Game 10 (NIU) Thoughts

[catdaddyp]

OFFENSE:

QB:

Not the best night for Finley. Not only did he struggle with accuracy, but there were multiple times where he either didn’t see an open receiver underneath or just chose to make the more difficult throw. Even though there were a few passes that could have been picked, Finley did not throw an interception. A “feat” that has occurred only one other time this year (against BG).

Bullock was swarmed every time he came in the game. NIU did a great job of locating him and cheating in his direction.

 

RB:

Simmons ran hard, but the run game was an afterthought. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry on 12 attempts. 

Kellom didn’t have as many opportunities as Simmons and also did not look quite as explosive.

 

WR:

On a night where Finley struggled with accuracy, his receivers didn’t help much. Officially 8 drops. It’s hard to win that way.

 

TE:

Newell and Cravaack were a bright spot. The duo combined for 4 catches for 67 yards and may have had their best blocking performance.

 

OL:

I recall only two occasions where the OL flat out got beat in pass protection. Outside of that, Finley usually had plenty of time to throw the ball. Blitz pickups were the best I’ve seen to date. Two of the sacks were on Finley, not the OL. Run blocking could have been better, but it also wasn’t terrible. 

After having their worst game of the season, RG K. Davis and RT James bounced back with what may have been their best game of the season.

 

 

DEFENSE:

The defense gave up 6 explosive plays for the entire game, which is actually not too bad. Unfortunately, the bad is that 4 of those plays went for touchdowns.

We played a ton of bear front (5 DL) and man. It limited the NIU rushing attack from gashing us for chunks at a time, but led to 2 passing touchdowns where the backend looked completely unprepared. We also looked unprepared on one of the WR sweeps for a TD. The other rushing touchdown came from a missed tackle on a gap fill.

 

DL:

Kapongo, Brockington, Moore, Adler, and Nunnally gave the NIU OL all they could handle. Those 5 were consistently stymieing blocks and allowing the backend of the defense to run free. That was one of our DL’s best games.

 

LB:

McCoy was, yet again, all over the field and finished with 11 tackles. He’s been incredibly good in MAC play.

Summers saw his most extensive action and finished with 6 tackles. The light seems to be going on for him. (Summers was a late JUCO addition in the 2023 class.)

Fish and Spriggs played, but neither made much of an impact. 

 

DB:

Reed and DeWalt started at CB with Golden-Nelson and Hunter filling in. I believe it was DeWalt who allowed one of the early touchdowns and was subsequently replaced by Golden-Nelson. 

P. Lewis and D. Lewis started at safety with D. Johnson as the backup. That was the second straight week one of the starting safties left the game with an injury and we promptly allowed a touchdown. 

 

ST:

We had the one punt gaff early on and then played relatively well considering the wind and rain. WR P. Davis was the new punt returner and fair caught the ball without issue.

 

Coaching:

Offensively, I thought we got away from the run game too early - especially when we struggled with accuracy and drops in the passing game. Even though we were mostly getting 2 to 3 yards a pop on runs, 3rd and 5 is much more manageable than 3rd and long. Besides that, there were numerous times receivers were running free underneath and we didn’t take advantage. Often, the play calls seemed to be there, but our execution was terrible.

Defensively, I thought it was a solid game plan in the fact that explosive plays were limited. However, the major issue we looked completely lost on 3 of the explosive plays that went for touchdowns. Also, we finally had a game where penalties were next to nothing (no personal fouls and only 1? false start) and instead get hit with multiple substitution violations. How that happens coming off a mini-bye week is beyond me. In the end, it’s the controllable aspects of the game we lost again and that continue to cost us football games. 

 

 

 

QB:

Finley

Bullock

 

RB:

Simmons

Kellom

 

WR:

Norton

P. Davis

 

WR:

Golden

Rush

 

WR:

Granger

Polk

 

TE:

Newell

Cravaack

 

LT:

Blanchard

Shor

 

LG:

Morris

Seymore

 

C

Williams

 

RG:

K. Davis

 

RT:

James

Thomas 

 

 

DE:

Adler

Dall

 

DE:

Nunnally

Cheatom

 

DT:

Moore

Murphy

 

DT:

Kapongo

Madden

 

DT:

Brockington

Richards

 

LB:

Fish

Summers

 

LB:

McCoy

Spriggs

 

CB:

Reed

Hunter 

 

CB:

DeWalt

Golden-Nelson

 

S:

D. Lewis

D. Johnson

 

S:

P. Lewis 

D. Johnson

 

(NB):

Greenwood

 

 

Top Players on Offense:

RT - James

RG - K. Davis

LT - Blanchard

WR - Polk

WR - Rush

 

Top Players on Defense:

LB - Summers

LB - McCoy

CB - Golden-Nelson

S - P. Lewis

DT - Brockington

Edited November 14 by catdaddyp

[clarkwgriswold]

I thought the 12 man defense was an interesting wrinkle.   Unfortunately, the officials were not fond of it.

