Game 11—Bobcats @ Zips

[zipsoutsider]

37 minutes ago, MDZip said:

I'd contend this year as well. Losing two of your three captains to injury plus your backup RB. Doesn't sound too lucky to me this year either. Props to Manny Morgan too - dude ran hard. 

The difference this year is improved depth.

[zipsoutsider]

Football: Akron quarterback surprises Ohio, leading to Bobcats' 37-34 defeat

 

“That’s what was the hard thing, we were just so focused on (quarterback Thomas Woodson), and he wasn’t even in the stadium tonight,” Hagan said after Ohio’s 37-34 loss. “That’s a big letdown on our part. If we would’ve focused on (Nelson), we would have been able to prepare better.”

 

Wow. Are you telling me they only prepared for Woodson? I know there is not much footage in Kato, but he is not the only dual threat QB out there.

Edited November 15, 2017 by zipsoutsider

[Dr Z]

48 minutes ago, msopher said:

Thank you Zips for knocking out our kryptonite!! Hope to see you in Detroit!  Go Rockets!

Careful what you wish for, given the chance, the Zips December team will be different from the team the Rockets played in October. Good luck. 

 

Like last night, we'll be bringing the turnover chain to Detroit. 

 

[zzx]

7 minutes ago, zipsoutsider said:

Football: Akron quarterback surprises Ohio, leading to Bobcats' 37-34 defeat

 

Wow. Are you telling me they only prepared for Woodson? I know there is not much footage in Kato, but he is not the only dual threat QB out there.

 

A player said.... “We were preparing for a much slower quarterback,” Hagan said. “(Woodson) is a much slower quarterback. (Nelson) is definitely the better quarterback, (Woodson) just had more experience. (Nelson) was definitely more talented and we didn’t prepare for him.”

 

However the coach said.... Ohio coach Frank Solich said his players “knew everything we needed to know about Nelson” before kickoff on Tuesday

[UA1987]

The nation got a look at a good game last night. Beyond the obvious of Kato's super performance, our receivers and Manny Morgan stood out and the offensive line played well. I hope Coney can play next week. Featherstone was outstanding on defense, but he worried me on punt returns (maybe with a little more practice he will get better). The defense stood tall despite the bad calls. Especially at safety where Baggett came in like he had been playing all year there. Rourke's passes seemed to start to sail on him after the 1st quarter. I have to wonder if the Zips defense didn't rattle him with a hit or being seemingly everywhere in coverage. Not going to say much about special teams now as it would be a buzz kill. What a game! Go Zips!       

Edited November 15, 2017 by UA1987

[zipsoutsider]

This guy is the laziest journalist I have ever seen. No mention of our ability to shut down their high scoring offense, or the fact that we won the turnover game, the total yards offense game, and were able to basically tie time of possession.

 

"UA having inflicted most of their damage in the first half, played as if content to play keep away. The defense had trouble with Rourke in the running game, but never allowed him to get into a rhythm in the passing game, holding him to 9-of-22 passing for 110 yards with two interceptions."

 

[RowdyZip]

The extra element of Kato's legs seemed to loosen things up for our O-line.  That's a huge advantage, and part of the reason we sputtered offensively in the second half.  We completely abandoned the run.  I'd be curious to see the run/pass ratios between halves.

 

The other issue that was killing me was kickoff coverage.  How many times did we return the ball past the 25?  How many times did OU return a kick beyond the 40?  Gotta clean that up.

[RowdyZip]

2 minutes ago, zipsoutsider said:

This guy is the laziest journalist I have ever seen. No mention of our ability to shut down their high scoring offense, or the fact that we won the turnover game, the total yards offense game, and were able to basically tie time of possession.

 

"UA having inflicted most of their damage in the first half, played as if content to play keep away. The defense had trouble with Rourke in the running game, but never allowed him to get into a rhythm in the passing game, holding him to 9-of-22 passing for 110 yards with two interceptions."

 

This reads like an article written from a couch. 

