Illinois State

[Coyote Fan]

Today's game could go one of two ways. It could be just a blip on the radar and be the exception to the rule. I hope that is the case and I would say odds are it will be the case based on what we have seen. On the other hand this is a tough conference and the schedule is difficult down the stretch. If the Coyotes even take a half step back it could lead to further losses. I would say today was about 3 giant leaps backwards.

Today doesn't take away from the rest of the year but our fan base should be in a pretty bad mood today and if anyone feels like venting today's game gives reason for that. I am not calling out individuals or coaching or anything like that. The point I am making is that the Yotes took their foot off the gas petal for the first time this year. These types of performances can become habitual if not careful. As a team you want to have an aura of dominance and not show weaknesses.

[gopheryote]

I don't think this was a 'we laid an egg' performance (maybe other than the lack of tackling), but more of a 'what are the chances of that ever happening again' game.
- 4 different drives were slowed after things were rolling when opposing D got hurt
- 3 or 4 plays over 60 yards allowed
- 2 big plays on O wiped out on phantom Offensive PI calls (1 for TD)
- several dropped passes, and generally a bit sloppy from the offensive unit - which is typically very sharp

It just feels that the game was kind of fluky how it played out. Which actually makes me nervous, because an egg-laying game could still happen.

[gopheryote]

Quick etiquette question - is now when we are supposed to start a thread about time to fire our coach and hire the coach from a rival school?  
On to SIU!

[Yotes]

I had plenty of obscenities to throw at the TV while watching our uncharacteristic play, but I really can't say I'm all that upset that we lost. We had to lose eventually. We are still WAY ahead of where any of us thought we would be 7 games into the season. All of our goals are still on the table. I never like a loss, but I can live with this one. I, however, would not be able to live with a loss to Southern Illinois.

[usdtator]

What's the word on injuries? Case seemed dinged up at one point. Don't recall seeing him in the game again after that... I don't remember many Yote injuries...

Most of the injuries yesterday were Redbirds during our long drives... (dont think for one second other teams wont do that as well).

[aldewitt]

It was a winnable game. All those yards should have added 10 points or more.

A lot of times its the unexpected and this game was a story of big plays.

[yotefbfan]

Ouch! That was not a good game. Despite more than a few questionable calls by the officials, you need to be able to overcome that and still play your game. Also, I give credit to ISU for the many questionable injuries when our offensive machine started to get rolling, we might see this trend with other teams, and we need to overcome this as well.

On offence, our O-line struggled all day vs their D-line. Might we need to consider more max protect and trust our other receivers to get open? We all know that this fast-paced offence does not lend itself to ball control, but we need to establish that we are willing to control the clock with a running game occasionally to limit how often opponents combine various blitz packages with deep drops by LBs to limit our throwing lanes. I am confident this staff will watch this game and make changes for next week.

On defence, that was easily our worst game. The front four were average, we seemed to get decent pressure, but we struggled to control the middle. ISU exposed what I feel is our weakest unit, the linebackers. We failed to fill holes and wrap up and our unwillingness to tackle the hips and below resulted in huge yards after contact. The DBs and Safeties spent more time supporting the run and got burned occasionally plus they also failed to tackle low. Look for a few changes going into next week.

Safe to say the likelihood of us having an undefeated season was low and a few losses can be expected, now the challenge is to see how this team bounces back, adjusts, and prepares to defend the dome next week.

[easmus]

I think the LB corps really misses having Wessel in the middle. Also has to be hard on the Oline playing pass pro all day long. They chipped the DE’s a few times but should have done it more, as Streveler looked like himself from last year getting pressured and taking far too many shots.

