion, so TP and company would be forced to deal with having their backs against the wall.
- the o-line continues to be very troubling. 90% of the runs up the middle were completely stuffed, and navy was getting a ton of pressure while rushing just 4. pryor makes up for a good amount of their mistakes, but it's hard to be as good as you want to be when you can't enough push to convert 3 rushing attempts at a first down starting with 2nd & 3.
- we had a chance to put them away early in the 2nd half starting at their 42, and completely botched the drive with the type of penalties that have plagued us the past 2 years. not a great sign that this team has that focused killer instinct, but it was also the first game, so we'll see.
- anderson was out of his comfort zone in having to play man coverage, but the fact remains that it gets tougher and tougher to argue that he's one of the two best safeties on the team.
- taurian had two very costly drops. hopefully it was just nerves, and i like him and hope he turns it around - and i know it's very early to say it - but i can't help thinking of nick patterson a couple years back starting the season opener at safety, having a rough game and never being able to recover from it. i wouldn't be surprised at all if duron already passes him by next week to become the #3 receiver, but we'll see.
anyway, not a bad opener, and at least it was entertaining and injury-free (neither of which could be said about the past couple YSU games). i have very low expectations for next week, but hope like hell i'm proven wrong.
go bucks.
