this has the ear marks of another long season. Sometimes it makes me wonder if the athletic department has become content or given up.
I like Agnew. I'm going to pretend today was an exhibition game that went very very poorly and just wipe it from my mind to never recall anything but Agnew.
Riley sucks as a coach to start the season. Or... I've seen this movie before. It's called last year.
I've never liked how Riley handled quarterbacks to be honest. I get that Katz was ineffective for the first half, but unless his wrist was acting up there was no reason to pull him unless he has plans to start Mannion the rest of the season. And if he does then bleh.
Total bummer game to attend, although there were some signs of hope. The offensive line was just terrible in the first half -- I've never seen anything like it. You'd have thought we were playing against the most elite defensive line in the country. In fact, it was so bad that the day after the game, it hit me that Katz might've done something to seriously get his line po'd. The pass protection was laughably bad -- every play at least one guy got through untouched and it was a different OSU offensive lineman letting them through each time. When Mannion came in in the second half, the offensive line play got MUCH better. I'm not sure if it was because they were running A TON more and our line is that much better on the run or if they were done letting Katz get his rear end kicked around. Honestly, the o-line was so bad it did kind of look like they were being bad on purpose. Not to say that absolved Katz. He had so little time each play that I get that it would've been difficult for him to check down many receivers, but EVERY single time he hit the short guy. He really wasn't looking anywhere else. He would've been much better off going deep/semi-deep and keeping the defense somewhat honest. The DBs were seriously out of position a chunk of the game and it led to some really poorly timed penalties. I'd like to think that could be fixed somewhat easily and that their play will get a lot better. The D line didn't get nearly enough pressure on the QB -- I've got to admit that QB was really solid, but we didn't do much to really challenge him either. Despite the bad, short miss at the end of regulation, I think we've got a good looking kicker. I'd heard he has an attitutde and it looked true to me -- I'm guessing the bad result will just fire him up all the more. Coachingwise, the play calling was awful in the first half -- it felt like we kept bashing our head against the wall series after series. Pass, pass, pass, punt. time after time. They really should've gone to the run more early. It got much better in the second half; although, I really don't get why they didn't center the ball on the field before the FG attempt at the end of regulation. I'm guessing the coaching staff is also second guessing itself a lot after it's performance. I can't imagine we have much of a shot against Wisconsin, but I'll really be interested to see how the squad reacts. While I'd be bummed to lose, I at least want to see them hustle and play some smash mouth football. Lol -- i hit the bookstore right after the game to buy some gear and they started flashing the lights for closing time as soon as I got there. If anything, they probably should've been grateful to have loyal fans still willing to spend a buck lol.