[MangoZip]

Honestly, Finley’s performance was one of the worst I’ve seen out of a qb in a long time. I’ll give him a pass (kinda) because the conditions were horrendous but he looked absolutely horrible. There was a couple stretches during that game where he didn’t even come remotely close to a receiver, it’s a miracle he didn’t throw 5 interceptions. As you noted, he also missed/ignored open receivers several times and also he still hadn’t learned to just thrown the ball away when out of the pocket instead of taking a sack - so frustrating. Maybe coming from NC State and Cal he hasn’t seen bad weather in a long time? It will be interesting to see if he comes back next year. 

[Jumping kangaroo]

 

I am convince you cant teach an old dog new tricks. Live by the pass and he will die by the pass. Horrible play calling. All you have to do is look below. In a "MONSOON", we chose to throw 53 times and wonder why there were so many drops. CBS couldn't even keep there cameras dry let along a football. We got away from the run because it wasn't nicely designed long run plays, but we average about 5yards a pop. We ran the ball 10 times in the first half and only 4 times in the second half (if you dont include the sacks). NIU threw for only 16 times and ran it down our throat for 200 yards like we should. Its raining hard

 

The problem being a head coach and the OC there is no accountability, during the game, during the weeks preparation and afterwards. Who's going to stand up to the boss and tell him about his horrible play calling. In the REAL world the reason there is a head coach and an OC, the head coach holds the OC accountable and can/would be fired if he is not meeting expectations. Not only that but he is so busy scheming offense on the sideline when the offense comes off the field, he loses track of the defense and does not manage that either (lets not mention how we tried to play 12 on defense all night). We need a HEAD COACH, not an OC if you want wins.

 vs 

 

Edited November 14 by Jumping kangaroo

[Jumping kangaroo]

https://herosports.com/fbs-joe-moorhead-hot-seat-candidates-akron-football-head-coach-replacement-cpcp/

[MangoZip]

38 minutes ago, Jumping kangaroo said:

 

I am convince you cant teach an old dog new tricks. Live by the pass and he will die by the pass. Horrible play calling. All you have to do is look below. In a "MONSOON", we chose to throw 53 times and wonder why there were so many drops. CBS couldn't even keep there cameras let along a football. We got away from the run because it wasn't nicely designed long run plays, but we average about 5yards a pop. We ran the ball 10 times in the first half and only 4 times in the second half (if you dont include the sacks). NIU threw for only 16 times and ran it down our throat for 200 yards like we should. Its raining hard

 

The problem being a head coach and the OC there is no accountability, during the game, during the weeks preparation and afterwards. Who's going to stand up to the boss and tell him about his horrible play calling. In the REAL world the reason there is a head coach and an OC, the head coach holds the OC accountable and can/would be fired if he is not meeting expectations. Not only that but he is so busy scheming offense on the sideline when the offense comes off the field, he loses track of the defense and does not manage that either (lets not mention how we tried to play 12 on defense all night). We need a HEAD COACH, not an OC if you want wins.

 

 

Very good point. This reminds me of the old scorpion and the frog story - he can’t help himself 

Edited November 14 by MangoZip

[Zippy87]

All i have to say is WellDone>WellSaid DoOrDoNot 

[exit322]

1 hour ago, Zippy87 said:

All i have to say is WellDone>WellSaid DoOrDoNot 

Oh this season is past well done

[Lee Adams]

8 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

OFFENSE:

QB:

Not the best night for Finley. Not only did he struggle with accuracy, but there were multiple times where he either didn’t see an open receiver underneath or just chose to make the more difficult throw. Even though there were a few passes that could have been picked, Finley did not throw an interception. A “feat” that has occurred only one other time this year (against BG).

Bullock was swarmed every time he came in the game. NIU did a great job of locating him and cheating in his direction.

 

RB:

Simmons ran hard, but the run game was an afterthought. He averaged 4.7 yards per carry on 12 attempts. 

Kellom didn’t have as many opportunities as Simmons and also did not look quite as explosive.

 

WR:

On a night where Finley struggled with accuracy, his receivers didn’t help much. Officially 8 drops. It’s hard to win that way.

