Game #5 Eastern Michigan

[Dave in Green]

I appreciate Pohl's self-awareness and honesty. His passing was not inspiring confidence from me way up in the stands, so it couldn't have been having a good effect on his teammates. It's maddening to see Pohl failing to see so many open receivers and either forcing it to his well-covered primary or throwing it away, which is at least better than throwing interceptions. Even though Woodson was a little shaky, he did quickly look around the field and find a secondary receiver on his very first series. On a scale of poor, fair, good, very good and excellent, Pohl looks to me to be good or about average. As a team, the Zips may be strong enough now to win the MAC with a good QB. With a very good or excellent QB they could be something special.

[GP1]

Pohl completed 68% of his passes. Threw for two, ran for one. That's good in any book.

[Jrship35]

Questions ...... When was the last time that we had an above .500 record ?

Don't know because I'm a rookie Zips fan

[ZippyRulz]

Questions ...... When was the last time that we had an above .500 record ?

Don't know because I'm a rookie Zips fan

2005

http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin/records/fetch-team.pl?team=Akron

[Dave in Green]

Pohl completed 68% of his passes. Threw for two, ran for one. That's good in any book.

Pohl had a nice second half against one of the weakest defensive units in the country after spending some time on the bench thinking about all the things he did wrong in the first half that produced only a 10-6 lead over one of the weakest college football teams in the country. Of course it's not all on him. The play-calling was nothing special and the 15 penalties his teammates committed were ridiculous. Pohl is good enough to lead the Zips to a MAC championship if everything goes right.

[mes102]

Didn't we start the season 1-0? Doesn't that count as "above .500"? So answer would be 2014.

[GP1]

Wasn't he on the bench for only 3 plays? One could say he was the best part of the first half.

[Jrship35]

Excuse my phrasing of the question 102 ...... SMH

Thanks for understanding my question Ruiz

[LZIp]

Wasn't he on the bench for only 3 plays? One could say he was the best part of the first half.

I think it was at least two drives

[Hilltopper]

I think it was at least two drives

Including the one that resulted in a field goal after a bad no call on pass interference in the end zone.

[Dave in Green]

I don't care a lot about individual stats as long as the Zips are winning, and Pohl is playing well enough for the Zips to keep winning. But in any discussion about individual player performance, an important measurement is how they compare with others playing the position. In overall Quarterback Rating based on total performance Pohl is ranked #86 of 127 FBS QBs. EMU's Rob Bolden, who looked so awful yesterday, is ranked #126 of 127.

Pohl played well enough in the second half of the EMU game to be featured in the Sunday New York Times sports section as the #1 player listed in The Day's Best feature:

KYLE POHL The sophomore quarterback threw for 326 yards with two touchdowns and ran for a third, leading host Akron past Eastern Michigan, 31-6, in the Mid-American Conference opener for both teams.

[GP1]

I think it was at least two drives

How many when the game was still in the balance?

[GP1]

I don't care a lot about individual stats as long as the Zips are winning, and Pohl is playing well enough for the Zips to keep winning. But in any discussion about individual player performance, an important measurement is how they compare with others playing the position. In overall Quarterback Rating based on total performance Pohl is ranked #86 of 127 FBS QBs. EMU's Rob Bolden, who looked so awful yesterday, is ranked #126 of 127.

Pohl played well enough in the second half of the EMU game to be featured in the Sunday New York Times sports section as the #1 player listed in The Day's Best feature:

Thanks for posting this Dave. Glad to see he is getting the recognition he deserves.

KP does what it takes to win. Some want perfection. Not sure if those people ever turn on another college game. I watched several games yesterday. KP does what every other winning qb does. He makes big plays for touchdowns (28 yard pass yesterday. He limits turnovers. He scores in the red zone, one running and one passing yesterday. Does he mess up sometimes? Sure, but I think the entire offense was off track in the first half. KP may be getting thrown under the bus. ThebOC had better be better next week or they could easily find them on the wrong side of an insurmountable lead if Miami gets off to a hot start.

In addition, KP averaged over 8 yards per attempt and 10 yards per completion. Those are winning numbers. I'll take those and zero interceptions over passer rating all day. Better yet, I'll take the winning.

[Staton14]

Pohl takes care of the ball. He has three INTs (I think) this season and 2 of them were the receivers fault. He's plenty good enough to win with.

[Jrship35]

Watched the game on the internet ...... Seems to be a slow starter. Missed some reads and receivers dropped more balls ..... Responded well in my opinion.

The o-line certainly didn't help early with the penalties and not being able slow down a THREE MAN RUSH !!! Not sure there are many QBs that are going to be successful with 8 in coverage and three d-linemen getting good pressure

Still think the offense needs to establish the run earlier ..... The run was there from the opening snap.

Good win ...... Still lots to work on but definitely positives to build on

[zippy5]

Pohl takes care of the ball. He has three INTs (I think) this season and 2 of them were the receivers fault. He's plenty good enough to win with.

Good defense and a QB that doesn't lose the game is good enough to win most MAC games.

[LZIp]

How many when the game was still in the balance?

at least two drives.

[GP1]

at least two drives.

Thanks LZip. In an effort that produced two easily forgettable drives, I forgot one.

[Dr Z]

He scores in the red zone

Do you realize there are only two other teams in the entire country worse than the Zips in red zone scoring? One is EMU, the other is Kansas. Before the Pitt game, we were dead last.

[Dave in Green]

Some people don't believe in stats.

