OU Game Thoughts

[Zipsrifle]

I guess the first thing I found amazing is how well we traveled to the game. Though our numbers weren't huge, there were a pretty good number of Akron fans there. I've been trying to make one away game every year (outside of Can't State). This was the best showing I've seen in the past 5 years.

The offense was slow in starting. We really never got our running game going, but I'll tell you what, Biggs sure works for every yard. Dan seemed to get more carries too, it was nice to see him smash through some people with the ball. Ringer got most of the carries in the 4th. At the beginning of the game, the passing game wasn't clicking that well. Mostly it was because Frye was off on his throws. Once he got it going though, man, he's awesome. How he sees so much of the field, I'll never know. It was just like a flushback from last week when he found Long in the corner of the endzone in the 4th. He was running left, then right, and you knew he was going to make something happen. When it wasn't there he NEVER made a bad decision. Either tossed it out of bounds grabbed whatever yards were available or wrapped the ball up and went down with it.

I think we took a few steps backwards with the OL and the tackling against OU. Thank God they couldn't hold onto the ball and that Dwayne had a career day. Frye was again running all over the field. OU got so much pressure that there were many times the receivers weren't even close to being done with their routes when the play was busted. There were also way to many times when an OU player would be in the backfield uncontested. Biggs took a hell of a hit at the end of the game due to this. As for the Defense, it was similar to the MTSU game w/r to the tackling..we weren't wrapping up. If we would have wrapped up like we have been doing in the last couple games, this one wouldn't even have been close. We got burned early on the kickoff return due to this. We had lots of trouble on kick returns at the beginning but got it together in the end. We did get good pressure on the QB and Dwayne's forced fumble in the third was awesome, he just batted it right out of Hawk's hand.

Overall it was a good solid win. We put together a good drive when down by 13 and Dwayne's INT turned the momentum. When we needed to have a drive that took the wind out of their sails in the 4th and ate a lot of time, we got it. If there was any letdown from the Marshall game, it lasted about 1-1/2 quarters.

Listening to the post game show driving out of Athens, we still aren't getting any respect. Lots of "Well, the 5 turnovers define the game" and "the team we played today had most of their wins against some of the countries worst teams." "If, If, If". Even predicted that we really didn't have much of a chance to make it to the MACC game. Frankly, I like being underestimated.

Well folks, if you told me 2 months ago that we would be playing for the MAC East Championship, I would have told you that you were smoking crack. JD has done an excellent job with this team and the players have always believed! I doubted that we could take Marshall and frankly, was preparing for a letdown against OU. They proved me wrong! I really think we've got a shot to knock off Miami at the Bowl this weekend. It'll be tough, but this team now has me thinking that we've got what it takes. Lets hope for good weather. The biggest game in Ohio this weekend takes place in Akron!

Bring on the Spoiled Brats!