My take on the BYU game.

[71YellowJacket]

Here are my impressions, sans any bias from the media (haven't watched or read any "professional" analysis of our game yet).

Good:

Kids were fired-up, gave their best for the entire game; didn’t see any quitters.

Ball is clearly our best quarterback; he will only get better every game.

PJ Daniels looked very good running, second effort.

Special teams played well; got the one TD.

Good game plan from the coaches.

Bad:

We lost the time of possession battle big time; could not get a ground game established.

Our offensive line should have been able to push BYU’s defensive front around, didn’t.

Punting was poor, especially in the thin air. Higgins is a great kid but he didn't get the job done.

Secondary beaten too often on third and fourth down must throw situations (looked a lot like last year). In fairness, some of this is likely to do with the number of people we blitzed trying to get to the quarterback.

Blitzes didn’t get the job done; lost more key plays than we made.

Not pleased with Gailey’s play call late in the third (?) quarter, when we had the ball inside our five; was it second down he went deep? If ever we needed to get the running game going this was it.

Not happy with second half defensive adjustments. BYU had too many long, time consuming drives.

Two or three damaging fumbles; these kids need to carry a football with them all next week.

In sum, Gailey and this team have their work cut out for them, we are weak on the defensive front line and it will be a long season.

I saw nothing that would make me think we have the wrong kids playing or the wrong coaches coaching.

 

[The Jacket]

Bumping this good post. I agree with most of what you said. I was looking for something to throw after we seemed like we didn't know what was coming on every 2nd/3rd and medium yardage situation. You can not afford to just let a team drop it over the middle that many times in a game. Every single time, our line backers shifted right but didn't stay in the area they should have. If they had been playing a little tighter, this game could have been very different.

After our D made me cringe, our offense comforted me. IMO, anyone who says that we don't need Ball in because he's a freshman is out of their minds. Ball was very calm and handled himself well. I think he'll lead us to many a victory in time.

 

[Foreverdawg]

Good Post. Tech played better than I expected most of the game. There were significant mental lapses that resulted in turnovers and penalties, but I actually was more optimistic for Tech's season after the game. I think Tech could've, would've, should've. That's the nature of first games (and I will probably be posting this about Dogs Sunday). You have to be excited about Reggie Ball. Fun to watch and a good player. I thought there were some bright spots in the running game. Tech lost a large number of players in the offseason. It will take time for others to develop. I think Tech will lose to Auburn and Clemson is an unknown. However, after those games, I hope and think the bugs will be out, and we'll see steady improvement for the remainder of the season (except one game). I know you guys wanted to win the opener (who doesn't), but I think there are some positives to build from.

 

[The Jacket]

Good post for the most part foreverdawg. We may very well lose to Auburn, but we will definately be improving and and can still have a good season. Auburn will be very tough, but I stand by the belief that anybody can beat anyone on anyday.