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I have watched Stefan Dobrijevic play a lot, maybe 100 times considering Spring, Akron FC, Club.... I have never seen him play better. He was fantastic, easily the MOTM!

I didn't see the game, but it looks like a Chuck Martin special. The guy is good at getting a lead and milking that lead in an ugly , low scoring game.

Before getting into positional takeaways, I wanted to start with a few general thoughts on the game itself. I try to take my kids to one game each year, and this was the one for us. It was a beautiful day, and the event staff couldn’t have been friendlier. The lower home side had a solid turnout, and it felt like the crowd was ready to get into it if given something to cheer for. The announcer did a nice job trying to generate some energy during stretches when things weren’t going Akron’s way, and I noticed the defensive line coach doing the same — actively trying to get the crowd involved several times. I caught bits and pieces of his conversations with the defense, and he struck me as someone who relates well to the players and has a bright future. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re looking for a new DL coach next year — not because of performance, but because once word gets out about him, I doubt we’ll be able to keep him. Most of the players seemed engaged and locked in, although I have to admit I was a little disheartened by how many guys weren’t dressed out and were only in jerseys on the sideline. One major difference from Moorhead’s first year, though, is that there weren’t any players — excluding walk-ons — who looked out of place at this level. I was talking with someone during the game about how many players from that 2022 squad not only shouldn’t have been playing at the FBS level, but were also being counted on to log significant snaps for us. While this program still has work to do in the win column, it’s come a long way from where it was just a few years ago in terms of talent. QB: Honestly, I thought Finley outplayed Finn in this game. Before anyone scoffs and stops reading, let me explain. Outside of the ill-advised interception on the opening drive, Finley made a number of excellent throws throughout the game. My biggest issue with his performance was that he missed some opportunities — there were multiple plays where receivers came open and he just didn’t see them. Still, the majority of his passes that weren’t intentionally thrown away were catchable. Unfortunately, the receivers caught another case of the drops. PFF credited three, but I can count at least five off the top of my head — and that simply can’t keep happening. In a contest where the run game never got going, we had to rely on throwing the ball, and it’s a tough task when the offense becomes one-dimensional. Finn, on the other hand, if I’m not mistaken, only connected on three throws downfield. Most of his production came on shorter passes where his receivers did the heavy lifting, and with his legs on designed runs. RB: There wasn’t much room for our running backs to operate all game long. Honestly, Gant and Patrick did a nice job just to grind out 55 yards with the limited space they had to work with. WR: It was a performance that could have been better by this group. The drops are killing opportunities and stagnating drives. I do want to give credit to Mason on the scoring drive in the 4th quarter. He dropped a pass early in the drive coming across the middle knowing a hit was coming. He then caught two more passes on the same drive coming across the middle and took the hit. The receivers are working hard to get open and block downfield, but it’s a group that needs to continue to improve. TE: This was another instance where I disagree with PFF’s grading — I thought Cravaack had the best game of his young career, yet he was rated below average. I don’t believe Newell played. OL: Not the best day of work for this unit. The offensive line struggled to get much push against Miami’s defensive front and had a hard time reaching the second level in the run game. They also gave up far too many pressures — in fact, it was the most since the season opener against Wyoming. I know some fans are frustrated with Finley after this one, but I actually thought he made plenty of good decisions and did his best to keep plays alive despite often being under duress. DL: I don’t know how many times a defensive lineman beat his man off the snap and had the ball carrier dead to rights, only for the ball carrier to slip out of the tackle. There were too many plays that should’ve gone for negative yardage but instead turned into positive gains. Granted, Miami’s ground game is tough to keep bottled up, but it’s hard not to think about how different things might’ve looked if just a few more of those tackles had been finished. LB: I thought Cooper and Summers played really well, and Boswell impressed in his limited snaps, as they were all extremely active. One issue that did stand out, though, was when Miami got Summers matched up against wide receivers a few times in the passing game — he doesn’t possess the speed to cover sideline to sideline against a wideout. DB: DeWalt and Reed are playing as well as any cornerbacks in the conference. Both were physical against the run and gave up just 14 yards on a single catch through the air. Reed also added an interception. Anderson returned at safety after missing the last several games. It was good to see him back, although his play was a bit inconsistent. He gave up a long pass and was called for a blatant pass interference penalty that really wasn’t necessary. Flowers and Di. Johnson filled out the rest of the safety rotation. I thought Johnson easily had the best game of his career. Flowers, similar to Anderson, showed some positive flashes but also gave up a deep throw that ended up leading to a score. The two Braches filled in at nickelback. To be honest, it’s tough to keep track of which one made which plays, but I do know there were a few plays given up from that position. ST: I couldn’t tell if the field goal was flat-out missed or if someone got a hand on it. That was about the only negative from special teams, which is solid considering Miami came in with some red-hot units. I thought Hills was close to breaking a long kickoff, but just couldn’t get there. I still think he’s going to take one to the house at some point this season. Coaching: The frustration from Moorhead was visible. Miami is a team that doesn’t beat itself, while Akron tends to find ways to self-inflict damage. The missed field goal, false starts, interception, and drops certainly didn’t help on a day where we needed to play near-perfect football to win. That said, I thought the players gave it their all, and I didn’t see any sense of quit on the team. I’m sure it’s frustrating to not have that extra day of practice like every other team in the nation, but at the same time, we’ve seen these types of mishaps for the past several years. It’s unfortunate, because this team has the talent to win games like this when at full strength, but sometimes we just can’t seem to get out of our own way. On the bright side, next week is another opportunity for a win, and it’s certainly an achievable task. QB: Finley M. Johnson RB: Gant Patrick WR: Ma. Williams Grear WR: Polk Monteiro WR: Walker Mason TE: Cravaack Whisner LT: Da. Johnson Motley-Simmons LG: McManus Archer C Lyons Morris RG: K. Davis RT: A. Jones King DE: Durham Cheatom D. Frazier DE: Dall J. Frazier DT: Laventure Mixon Madden DT: Hull Murphy Musika LB: Cooper Spriggs LB: Summers Boswell NB: Ai. Branch Al. Branch CB: DeWalt Kamara CB: Reed Thomas S: Flowers Di. Johnson S: Anderson Di. Johnson Top Rated Offense (20 snap minimum) QB - Finley WR - Ma. Williams WR - Monteiro WR - Mason LG - McManus Top Rated Defense (20 snap minimum) CB - Reed S - Di. Johnson LB - Cooper CB - DeWalt LB - Summers