[johnnyzip84]

Before I think too much about the Miami game I wanted to summarize a few thoughts from the EMU game first:

1. Pohl knows he needs to get out the blocks quicker, but I give him, and the rest of the offense, a lot of credit for getting it together in the 2^nd half.
2. It’s a true luxury to be able to have much of the team playing uninspired ball for large portions of the 1^st half and STILL wind up with a convincing victory. EMU was is a perfect spot on the schedule in that regard. Now there can be no more “hangovers” – every remaining opponent CAN beat the Zips if UA doesn’t start and finish strong.
3. I almost hate to mention it, but Stein has been a solid kicker (zero misses?) since taking over in the Penn St game.
4. IW56 was hurt a little in the Pitt game and didn’t take his LT spot until the 2^nd half. Perhaps this helped with the improved run blocking after HT?
5. The low trajectory, near rugby style punting was giving Imani Davis all kinds of trouble. If the Zips face this strategy again, I hope they consider using an up-back to protect against it.
6. The continued large number of penalties is increasingly concerning.
7. Jatavis is making a serious run at MAC defensive POTY.
8. Capi has been playing extremely well of late. His disruptiveness will be key down the road, beginning this week with MU.
9. Whoever placed any money on that game must have been going crazy during the 4^th quarter.

[GP1]

Do you realize there are only two other teams in the entire country worse than the Zips in red zone scoring? One is EMU, the other is Kansas. Before the Pitt game, we were dead last.

My bad. I was referring to the game Saturday. He had a TD throw and a run for a TD. He also had a long throw for a TD, if one considers 28 yards a long throw. When given the opportunity, he produced. I'm less concerned about his mistakes and more concerned about him (and everyone else for that matter) not being put in a better chance to succeed.

EDIT: And in the category of "what have you done for me recently". The Zips are 4 of 5 in their last five trips to the red zone while KP was at QB in games against Pitt and EMU. They are 5 of 6 counting the FG they got last Saturday after a turnover, but KP was not on the field.

So, I guess the question is....If the Zips have won the last two games and the team has shown improvement in the red zone, why should I care about what the season average is? My expectation is improvement over the course of a season and I expect the Zips to be better at the end of the season than at the beginning of the season. The wrong stats can paint an inaccurate picture as to where a team is in the course of a season. Another example would be, if someone measured a human every year of their life on January 1, for 18 years, what would the average height of that person be and why would it matter? The Zips may just be late bloomers this year. It is critical that one goes beyond reading stats to using their brain to interpret the stats.

My most positive thought about the Zips is, we are a really good team with room for improvement. We are already better than the team that won the MAC. There is no doubt we should be competing for the league championship with a realistic shot at beating any team in the league.

[zipsoutsider]

Thought from the EMU game:

• Have had trouble consistently connecting on the long ball since Howard. Seems to be a combination of Pohl and receivers. Glad they used EMU as an opportunity to work on it. We will need it at some point. I think the EMU secondary handled our receivers fairly well. I think teams are dialing in on our receivers and this is why the run has been open. Pohl said after Marshall he might have run the ball too much and needed to wait in the pocket more. Now, he seems to be waiting in the pocket too long. That being said, he had a long time in the pocket on Saturday and not as much of a need to run.
• It seems like the receivers have found their hands, again. After Howard, it looked like the drops of last season were behind us but they came back with a vengeance during PSU, Pitt, and Marshall. Good to see some solid catches. Smith and D'Orazio had good games, but no one strikes me as a big play threat yet. MTB has the potential but needs to be more consistent and more convincing.
• Chisholm looks good in the open field and ran the ball about as well as Hundley on Saturday (statistically.) Get him the ball off of a bubble screen or HB pass and he is dangerous.
• Glad to see Bowden working Woodson in with some reps. He needs meaningful experience if Pohl were to go down with an injury. Don't want to chuck the MAC championship or a bowl game down the tubes because the kid was not ready. His drives have come at meaningful points in the last 2 games and he has protected the ball, He is very athletic and will continue to improve.
• Defense looked surprisingly disoriented to start off the game on Saturday. Not sure what was going on but Chuck the Chest made the needed adjustments. A number of defensive players having outstanding years: March, Brown, Ford, Grice, Pittman, and Givens are among them.
• The offense is fairly well balanced. With the spread, the pass will always see more plays, but the run looked fairly decent on Saturday.
• Zach Paul is a beast. Great punting and a very athletic tackle on the fair catch return. (What was the story with that, anyway?) The wind was brutal. Robert Stein does look good, so far this year. Hopefully, we have our kicking issues behind us.
• Glad to see the future of the Zips in Q4 but what was EMU doing leaving Rob Bolden in during the entire quarter?
• OL penalties were unacceptable for this point in the season, especially from our vets.

Did you see that there were a lot of empty seats at MSU this week and that the AD tweeted about how embarrassing it was? It is hard to be surprised that people didn't show up for a bitter cold, wet game on Saturday. The crowd that was present seemed loud and engaged, however. Rome wasn't built in a day. The university and team are doing their parts to fill the seats. Next week they are honoring the military so maybe we will see a bunch more free tickets given away. They make more money giving away tickets (concessions and parking) than they do letting them sit empty.

[Captain Kangaroo]

In TB's progression of "lose big"..."lose by a little"..."win by a little"..."win big"...the EMU game should be our first 1-A "win big"?

I'll take a 1-point win, but we really should win by 15+.

Prediction:

Zips 38

EMU 16 [terrible MAC teams always miss an extra point]

I hope I get bonus points for being specific.

[Zipmeister]

How many when the game was still in the balance?

I believe he came in with the Zips holding a 7-6 lead and left with them leading 10-6.

So I'd say the game was still in the balance the entire time he was in.