Game #1 Howard Bison

[zippy5]

This is awesome

[johnnyzip84]

Sorry UA1987, but my sliders were gone by 4:00

[PB1719]

Good start, but it looks like there was a serious loss of intensity after the first 11 minutes. I expect them to come out the second half with a fire lit under their rear.

[Buckzip]

Good win. Love getting backups some snaps.

[zippy5]

Good start, but it looks like there was a serious loss of intensity after the first 11 minutes. I expect them to come out the second half with a fire lit under their rear.

Somewhat. Was probably a bit of Terry going vanilla when we got ahead.

[Balsy]

I am very concerned about the run game.

[Buckzip]

I am very concerned about the run game.

Take away Pohl and the ypc sucks.

Did Tommy Brown not get his waiver or is he hurt?

[Balsy]

Pohl 300 yrds 4td.

[Balsy]

Take away Pohl and the ypc sucks.

Did Tommy Brown not get his waiver or is he hurt?

Pregame show Frenchie reported that there is still "no official word". I'd imagine that the NCAA would wait till AFTER the Penn State game to make such a ruling. Anything to screw non-darling, MAC Akron.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but being a Browns/Zips fan....I'm slowly becoming one.

[Buckzip]

That's ridiculous. The season has started.

[skip-zip]

My only problems with the offense are as follows:

1) After those few early big plays, when it looked like Howard was just extremely overmatched, we spent approx. the next 30 minutes of football being pretty ineffective executing plays, and unable to score.

2) The spring game and public scrimmage opened our eyes to something potentially major: We may have difficulty running the football this year. When you're playing Howard, and your #1 running back averages 2 yards per carry, I'd say that's potentially very alarming.

[Dr Z]

...we spent approx. the next 30 minutes of football being pretty ineffective executing plays, and unable to score.

“I’ll take full responsibility for that. I got a little out of sync,” Pohl said. “I wasn’t standing strong in the pocket. I wasn’t making decisions like I was in that first quarter.”

[Dave in Green]

Looking at it from the positive side, the offense scored a lot of points even with the long period of ineffectiveness, and the defense was consistently effective throughout the game. If this season's team gets up for big games the way last season's team did against Michigan, there's good reason for hope to see a lot more intensity against PSU.

[Balsy]

I've been thinking for a long time that Chisholm is vastly overrated. I have always liked Conor Hundley over Chisholm in the running game.

As for the ineffective offensive execution in the 2nd, hopefully it was because the coaching staff were trying different things to give the players experience/practice vs. a live opponent.

[Buckzip]

I believe the team is not used to having a large lead that it got to them. As for the running game, hopefully Boyett and Brown are able to play. I also feel that after the lead that the staff got very vanilla and didn't want to show anything they didn't need to show. Nice to see MTB have a big game.

[GP1]

This was a good game for the Zips and they should have won by much more, but not because they let off the gas.

Akron was up 21-0 and the next time they got the ball, they went on a 12 play drive and got to the Howard 3 before not scoring and turning it over on downs. It was more of a missed opportunity than letting off the gas. Letting off the gas is a three and out, not 12 play drives. My guess is they knew there was no way Howard could beat them and the fourth down play was more of a chance to practice some goal line offense. Not a bad move by the coaches. If you turn it over on downs, you get the ball back and in good field position ready to go on another scoring drive, which they did.

The next time they got the ball, they went on another scoring drive and did something that absolutely drives me nuts. They didn't execute on a 25 yard field goad. This is D1A college football. 25 yard field goals should be a guarantee. There is much room for improvement here. MAC teams rarely get beat by another MAC school...they normally beat themselves and not executing 25 yard field goals is a great way to beat yourself in conference play.

After five drives, the Zips should have been up at least 27-0. That's a pretty good beating of another team through a quarter and a half.

My guess is they could have beat them 60-0 had they wanted to and called off the dogs. This is why you bring a team like Howard in...so you can have a guaranteed win and get some practice in against someone other than your scout team before the real games start. Last night could be the game that gets the Zips into a bowl at the end of the year because they have that extra win. If it's good enough for the BCS schools, it should be good enough for us.

