Special Teams: F
We had a field goal blocked.  We had three punts that averaged 31 yards.  Polo needs to learn how to call fair catch before he fumbles the ball.  We need to find someone who can return kickoffs.  The field position on the kickoff returns was awful.  The only bright spot was the blocked punt by Austin.
Offense: D
Timing. Timing. Timing.  Rusty made some poor decisions.  He missed some open receivers.  He needs to settle down and work on completing some short passes to work on his timing and get a rhythm.  He needs to focus on throwing to TE’s and hitches to the wide-outs.
Defense: D
They’re young and they are going to make some mistakes.  The defensive played okay.  They need more people in the line rotation.  They got tired.  They played better early and the NU offensive line wore them down by the end of the game.  The linebackers need to make more plays.  The secondary made some mistakes that really hurt.
Coaching: D
Anytime a team as talented as FAU plays as poorly as we did, you have to look at the coaching.  I did not feel that guys were prepared.  They made mistakes in executing.  I thought that Jackson called a good game we just didn’t execute.  Hoza called an ok game.  The coaches need to do a better job preparing the players for the game.

Overall
Our players need to stop reading about how good they are and start playing like they a capable of playing.  The NU game was embarrassing.  I didn’t think we were going to go into NU and beat them.  Our team has enough talent to have made it a contest and not a blow out.

Special Teams: C-

No, kick-off returns are not DI Edge by any means…and i think it is now settling in just how good we had it with that guy last year.  We don't have a capable punt returner whatsoever, but they didn't give them any time either, and were on top of the ball when it was being fielded consistently.

Offense:  D

Wide receivers we covered on virtually every play.  Given that, you have to get creative in the huddle and from the sidelines.  More crossing routes to disrupt the man to man scheme.  More timing patterns, and curl routes. On the run, we could have gone with some more sweeps and tosses.  To run directly at a line of their caliber wasn't the best thing to conitnue to do.

Defense:  C -

Have to consider the talent on the other side of the ball in this.  Big plays were obviously a huge problem - but after contact.  There was encouraging play from youngsters in the secondary, as Coach mentioned today. There was also some semblance of a pass rush for the first time in two years.  That was encouraging as well, and will get better with the eventual return of AZ and Johnson.

Coaching:  C -

Again, more creative when play calling is not working, and is immediately apperant that the opposition scouted us extremely well.  They had an obvious answer for our strengths form the start.  We should have had a well established "plan b" of attack when "plan a" was not working whatsoever to move the ball.  Can't put all of the blame on the coaches though, they only call plays.  They don't run them, and some bad decisions were made at QB.

I think the defensive starters played great but its obvious there's no depth.
b-
Everyone else is a F with an asterisk. Morris, Rose and the Oline all get B+'s if not better. I thought they all played great. I've bashed enough so i need a bit of sunshine before i get banished and ted hutton blocks my ip address.

Coaching, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Exit39 said

I've bashed enough so i need a bit of sunshine before i get banished and ted hutton blocks my ip address.

:D

Exit, we all love you here…you will never be banished…

Besides, where else would we get posts like this to enjoy:

Exit39 said

why the f does sammy get 24 seconds?who else is scareed fore teh hype of jimmie suttttttton.       lit up like a christmas treee rightnow

Even 44 agrees!

fauowls44 said

Best post ever?

Blast from the past…a classic post from Exit:

Sammie

from a post a long time ago, with a ip adress far, far away.

Exit39 said

I think the defensive starters played great but its obvious there's no depth.
b-
Everyone else is a F with an asterisk. Morris, Rose and the Oline all get B+'s if not better. I thought they all played great. I've bashed enough so i need a bit of sunshine before i get banished and ted hutton blocks my ip address.

Coaching, if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Morris needs to hold on to the ball.  He needs to watch some Tiki Barber film.

Nebraska had nine months to prepare for our offense, and they are used to passing attacks bing in the pass crazy B-12. so ours was no nig deal at all to them, as we saw! a for running outside, way to much speed on the D to get away with that. A fast d you do run at them and cut-back hoping they overpursue.
Speaking of speed, who watched the FSU-Miami game? We are still not close thier thier league in team speed, especially on D and special teams.
If we play either of them we lose by 40 every time!

I have comcast cable and I get the Big 12 Network. Don't ask me why this is on a central Illinois cable system with the University of Illinois 45 miles away.

Anyway. I was able to watch an abbreviated game. No huddles, kickoffs, timeouts, etc. It was squeezed into an hour.

The play by play announcers several times mentioned that FAU was not sending out as many receivers as Nebraska. Some were staying to block. So Rusty had fewer options on the pass plays. Nebraska always had receivers open. FAU rarely. Most of the pass completions made by Nebraska, the receiver was wide open and no defender close. Rusty was getting time but had no one to throw it to most of the time. All but a few of Rusty's passes were to well covered receivers. Unfortunatley they edited out the drives lead by Van Camp. Like I said, it had to be squeezed in an hour with commercials.

Nebraska was suprisingly quick. They also looked strong. They made their tackles and didn't bounced off. FAU defense was missing tackles and bouncing off. I will have to use the "E" word. Nebraska was executing better. The receivers were getting open, the line was opening holes for the running backs, the receivers caught the ball.

I also was able to watch the ULM - Texas game. I haven't seen the game we played last year against Texas but I can't imagine we looked as bad as ULM looked. They were pushed all over the field. ULM's first touch down was on a broken coverage assignment. It was a long pass. The second ULM touch down was not shown but I think Texas had pulled most or all of the starters since it was 59-13 in the fourth qtr..

Rick said

Special Teams: C-

No, kick-off returns are not DI Edge by any means…and i think it is now settling in just how good we had it with that guy last year.  We don't have a capable punt returner whatsoever, but they didn't give them any time either, and were on top of the ball when it was being fielded consistently.

Offense:  D

Wide receivers we covered on virtually every play.  Given that, you have to get creative in the huddle and from the sidelines.  More crossing routes to disrupt the man to man scheme.  More timing patterns, and curl routes. On the run, we could have gone with some more sweeps and tosses.  To run directly at a line of their caliber wasn't the best thing to conitnue to do.

Defense:  C -

Have to consider the talent on the other side of the ball in this.  Big plays were obviously a huge problem - but after contact.  There was encouraging play from youngsters in the secondary, as Coach mentioned today. There was also some semblance of a pass rush for the first time in two years.  That was encouraging as well, and will get better with the eventual return of AZ and Johnson.

Coaching:  C -

Again, more creative when play calling is not working, and is immediately apperant that the opposition scouted us extremely well.  They had an obvious answer for our strengths form the start.  We should have had a well established "plan b" of attack when "plan a" was not working whatsoever to move the ball.  Can't put all of the blame on the coaches though, they only call plays.  They don't run them, and some bad decisions were made at QB.

I concur…