But back on for the ALDS. 👍

Was at the game. Beautiful sunny day with wife and granddaughter. She got ANOTHER picture with Zippy. Anyway. Defensively that unit played well enough for Akron to have won.Miami ain't chopped liver. The defense should sue for non-support. Offensively it was pretty offensive. I saw the same QB making the same mistakes he has forever. If he holds the ball longer than about 3 seconds you can see he loses the field and tends to just throw the ball up. Still has a hard time stepping into the pocket. Throws to much off back foot and thus is inaccurate. AND, you can't continue throwing picks into the end zone to covered receivers. Drive and game killers. But, thats Moorehead's recruit and he hasn't been able'to coach him up' much. Whats with the center and wide receivers being called for motion penalties!!!! Thats ridiculous. I thought the O-Line played well considering they were playing a good defense. Gant can run. Bottom line Moorehead's offense doesn't score enough. Curious as to why he didn't run even more. Did Moorehead lose track of downs at one point in the second quarter when the game was still close? Did he go for it on 4th down and fail? Someone help me with this one. Game management is a bit rocky still. Y'all can debate whether Moorehead should be fired or not. Thats becoming nauseating. I said 4-4 in the MAC would be OK with me. Lets play the games and see. Doesn't do any good to speculate about who they can or can't beat.

I repeat my above question.

It's not impossible. In fact, it's not difficult.

That thought occurred to me - regardless, someone dropped the ball.

I don't think anyone wants to shut it down. They want to see a different approach as the last couple of decades demonstrate that this approach isn't working, and it's not going to get any easier with the changes in the college sports landscape.