Good job Zips!

[UA1987]

Boyett played in the last 5 minutes. Not sure what's happening, maybe he needs time to pick things up. Not sure about Tommy Brown either. Joe Dunn reported that Brown was eligible, but French said no. Maybe we can work both of them in soon to see if they can help with the running game.

[ZachTheZip]

Post-game, Bowden mentioned that the team didn't know how to play with a lead. He said something to the effect of "You need to be able to run the ball even when your opponent is expecting you to run it." We did no such thing. The OL didn't do a great job with run blocking, but once again Chisholm did himself no favors. To many stutter-steps before attempting to hit the hole. He can be dangerous once he gets to open space but he rarely gets to that point. At least we didn't see any more of those ineffective sweeps.

[Captain Kangaroo]

Grades:

QB: B-

Pohl missed some easy, wide-open WR's. But overall, did a nice job. Hope he worked out some kinks and is sharp for Game #2. Woodson looked competent in mop-up duty. It was nice to get him some reps. I can't see Hirshmann getting any PT this season. There's no upside to it, and he's still visibly hobbled.

OL: C-

Struggled to get any surge against an inferior opponent. Mediocre pass blocking. They need to make some big positive strides over the next 8 days. Getting Brown eligible will be a huge help.

WR: B

Bickley had a lot of drops last season, and it seems to have carried over to this season. He needs to start catching footballs. Simple as that. Pratt was invisible. LT Smith needs more touches...he can have a huge year, if we get him the ball. MTB had a nice game. D'Orazio - underutilized. Sconiers had a nice deep catch. He can be a a nice X-factor for us this season.

Kicking/Special Teams: C....D....

Punting was fine. But Mrs. O'Leary's cow had better kicks than Tom O'Leary. Don't pack your bags yet, Robert Stein. 0-1 on FG's and 5-6 on XP's is not gonna fly with TB. It wouldn't shock me if Stein is kicking @ Penn State. Stein drilled a lot of deep kick-offs. Nice job there. Rossi did an excellent job covering kicks too.

DL: B+

Overall did a nice job of being disruptive and neutralizing a good opposing QB. But our run defense was "meh" for almost 2 quarters. I guess it was good that they slacked off a bit...it will give Amato something to yell and remind them of during practice next week. 10 TFL's is pretty good for a defense. Pittman and Okafor made impacts, and Grice is always an animal.

LB's: A-

March, Mizell, Evans and Brown did a great job. Mizell was outstanding.

DB's: B-

Decent job, but Howard's WR's aren't anything to write home about. While there were no INT's, for the most part they were in position to make plays all evening, and prevented any big plays from happening.

Coaching: Incomplete

Great aggressive game plan in the beginning, but they need to get the run game going. Too long of a dry spell after TD #3. What was the pass play on 4th and 1 on the Howard 3 yard line? C'mon, Milwee.

Overall, a fun night. The DL's and LB's look as good as advertised, and the DB's seem competent. That will keep us in a lot of games this year. Offense needs to improve if we're going to make any hay in '14. Running game first and foremost.

[GP1]

What was the pass play on 4th and 1 on the Howard 3 yard line? C'mon, Milwee.

With Akron up 21-0, there was no shot for Howard to come back. There was too much of a disparity between the teams. What was it?...Practice.

[K92]

Play of the game was Fransohn Bickley's block on the Woodson to Wolf TD pass.

[Hilltopper]

Play of the game was Fransohn Bickley's block on the Woodson to Wolf TD pass.

It's got to be embarrassing to be de-cleated and lose your helmet to a guy who is all of 5'8" and 145lbs.

[ZippyRulz]

Howard put up 25 points against Rutgers and lost by only 13.

[Balsy]

Why can't we play teams like Rutgers and Purdue instead of teams like Penn State?

[Balsy]

Howard put up 25 points against Rutgers and lost by only 13.

That makes me feel better about the Penn State loss (not reallY)