Yes, its slightly late but hey, it wasn’t like you were on the edge of your seats wanting to hear about this game! A disappointing 20-34 loss to Northwestern, let’s analyze…
Offense
This game was similar to several we had towards the end of the season. We had flashes of brilliance, and were scratching our heads at others wondering what the heck we were. Are we a run/play action pass team, or a spread/read option team? Or neither? Don’t ask me, I don’t know. We really lacked an identity against better teams and we struggled to find consistency near the end. I would submit to you that the NW defense was about average at best, especially their back 7 on defense. Yet we made them look really good. On our running game, when we decided to go at it, we had some success. Our stretch plays were too slow and we didn’t block them that well. A good sign was Josh Robinson got some good snaps in this game and shined. Our receivers never got great separation and were not deep threats to open things up underneath. I’m sure their film study showed that with a month to prepare. As for Tyler Russell, it was painful to watch. The first pick was a terrible read, the second one was a late throw that was babied in there, that should not have been picked. The third one was right after the INT return, and we should have put Dak in the game. Yet, Tyler forced the throw that had zero chance of being completed, except to somebody in purple. On the last one, he actually had a good idea but short-armed it and it was woefully under-thrown. What was overshadowed was the two TD throws were nice throws and catches. We move on to 2013, but we have to decide what we are. Having a deep threat is imperative, but how long have we been saying that? Grade: D
Defense
We actually played a pretty good game on the defensive side, especially being put in some bad situations by the offense. I thought the front played pretty well, with Autry and Smith coming on at DE. The biggest thing we allowed was the QB broke containment on a few plays and that changed the complexion of their drives. They came in a big running team but we held them in check for the most part. I hated that Banks could not finish the game but he gave all he could. Whitley finally made some plays, but then could not resist getting a nice PF penalty. Whatever. As we found out, Collins made the calls and we seemed to play a little better, but let’s be real, NW didn’t exactly scare you with team speed. Still, a good thing to build off of. Grade: B-
Special Teams
Remember when everyone was freaking out about our freshman kicker? I think he settled in quite nicely in the second half of the year. We punted well and held their PR guy to virtually nothing. We did not get much in the return game on our side. Not a whole lot either way here. Grade: B
Team
Bottom line, we did not play well enough to win. It was not a terrible match-up but NW deserved to win. We ended the year 8-5. Probably not much different than most thought at the beginning of the year. I was hoping for at least 9 wins myself. The reality is that we feasted on some bad teams as they turned out, and we did not compete real well against some of the better teams. We competed OK versus LSU but not so much against Bama, TAM, MS and NW. The good news is that we have a lot of players returning next season in key spots. We also have to re-stock our receiving core and our CBs. We get most of our linemen back on both sides and get some key guys who either red-shirted or who are coming via recruiting. The schedule, though, will be tougher. That’s OK, we have to beat one of these more elite teams to get to where we want to go next year, and take your pick: South Carolina, Texas A&M, LSU or Alabama. Beating MS, Okl State, Ark or Auburn will be great but will not be considered as an elite level win. Let’s see what happens in 2013. Grade: D-
Notes
Great trip once again to Jacksonville and Amelia Island, it’s definitely somewhere I will go anytime for the Gator Bowl…..Having a couple of coaches leave is not a big surprise. Dan has got to find the consistency he wants and he has to manage his folks. I hear he is tough to work for, that can bite him if he’s not careful. As for replacements, he did outstanding with David Turner and Deshea Townsend, wow……He has Collins as his DC, it will be interesting to see how different his philosophy is now that he is calling the signals. Defending the spread is going to continue to be a challenge…..Recruiting is, well, recruiting. Not for the faint of heart. It’s the ultimate roller coaster ride for a school like MSU. We are a desired school but not elite, because when the prettier girl comes calling, it can be tempting. We will always have to deal with our neighbor, and they are good at getting to the right people. We just have to play hard and not back down. It will be always be stressful to the names roll in on the faxes Feb. 6…..Speaking of a wild ride, we are sitting in a parking lot of a restaurant in Amelia Island listening to the last 2 minutes of our hoop game vs. Alabama A&M. In case you haven’t heard, that didn’t exactly turn out well. To think that we would be 2-0 in SEC play, including a road win, is head shaking. We have 7 scholarship players plus a walk-on with significant minutes. That’s it. We play so hard and physical, we are on the edge with foul trouble and players giving out nearly every game. Yet we won our first two SEC games. That being said, not only are SC and UGA not good, the whole league is terrible, as evidenced by the non-conference records, and bad losses. As I said previously, the jury will still be out on whether Rick Ray is the right guy or not. Our team plays sloppy at times, turns the ball over and makes some ill-advised plays. But they don’t back down to anybody and play hard and scrap like crazy. Sort of reminds me of the early Rod Barnes teams, they just foul and get away with what they can. We actually have some players that are pretty talented. Steele is a great streaky shooter. Johnson has improved immensely. Sword could be special. Thomas is slowly coming along, and Ware will continue to get better. Borchert is a body but he plays his role. Bloodman is not an SEC point guard but he is pretty much all we have and he tries! We should have 4-5 new guys next year, including all the injured guys coming back. It will be interesting to watch…….Hope everyone has a great 2013, take care!
Brian Follow me on Twitter (@blfdawg)
Maroon Morning QB 