Great to see our Zips respond to the early DePaul goal with 2 of their own and have the grit to find the 3rd goal late to get the win. Freddy was determined not to let this one be a draw. Congrats on his critical first goal as a Zip!

Yep, everyone's right. It's hopeless. This is what they are. May as well shut it down and let the soccer teams play at Infocision so at least it gets used.

Sorry, it's impossible at Akron. They're doomed.

Saturday matches...7 pm or later Georgetown got an impressive 4-1 home win over UConn Creighton continues to be the front runner in the Big East Midwest division as they got a 2-0 home win over Xavier Northern Kentucky got a 2-1 road win over Wright State. St. Louis 2-0 road win at VCU Big East Midwest standings Creighton 3-1-0 9 points Butler and Akron 2-2-0 tied with 6 points Xavier 1-2-1 4 points DePaul 0-3-1 1 point Marquette 0-4-0 Big East Eastern Division Georgetown 3-0-1 10 points Seton Hall 2-0-2 8 points St. John's 2-1-1 7 points UConn and Providence 2-2-0 6 points Villanova 1-1-2 5 points Next week schedule Friday October 17th Creighton (9 pts) at Villanova (5 pts) Akron (6 pts) at Seton Hall (8 pts) Butler (6 pts) at Xavier (4 pts) Marquette (0 pts) at Providence (6 pts) St. John's (7 pts) at UConn (6 pts) Saturday October 18th Georgetown (10 pts) at DePaul (1 pt)

In his/her defense they were probably just reading off a script provided to them.

Saturday October 11 number 2 Vermont hosted U Mass Lowell this evening Lowell came into the game with a 6-4-1 record Vermont now has a record of 8-0-5 after the 2 teams finished in a 0-0 tie. In a game that really could have helped Akron in RPI, Cornell hosted Princeton. Princeton came into the game with a number 1 ranking in RPI. Alas, Princeton earned a 2-0 road win. Number 21 Seton Hall traveled to play Villanova. The two teams battled to a 1-1 draw. Seton Hall is now 2-0-2 in Big East. Villanova is now 1-1-2. Northern Illinois 0 Western Michigan 0 Butler improved to 2-2-0 in the Big East with a 2-1 home win over Marquette. Marquette is now 0-4-0 in the league. Cleveland State traveled to the Burgh and played to a 1-1 tie at Robert Morris. St. John’s improved to 2-1-1 in the Big East with a 3-2 home win over Providence. The Friars are now 2-2-0 in the Big East.

I noticed that too haha.

I had a great time last week and went to the game today. They were competitive in the first half but after Miami took the ball and scored in the first drive in the 2nd half we all knew it was over. What amazes me is how we keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again. An interception in the end zone after a great drive: Check, a missed field goal: check, a defensive penalty on a kick or field goal that gives our opponent a first down: check, a motion penalty that sets us back that destroys a drive, check, check, check, check, ect. And a stupid move by our coach was the last play that I could stomach and that was in the beginning of the 4th quarter. After Akron had a great stop on 4th down and the score was 17-0, I thought I would watch one more drive to see if we could score any points and maybe come back. Finley made a 3rd down run and dove near the first down marker and the refs gave him a first down. I told my son they need to snap the ball quickly because it was very close and they had just reversed a similar play on Miami earlier. Instead, Akron took their time lining up and just before the ball was snapped the refs reviewed the play and reversed their call and then Akron got stopped on 4th down. I left. If our coach and QB cannot figure out to snap the ball quickly in that situation then shame on them. I am sick of losing football and that play just exemplified our losing mentality.

That third goal just felt different. It seems in the last couple of seasons in that kind of scenario we can never seem to find a goal. Huge score there from Freddy

a goal and 2 assists today for Stefan Freddy saves the game with a rebound goal. Yay Freddy and Stefan !!!

A scary win!

HUGEEEE!!

Originally committed to Fla A&M. Offers?

this is a direct link to first goal....great chip by Stefan