 

TE:

Newell and Cravaack were a bright spot. The duo combined for 4 catches for 67 yards and may have had their best blocking performance.

 

OL:

I recall only two occasions where the OL flat out got beat in pass protection. Outside of that, Finley usually had plenty of time to throw the ball. Blitz pickups were the best I’ve seen to date. Two of the sacks were on Finley, not the OL. Run blocking could have been better, but it also wasn’t terrible. 

After having their worst game of the season, RG K. Davis and RT James bounced back with what may have been their best game of the season.

 

 

DEFENSE:

The defense gave up 6 explosive plays for the entire game, which is actually not too bad. Unfortunately, the bad is that 4 of those plays went for touchdowns.

We played a ton of bear front (5 DL) and man. It limited the NIU rushing attack from gashing us for chunks at a time, but led to 2 passing touchdowns where the backend looked completely unprepared. We also looked unprepared on one of the WR sweeps for a TD. The other rushing touchdown came from a missed tackle on a gap fill.

 

DL:

Kapongo, Brockington, Moore, Adler, and Nunnally gave the NIU OL all they could handle. Those 5 were consistently stymieing blocks and allowing the backend of the defense to run free. That was one of our DL’s best games.

 

LB:

McCoy was, yet again, all over the field and finished with 11 tackles. He’s been incredibly good in MAC play.

Summers saw his most extensive action and finished with 6 tackles. The light seems to be going on for him. (Summers was a late JUCO addition in the 2023 class.)

Fish and Spriggs played, but neither made much of an impact. 

 

DB:

Reed and DeWalt started at CB with Golden-Nelson and Hunter filling in. I believe it was DeWalt who allowed one of the early touchdowns and was subsequently replaced by Golden-Nelson. 

P. Lewis and D. Lewis started at safety with D. Johnson as the backup. That was the second straight week one of the starting safties left the game with an injury and we promptly allowed a touchdown. 

 

ST:

We had the one punt gaff early on and then played relatively well considering the wind and rain. WR P. Davis was the new punt returner and fair caught the ball without issue.

 

Coaching:

Offensively, I thought we got away from the run game too early - especially when we struggled with accuracy and drops in the passing game. Even though we were mostly getting 2 to 3 yards a pop on runs, 3rd and 5 is much more manageable than 3rd and long. Besides that, there were numerous times receivers were running free underneath and we didn’t take advantage. Often, the play calls seemed to be there, but our execution was terrible.

Defensively, I thought it was a solid game plan in the fact that explosive plays were limited. However, the major issue we looked completely lost on 3 of the explosive plays that went for touchdowns. Also, we finally had a game where penalties were next to nothing (no personal fouls and only 1? false start) and instead get hit with multiple substitution violations. How that happens coming off a mini-bye week is beyond me. In the end, it’s the controllable aspects of the game we lost again and that continue to cost us football games. 

 

 

 

QB:

Finley

Bullock

 

RB:

Simmons

Kellom

 

WR:

Norton

P. Davis

 

WR:

Golden

Rush

 

WR:

Granger

Polk

 

TE:

Newell

Cravaack

 

LT:

Blanchard

Shor

 

LG:

Morris

Seymore

 

C

Williams

 

RG:

K. Davis

 

RT:

James

Thomas 

 

 

DE:

Adler

Dall

 

DE:

Nunnally

Cheatom

 

DT:

Moore

Murphy

 

DT:

Kapongo

Madden

 

DT:

Brockington

Richards

 

LB:

Fish

Summers

 

LB:

McCoy

Spriggs

 

CB:

Reed

Hunter 

 

CB:

DeWalt

Golden-Nelson

 

S:

D. Lewis

D. Johnson

 

S:

P. Lewis 

D. Johnson

 

(NB):

Greenwood

 

 

Top Players on Offense:

RT - James

RG - K. Davis

LT - Blanchard

WR - Polk

WR - Rush

 

Top Players on Defense:

LB - Summers

LB - McCoy

CB - Golden-Nelson

S - P. Lewis

DT - Brockington

Didn't the defense just give almost 300 yds. on the ground? Thats hard to imagine but I guess not unexpected. Thas what NIU does. NIU probably didn't even need to throw a pass if they didn't want to. Hard to imagine if they had thrown the ball more what the score might have been.

[ZippyRulz]

14 hours ago, Jumping kangaroo said:

https://herosports.com/fbs-joe-moorhead-hot-seat-candidates-akron-football-head-coach-replacement-cpcp/

 

At this point I'd prefer to see any one of them on the sideline next year.