[Blue & Gold]

8 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

This reads like an article written from a couch. 

That article was so exceedingly poor it had to be a deadline issue.  Right?

[The Hip Zip]

21 minutes ago, RowdyZip said:

The extra element of Kato's legs seemed to loosen things up for our O-line.  That's a huge advantage, and part of the reason we sputtered offensively in the second half.  We completely abandoned the run.  I'd be curious to see the run/pass ratios between halves.

 

The other issue that was killing me was kickoff coverage.  How many times did we return the ball past the 25?  How many times did OU return a kick beyond the 40?  Gotta clean that up.

 

Absolutely spot on.

 

Our special teams, in it's entirety, is among the poorest I've seen in D1 football. Too much on the line now to let this cost us a shot at a MAC championship or bowl game victory.  Everybody has seen this and they will work to exploit this weakness.

[1981 grad]

What a great week to be a Zips fan!!!  The soccer team scores with 17 seconds left in regulation to tie the semifinal game and then wins in overtime followed by a MAC championship on the road against a higher ranked team. 

The Basketball team wins their home opener after playing a horrible 1st half and playing first year players that have never played a minute of college basketball.

The footbal team now wins with a 1st year backup quarterback who did not have a stellar performance last week. 

 

I never expected the Zips to be able to compete with Ohio U after tanking last year at the end of the season and then losing last week with Kato at quarterback.  Kato had a great game and did not look like the same guy from last week.  He played with composure and did not make any mistakes.  In the second half the defense played well and came up with some great plays.   Featherstone's interception set the tone  for the game and was a great play.  If the offense can run the ball we look dangerous.

 

Finally, the refs did blow the offsides call.  Ran it back on my DVR and the defensive player was offside and the offensive player did not move until after the ball was snapped.  Not sure what hurt us most, the call or the 5 minutes to make the call.  It killed our momentum on that drive and we had to punt.  Great that we could overcome that bad call.

Looking forward to the Kent game.  

Edited November 15, 2017 by 1981 grad

[Zipmeister]

If someone told me before the game that Akron would miss an extra point, have a punt attempt blocked, allow 34 points, have two players ejected early, and suffer a gazillion yards in penalties, and still win I would have been incredulous.  

Nice to see the Zips actually look good on national TV.

Go Zips

[RowdyZip]

2 minutes ago, Zipmeister said:

If someone told me before the game that Akron would miss an extra point, have a punt attempt blocked, allow 34 points, have two players ejected early, and suffer a gazillion yards in penalties, and still win I would have been incredulous.  

Nice to see the Zips actually look good on national TV.

Go Zips

Welcome back.

 

And add, "The second play from scrimmage for Ohio would be a 68 yard quarterback run for a touchdown."

[LZIp]

Whew......Finally posting my thoughts as I got home near midnight last night. Burning this first hour of work to read over this thread is worth it. I'll have to make some time at lunch to read the mental breakdown over on bobcatattack

 

Where to start:

 

Kato obviously played great. He was cerebral running the O. Night and day compared to last week. What a huge and gutsy run to seal the game with that final first down. I am excited for him for the future.

 

The offensive line played great as well. I hardly noticed any pressure at all on Kato during his drop backs and I don't believe he was sacked at all.

 

I've always been a fan of Woody, but I am done with him, and it has nothing to do with Kato's performance last night. If you are a senior QB and F up during the last 3 weeks of the season when your team is fighting for its best overall record in history/MAC Championship/Bowl bid, and your F up is SO bad that you are not suspended 1 week, but multiple weeks, I just have no respect for you and cannot defend you. I would have to imagine the AD/Coaching staff is done with him as well, as if it wasn't a 1 week suspension I would imagine it will be for the rest of the season. It's a shame he threw it all away.

 

Defense scared the hell out of me in the first quarter. Couldn't stop OU at all. But we tightened up some in the 2nd and then really seemed to shut OU down in the 2nd half, even down to starters. Speaking of being down 2 starters...

