#1-0: Knee Jerk Reaction

Knee jerk reaction: not too thrilled but damn it's nice to be 2-0

How do you out gain the other team's offense 458 to 231 and only win by 10? Well losing the turnover battle 2-0 and having 6 penalties for 65 yards is a start. Last week we beat an over hyped ULL team who got their ass handed to them by a subpar KSU. Last week we had all the hype of playing in the season opener and played with a chip on our shoulder. This week after a solid first two drives we looked like we were content and stopped playing with intensity. Playing without intensity is unacceptable.

D-Line get your shit together. Sometimes I think our D line thinks they're not allowed to get off a block. I'm tired of seeing them stay blocked the entire play. Only positive was seeing Robert Thomas make a few plays early and a glimpse of Philon. Other than that, not too impressed. Samford's RB had 16 carries for 103 yards. Look, if Samford is going to come run the ball for over 100 we may not win 1 SEC game. The read option is pretty much impossible for us to stop. I was surprised to see a 3rd down stop on a quick hitch pass but that might be the only time I've ever seen us stop that. I thought for the most part Alan Turner and Braylon Mitchell looked lost.

Word is Trey Flowers tweaked his knee and only sat for precautionary measures.

I'm going to need to see a linebacker make a play in the near future. And I don't mean drag someone down 4 yards passed the line of scrimmage. I mean hit someone and knock them backwards. I was hoping we were going to be able to redshirt Otha and AJ Turner but we're going to need some speed out there at some point. I just think an extra year with Randy Shanon would be a huge benefit for them down the road. Brooks Ellis looked big as shit when they showed him on the sideline I'm going to need to see more of him.

I was disappointed to see a lack of Hunter Henry involvement. Had a penalty against him to negate a third down. Caught one pass. Kody Walker probably doesn't need to be on the field unless we're on the 1 inch line and Jwill, Buddha, and Kiero all are in the locker room taking a shit. Sweet 3rd down drop now go sit your ass out the rest of the year.

Can we please incorporate a screen pass. Please. Our running backs are our best weapons and we need to find more ways to get them the ball. Pretty sure PA threw like 14 screens to Hunter Henry a game. You know why? Because it fucking works.

Almost threw up everywhere when for no apparent reason we started trying to throw the ball when the lead was dwindling away. And it obviously wasn't working. Dejavu at it's absolute worse. I still have nightmares of Paul Petrino. Idaho must literally the worst team in the NCAA to hire him to do anything for their team let alone be there head coach. I mean really. Just look at this guy. What a joke.

On a bright note...

Travis Swanson looks amazing out there. Just absolutely looks like a first round pick. I'll admit I have know idea what that exactly looks like but it sounds damn good. I saw him pulling quite a bit, leading the way and sealing the edge. Him and Kiero Small helped lead us to 333 yards on the ground. Run game looking damn good. Samford for some reason has a gigantic D line. Their D end weighing in at like 315. That's fucking ridiculous.

Oh yeah and Alex Collins is a monster. 26 carries, 172 yards, 1 TD. On the year he has 45 carries for a bit over 300 yards. That's over 6.6 yards per carry. This kid is the real deal. I'd like to see him break a few more tackles and not look to break it outside so much. I'm not going to complain though when his first contact is 5 yards down the field. That's called hitting the hole. Liked seeing him lower his shoulder tonight. Made some big contact in the trenches and didn't shy away from it. Get used to it because rumor has it the SEC has some big dudes.

Jonathan Williams had 126 yards on 17 carries with a touchdown and a costly fumble. Looked good other than that fumble which put him in the dog house for a bit, costing him a few carries. Small added 25 yards on 5 carries but lacked to be a factor receiving the ball. I guess it's hard to be too involved when your team only completes 9 passes the whole game. Brandon Allen had a couple nice little runs too.

Herndon with yet another bad ass one handed catch.

Most importantly we did walk away with the win which is more than we can say about last year. Maybe a 4th quarter comeback where we were able to run the ball and make some third down conversions is exactly what we needed to shake last year. I believe in our coaches and I believe they will use this game as a learning opportunity. It was nice to see nobody lost their cool and we were able to keep their calm, return to their game plan, and take the lead back. And keep the lead.

#1-0.

ps. at least texas sucks. Makes this ugly win feel a bit better.