Game One (Wyoming) Thoughts

[catdaddyp]

Talk about letting a prime opportunity go to waste. 

 

QB:

I think we all knew this offense would go as Finley went, and unfortunately he picked a bad night to have one of his worst games. I honestly expected a lot more from both teams and came away disappointed. Granted, it’s Week 1 and there’s plenty of time to improve, but the offense won’t get much better if Finley doesn’t take a big step forward. He consistently missed throws that we saw him make with ease last year. The most concerning part is Wyoming isn’t a good team and probably won’t win many more games this season.

 

RB:

Patrick was as dynamic as expected. I don’t have the stats to back it up, but I’m almost certain our yards after contact dropped significantly after he went down. He’s a true playmaker, and we need him on the field. 

Gant looked dinged up to me. His vision and elusiveness were there, but he didn’t show much burst or explosiveness. 

M. Williams did fine with the opportunities he got, though he’s not on the same level as the first two backs.

 

WR:

The one good deep ball Finley threw was dropped by Adams, and that pretty much set the tone for the passing game. I don’t recall Adams getting many, if any, targets after that drop. I was also left wondering why Mason didn’t see many targets earlier—he made a few catches late, and it’s clear he brings something the other receivers don’t. There’s definitely talent in this group, and they’ll need to come down with some tough catches, but there weren’t many quality balls to work with.

 

TE:

Outside of some decent blocks in the run game, we got very little from this position. Newell did not suit up and our other tight ends did not make much of an impact. 

 

OL:

Coming into the season I felt good about the IOL and had more concerns with the OTs. As it turned out, the tackles held up fine while the interior had issues in pass protection. There were also several times when the pocket was there for Finley to step into, but he bailed and scrambled into trouble—very reminiscent of early 2024. Overall, the OL was serviceable in the run game and created some holes. I’m not calling this a top-half MAC unit by any stretch, but they did enough to give the offense a chance. I think our two OTs (Johnson and King) played the entire game.

 

DL:

JUCO transfer DT Julien Laventure was a terror against Wyoming’s All-MWC linemen. Defensive ends Dall and Durham had their moments too. The rest of the DL may not have stood out individually, but they did a solid job holding their ground and making life tough on the OL. Credit to our new defensive line coach for landing Laventure. Now the focus has to be on developing some depth for when he comes off the field.

 

LB:

I’ll be honest, I didn’t see any drop-off in our linebacker play from last year. Multiple guys rotated in, and from what I could tell, they were rarely out of position or missing tackles. Summers and Cooper took the majority of snaps. 

True freshman Markus Boswell managed to come up with an interception in limited play.

 

CB:

I thought our cornerbacks were excellent in both coverage and run support. Granted, Wyoming really only had one true playmaker at receiver, but as a group the corners held up well. DeWalt, White (before injury), and Reed especially stood out.

 

NB:

I could be wrong here, but I’m fairly confident saying I counted several missed tackles that turned into big plays in the run game, plus a key reception in the 4th quarter by a receiver who wasn’t anything special. We definitely missed Darrian Lewis. Hopefully play at this spot improves quickly.

 

S:

Anderson picked up right where he left off last year, and his running mate was mostly DiMarco Johnson. Both stepped up at different times and looked well prepared.

 

ST:

Outside of a long missed 49(?) yard field goal, special teams were excellent. The lone kickoff was deep, punting and coverage were fantastic—no major mistakes in any area.

 

 

Coaching:

Offensively, I thought the game plan was fine, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I liked how often we ran the ball in the first half and tried to get it our best playmaker, Patrick. Normally, that’s a formula for success. But throwing the ball in the end zone after punishing Wyoming’s defense with the run on that drive was inexcusable. The sad part? I even said out loud, “we better not throw the ball here,” and sure enough… In no universe should this team be getting shut out by a not-so-good (to be polite) Wyoming team.

Defensively, we gave up too many yards, but the unit made big stops repeatedly. Can’t fault the defense for this loss.

 

 

Rotation:

QB:

Finley

Johnson

 

RB:

Patrick

Gant

M. Williams

 

WR:

Adams

Polk

Louis 

 

Mason

Grear

 

Walker

Monterio 

 

TE:

Cravaack

Whisner

 

LT

D. Johnson

 

LG

McManus

A. Jones 

 

C

Lyons

Morris

 

RG

Davis

Archer 

 

RT

King

 

 

DE:

Durham

D. Frazier

 

Dall

Cheatom

Duncan

 

DT:

Laventure 

Mixon

 

Hull

Murphy

 

LB:

Cooper

Boswell

 

Summers

Spriggs

 

CB:

White

DeWalt

 

Reed

Kamara

 

NB:

Al. Branch 

Thomas

Aa. Branch

 

S:

Johnson

Al. Branch

 

Anderson

Al. Branch

 

ST:

KO - Wiley

K - Wiley

P - Castle

Johnson

 

 

I checked PFF against what I thought I saw and they have some players listed that I don’t remember seeing:

Hunter

Madden

Vega

Benenge

J. Frazier

 

 

Top Rated on Offense (At least 20 snaps):

(RB) Patrick

(RT) King

(LG) A. Jones

(LT) D. Johnson

(RB) Gant 

 

Top Rated on Defense (At least 20 snaps):

(LB) Summers

(LB) Cooper

(DT) Laventure

(CB) DeWalt

(S) J. Anderson

 

Edited 9 hours ago by catdaddyp

[AkronAlumnus]

Last night was rough, but I believe in AD Goodrich — he’s going to turn things around!!