 

Featherstone AND George played phenomenal games. PHENOMENAL. Both of these guys are back up safeties remember. I said early in the season that we had 2 starting caliber players ready to take over at they've shown that.

 

I didn't think the Davis and Camara targeting penalties were legit, but they don't show replays at the stadium. Seems they were rightfully called based on this thread. Davis wasn't playing great anyways, and he really needs to get that under control.

 

Special teams was horrid. I feel like OU could have blocked our punt every time if they wanted. It was always close. Our kickoff coverage left a lot to be desired and the botched extra point almost cost us. I don't hold it against Featherstone much as he is the back up punt returner, but dang he made me nervous. Coney is much more sure handed and smooth, but it looked like he had a collarbone issue to me and is probably out the rest of the season, maybe he can make it back for the bowl game.

 

I thought the offense looked a little different with Kato back there this week. Spiced up in a good way with some motions and what not. I saw some complaint about the 3 and out drive with just under 6 minutes to go deep in their territory. You absolutely have to run your normal O there up 3 with 6 mins left when they have 3 timeouts. It just didn't work out there.

 

Dailey struggled.....I'm not sure if all 3 of his DPI's should have really been called. The refs seemed to be calling it really tight against us. Something to note though is that he was left on an island. Featherstone seemed up close to the line (presumably to help with the run game) more often than not, leaving George as the only deep safety.

 

I'm not one to complain about refs much........but geez oh weez was that horrible. Just awful management of the flow of the game and we got ZERO calls, and every ticky-tack call went against us.

 

Trying to discredit these wins to "luck" really pisses me off. We've had plenty of crap go against us these past 2 seasons and  I know you all wouldn't be giving Bowden the benefit of the doubt if we were losing close games. You know...like against Troy.  Our team has been winning these games on the field. Give them credit.

 

Go Zips! Kent State still sucks! No let down.... Win the MAC!!

 

Oh one last thing....the @Zipmeister is alive!

[LZIp]

One last thing...I enjoyed myself last night probably more than I ever have at a Zips game. Some of these people trashing attendance on social media are Zips fans I believe. Put your money where your mouth is and show up yourself or go pound salt.

[ZipsVoice]

Not a whole helluva lot I can add to all the other great commentary here and on the Three for Thursday thread.....but just a few items.  I am the KING of the board on complaining about penalties, so I had a field day last night....even if half of them weren't "really" penalties.  175 yards in penalties!  Yet we won.  I did post on 3For that I thought we'd win, and the reason I picked was because we'd have a week to get the game plan in place for Kato.  But the way we won was unexpected to me.  Come from behind?  The Zips?  Don't give it away in the end?  The Zips?  But we won.  The Defense was stellar, against the run.  But the Interference calls were mostly legit, and I, like many, was holding my breath on that final OU pass that it wasn't going to be called yet again.  When I got to the stadium and saw that Woodson wasn't even listed as the #2 QB I felt good, but after OU's first two plays I felt horrible.  And Stolich pulled out all the trick plays rather than Bowden, and most all of them worked.  But we won.  The OU fans that were there last night, especially on the roads leading to the stadium and in the parking lots were total Buttheads.  I almost had a little road rage incident with one who was following their team buses and felt he should be part of the police escorted caravan!  But the fine Campus Police force set the gentleman straight.  Talking to some of the athletes from other sports at The U on my way in and most all of them know what Tommy did to get suspended, and I won't post it because it's second hand knowledge.  But it's all over campus, and I can't see anyway Williams will let this one go.  He's not going to get the Josh Gordon umpteen chances.  Suffice it to say it wasn't his first go around on this one.  I also, despite lucking out and picking this one right, also have a little crow to eat with my friends on the board - because of Kato.  I was very low on Kato, and said so from the Spring game on.  Good for you young man, you really proved me wrong last night, and I don't think it was a fluke.  And the offensive line, or the play calling, or the defense they played against...I don't know...but we ran the ball and there seemed to  be some decent holes open for them.  Don't agree that we stopped running in the second half.  Didn't see that.  And as far as our illustrious supposed-journalists from Akron and Cleveland, I was walking in behind them last night and they were both grousing already about how late it was going to be , how UA was gonna get steamrolled, laughing about the size of the crowd and what would be announced as the attendance....all kinds of crap like that, so it wouldn't surprise me if they did write their reports from a couch, except they were actually there.  

