Final Game thoughts:
It is always hard to tell what to make of a first game. No matter what happened tonight, we weren’t going to win the National Championship. We have some young players being thrown into the fire for first time, a key player suspended, and plenty of emotion surrounding the team given the Sam Foltz and Coach Williams situations.
Perhaps Coach Riley said it best when he basically said there was some good out there, but some bad out there as well.
But hey, 1-0 beats 0-1.
At times, we ran the ball with authority. Newby ran decisively. That has been an issue for him his entire career. Ozigbo was amazing at times. Late in the game, Bryant looked great and he also had a solid kickoff return. Wilbon had a wicked cutback on his one carry. We are loaded at RB.
Tommy Armstrong played solid tonight. He really only had one bad back foot throw but his passes were generally solid and he had some sensational plays including a great scramble and completion on a key third down and his roll over touchdown was for the ages.
Defensively, Kieron Williams might have earned his blackshirt with an incredible game. He made play after play in the run game tonight, had an interception and was an emotional leader of the defense.
In all, both Williams players had pretty good games tonight. We were solid against the run although Fresno State didn’t appear have much of a running attack. Mick Stoltenberg was a force in the middle. Newby played very well at linebacker. And Dzuris had some nice plays as well.
Nice to see Natter in on some key plays.
Over all, the defense held up nicely and it was great to see a couple of second half interceptions.
Remember a few years ago when fans dreamed of what Alonzo Moore could do if only he could develop? Tonight, Moore had a monster game. He had three key receptions, including a long touchdown and he ran the ball a couple of times for big gains. Statistically, that might not seem like all that much, but when you throw the ball as little as NU did, that is a pretty big night.
Some nice things. Darlington with a two point conversion. Nice run and took a couple of hits on his way to the goal. Very nice.
The Sam Foltz tribute during the first punt was awesome. Hard to believe he is gone. Give FSU credit for declining the penalty.
Nice to see Luke McNitt with two big tackles on kick coverage. Over all, our kickoff coverage was solid.
Some not so nice. A blocked punt and I think two FSU punts hit off the leg or foot of NU players. This has got to get cleaned up.
The Pierson-El fumble which isn’t such a big deal, these things happen, but then play after play after play the team just fell apart for the rest of the half after that play.
A procedure penalty wipes out a first down. A late hit penalty. Two excessive celebration penalties. And of course, two B.S. targeting calls one of which was upheld and the other was thank goodness overturned.
Man, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE this stupid targeting rule. It is poorly thought out, poorly managed, and is being poorly executed. I see helmets clanging together all day long every weekend, and yet some are called and others are not called and no one says a word. It is a complete joke.
But I digress.
Back to concerns of the team, most of all, there are times when it is just hard to imagine where the pass rush is going to come from against good teams.
Coach Riley seemed a bit subdued after the game. He expressed concern about many of these things. Good.
This team continues to struggle especially in second quarter (or sometimes the third quarter) when rolling along to a two-score lead. You can almost feel the string of screw-ups coming in these kinds of games. The foot comes completely off the gas and everything just falls apart in every phase of the game. The second quarter was yet another example.
We beat our opponent. We beat ourselves. And then we beat our opponent again.
But all in all, not a bad first game. Hard to complain when you win going away by 33.
But things are never easy for these guys.
This team has talent. This team has issues.
Not much has changed in that regard.
But again, 1-0 sure beats 0-1.
Enjoy it. Another season is upon us. Another reason to dream of better things.
Now let’s find out about some of the recruits!
Congrats to Coach Riley for win #100.
Take care all.
