First off, I'm not calling for anybody's head. I'm not saying this is a bad hire.
But two things stand out from Saturday night's game, IMO.
1) How much longer will
ISU fans have to endure "playing for the FG"? I realize this might be standard fare for other programs. Programs that are competent in special teams.
ISU, historically, is not one of them. The second I saw Bret take that first dive to the left in the final minute, you just knew what was going to happen. The drive for the endzone was over.
Somebody on here has had that quote from a coach that says "three things happen when you throw the ball, two of them are bad". Well, 5 things happen when you kick, 4 of them are bad. And
ISU pulls out all five on a far too regular basis. Why do we continue to do it?
Not to mention another aspect of special teams. We kicked with about 10 secs to go. Last week we did the same thing with less time, and nearly gave up the ensuing kickoff return. Literally 15 minutes earlier, we gave up a kickoff return on which our cover team thought we were playing flag football. Would it not occur to us that maybe a 2pt lead wouldn't be enough? Regardless, isn't 7 usually better than 3 anyway?
And 10 minutes earlier we gave up the go-ahead score on a botched snap. And we're going back to special teams???? Isn't the writing on the wall in regards to this aspect of our team? At least on this night?
Despite RJ's drop, we were shredding the Toledo D with our passing game. Killing it. They had no answer. Why run? Why go away from what has been working? As an aside, the double and triple moves Blythe had earlier in the game were awesome. And a nice job by the line to give time for that to happen.
As for the kick, I'm only glad that it was blocked and Shaggy doesn't have to endure another miss.
2) Did it appear to anybody else that our punter (name escapes me) was trying to cover or pick up the punt? We were at that opposite end of the field, so it was hard to tell. But it looked like he was trying to pick up and at the last second just cover.
Shouldn't the AUTOMATIC play be to bat it out of the endzone, take the safety, and try to regain field position on the ensuing punt? Shouldn't that instruction have been the last thing relayed to the punter by the coaches? Didn't look like that was what he was doing from our vantage.
Oh, well. Drive over sucked. Drive back was worse (wonder why). Time there was decent enough. Toledo fans were pretty good, aside from the a$$ in Sec 23. FlagGuy and Superfan probably know who I'm talking about and represented well in their own right. Kind of sad for the Rockets, when the college kids and alums in their 20's are more respectful and gracious than the fans in their 40's.
To conclude, A fella in our group had a pretty good summary for the game.
F%#& !!!!!!