Edited 7 hours ago by AkronAlumnus

[GP1]

3 minutes ago, AkronAlumnus said:

Last night was rough, but I believe in AD Goodrich — he’s going to turn this thing around!!

Not this season. 

[AkronAlumnus]

1 minute ago, GP1 said:

Not this season. 

I agree but the future is bright under him. 

[GP1]

3 minutes ago, AkronAlumnus said:

I agree but the future is bright under him. 

I hope you are right. 

[exit322]

1 hour ago, AkronAlumnus said:

Last night was rough, but I believe in AD Goodrich — he’s going to turn things around!!

I'm not going to get my hopes up

[blueandgold]

Is it basketball season yet?

[exit322]

4 hours ago, AkronAlumnus said:

I agree but the future is bright under him. 

That Moorhead still has his job tells me the future isn't bright.

 

Yes, I know the nihilism worry as noted elsewhere.  But him being around is clearly going nowhere fast.

[MangoZip]

Random thoughts from the pillow fight that I watched last night:

 

- Finley‘s interception in the end zone was atrocious. Those are the type of decisions that lose games. 
- overall, I was happy to see that it was a relatively smart game for Akron. Not that many stupid penalties, personal files, etc..

- obviously, the defense played well. More specifically, I thought they tackled really well.

- as usual, I think we abandoned the run game too quickly, especially as  inaccurate as Finley was last night

- I don’t understand why we don’t run more two tight end sets. Especially, since we have some tight ends that have proven they can catch the ball
- glad to see we are rotating punters, smart move because at this rate, their feet will get very sore

Edited 2 hours ago by MangoZip

[kreed5120]

29 minutes ago, MangoZip said:

 

- glad to see we are rotating punters, smart move because at this rate, their feet will get very sore

 

Akron is certainly the school for a punter to be able to showcase their talent.

[kreed5120]

About halfway through the 3rd Qtr, after seeing no half-time improvement offensively, I knew it was going to either take Wyoming turning it over deep in their own territory or a broken play defensively (on Wyoming behalf) for Akron to find the end zone. Akron showed no ability to sustain a drive. Fortunately the defense showed up in a big way otherwise this game would have gotten out of hand fast.

[ZippyDoo]

Laventure was all over the place.  The "stats" really didn't add up, 1 solo and 3 assisted but he was constantly causing havoc and running loose.

 

Hull had 2 assisted tackles

 

Hall 1 solo 2 assisted 1 QBH and 2 deflections (1 led to the int that I thought was going to change the momentum)

 

Durham 1 solo tackle (TFL) 3 assisted I could be wrong but I believe he was on the field for 70 of the 75 offensive snaps, not including special teams.

 

Cheatom 1 assisted tackle 1 pass deflectoin

 

Mixon 1 solo tackle 2 assisted  He came up HUGE on the fourth and 1 in the tight red zone.  At the time it was 3-0 and I thought was going to give Zips a surge.

 

I thought the LBs played well and the CBs helped out a lot on the outside runs.  1 QBH and 0 sacks is not going to cut it.. I do think that Laventure could have gotten credit for at least 1 or 2 QBH's but these stats came straight from the Akron statisticians.

 

McManus played very well I thought for a true freshman.  Stepped in and played well.  It seemed early the OL was doing well and by half way through the third it started to fall apart.  The sack that knocked them out of field goal range was the back breaker I thought.

 

I thought Finley looked scared and extremely timid.  He seemed to be short arming a lot I saw him rotating his arm like maybe it was sore or tight.  He was throwing off his backfoot a lot and ducking.  His reads and timing seemed off.

 

Patrick looked great.  For what it is worth the announcers said at half that Zips had 117 total yards offense and Patrick had 75?  He looks like he could take it to the house on any play.

 

Scott ran with ease through the line.  It is not going to get any better this weekend.  Nebraska's RB runs hard and Raiola completed 33 times of 42 attempts 2 tds, no ints  Zips better figure out how to get pressure on him. 

 

A 68 yard punt in the air was insane.  There were chances for the Zips to capitalize and they just couldn't.  Wyoming did not respect or fear them and it was evident.  Zips did not deserve to win that game, but they certainly could have.