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What is there to say about this game? It's about what I was expecting. That's a decent MAC football team, and Akron's performance the prior week was both a combination of fluky and BG being horrendous. I learned a few things yesterday. Number one is the obvious. The defense remains pathetic. The defensive backfield is helpless against good quarterbacks. And we still have Drew Plitt, Dustin Crum, and Kaleb Eleby on the schedule. Yiiiiikes. Big play after big play. It just wasn't stopping. Feeney must go. That's all there is to it. Another thing I learned is that the passing game might be okay. This is the first time in back to back weeks of the Arth era we've seen them perform. There was certainly a lot of garbage time yardage, I'll give you that. But I have confidence in Gibson when he drops back. His decision making has come a long way, and he moves around well. Mumpfield continues to be an absolute monster. Next, the run game is rather weak. I haven't yet missed Teon Dollard this season as much as I did watching that game yesterday. Yes, the line is terrible. But that fumble was very costly, and there was simply no forward push for most of the day. You will not be good if you can't be successful there. A couple more I'll put into this one bullet point. The penalties yesterday reminded me of the football I watched from 2012-2018. Completely unacceptable and that's on the coaching. It hasn't been a problem this year until yesterday (not counting sideline penalties), Akron had usually been a fairly disciplined team. In addition to poor discipline--special teams/return teams. What the hell? How many people on this board knew about the dropped fair catch rule to begin with this year, and now we've seen it twice! Catch the freaking ball!! That's 3 dropped kicks in the last two weeks. Not okay. Also on kick returns and offense in general, when there's a situation where there is a lead blocker, the lead blocker looks so lost I feel like I'm watching peewee. I think Tony Grimes was a lead blocker for a return yesterday and he just jogged up the field looking lost as 4 RedHawks stormed by him to take Mathison down for a bad return. The full back missed every single block during the Bryant game too. And those were the only times I was actually paying attention to stuff like that, I can't imagine how much more of that junk happens. As I said yesterday, I believe Akron is an improved football team from the past two years, but Akron is still a bottom 3 MAC team and that's unacceptable. If Arth doesn't get at least one more win, I won't feel any optimism moving forward. I could potentially be sold on one more year of Arth for the sake that so many contributors on offense are freshman or sophomores, but if Matt Feeney remains on that sideline after this season is over, I will have seen all that I need to. On to Buffalo.

I'm not an English teacher; just a guy who knows the difference between then and than.

I feel compelled to say Paul Winters since the name has come up every time the Zips were looking for head coach in the last two decades.

You're not wrong.

Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't this the second or third year we've been talking about our young offensive line?

32.5 point underdogs!

What language is this?

GT's transparent apathy towards his gig as Zips' beat writer used to aggravate me. But I'm beginning to feel sorry for him for having to cover the football team every week.

Boogie's one-handed off the helmet frab was #1 on Sportsce ter last night:

BG and N. Ill play to 1-1 2OT tie. Earlier today West Virginia beat w.mich Current Standings: Team Pts Remaining Conf matches B.G. 7 at Akron, vs W. Mich,, at West Virginia N. Ill 7 At Ga Southern, Ga State,vs Akron Akron 4 BG, At N. Ill , at W, Mich W. Virg 4 vs Ga State, at Ga southern, vs BG Ga State 3 vs west mich, vs N. Ill, at W. Virginia, vs Ga Southern Ga Southern 0 vs N. Ill, vs w mich, vs west Virginia , at Ga state W. Mich 0 ar Ga State, art Ga Southern, at BG, vs Akron

They was up 21-10, field goal & I think they got a safety on a fake punt attempt by Buffalo to make 26-10 and never scored again

I had ish to do today so I didn't see a minute of the game. Based off the stats it looks like Gibson came to play and the Defense never showed up

He has had a strange journey so far. He got some starts in 2019...actually played very well in a loss to UMass. Then, he starts all 6 games of the "bastard" 2020 season, and really doesn't distinguish himself. Then gets leapfrogged by Kato and Irons. Definitely a credit to him that, when his number was called on Saturday, he wasn't disengaged...yukking it up with some reserve punter at the end of the sideline. Or pouting over his 3rd string status. He was ready when his number was called, grabbed the reins of the offense and led the Zips to an improbable second half offensive explosion. Hats off to him!