 

I normally am in a hurry to get to the car after a weeknight game and get the heck home, but last night I surprised myself as to wanting to kinda hang around.  I stayed and stood in the gauntlet with family and friends as the team and coached crossed from the stadium to the fieldhouse, enjoyed the looks on the kids faces and the parents too!  Pride.  Then got caught in the band marching out of the stadium, but instead of being impatient and annoyed, I actually stopped and enjoyed it.  Heck, what's the difference between 11:30 and 11:45 getting home.  Can't remember feeling that way since...well in a long time.  Fun.  We won.  But we won.  Still sinking in.

 

I guess I had more than a few things to add!  Sorry!

[skip-zip]

1 hour ago, 1981 grad said:

Finally, the refs did blow the offsides call.  Ran it back on my DVR and the defensive player was offside and the offensive player did not move until after the ball was snapped.  Not sure what hurt us most, the call or the 5 minutes to make the call.  It killed our momentum on that drive and we had to punt.  

 

I think I know which one you're talking about.  In my opinion, if none of the officials blow the whistle to stop the play for a false start, then it HAS to be Defense Offside.   What happened there?  it's like they huddled after the play, and one of them said, "Oh yeah, I did see the offensive guy move early, I just forgot to blow the whistle" ?????  

 

But there was another one where our offensive line stood still at the snap of the ball because an OU defender jumped into the neutral zone early.  Kato treated it as a free play and basically threw the ball away, and it was a 3rd down play.  Everyone looks around, and there was NO FLAG.  We had to punt.  

 

That one was costly too.  Did you see that on the replay?

[ZipsVoice]

2 minutes ago, skip-zip said:

But there was another one where our offensive line stood still at the snap of the ball because an OU defender jumped into the neutral zone early.  Kato treated it as a free play and basically threw the ball away, and it was a 3rd down play.  Everyone looks around, and there was NO FLAG.  We had to punt.  

That one was really weird....I thought it was a trick play on our part...but it wasn't.  How does 5 down linemen, a running back and 1 WR not move unless they believed it was encrouchment?  That was a horrible non-call at a crucial time!

[skip-zip]

I did have one predominant thought during the game, in regards to Kato......

 

Where were these nice DOWNFIELD passes in the Miami game?  

 

I was pleading for Tommy to return because I thought we needed the big pass plays (or the threat of big pass plays) to beat OU.  And I didn't see that from Kato in the Miami game to give me any indication that he'd be looking long last night.  I don't know.  Maybe it had something to do with the way each of those teams defended us.  

Edited November 15, 2017 by skip-zip

[NWAkron]

I woke up whistling The Blue and Gold this morning.

 

 

[zipfan84]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I will be turning the TV volume down and listening to the radio for the KSU game.

[ZipsVoice]

1 minute ago, skip-zip said:

I was pleading for Tommy to return because I thought we needed the big pass plays (of the threat of big pass plays) to beat OU.  And I didn't see that from Kato in the Miami game to give me any indication that he'd be looking long last night.  I don't know.  Maybe it had something to do with the way each of those teams defended us.  

And I think a week's prep work with KN

[ZipsVoice]

1 minute ago, zipfan84 said:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I will be turning the TV volume down and listening to the radio for the KSU game.

How 'bout coming to the game??????????????

[Let'sGoZips94]

I really hope there's a big turnout for the Can't game. The community and fan base needs to reward a stellar performance and hopefully a trip to Detroit with a good crowd for the last game of the year. 

[zipfan84]

5 minutes ago, ZipsVoice said:

How 'bout coming to the game??????????????

Couldn't make it last night (work related commitment). But next week is a different story. Go Zips!