@ Southern Illinois 9/29/18

[teamsd]

Did anyone else see the defense pull out that Chucky doll on the sideline after An. Grays interception? That was hilarious.

[Yote 53]

The thing about the drive chart is the lack of an ability to put together consistent long drives. There were some big play drives in there but I only count two sustained drives.

If we are going to have a great offense and be successful we are going to need to have more 10+ play drives.

[Yote 53]

I hate to compare us to, and continually bring up, NDSU. If you look at their offense, what makes them what they are is the ability to grind out sustained drives. The Kansas State and Iowa games come to mind. They just kept hammering at those teams when the game mattered most.

If you want to be a championship level team that's what you need to do.

[Yotes]

Sept 29, 2018 22:02:11 GMT -6 teamsd said:

Did anyone else see the defense pull out that Chucky doll on the sideline after An. Grays interception? That was hilarious.

Yes, but I didn't get it at all.

[teamsd]

Sept 29, 2018 22:10:18 GMT -6 Yotes said:

Sept 29, 2018 22:02:11 GMT -6 teamsd said:

Did anyone else see the defense pull out that Chucky doll on the sideline after An. Grays interception? That was hilarious.

Yes, but I didn't get it at all.

If that’s their thing, then I love it.

That was a gritty win. Teams that compete in this league need to be able to grind, come from behind and close it out. In previous seasons, the yotes would have called it a game after the 2nd quarter. Not this team or this staff. Don’t get me wrong - we have a lot of work to do and many things we need to correct. We need to play a better, more consistent game and we must be more disciplined. The penalties will cost us a game unless we shape up.

I thought we made some adjustments tonight on the OL after the first half and that was much needed. A win is a win.

On to Mo State
Happy D-Days!!

[sdyotefan]

CONGRATULATIONS COACH NIELSON ON YOUR 200TH WIN!!

Most of the game wasn't pretty but a road win in the Valley is always SWEET!! Overall D contained SIU and O finally had several quick drives for TDs.

[gopheryote]

This game may be a blueprint for how the team rolls until the OL can gel a bit. A steady and pretty impressive D, large blocks of frustrating O, then a flurry of O/points, followed by more frustrating O. You can win a bunch of games that way if the D stays strong.
This one was a bit unusual with all the starts inside our own 15. Even when losing the field position game, the D still kept their explosive offense from scoring.

[obc]

Thoughts from the SIU game (for full disclosure, I only watched the game once and cannot bring myself to watch a replay - crappy camera work and just a long, sloppy game to watch):

This was a MVFC road victory - those rarely come easy and this was no exception.

The USD defense is establishing itself as an improved unit - giving up yardage but really keeping teams out of the endzone. Tackling was very good - not remembering many complete whiffs. Once again they created turnovers. Coach Moose is getting results. The Gray brothers led the way with Cochrane close behind. I specifically think Cochrane played his best game of the year so far. We need consistency out of our MLB and got it this week. Very impressed with our two corners that played - this was a very good SIU WR unit and our corners were all over them. Collins is developing into a very good MVFC corner and Tisdale may be the most improved player on the defense from the last two games. Good to see him improve quickly with experience. Their coverage is even more impressive in light of the fact USD struggled to get pressure on the SIU QB - only a couple hurries and zero sacks on the night. USD appeared to be focused on stopping the SIU run game and relied on working twists and stunt games in the pass rush with the front four only. Luis Peguero is stepping up as a very productive interior DL. He has been disruptive at times for opposing teams and had the best game of the interior DL in my view.

The USD offense is very concerning right now. The OL has really been in a funk for most of the year. They gave up 4 sacks again this week and several hurries and tackles for a loss. There is no push at the LOS on the snap. It appears to me like the defensive fronts we are facing are firing off the ball and pushing our guys back every snap regardless whether it is a pass or run. Part of this is stylistic - USD runs a lot of RPO and the OL are almost always in a two point stance (no hand in the dirt). That makes it harder to come off the ball and move a defender backwards. USD's offense made some adjustments at half-time - opening with a speed option and then following up working the screen game proved effective. Then USD was able to complete some big plays. One was a completely blown coverage from SIU for one of the easier TDs USD will complete this year (89 yard reception to Allen). The OL also did a better job of staying in front of the defenders in the 3Q and not allowing a free release to the QB. With the extra time, Simmons did what we all know he can do and delivered some nice balls. The OL played the same 5 all night - they must be trying to see if allowing them to work together without substitution can be helpful. Cannot think of another reason why the coaches wouldn't have substituted in some of the other OL into the game after seeing the poor play in the first two quarters. The WR group appears to be dealing with some nagging injuries. All of a sudden we feel a little thin at the position. Case, Crawford, Jackson, and Ducker all appeared to not get many snaps - Case was mentioned as having some issues with his hamstring and Ducker must have sustained an injury - he was on the sidelines in the second half without his shoulder pads on. Were the others injured as well? The RBs continue to lack consistent production - need to average more than 2.5 yards a carry to be successful down the stretch. Klett seems to have the best chance of the three to this point in the season. All three backs are pretty close in statistical production. Klett had a 45 yard run early in the game, but was very limited besides that. Brooks is by far the weakest blocker and missed a key block late in the game on the edge that resulted in a sack that could easily have been a safety or fumble as Simmons was hit from his blind side. Klett would be my choice as the RB to get the most carries based on game observations only.