[obc]

What a fun conference we are in now. As the saying goes you are never as good as you think you are when you win and never as bad as you think you are when you lose. This team will learn from some of the mistakes that can be corrected and also look back at the film and see many of the good things they did that were actually positive. There were several things this team did well and I expect they will build on this game to finish the final four regular season games even stronger because of it.
In watching warm-ups before the game I did get a bad feeling seeing how the wind was affecting the QBs and WRs. There were some drops yesterday, but that was not the biggest reason for the loss. Below is what I think:

1. Tackling - As bad as some of the other phases of the game went yesterday, if USD tackles well, they would have won this game period. Most times USD had players in position to make a play and to the credit of the ISU RBs, WRs, QB - the USD players were not executing. USD will learn from this and finish the year strong. Jack Cochrane became the most recent true freshman to burn his RS yesterday at LB. There is virtually no depth at this position that has experience. This is one of the main culprits of why tackling was so poor yesterday. My question to the defense is: Who is going to step up and lead this unit? Who is the Chris Streveler of the defensive unit? My guess is Wessell had that role. Someone needs to step up and take charge there. Greenfield seems poised to be that guy - he has the most incredible motor of anyone out there most plays.

2. OL pass and run blocking and Protection in general on passes- The ISU defensive front won the battle of the trenches yesterday. If the OL is as talented as I think they are, I think this will cause them to take another step forward and mature as a group. They will have to improve as they will face even stouter defensive fronts to finish the year. Need to be able to run the ball with more productivity - especially earlier in the game. ISU's ability to control the LOS and stuff the run made USD one-dimensional and it showed up in the highest number of throws by USD in a game that I can remember. While ISU only had two recorded sacks, they had an enormous amount of QB hurries yesterday. USD has some different protection packages they have run throughout the year that I believe would have helped, but obviously it is easy to second guess after the fact. I also think Streveler had opportunities to run a little more up the middle than he did. Perhaps that could have slowed down some of the pressure if he gashed them a few more times.
Even with all of those offensive challenges, USD still had almost enough offensive production to win the game. This is not an almost good enough culture anymore though, so no moral victories here.

3. The flip side of the coin is getting more pressure on their QB. I agree with an earlier poster saying that ISU was holding on virtually every play. For what it is worth, if the refs are not going to call it, I wish USD's OL would have held each play too. Have to find a way to get pressure regardless if there is holding or not. That ISU QB had shown over and over earlier this season that his response to pressure was to throw picks. USD was credited with one sack and not near as many hurries as needed.

4. FG kicking and KO/KO return - It was windy yesterday but ISU managed to knock two key FGs through the uprights. USD needs to get this fixed. Good news is that all remaining regular season games are inside and that makes kicking easier, but if not fixed this will cost the team another game. KO is another area that is hurting the Yotes. Yesterday USD lost roughly 12 yards of field postion each KO/KOR compared to ISU. ISU had an avg return of 23.5 yards vs USD at 15.8. Avg ISU KO was 57.8 vs USD at 53.8. Cannot allow a good team to have this kind of field position advantage.

5. Key penalties at big moments. Whether they were bad calls or good calls, over time it tends to even out. Some of these were momentum killers yesterday and USD has to be prepared mentally to overcome them when they happen. They will happen again.

For all the bad, USD is a very good team that will get better because of this. Look out SIU - the Yotes will be very hungry this coming Saturday. UNI and NDSU will beat each other to a pulp and then USD can go finish off UNI and then NDSU the following week. Then sdsu.

Fun season so far, lets pack the Dome - get friends, colleagues, etc to come and support this group. Home field makes a difference.

[elcoyote]

Oct 22, 2017 13:08:06 GMT -6 obc said:

What a fun conference we are in now. As the saying goes you are never as good as you think you are when you win and never as bad as you think you are when you lose. This team will learn from some of the mistakes that can be corrected and also look back at the film and see many of the good things they did that were actually positive. There were several things this team did well and I expect they will build on this game to finish the final four regular season games even stronger because of it.
In watching warm-ups before the game I did get a bad feeling seeing how the wind was affecting the QBs and WRs. There were some drops yesterday, but that was not the biggest reason for the loss. Below is what I think:

1. Tackling - As bad as some of the other phases of the game went yesterday, if USD tackles well, they would have won this game period. Most times USD had players in position to make a play and to the credit of the ISU RBs, WRs, QB - the USD players were not executing. USD will learn from this and finish the year strong. Jack Cochrane became the most recent true freshman to burn his RS yesterday at LB. There is virtually no depth at this position that has experience. This is one of the main culprits of why tackling was so poor yesterday. My question to the defense is: Who is going to step up and lead this unit? Who is the Chris Streveler of the defensive unit? My guess is Wessell had that role. Someone needs to step up and take charge there. Greenfield seems poised to be that guy - he has the most incredible motor of anyone out there most plays.

