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6. To my eyes Warren had a solid game against a bad defense, with the highs of several explosive plays he spun it nicely and the lows of bad timing/decision-making/pocket presence (albeit with protection at fault) on the very badly timed sacks (the first quarter fourth down and the strip sack he recovered as part of the disastrous end of half sequence that killed our momentum). Taking a sack on fourth down is horrible. Throwing a fourth down interception downfield on a ball the receiver had a chance to make the play is a good decision. Unfortunately, right after I pointed out that our nation-pacing drops proclivity was a function of the first three games and seemed to be something we cleaned up, we went and had another butterfingers game, with four drops. That made Warren's life much more of a slog than it should have been, and he still did ok. Total QBR accounts for this kind of context and as a result thought that on balance he played well, 29th of 111 in Total QBR this week, one of his three best games this year for the second week in a row. On the season he's 65th of 141 in the nation. Definite bright spot for us.
7. The success Ford is having the second half of the season is also nice to see. His third consecutive 100+ yard from scrimmage game joins CJ WIlliams and Casey Filkins as the only players to do that for us this era. If Ford can keep the streak going another game he will be the first to have four games that productive in a row since Bryce Love in 2017. Also worthy of a shoutout is Nico Brown's first 100 yard game at the FBS level (though Georgia Tech was about as close as you can get). Hall's drops were killer, unfortunately all-time bad hands so far in his career. The Black touchdown had to be one of our most surprising in years. Credit to Pritchard for the off tendency call and to Black, Warren, and the protection for the execution. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Ford (6), Nico Brown (4), Irvin (2) Black, Blackburn] PFF assessed Warren, Brown, Anderson, and Ford as having good performances and Hall, House, High, Holt, Blackburn, Onovughe, Williams and Pale as weak links. Pale has most consistently been the weakest link all season and PFF says Fattig got in for 11 snaps. It would be nice to see some accountability and to give Fattig the time with the 1s in practice the next two weeks and the start against Virginia Tech.
8. The calamitous and likely game-deciding hook-and-ladder didn't bother me all that much. Louisville was the much better team and we were holding on surprisingly well by our standards to even be in the game at that point. A less creative play call may or may not have worked on 3rd and 12 and if not Louisville likely would have made it a two score game just the same a few plays later. The other play that arguably sealed the game was Blackburn's lack of detail in where he lined up, wiping out Ford's awesome 19 yard catch and run touchdown. That drive then stalling was the mathematical start of garbage time. I would have liked to see this game play out without those two plays, but we got the result we deserved.
9. Green stood out as our best player yesterday. The tone-setting tackle for loss on the pass in the flat on the opening drive, two pass breakups, and general activity level stood out. Cooper, Davis, and Mattingly were the only other defenders to have three positive box score plays. I said last week it seemed Cooper was benched, but it seems that may have been health-related and he was back in a prominent role yesterday. He's been better recently than he usually is. Davis has taken some lumps this year but is starting to look more like the player I thought we had, with the big-time tackle for loss on the fake field goal a real highlight. Mattingly is just so frustrating. He makes some plays but he's a glaring weak link. After easing back into action last week, Morris was a mainstay, acquitting himself well with a pass breakup and a run stop. Staples had a nice two play sequence to force a punt and McAllister also had a third down tackle to force a field goal. Galvan played through the final whistle, just wish there were highlights before garbage time. PFF assessed Green (very good game), Morris, Cooper, and Galvan as having good games, with several others respectable and Eckhardt, Tafiti, Bryant, Mattingly, and Bachhuber as weak links. The eye test for Eckhardt was not kind in this one. I typically only call out starter-level snaps when it comes to PFF grades, but it's notable that Sumlin and Pollard played very little and were nuked. Pollard's struggles aside, an unsung part of our season is getting credible play out of corners in a not very talented room post-Nicholson injury. Among all 20+ snap per game defenders, four of the five guys with 70+ season grades are corners (Bryant, Nicholson, McAllister, Morris), with BMO the only non-corner grading at that echelon. Getting some solid corner play may be the one thing the Richard defense has accomplished. That being said, playing time before yesterday relied a lot on far less successful Pollard and Richardson. Hopefully we continue to see Morris be the man as we did yesterday. (Being thankful for Morris' availability was not on my preseason bingo card but good on him for persevering)
10. Kenney and the place kicking operation have had a rough go of it this year (and weren't good last year either), so it was really nice to see a 48 yard field goal. Kenney also took care of business on his kickoffs. Flintoft had net punts of 10 yards to midfield (catastrophic coverage), 32 to the Stanford 41 (sub-optimal but could have been worse with a block), 42 to the 29 (nice boomer ultimately solid in field position despite a 12 yard return), and 43 to the 26 (solid). Thorpe had a 10 yard garbage time punt return. There was a nice opening kickoff tone-setting coverage tackle by Kuo and McComber as well as other coverage tackles by Eckhardt, Edwards (potential touchdown saving on the punt coverage catastrophe, and Randall. I already shouted out Double D's points-saving play on the fake. Tre Williams had a personal foul on a touchback. I don't know what he did. On paper that seems a special kind of stupid.
11. Distinguished in Defeat: Nico Brown, Jay Green, Emmet Kenney, Malcolm Agnew
12. It feels like delaying the inevitable to have the last bye come before a road game in this era of abject uncompetitiveness on the road. I have yet to see evidence we use byes to good effect, either institutionally or under this staff. We also are reasonably healthy at this point, with the significant exception of two star defenders the bye won't help. Our recruiting trail has gone cold enough that the best reasonable hope for a bye is to make investments in 2028 and 2029 relationships that eventually pan out. The main thing I'm looking forward to the next two weeks is being in the stadium for Enter Sandman. Pumped about that and the roadie with some fellow sickos. Looking beyond the next two weeks, though, this team sitting at four wins and showing some signs of life relative to the first half of the schedule leaves big goals still in front of us. Crazy as it is, even though we are the worst power team a bowl berth is still very much alive. Let's use the bye well, keep working, put good work in on recruiting, prepare for all the major things that have to go much differently in the portal than past cycles, and keep improving. Who knows, maybe we can have our first good road game and pull a shocker in Blacksburg.
