Captain's Log

[Captain Kangaroo]

20-3 lead...in the 4th quarter...at home...against Big East reject Temple...and we lose. Wow....As many times as I've propped JD for his defense stepping up to win a game...and comparing it to what we'd seen for 9 years prior...this game gets dropped in the "Lee Owens" file. It was vintage Lee. It was Zips vs. Marshall circa 2000....it was Zips vs. UConn circa 2000 and 2003...it was an offense that couldn't get a key first down in perfect harmony with a defense that couldn't make a key stop.I don't think it was a "prevent defense" that burnt us as much as our lack of defensive depth and the offense's inability to so much as threaten to score for the latter 40% of the game. Someone in another thread likened the Zips second half offensive strategy to a "stall" in basketball. The Zips/Miami hoops game was in my mind last night. Up 7 points late in the game, we went conservative...and Miami stayed aggressive...and that's what gave them the chance at a victory at game's end.Twice we had 2nd-and-long, and twice we handed off to the fullback? That's terrible.3rd and short and we line up in the spread, with four wideouts and a single back? What happened to an "I" formation with two tight ends??!!After gradually progressing in 2007, the Zips took a step backwards last night. Their conservative offensive approach...which had served them well this season...finally bit them. Bryan Williams had a hell of a game. Ditto Reggie Corner. I thought Brion Stokes did a nice job too (or Brion "Strokes," if you were looking at the front cover of your game program).Stec struggled yet again. Often times his punts are so bad, they're effective. Maybe that's his strategy and I'm just not saavy enough to grasp it?Temple is a better team that I originally thought. Their quarterback is mobile, and throws a nice ball. The Temple wide receivers ran nice routes, and have good hands. Other than the stupid fake field goal, I thought they were coached well too. If they had a decent field goal kicker, we would certainly have lost by more than four. I give them credit for the win. There was nothing crazy...no fluke plays...they just wore us down, took away Jabari and beat us.Well...it is time to scrub the temporary tatoos off my son's face and move on with my Sunday. JD has two weeks off before the Zips travel to Buffalo. It will be interesting to see if he gives some consideration to a CJ7 + Bryan Williams backfield. I'm not off the CJ11 bandwagon yet, but even the biggest CJ11 supporter has to see our offense can use another playmaker. And having CJ7 on the sidelines the entire game seems to be a waste.

[zipsmom]

Well said, Captain.

[gozips19]

great post capt. i will just add a few thoughts myself. it goes with out saying that the play calling was way to conservative. since Moorhead took over the o the offense the play calling has been very vanilla. i am not sure if this is more of a J.D. thing or if Akron needs to go in another direction. Would love to see coach Pry back!the good:the d line played really well today stopping the run and applying pressure (just not many sacks)the o line played even better. Anderson is really coming into his own!corner and jabari did what they have done all year and b will is a stud!did like the inclusion of Cruz and Merc split out, now if we can only get them the ball?the bad:many people want to see an overhaul on defense but the problem is much more basic. this team can not play well in space. think about the times were an Akron defender missed an open field tackle this year. while i like Williams, he doesn't have the speed to be in on passing situations.Jac...i have picked on him in the past so i won't go on too much here but this system clearly doesn't suite him. either bring in CJ or change the system. it's like putting a square peg into a round hole.Finally:was looking at the participation report and noticed that Temple played 10 more players than Akron. I am curious to read some thoughts as to why Akron isn't playing more guys? The team clearly gets tired at end of games and the lack of depth is killing them right now. Still have a bad taste in my mouth from this one but I will not loose hope. The east is very mediocre and Akron has as good a shot as any to win it all!

[Dr Z]

3rd and short and we line up in the spread, with four wideouts and a single back? What happened to an "I" formation with two tight ends??!!

I'm with you, give me FB in that situation. Odd side night, I went to Jason Taylor's game yesterday.His team does the same thing Akron does with third and short. Amazingly it worked on every occasion without passing once.

[UADavid]

For those of us attending games, did anyone notice where CJ7 was the whole game? Not next to the coaches as was Matt Rodgers, he was an island watching the game by himself. He seems to be a young talented player with a discipline problem who hasn't even earned his one drive in the second quarter. We don't need that type of distraction. He needs to follow rules and be a team member. Coach Moorhead needs to be aggressive the whole game and stop worrying about offensive miscues. His report card is also incomplete. Every beat is bad, but that was a bad bad beat.

[RACER]

good for jd to prove a point that he has shown to cj7 that he has disipline.first of all i still have not heard what cj7 actually did.secondly jd is proving his point and taking the team down.there are plenty of ways to show he is in charge without taking down the whole team.what could happen is cj7 leaves and then we are stuck with jaq for three years.jd will not be around either though if this team has two bad seasons.