Monday, September 30, 2013

September Hangover

BREAKING NEWS: It's the last day of September. Hold your tears though, baby birds. Because I'm gonna feed you.


WVU 30, #11 Oklahoma State 21:

So what is the anomaly? The defensive domination of a high-flying Air Raid that hasn't scored 21 points or fewer since 2011? Or the 38-0 shutout embarrassment at the hands of Maryland, a team West Virginia hasn't lost to since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, that put most Mountaineer fans on the edge of a cliff, peering over the edge in search of greener pastures? How many more questions can I ask? And how many of them will be obvious run-on sentences? I DON'T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS.

Seriously, I have no idea what to think of this team. None. In truth, I didn't even get to watch this game, as I was at work for most of it and then driving to Charlottesville to visit my suddenly collegiate little sister for the rest of it. Don't worry, though. Driving through Shenandoah National Park, the shoulders were just large enough for me to pull off the road every couple of minutes, and the 3G was just good enough for me to make out a late Darwin Cook interception, a ridiculous couple of plays leading to a game-clinching field goal attempt, and the small, but very real word "Final" scrawled across the top of my ScoreCenter app. 30-21, West by God.

This is likely the best (regular season) win of the Dana Holgy era, given how mediocre Texas has proved to be over the last two years. And I have no clue what that means. It's almost certainly going to nab us a couple of extra recruits, and cements Keith Patterson as defensive coordinator for at least the foreseeable future. It likely means Clint Trickett is the guy for the Mountaineers, solving the biggest (and maybe only) big question mark the team has faced this season.

But what it means more than all of these things is that WVU has an October 5 date with #17 Baylor in prime time, and it's now the biggest game of the season. Because if West Virginia can walk out of Waco with a win, then it's time to stop talking about a new head coach... and start talking about a potential Big XII championship.


Delaware 29, #14 JMU 22

Unlike the West Virginia game, I did get to catch at least the second half of this particular contest. Which is probably why they lost. The curse of my fandom, folks. It's real.

From my best estimates, it seems that the defense was legit and the offense was at least productive in the first half. But I'm really here to talk exclusively about the second half of this game, which is clearly where this game was decided. Let's break down some talking points here.

-Cameron Starke. I understand that he left four points on the board, missing an extra point and then a field goal at the beginning of the second half. Four points could have made a big difference too; in addition to the obvious momentum lost in the third quarter after the missed field goal, four extra points on the board means they only would have needed a field goal coming down the stretch. That changes up the atmosphere and the play-calling entirely. 

All that being said, this game is not Cameron Starke's fault. He is, by and large, a lights out kicker, the calibre of which a school like JMU probably has no business having. (Starke is a transfer PK from, guess where: West Virginia.) He's hit 47 and 48-yarders. Not in practice, either. In live games. I've seen him do it. There's plenty of FBS schools that wish they could unpack that kind of firepower, let alone schools at the championship subdivision. JMU enters every game with an advantage in the kicking game, and that's all Starke. He gets a pass from me.



One last thing with the kicking game. I would like to confirm with other football-heads that field goals, are not, in fact, extra point attempts?

Ahh, I see. Never mind. Sanity has been restored. Let's move on.


-Birdsong. The ceiling is so high here. Birdsong had three stand-out plays that I can recall in the second half. The first was a bullet that Birdsong threaded over the middle right between two UD defenders for a 20-yard pickup. The second was only a 5 or 6-yard scramble, but it was how he did it that was so explicitly incredible.


Stiff-armed him and threw him onto the ground mid-stride. I pissed my pants. I suppose it could have been the alcohol. But I'm pretty sure it was the Birdsong.

The third and most important thing that I noticed was the sacks. More than once, the offensive line allowed a sack in the second half, and as the pocket collapsed, Birdsong did something very important: he tucked the ball and went down. He didn't try to be Justin Thorpe. He didn't try to be a hero. Birdsong, likely under very specific instructions from his coaching staff, just protected the ball and took the sack.

Never forget, people: JMU quarterback Michael Birdsong has only eight more starts than I do. He's still growing. His ceiling is high, but for now, fans need to be patient with offensive shortcomings. Even in a loss, he looked pretty good. And he's only going to get better.

