Reflections on the Marshall Game

[Bearcat Chris]

1. Kicker, Rogers looks much more "deliberate" and smooth. Nice job.
2. Punter is the best I have ever seen at UC. High, long spirals.
3. Ramsey's run was fantastic. He may well indeed be UC's best RB.
4. Grutza looked pretty good, although I thought the "O" was very flat tonight.
5. Marshall's QB looked great. On a good team, he would be one of the best in the country.
6. We played good enough to beat an average team. We must get in sync, or we will have real trouble, once league play begins.
7. Top 25 is possible this week, with UL getting beat by Syracuse.
8. My prediction for the game was 44-10. I am not getting any early vibes on the San Diego game, so my prediction may be late this week, if at all.

.....and finally, nice crowd. Just like with the Bengals, in this city, you have to be a "winner" to get support. Nice to see that UC FB is finally getting some positive recognition, and long overdue fan interest.

B.C.

[Lobot]

1. Kicker, Rogers looks much more "deliberate" and smooth. Nice job.
2. Punter is the best I have ever seen at UC. High, long spirals.
3. Ramsey's run was fantastic. He may well indeed be UC's best RB.
4. Grutza looked pretty good, although I thought the "O" was very flat tonight.
5. Marshall's QB looked great. On a good team, he would be one of the best in the country.
6. We played good enough to beat an average team. We must get in sync, or we will have real trouble, once league play begins.
7. Top 25 is possible this week, with UL getting beat by Syracuse.
8. My prediction for the game was 44-10. I am not getting any early vibes on the San Diego game, so my prediction may be late this week, if at all.

.....and finally, nice crowd. Just like with the Bengals, in this city, you have to be a "winner" to get support. Nice to see that UC FB is finally getting some positive recognition, and long overdue fan interest.

B.C.

I think that the offense has actually looked mostly flat all year frankly except on certain drives. I'm probably the only one with this opinion but what are we going to do when the turnovers stop coming?

Top 25 is more than possible with a lot of the lower 25 teams losing. BUT I don't think we put on a spectacular show against Marshall regardless of the score and I don't think we've beaten anyone yet. (Maybe OR St.) That being said Rutgers didn't play anybody last year and got way up there so who knows.

[hot pocket]

exactly, the schedule is all relative at this point. Outside of few OOC game, nobody has played anybody, so making judgments based solely on schedules is impossible. You have to base a ranking on how a team has played, relative to their schedule.

[Deaf_Bearcat]

UC could have scored more than 40, but with too many offensive penalties occurred in 2nd and 3rd quarter, they were forced to punt a few more times.

[shaunsimpson]

I have a few for you.

Negatives
1) Grutza holds on to the ball too much.
2) The offense hasn't shown the dagger that I hope for.
Positives
1) I thought the offensive line did very well
2) Special teams continues to get better and Rodgers shook off the bad first game and missed kick last week to be solid again.
3) Defense.....enough said. They were around the ball all day long and hit hard. Once again they hit a team in the mouth and left their offense punch drunk.
4) Took care of the ball again. +2 in TO margin.

[iamspen]

I tend to think Grutza holds on to the ball too much because a.) checking down the progression in the spread offense isn't something he's skilled at and b.) I think he might just be too short to really see an open guy down the middle, resulting in a lot of swing passes, dump-offs, and scrambles. Still, he's got okay velocity on the ball, but his accuracy is a bit off and I really wish he'd try to throw over the line instead of forcing something inside or going to the outside.

A side note, the no-huddle spread could potentially become more effective if BK continues using two quarterbacks, especially since their styles are polar opposites.

[ME80]

.....and finally, nice crowd. Just like with the Bengals, in this city, you have to be a "winner" to get support. Nice to see that UC FB is finally getting some positive recognition, and long overdue fan interest.

B.C.[/QUOTE]

Sorry, I have to be negative here but I really get tired of hearing that only this city has fair weather fans. It is the same anywhere. UC football has NO winning tradition and it takes a while to build that tradition.

The Bengals still averaged 50K a year during 15 pitiful years, probably better than most cities facing a similar ineptness

[General Woundwort]

I tend to think Grutza holds on to the ball too much because a.) checking down the progression in the spread offense isn't something he's skilled at and b.) I think he might just be too short to really see an open guy down the middle, resulting in a lot of swing passes, dump-offs, and scrambles. Still, he's got okay velocity on the ball, but his accuracy is a bit off and I really wish he'd try to throw over the line instead of forcing something inside or going to the outside.

A side note, the no-huddle spread could potentially become more effective if BK continues using two quarterbacks, especially since their styles are polar opposites.

I don't buy the "too short" thing. He is taller than Mauk, who is listed at 6-1 but (I have stood next to him) is at best 5-11. If Mauk can see the receiver over the middle, so can Grutza.

[BearcatDAN]

ME80, you beat me too it. The Bengals have drawn better then the Raiders for decades - and that is LA? Cincy still supports their teams, they just make it known that they are not happy. UC is in a position to sell what we know is a good product. A great entertainment event!

Now, as far as the Reds are concerned, I like baseball, but it is boring!! I'll take a Bearcat football games any day! Call me crazy if you must!

[Bearcat85]

Let's clarify here - that was not a "nice" crowd, that was an AWSOME crowd!!

[hot pocket]

one observation I've seen is our center. There was another terrible snap on the 4th down play in the 1st quarter, and I saw plenty of other shotgun snaps that were way off to the left or right, almost to the point of the QB taking a step off to the side to catch the snap. Is this just the case of me paying too much attention to it, or is there something there that needs improvement??

[iamspen]

Our center does need improvement, but he's a converted defensive player snapping for the first time. He seems to call blocks well and block EXTREMELY well. Like Jake Rogers, I'd expect him to be absolutely phenomenal once he gets his legs under him.

[nachoman91]

I don't buy the "too short" thing. He is taller than Mauk, who is listed at 6-1 but (I have stood next to him) is at best 5-11. If Mauk can see the receiver over the middle, so can Grutza.

Grutza's problem is he rarely throws the ball until the receiver is open. That results in passes getting to the receivers too late and lets the defender either catch up to break up the pass or catch up to make the tackle for less YAC than they should be getting.

I don't know if this problem is a result of poor teaching or Grutza not confident enough to let it go while the receiver is still in route. Either way, this is why I prefer Mauk out there.

Don't get me wrong, I think Grutza has done an admirable job. I'm just worried that as the defenses improve, this deficiency will be highlighted.

[jplog]

Grutza's problem is he rarely throws the ball until the receiver is open. That results in passes getting to the receivers too late and lets the defender either catch up to break up the pass or catch up to make the tackle for less YAC than they should be getting.

I don't know if this problem is a result of poor teaching or Grutza not confident enough to let it go while the receiver is still in route. Either way, this is why I prefer Mauk out there.

Don't get me wrong, I think Grutza has done an admirable job. I'm just worried that as the defenses improve, this deficiency will be highlighted.

Here's hoping we only see Mauk the rest of the way.

[capcbk]

Two comments:

1) The offense has not been what I hoped for, but they do have a great knack at captalizing on breaks (turnovers). I'm glad we have Grutza...as a back up!
2) Is it me or is the coaching staff typically quite slow in getting plays onto the field? It seemed as though our long drives occurred when the play got to the field sooner and really pressured the Marshall D.

[BigDaddyCornHusker]

Two comments:

1) The offense has not been what I hoped for, but they do have a great knack at captalizing on breaks (turnovers). I'm glad we have Grutza...as a back up!

BK is still working w/ Dantonio recruits. He's benefitting on the defensive end, but offense will hopefully improve in the years to come.