Your talking about a lot of potential on that sideline and you are correct. But, if you don’t play your potential you never know what you have. We all knew 11 can ball and that was shown and we knew certain lineman shouldn’t be playing and others should which was exposed. My point is you got em, play em. Figure out who can ball ,thats why you brought em here.

I'll throw out a few final thoughts before I move on to looking at the Miami game. This win felt just about as good as any win we've seen in the last 5 years or so. They didn't have to eek it out like the Bryant game, they stepped on the throat and were clutch. That's awesome. And I would love to look ahead with optimism, but I still have seen a lot of flaws that one half of awesome football can't and shouldn't cover up. Let's not forget, a God awful Ohio team dismantled this defense 8 days ago. I love 5 turnovers, hell I would love just 2 a game. But those turnovers were the reason we were able to win that football game. They still gave up a lot of yardage before they eventually just took the ball away every time out there. McDonald is much improved, but you still can't allow him to move the ball so easily in the first half like that. Same with the running game. If you caught any of that Kent-UB game last night, you got a glimpse of what both of those offenses can do to you. What am I saying? Not everyone is as bad as BG, teams are going to move the ball on you, 5 turnovers against BG won't matter when you're playing an offense like Kent. As for Gibson, I believe he is Arth's favorite player on the team, and I will continue to not have any clue why Kato Nelson started the first two games this season. That is a question that MUST be asked on the Tuesday presser. Inexcusable. Irons and Gibson seem to have similar skill sets. I'm fine with either starting next week, obviously assuming Irons is good to go. The line play was really good, and hopefully they find their groove and make a little something happen here. The bodies are there, it's just up to the staff to make it work. I don't miss coach Z. Hester is a nice little back, but the lack of depth there is a concern. Who is left after him? When the offense is in rhythm, running the ball becomes much easier, and Akron ran the ball at a championship level yesterday. In order to be a good team, you must run the ball well. That was promising. I haven't been this confident about pass-catchers in a long time. Mathison and Mumpfield are both All-MAC caliber, with Mumpfield emerging as one of the best in the league lately. Throw in Qualls, Brank, and hopefully more Ognenovic (sickeningly late for him to get his first touch of the year), and you might be on to something. Coach Arth must continue to coach like his a** is on fire. Get fired up, let the boys play with swagger while playing disciplined. Don't overthink things. It's really simple. There's potential on that sideline, we've all seen it now. No excuses in Oxford. Win. The. Damn. Game.

Really! I saw an offense with what, -25 yds of total offense and no 1st downs in the 1st 1/4, put the D in a hole after hole. The D that hasn't shown up all season came alive yesterday. First and goal from the 1, and get a stop on 4 tries! I don't want to take anything away from Gibson, but I think the D should get the game ball. It could have been 50 to zero by half time. Coaching? When Arth talked about Gibson being in the mix back in August, people were sure he was delusional. After last year when we had a 200 yard/game rusher, and Gibson could hardly complete a pass, expectations for Gibson were zero! Someone recognized the potential and coached it up. Grandma saw some things on our line that she thought should be addressed. It is extremely rare at D1 to see lines on either side of the ball loaded with freshmen. There could be a lot of reasons that we saw changes yesterday. Injuries to former starters keeping them out, injuries to replacements that have kept them out, or coaching that has allowed some youngsters to progress faster than others. Winning cures everything. However, like Covid, immunity wears off. There better be a booster down the road! Four more booster shots will make Arth a saint. Most of us will be happy with 2. Go Zips

Looks like Arth finally started doing the thing a lot of posters have been wondering about, ADJUST. O-line, tight end. Lets see how he 'adjusts' the QB situation next week.

Northern Illinois has only lost 1 game all year Bowling Green crushed Georgia southern tonight 4-0 2-0 northern Illinois will host 2-0 bowling green next Saturday night in an early battle for first place in the MAC

Knight & Alce didn't have big numbers but both made big plays. Boogie snagged a handed catch at a pivotal moment and Alce punished the D when he punched into the end zone for his first career touchdown. Remember what it was like to pull off an upset?

I'm coming to regret this statement.