Special teams coverage was better this week against a very skilled and fast team. That is a good sign. Our kicker made a FG as well as all xtra points. Our punt returner made a rather large gaff by fielding a punt late in the game at the 3 yard line. Have to let those go and give it a chance for a touchback. I will chalk that up to our regular punt returner (Ducker) being out. I would expect however that our back up would know not to do that inside the 10. Punting by USD was very good with the exception of a near block. Our Kicker was booting the ball deep on each kickoff and coverage there was solid as well.

Discipline: USD looked like a very undisciplined team last night - and it is becoming a bad pattern. 16 penalties for 138 yards is not going to get it done. USD gave SIU 5 first downs on penalty alone.

Clock Management: USD's style is a tempo offense, but so do several other teams in college football. They need to be able to take more time off the clock than they did with the lead. This will lose them games in the future if not addressed. Part of this stems from the lack of run game for the Coyotes on traditional run only plays vs RPO or read-option runs. USD has to get to a point where our OL can create some holes and our RBs can get yardage (even when a defense knows a run is likely).

Big Plays: Love the big play potential of USD's offense, but absent those USD really struggled. USD only had 17 first downs and as was pointed out in an earlier post - minus the big production in the third quarter was pretty weak. In fact most of the game looked like what we saw at Weber State with the exception of the third quarter.

A win is a win and it is great to be 1-0 in the MVFC and back to 2-2 for the season. USD plays great at home usually and I expect the next two weeks will be no exception. I am however concerned about what happens to our offense when we play games in the wind or non-perfect weather against solid teams. The defense is leading the way for USD which is quite the departure from the last several Coyote FB teams. It is a welcome improvement. SIU was really a must win road game for USD and that objective was accomplished. Let's hope the young team we have, continues to improve each week, and that the coaches find ways to get them more disciplined. I still believe this team is capable of playing much better and more consistently. They will need to do that in order to repeat as a playoff team.

[elcoyote]

Outstanding analysis as always obc. I'll add a few observations of my own in.

Defense is turning into a shut down unit. SIU had some highly regarded receivers and the secondary did a great job in coverage. I think Collins is blossoming into a star. No sacks, but we didn't seem to blitz much at all that I remember.


I don't know what to think about the offense. It was awful for the first 25 minutes of the game, but then, on the last possession of the half, something noticeably clicked and they were what I think everyone expected them to be from then on. End of the game lack of production didn't bother me too much because we were buried deep in our own territory on a few possessions and with the lead had to be cautious and not turn it over. In the fourth quarter with a lead, I do wish we'd run the play clock down more... a lot more. I'll just never understand why we don't snap the ball with just a few ticks left instead snapping it with 20 or so left. We could have shortened the game by several minutes had we done that. Nitpicking here, but I wish Simmons would pull the ball more on the option plays  and take it himself. The lane is there sometimes and he's more than capable. Maybe some of those handoffs are called and he's doing what he's been coached to do.  SIU did an unreal job of pinning us down deep a number of times once even inside the one yard line. After the switch went on I thought the line did a good job of pass protection because I don't really remember Simmons being hurried after the first 20 minutes or so.

On special teams it's really quite simple. Having Godfrey back snapping makes all the difference in the world. Field goals and extra points were flawless and the punting game was outstanding. Once on an exchange of punts we netted 17 yards of field position. That works for me. I was OK with Baker fair catching the one punt on the four yard line because there were already two SIU coverage players behind him on the goal line ready to make a play on the ball and really bury us. They'd already done it twice so maybe that was the reason and he gained us a few yards. Don't know, maybe it would have taken a funny bounce, but they seemed to have that unit well drilled.


The penalties are very annoying, but that was another area we seemed to clean up as the game wet along. Ten minutes into the game we already had 70 yards in penalties so that was more than half. Still too much, but I also thought it was a flag happy crew, especially one official who was overruled on a few calls.


All in all any win in the MVFC is a good win especially on the road and it makes for what looks to be an exciting DDays game against what seems to be a much improved Missouri State team.

[yoteforever]

I eluded to confidence in a post prior to this game last week. Pure and simple, our confidence was shook in Utah. Simply put, we played awful and not sure of ourselves, especially on offense. After a good start we got rocked in Ogden. The first half in Carbondale was a continuation of that performance. But then the Coyote football team I have felt we had came out of the locker room and made a statement.

Were we perfect? No. But the good news is we were far less than perfect and got a road win in the conference.

But as I said before, along with many of you, the MVFC is a meat grinder and this becomes a one game at a time league. You have very little time to celebrate success and even less time to feel sorry for yourself when you stink. Maybe the hottest team in the league cones to Vermillion Saturday and it’s 100% imperative we defend the Dome and defeat them. I think we’ve gained some confidence from last night but I assure you our opponent has a ton of it now. They are the USD team of 2017.

Elcoyote and obc have summed it up spot on. We aren’t good enough to overlook anyone. Saturday is the biggest game of the year by far. A win Saturday and our confidence grows. My biggest hope is that someone on this team emerges as a leader and keeps everyone’s head in it at the moment.

[coyote70]

Congratulations to senior safety Andrew Gray for being recognized as MVFC defensive player of the week. He definitely earned it!

Despite a few gaps here and there our defense has held up pretty well this year. Can't wait until Missouri State comes to town this weekend. Bear down, please, and Defend the Dome!

[usdtator]

[gopheryote]

Sept 29, 2018 20:30:47 GMT -6 Yotes said:

Sept 29, 2018 20:26:24 GMT -6 usdcoyote said:

Serves the QB right for trying to run us over instead of just going out of bounds.

Yeah, that was just dumb. He looked like he might be concussed afterwards too. Wonder if he will even come back to finish this one.

Straub didn't play this week - concussion protocol. (Backup went 12-28 for 105 yards, and SIU still had a chance to win.)