First, everybody's favorite topic - the offense. Quite frankly, except for a few notable exceptions (two clips, Troy's goal-line pick), the O played a great game today, with close to 500 yards of total offense. Also, the play calling was exceptional, with a fine mix of run and pass, and plays which attacked both the middle and the corners. Unlike last week, when only four players touched the ball, lots of people were involved this week; before the subs came in late in the game, Smith, Pittman, Wells, Schnittker, Ginn, Holmes, Gonzalez, Hamby, and White all had touches, and Frost had a couple thrown his way. Obviously, the TE's were used in the passing game, as were the backs; the Bucks used several screens to backs and WR's; Ginn was used both as a weapon and a decoy.
MoWells will be a good-to-great player when he gets his chance as a "change of pace" back; just another weapon in the "spread" offense.
The negatives on offense were the OT's - both Datish and Boone had a clipping penalty and gave up a sack; the interior played well and opened lots of holes for Pittman. Smith's INT was as bad as you'll ever see - he was laser-locked on Holmes the entire play.
On to the defense - another nice game, especially from Schlegel, who played a great game, stuffing several runs and applying plenty of pressure on blitzes. Kudos to Brandon Mitchell for his pick six. However, Youboty had a tough game, with two pass interference calls (almost a third on Mitchell's INT) and two dropped picks; Ashton also looked confused and out of position on several plays, which just goes to show that even great players have off days.
Special teams were, well, sometimes special, sometimes not. Ginn's punt return TD was a highlight, and his KO return would have been were it not for a questionable penalty; also, the Bucks recovered a muffed punt; JAMO had a "lights out" hit on KO coverage. However, the KO coverage team allowed a 67-yard return, Huston missed a field goal (albeit from 49 yards - Nugent spoiled us), and D'Andrea fumbled a KO (but the refs blew another one and called a re-do).
Way too many penalties (although some were questionable - see below).
IU's much improved, and under Hoeppner they will be better in years to come, but they are not yet ready to compete with the big boys.
A final word - the officials were terrible, awful, horrible, putrid, pathetic, and just plain bad. The phantom penalty on Ginn's KO return, the "no whistle" on Ginn's fumble (Ginn got screwed twice by the zebras), the "quick whistle" on D'Andrea's fumble (and then a re-kick?
), the blown call on the instant replay which denied a Hoosier receiver a clear catch - and those were just the most blatant miscues. If the officiating has ever been worse than today, then (fortunately) I haven't seen it. The best that can be said is that the bizarre calls affected both teams more or less equally (and ultimately didn't much matter in a blow out).
Overall, a very good win, on the road, against a team which really played hard despite being outmanned.
MoWells will be a good-to-great player when he gets his chance as a "change of pace" back; just another weapon in the "spread" offense.
The negatives on offense were the OT's - both Datish and Boone had a clipping penalty and gave up a sack; the interior played well and opened lots of holes for Pittman. Smith's INT was as bad as you'll ever see - he was laser-locked on Holmes the entire play.
On to the defense - another nice game, especially from Schlegel, who played a great game, stuffing several runs and applying plenty of pressure on blitzes. Kudos to Brandon Mitchell for his pick six. However, Youboty had a tough game, with two pass interference calls (almost a third on Mitchell's INT) and two dropped picks; Ashton also looked confused and out of position on several plays, which just goes to show that even great players have off days.
Special teams were, well, sometimes special, sometimes not. Ginn's punt return TD was a highlight, and his KO return would have been were it not for a questionable penalty; also, the Bucks recovered a muffed punt; JAMO had a "lights out" hit on KO coverage. However, the KO coverage team allowed a 67-yard return, Huston missed a field goal (albeit from 49 yards - Nugent spoiled us), and D'Andrea fumbled a KO (but the refs blew another one and called a re-do).
Way too many penalties (although some were questionable - see below).
IU's much improved, and under Hoeppner they will be better in years to come, but they are not yet ready to compete with the big boys.
A final word - the officials were terrible, awful, horrible, putrid, pathetic, and just plain bad. The phantom penalty on Ginn's KO return, the "no whistle" on Ginn's fumble (Ginn got screwed twice by the zebras), the "quick whistle" on D'Andrea's fumble (and then a re-kick?
), the blown call on the instant replay which denied a Hoosier receiver a clear catch - and those were just the most blatant miscues. If the officiating has ever been worse than today, then (fortunately) I haven't seen it. The best that can be said is that the bizarre calls affected both teams more or less equally (and ultimately didn't much matter in a blow out).Overall, a very good win, on the road, against a team which really played hard despite being outmanned.