7. The success Ford is having the second half of the season is also nice to see. His third consecutive 100+ yard from scrimmage game joins CJ WIlliams and Casey Filkins as the only players to do that for us this era. If Ford can keep the streak going another game he will be the first to have four games that productive in a row since Bryce Love in 2017. Also worthy of a shoutout is Nico Brown's first 100 yard game at the FBS level (though Georgia Tech was about as close as you can get). Hall's drops were killer, unfortunately all-time bad hands so far in his career. The Black touchdown had to be one of our most surprising in years. Credit to Pritchard for the off tendency call and to Black, Warren, and the protection for the execution. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Ford (6), Nico Brown (4), Irvin (2) Black, Blackburn] PFF assessed Warren, Brown, Anderson, and Ford as having good performances and Hall, House, High, Holt, Blackburn, Onovughe, Williams and Pale as weak links. Pale has most consistently been the weakest link all season and PFF says Fattig got in for 11 snaps. It would be nice to see some accountability and to give Fattig the time with the 1s in practice the next two weeks and the start against Virginia Tech.
8. The calamitous and likely game-deciding hook-and-ladder didn't bother me all that much. Louisville was the much better team and we were holding on surprisingly well by our standards to even be in the game at that point. A less creative play call may or may not have worked on 3rd and 12 and if not Louisville likely would have made it a two score game just the same a few plays later. The other play that arguably sealed the game was Blackburn's lack of detail in where he lined up, wiping out Ford's awesome 19 yard catch and run touchdown. That drive then stalling was the mathematical start of garbage time. I would have liked to see this game play out without those two plays, but we got the result we deserved.
9. Green stood out as our best player yesterday. The tone-setting tackle for loss on the pass in the flat on the opening drive, two pass breakups, and general activity level stood out. Cooper, Davis, and Mattingly were the only other defenders to have three positive box score plays. I said last week it seemed Cooper was benched, but it seems that may have been health-related and he was back in a prominent role yesterday. He's been better recently than he usually is. Davis has taken some lumps this year but is starting to look more like the player I thought we had, with the big-time tackle for loss on the fake field goal a real highlight. Mattingly is just so frustrating. He makes some plays but he's a glaring weak link. After easing back into action last week, Morris was a mainstay, acquitting himself well with a pass breakup and a run stop. Staples had a nice two play sequence to force a punt and McAllister also had a third down tackle to force a field goal. Galvan played through the final whistle, just wish there were highlights before garbage time. PFF assessed Green (very good game), Morris, Cooper, and Galvan as having good games, with several others respectable and Eckhardt, Tafiti, Bryant, Mattingly, and Bachhuber as weak links. The eye test for Eckhardt was not kind in this one. I typically only call out starter-level snaps when it comes to PFF grades, but it's notable that Sumlin and Pollard played very little and were nuked. Pollard's struggles aside, an unsung part of our season is getting credible play out of corners in a not very talented room post-Nicholson injury. Among all 20+ snap per game defenders, four of the five guys with 70+ season grades are corners (Bryant, Nicholson, McAllister, Morris), with BMO the only non-corner grading at that echelon. Getting some solid corner play may be the one thing the Richard defense has accomplished. That being said, playing time before yesterday relied a lot on far less successful Pollard and Richardson. Hopefully we continue to see Morris be the man as we did yesterday. (Being thankful for Morris' availability was not on my preseason bingo card but good on him for persevering)
10. Kenney and the place kicking operation have had a rough go of it this year (and weren't good last year either), so it was really nice to see a 48 yard field goal. Kenney also took care of business on his kickoffs. Flintoft had net punts of 10 yards to midfield (catastrophic coverage), 32 to the Stanford 41 (sub-optimal but could have been worse with a block), 42 to the 29 (nice boomer ultimately solid in field position despite a 12 yard return), and 43 to the 26 (solid). Thorpe had a 10 yard garbage time punt return. There was a nice opening kickoff tone-setting coverage tackle by Kuo and McComber as well as other coverage tackles by Eckhardt, Edwards (potential touchdown saving on the punt coverage catastrophe, and Randall. I already shouted out Double D's points-saving play on the fake. Tre Williams had a personal foul on a touchback. I don't know what he did. On paper that seems a special kind of stupid.
11. Distinguished in Defeat: Nico Brown, Jay Green, Emmet Kenney, Malcolm Agnew
12. It feels like delaying the inevitable to have the last bye come before a road game in this era of abject uncompetitiveness on the road. I have yet to see evidence we use byes to good effect, either institutionally or under this staff. We also are reasonably healthy at this point, with the significant exception of two star defenders the bye won't help. Our recruiting trail has gone cold enough that the best reasonable hope for a bye is to make investments in 2028 and 2029 relationships that eventually pan out. The main thing I'm looking forward to the next two weeks is being in the stadium for Enter Sandman. Pumped about that and the roadie with some fellow sickos. Looking beyond the next two weeks, though, this team sitting at four wins and showing some signs of life relative to the first half of the schedule leaves big goals still in front of us. Crazy as it is, even though we are the worst power team a bowl berth is still very much alive. Let's use the bye well, keep working, put good work in on recruiting, prepare for all the major things that have to go much differently in the portal than past cycles, and keep improving. Who knows, maybe we can have our first good road game and pull a shocker in Blacksburg.