-Personnel use. Dae'Quan Scott ran the ball on the first play of the fourth quarter. He didn't get another touch the rest of the game. Either he injured himself, or that's a gross misuse of talent. You're only down one score, Mickey. You don't need to head into the two minute drill when there's 12 minutes left in the game.

-Trench play. Did JMU's D-line miss Sage Harold? I think they did. And while Jordan Stanton and Tyler Snow are arguably the two best players with a hand on the ground, it's hard to ignore the raw production that Harold gives JMU up front. JMU has made other team's offensive lines look like garbage, piling up sack statistics that are just stupid, yet they were held without a sack all game at Delaware. Our secondary is talented, but it's never been so raw that they could get by without pressure up front. See: all of 2012.

And the offensive line. You could argue the offensive line was the reason for the meltdown. They allowed four sacks, all in the second half, three of which came on third down. And the results of those three drives: missed field goal, punt which led to Delaware TD, punt which led to Delaware TD.

-Coaching. I don't even know where to start here. The apparent lack of halftime adjustments is inexcusable. This was a problem on Saturday; it was a problem at Akron; it was a problem with ODU last November; it's been a problem for a while, and I've only been watching this team since 2008. (side note: it wasn't much of a problem in 2008.)

As for playcalling: look, I understand Mickey had an epiphany over the off-season, that he wants to run more plays and be a more balanced offense. I understand that Mike O'Cain is now a large part of the picture and that he must receive credit and/or blame whenever playcalling is good and/or terrible. But the staff, as a whole, needs to sit down an develop an offensive identity. It's a different version of the same problem JMU suffered from last season. In 2012, JMU ran the wildcat, jet sweeps, zone reads, designed keepers, the option, reverses, and of course, the timeless, unforgettable "Dae'Quan Scott runs into the ass of [insert name of any offensive lineman here] for no gain" play. And yeah, believe me, that was openly mocked in the Bridgeforth Stadium press box.

One year later, JMU is throwing the ball all over the yard -- the Dukes have outgained every opponent so far this season, and usually by a pretty considerable margin -- but I still feel like this is a team that's just trying to do too much. Rather than master what it's good at, JMU just hopes it can sneak into the end zone after throwing its own kitchen sink at the other team on the field. So my question, which should have been asked years ago, is this:

How does a team that doesn't know what it's good at, expect to be any good?



Other scores and observations from this weekend:

No. 23 Wisconsin 24, No. 4 Ohio State 31

Great win and a big hurdle for the Buckeyes and Urban Meyer, who is gunning for a Saban-Meyer rematch.
Also, that game ball is gonna be worth a lot of tattoos.

No. 14 Oklahoma 35, No. 22 Notre Dame 21

I don't know how much more plainly I can say this: Notre Dame is not that good. They were an average team with 29 seniors and a severely overrated schedule last year; this year, they have neither.

No. 10 Texas A&M 45, Arkansas 33

Does this still count as an SEC game?

No. 12 South Carolina 28, UCF 25

The good news for UCF is that, despite the loss, they're still for my money the best non-AQ team in these United States.

The bad news for UCF is that they must live in constant fear of an impending invasion of Herpes-infested African monkeys.

UVA 3, Pitt 14

I was in Charlottesville on Saturday, right after the loss. They suck, and they know it. At least they're good at the other football.

Arizona 13, No. 16 Washington 31

Eat your heart out, Rich Rod.

USC 41, Arizona State 62

Rough loss for the fightin' latexes. However, I have the utmost confidence in Lane Kiffin as USC's head... well, fuck.

No. 6 LSU 41, No. 9 Georgia 44

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: you've gotta love the SEC for their sturdy, reliable defensive prowess. They're not afraid to grind out wins.

Virginia Tech 17, Georgia Tech 10

Don't get excited, acolytes. Your team still sucks ass.

No. 21 Ole Miss 0, No. 1 Alabama 25

True story: twice last year, Nick Saban had a wet dream about winning a football game 25-0. He was upset when he woke up, though. Changing the sheets in his master bedroom took away from his recruitment time.

No comments: