2 Out Of 3

[Allezchat]

So I haven't been paying much attention, I see someone said Counts didn't play. Has he played at all since he came back?

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[Sam A. Blitz]

I can understand what you are saying, I sometimes have the same feelings, and you may be right. However, I think Stitt and Semore have good potential, and the players here now and coming in are of high quality. The coaches seem to know how to recruit. When they were arriving, I wondered if they would be in over their heads. I don't think they are at all. The lost schollies are coming back. Like many, I am not completely sold on the offense. When it's clicking, it's great. But it seems to be prone to inconsistency and mistake. Maybe that is still the players and their execution. Semore is young and not experienced as a DC. He has alot of good ideas and innovation. He will improve with time. A great DC is not born overnight. It takes years of experience to be able to be consistently a good DC. We saw the same thing with TG. He seemed to improve each year.

One game, either way, doesn't make a season. It's always a struggle and one game at a time. While maybe this game shows that UM isn't good enough to compete with EWU, I still like our chances and think we can compete. NAU had a very good gameplan and played very well. We shall see. That's what's nice and fun about sport.

This is a great post.

We have to remember that a lot of the coordinators in this league are very young. TG had his struggles in his first year as DC. Our duo OC under MD had their struggles. Jonathan Smith had some real struggles his first year as OC with us (and is now doing an excellent job at UW). I like Semore a lot and think he will be good, but he is going to have things to build and get better on.

I watched the EWU v MSU game. EWU is definitely beatable. I's sure not many on here will give them a chance.

 

[reinell30]

So I haven't been paying much attention, I see someone said Counts didn't play. Has he played at all since he came back?

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Only in the blow out wins. I don't know why either. Could have used him yesterday. He was on the sideline in uniform and ready.

 

[HelenaHandBasket]

Semore got exposed as a rookie DC and the defense struggled and BG struggled to make plays that were available at crucial times in the game.

 

[PlayerRep]

The Cats outplayed EWU in the first half, probably on both sides of the ball. The Cats could have had a bigger lead going toward the end of the half, but didn't capitalize. Then the Cats fumbled an exchange on their 15 and 20, which led to an easy EWU TD and the lead. EWU came alive and kicks the Cats' butts in the second half.

EWU is very good on offense and has a very good qb. It has 2 or 3 great receivers. However, EWU's top 5 or 6 receivers are not as good as NAU's top 5/6. It's good to have JR back. He seemed to play well, despite presumably being rusty. He will be better next Saturday. I don't know how much man coverage UM played on Saturday, but seemed like a lot to me. It makes me nervous to play so much man against top passing teams with accurate qb's and big fast good receivers. There's just too much risk of giving up big plays too much of the time. Our guys are good cover guys, but this isn't the NFL (where the corners and secondary are incredibly good). Jeez, even I couldn't have shut down the NAU/EWU receivers on every play, back in the day (nor on any play). Ha.

 

[uofmman1122]

Not being ready for games has been a problem that has plagued our program since Hauck left.

It's a culture problem.

You don't turn that around overnight.

Having a QB that can get us back into a game without panicking would help, though.

 

[Blue Tears]

The Cats outplayed EWU in the first half, probably on both sides of the ball. The Cats could have had a bigger lead going toward the end of the half, but didn't capitalize. Then the Cats fumbled an exchange on their 15 and 20, which led to an easy EWU TD and the lead. EWU came alive and kicks the Cats' butts in the second half.

EWU is very good on offense and has a very good qb. It has 2 or 3 great receivers. However, EWU's top 5 or 6 receivers are not as good as NAU's top 5/6. It's good to have JR back. He seemed to play well, despite presumably being rusty. He will be better next Saturday. I don't know how much man coverage UM played on Saturday, but seemed like a lot to me. It makes me nervous to play so much man against top passing teams with accurate qb's and big fast good receivers. There's just too much risk of giving up big plays too much of the time. Our guys are good cover guys, but this isn't the NFL (where the corners and secondary are incredibly good). Jeez, even I couldn't have shut down the NAU/EWU receivers on every play, back in the day (nor on any play). Ha.

Great post. If we sit and play the same defensive scheme vs EWU, it will be a long day. I expect adjustments for this next weekend. Having little to no safety help vs top notch passing attacks is crazy. It appears as though our current defensive scheme has priorities of stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback. That can put tremendous pressure on our secondary, especially to defend great receivers on deep balls. If we don't get to the passer, things get ugly. I truly believe Semore will adjust.

 

[kemajic]

Stitt is 7-5 in conference, headed for 7-6.

Lost me.....he was 6-2 last year and 2-2 so far this year. That is 8-4.

OK, the CPSLO game last year was non-conf; my bad. I will fix.

 

[griz5700]

I hate his offense.

 

[G-BEARS]

The Cats outplayed EWU in the first half, probably on both sides of the ball. The Cats could have had a bigger lead going toward the end of the half, but didn't capitalize. Then the Cats fumbled an exchange on their 15 and 20, which led to an easy EWU TD and the lead. EWU came alive and kicks the Cats' butts in the second half.

EWU is very good on offense and has a very good qb. It has 2 or 3 great receivers. However, EWU's top 5 or 6 receivers are not as good as NAU's top 5/6. It's good to have JR back. He seemed to play well, despite presumably being rusty. He will be better next Saturday. I don't know how much man coverage UM played on Saturday, but seemed like a lot to me. It makes me nervous to play so much man against top passing teams with accurate qb's and big fast good receivers. There's just too much risk of giving up big plays too much of the time. Our guys are good cover guys, but this isn't the NFL (where the corners and secondary are incredibly good). Jeez, even I couldn't have shut down the NAU/EWU receivers on every play, back in the day (nor on any play). Ha.

In order to beat Eastern, we need to get a lot more pressure on the QB then we did against NAU. If Gubrud has time in the pocket, he will simply pick us apart.

 

[kemajic]

In order to beat Eastern, we need to get a lot more pressure on the QB then we did against NAU. If Gubrud has time in the pocket, he will simply pick us apart.

It's amazing how little pressure we put on Kemp.

 

[grizfan47]

I can understand what you are saying, I sometimes have the same feelings, and you may be right. However, I think Stitt and Semore have good potential, and the players here now and coming in are of high quality. The coaches seem to know how to recruit. When they were arriving, I wondered if they would be in over their heads. I don't think they are at all. The lost schollies are coming back. Like many, I am not completely sold on the offense. When it's clicking, it's great. But it seems to be prone to inconsistency and mistake. Maybe that is still the players and their execution. Semore is young and not experienced as a DC. He has alot of good ideas and innovation. He will improve with time. A great DC is not born overnight. It takes years of experience to be able to be consistently a good DC. We saw the same thing with TG. He seemed to improve each year.

One game, either way, doesn't make a season. It's always a struggle and one game at a time. While maybe this game shows that UM isn't good enough to compete with EWU, I still like our chances and think we can compete. NAU had a very good gameplan and played very well. We shall see. That's what's nice and fun about sport.

Very good post. I totally agree. EWU is beatable (saw the Cats game also) however we cannot play like we did yesterday. Which defense is going to show up? Is BG going to overthrow wide open receivers? Will Stitt ever let Chalich have a series to settle BG down or maybe he (Chalich) will excel! So many more questions but it would only be repetitive to what others are expressing. We all have the same concerns. Losing to a good team such as NAU is nothing to be ashamed of. Watching your team play far below their ability is what is disturbing.

 

[juiceboxboy]

NAU has a solid and disciplined O line
The D line was not prepared with doing different things to the O line.
I would have done a full on blitz two or three times in the first quarter to nail the NAU QB to get him jumpy
When a QB gets jumpy he will not throw it accurately (most of the time) and that can lead to the secondary being able to get picks.
This was done several times to St. Francis, UNI, Sac St.
Also when this happens the whole defense feeds off of each other's energy and this in turn ignites the offense.

 

[uofmman1122]

NAU has a solid and disciplined O line
The D line was not prepared with doing different things to the O line.
I would have done a full on blitz two or three times in the first quarter to nail the NAU QB to get him jumpy
When a QB gets jumpy he will not throw it accurately (most of the time) and that can lead to the secondary being able to get picks.
This was done several times to St. Francis, UNI, Sac St.
Also when this happens the whole defense feeds off of each other's energy and this in turn ignites the offense.

Not sure it's that simple. He didn't have all day to throw. Their game plan was simply to get the ball out as fast as possible, whether it was a quick out or cross, or just chucking it up and letting their receivers run under the jump balls. They used rollouts really really well yesterday, too.

They had an awesome game plan and executed well from the get go.

We didn't adjust soon enough.

 

[brewskis]

Not being ready for games has been a problem that has plagued our program since Hauck left.

It's a culture problem.

You don't turn that around overnight.

Having a QB that can get us back into a game without panicking would help, though.

I'm not really buying that this is a culture thing. We've got the attitude back. I think it's more of a QB, OL, and Safety issue. Also lack of pass rush, which was surprising.


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[mtgriz]

I don't know how much man coverage UM played on Saturday, but seemed like a lot to me. It makes me nervous to play so much man against top passing teams with accurate qb's and big fast good receivers. There's just too much risk of giving up big plays too much of the time. Our guys are good cover guys, but this isn't the NFL (where the corners and secondary are incredibly good). Jeez, even I couldn't have shut down the NAU/EWU receivers on every play, back in the day (nor on any play). Ha.

Gubrud is also a good runner when he breaks the pocket. If we are in man coverage and he gets out, it's gonna hurt.

 

[putter]

Montana's corners were exposed. JR was very rusty so I Hope he begins to settle in. Sanders looked lost and was out of position against good receivers. Nelson, we know, can get much better but who else will step up and thrive on that island?

 

[AZGrizFan]

That's quite a judgement to make after 20 games


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Geez, how many games you gonna give him? 100?

Well, I don't have a set number in mind, but it's a fuck of a lot more than 20.

A) This team is very young.
B) Stitt has a total of TWO recruiting classes...the entire 2nd one of which is redshirting. The vast majority of the players on the field (including our QB) were recruited to run a different system.
C) We still are 4 schollies down, which juuuuust might help a tad.
D) There's lots of football to be played yet this season.....
E) Go look at Don Read's record prior to coming to Montana....he'll look at his record his first 8 years AT Montana. Even Bobby Hauck lost 4 games in his 1st and 3rd years....and he inherited the cadillac. Stitt hardly inherited a Cadillac. More like an Edsel.

 

[uofmman1122]

Not being ready for games has been a problem that has plagued our program since Hauck left.

It's a culture problem.

You don't turn that around overnight.

Having a QB that can get us back into a game without panicking would help, though.

I'm not really buying that this is a culture thing. We've got the attitude back. I think it's more of a QB, OL, and Safety issue. Also lack of pass rush, which was surprising.


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I definitely agree that we have a better attitude, but even with that, from the very beginning it looked like our guys (especially the defense) didn't want to be there.

We have issues, for sure, but I saw the same "road griz" show up yesterday that has shown up and underwhelmed since 2012.

This team has a swagger that the previous years' teams didn't, but it still seems to disappear when things go south, which I feel is a culture problem that's hanging on from the Delaney years. It's getting better, but it's hard to get rid of entirely. Hopefully it'll be gone the next few years, and I think Stitt is on his way to fixing it.

 

[Jaymerz]

Please. If Gustafson doesn't over-throw receivers the entire game, including the 4th down conversion attempts, everyone on this board says the coach is a genius. Players play the game, and the truth is that Gustafson is an inconsistent passer. Until Stitt gets a more reliable passer in the QB spot, his game plan will always be at risk of outcomes like this NAU game.

Please.. Was Gus the one who gave up 45 points? I think that our defense needs to be held some what accountable for this lose, not Gus.

So it's reasonable to blame the coach but not the QB? I wasn't pinning the loss or the points on our QB, just pointing out the obvious. By no means is Gustafson to blame for the loss, but he missed key throws to open receivers in a couple key situations that turned the ball over on downs, plus an awful pass that was an INT. No fewer than 21 points for NAU can be at least indirectly attributed to those failed conversions, etc. That doesn't speak to the game plan, it speaks to poor execution. Add to that a piss poor defensive effort, and it's a bad day. I believe in Stitt's plan at this point, but the best plan can be mired down quickly by poor play.