 

[Captain Kangaroo]

19 hours ago, Jumping kangaroo said:

 

I am convince you cant teach an old dog new tricks. Live by the pass and he will die by the pass. Horrible play calling. All you have to do is look below. In a "MONSOON", we chose to throw 53 times and wonder why there were so many drops. CBS couldn't even keep there cameras dry let along a football. We got away from the run because it wasn't nicely designed long run plays, but we average about 5yards a pop. We ran the ball 10 times in the first half and only 4 times in the second half (if you dont include the sacks). NIU threw for only 16 times and ran it down our throat for 200 yards like we should. Its raining hard

 

The problem being a head coach and the OC there is no accountability, during the game, during the weeks preparation and afterwards. Who's going to stand up to the boss and tell him about his horrible play calling. In the REAL world the reason there is a head coach and an OC, the head coach holds the OC accountable and can/would be fired if he is not meeting expectations. Not only that but he is so busy scheming offense on the sideline when the offense comes off the field, he loses track of the defense and does not manage that either (lets not mention how we tried to play 12 on defense all night). We need a HEAD COACH, not an OC if you want wins.

 vs 

 

53 passes in a sub 40 degrees monsoon baffles me too. And the sea of 12 men on the field penalties is inexcusable. 
 

Maybe you’re right…the oc and hc responsibility load may be the root of our week-in-week-out incredibly poor attention to detail. 
 

I like Joe and want him to succeed. But who can put up with only 1, 2 or 3 wins every season for 6 consecutive years?

[LZIp]

I wouldn't be surprised if Joe being the HC/OC isn't his choice due to budgetary constraints. We had one who left and supposedly hired another one (whom I was excited about), and it didn't end up happening for whatever reason and clearly never found a replacement.

[clarkwgriswold]

2 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

53 passes in a sub 40 degrees monsoon baffles me too. And the sea of 12 men on the field penalties is inexcusable. 
 

Maybe you’re right…the oc and hc responsibility load may be the root of our week-in-week-out incredibly poor attention to detail. 
 

I like Joe and want him to succeed. But who can put up with only 1, 2 or 3 wins every season for 6 consecutive years?

 

Exactly.  I can appreciate that with our recent history it may take a little time to start attracting talent equal to or better than the competition, but attention to detail and discipline shouldn't be an issue in the 3rd year of an HC's tenure.  I'm not ready to start a "Joe's Next Endeavor" thread but when I see repeated instances of stuff like having 12 guys on the field I have to question what's going on behind the scenes.

[catdaddyp]

20 hours ago, Lee Adams said:

Didn't the defense just give almost 300 yds. on the ground? Thats hard to imagine but I guess not unexpected. Thas what NIU does. NIU probably didn't even need to throw a pass if they didn't want to. Hard to imagine if they had thrown the ball more what the score might have been.

Half of that came off 3 run plays. The key to beating NIU (under Hammock) is stopping the run and making them throw. There are only a handful of teams in the MAC who have attempted less passes than NIU. Two of them - Western and CMU - are also heavy run oriented offenses. 
 

In the end, “ifs” don’t really matter. We’re still finding ways to lose.

 

Edited November 15 by catdaddyp

[GP1]

Here are my thoughts on the game. I'm glad I didn't see a play. 

[Captain Kangaroo]

18 minutes ago, GP1 said:

Here are my thoughts on the game. I'm glad I didn't see a play. 

If you’ve see that grainy footage of Bigfoot walking past the log, looking over his shoulder, you have an idea of the picture quality you missed.

[Lee Adams]

22 hours ago, catdaddyp said:

Half of that came off 3 run plays. The key to beating NIU (under Hammock) is stopping the run and making them throw. There are only a handful of teams in the MAC who have attempted less passes than NIU. Two of them - Western and CMU - are also heavy run oriented offenses. 
 

In the end, “ifs” don’t really matter. We’re still finding ways to lose.

 

At least some of us thought that the defense might have been the strength of the team this season. There are some individually good players no doubt. But as a unit this group of players and coaches has shown little ability to help control a game enough to help the team win. They have been pretty much getting gouged by the run and big plays all season. NIU did exactly what it wanted to do. That was to be rugged and beat up the Akron defense on the ground.

We are way past trying to figure out why the offense does what it does. Three seasons in, this is not where the program should be.

[exit322]

On 11/15/2024 at 4:35 PM, Captain Kangaroo said:

If you’ve see that grainy footage of Bigfoot walking past the log, looking over his shoulder, you have an idea of the picture quality you missed.

Who knew CBSSN used this broadcast crew to air the Paul/Tyson rasslin mat...err, "fight"