2. OL pass and run blocking and Protection in general on passes- The ISU defensive front won the battle of the trenches yesterday. If the OL is as talented as I think they are, I think this will cause them to take another step forward and mature as a group. They will have to improve as they will face even stouter defensive fronts to finish the year. Need to be able to run the ball with more productivity - especially earlier in the game. ISU's ability to control the LOS and stuff the run made USD one-dimensional and it showed up in the highest number of throws by USD in a game that I can remember. While ISU only had two recorded sacks, they had an enormous amount of QB hurries yesterday. USD has some different protection packages they have run throughout the year that I believe would have helped, but obviously it is easy to second guess after the fact. I also think Streveler had opportunities to run a little more up the middle than he did. Perhaps that could have slowed down some of the pressure if he gashed them a few more times.
Even with all of those offensive challenges, USD still had almost enough offensive production to win the game. This is not an almost good enough culture anymore though, so no moral victories here.

3. The flip side of the coin is getting more pressure on their QB. I agree with an earlier poster saying that ISU was holding on virtually every play. For what it is worth, if the refs are not going to call it, I wish USD's OL would have held each play too. Have to find a way to get pressure regardless if there is holding or not. That ISU QB had shown over and over earlier this season that his response to pressure was to throw picks. USD was credited with one sack and not near as many hurries as needed.

4. FG kicking and KO/KO return - It was windy yesterday but ISU managed to knock two key FGs through the uprights. USD needs to get this fixed. Good news is that all remaining regular season games are inside and that makes kicking easier, but if not fixed this will cost the team another game. KO is another area that is hurting the Yotes. Yesterday USD lost roughly 12 yards of field postion each KO/KOR compared to ISU. ISU had an avg return of 23.5 yards vs USD at 15.8. Avg ISU KO was 57.8 vs USD at 53.8. Cannot allow a good team to have this kind of field position advantage.

5. Key penalties at big moments. Whether they were bad calls or good calls, over time it tends to even out. Some of these were momentum killers yesterday and USD has to be prepared mentally to overcome them when they happen. They will happen again.

For all the bad, USD is a very good team that will get better because of this. Look out SIU - the Yotes will be very hungry this coming Saturday. UNI and NDSU will beat each other to a pulp and then USD can go finish off UNI and then NDSU the following week. Then sdsu.

Fun season so far, lets pack the Dome - get friends, colleagues, etc to come and support this group. Home field makes a difference.

I love reading your stuff. It's very well thought out and written. 

[coyotecrazie5]

Ill. State had 15 QB hits yesterday. Way too many if you plan on winning. Some of that had to do with USD getting down early and ISU pinning their ears back. Strev made some great plays while getting pressured or it could have been worse. They did a great job of containing him from scrambling, but Strev didn't have much of a chance with so much pressure. ISU seemed to get the big plays right when they needed it. They were only 6 of 13 on 3rd down conversions, but it seemed way worse. The 3rd down conversions they got were long situations. ISU OL and DL played much better than USD this week. On to the Salukis.

[coyote70]

I lost a little "spring in my step" so to speak, yesterday after the Coyote's loss. Nonetheless, I fully expect our coaches and players will study So. Illinois so thoroughly that we will be rarin' to go after them come game time. I expect a victory, brought about by intensity and confidence accentuated by a very vocal crowd.

[huskie]

Maybe Coach Nielson and his agent are entertaining offers from other schools.

[bt71]

Oct 23, 2017 20:08:33 GMT -6 huskie said:

Maybe Coach Nielson and his agent are entertaining offers from other schools.

Certainly their prerogative if they are.  Business is business, got to take the opportunity when it comes.  Would it be disappointing, of course.  Would we wish him well?  Absolutely, without question.   

[yotebewithyou]

Oct 23, 2017 20:08:33 GMT -6 huskie said:

Maybe Coach Nielson and his agent are entertaining offers from other schools.

The butt hurt is still strong I see