Stock Up, Stock Down

"...don't even try it, bitch!"

STOCK UP

Kevin Riley - 17/24 for 206yrds, 71% comp percentage and 2 TDs.  NO INTs and a pass eff rating of 170.4!!! He managed the game well, didn't make errant passes and even took a 'wise' sack.  He only made one 'hero' pass and it was complete for a big 1st down to Morrah (echo Stevens vs Oregon State).  He looked calm, he shifted well in the pocket, threw with authority and looked like a leader.  Minus the three obvious drops (two by Nyan and one by Lyrelle), he would be 20/24 for 244yards, 84% comp percentage and a pass eff rating of 196.2!!!  Oh my!  Best stat of all... not a single ball was 'almost intercepted'... he threw to open people... smart ass QB, that Riley.

Jahvid Best - Best rushed 24 times for 113 yards and a 4.7yrd avg and one TD.  He caught five balls for 63yrds including a 42yrd screen pass.  Best also returned four kicks for 104yrds and a 26yrd average.   He totaled 280yrds for the day... 59% of our total yardage for the day (wow!).  The O-Line was not blocking well  and most of Best's longer runs were in space or when he made people miss.  Plus he protected the ball.  In the future, with Tepper back and our O-Line kinks worked out, I predict he will average 130yrds per game with a six yard average. 

Cameron Morrah - How does this big guy get open all the time?  He was our leading receiver with five catches for 93 yards.  One of those catches was a 50yard-er from Nate.  He missed one block badly on a rush to Riley, but his hands made up for his missed block.

Sean Young - Is Sean Young our #1 WR?? Four catches for 84 yards with a long of 42yards.  More than that... he came up with clutch catches in traffic... he clearly had the best hands during the game.  I totally understand why he jump-frogged Nyan.

Sydquan Thompson - Since MichSt never led in the game, Hoyer was passing like crazy.  Syd had two pass breakups, an INT and three solo tackles where he shed his WR block and converged on the RB or screener.  The secondary did let Dell rack up 201 yards, but Syd wasn't always on Dell.. lot of that was Hagan and Hicks too.

Shane Vereen - He ran hard with not much blocking... caught the ball and protected it.  Pass protected and did everything asked of him.  He also had a good run where he jooked two players.  Oh yeah, he had an 81 TD run but it was good blocking by Schwartz and Will that sprung him. 

Tyson Alualu - I was shocked how well he played.  When single-teamed, he really got around the edge... so they started to double team him.  He was around the ball and in Hoyer's face all frickn day. 

Our Linebackers - 3/4 gave us speed around the edge all night long... fo shizzle. Zack didn't have a sack, but he was getting around the edge and he also tipped a pass (maybe two). Felder was the man tonight, he was all over and didn't miss one tackle.  Young was in the mix.  Williams on the delayed blitz was awesome too and forced Hoyer to throw a INT that Thompson picked up.  These guys held Ringer to 77 yards on 27 rushes for a 3yrd avg.  He usually runs for 111 yards per game with a 5.9 average... that's what I call executing on our game plan to stuff the guy that's supposed to be "one of the best RBs in the country..."

Will Ta'ufo'ou - Not only did he score a TD on a boot, but his blocking tonight was awesome.  He was laying wood on LBs and Safeties... they're no match for #23.

Brian Anger - Besides the shank on the last punt... he looked like an NFL punter.  He averaged 48.5yrds per punt with three inside the 20 and one inside the five.  If he finishes the season like this he will be the best punter in school history. 

Tedford/Cignetti - The quick test of a good coach is if your team plays better in the second half than in the first after you've seen what the other team has got.  We played much better in the 2H and continued to shut Ringer down.  Our secondary truly failed us by dropping 4-5 easy picks... with those picks this game would've been a BLOWOUT.  Tedford/Cignetti called a very conservative game and made the wise decision to not screen as much since MichSt's linebackers were sniffing them out well.  I applaud them for keeping the team calm after Longshore's INTs.... that could have changed the game, but the team maintained momentum.  With 268yrds passing and 207yrds rushing, that's about as balanced as you can get with 7.2 yards per play... that's a great average.  Kudos.. B+ tonight.

Brett Johnson - Blocked a punt and Bryant Nnabuife scored with it. 

Seawright -  made all his PATs and hit a FG from 27yards.  He also did a kick-off, but it was short. Great first start though.

"Wait till you see me walk on water..."

GOOD NOT GREAT

Ezeff - Ezeff had a shoe-string tackle that stopped a 1st down conversion and was always around the ball with one pass-breakup.   Ringer had two screen runs for over 10 yards each that Ezeff should have recognized sooner though.  Hagan was also late reading those screens too. 

Rulon Davis - He played well with one tackle for loss, but he did not get a hand on the QB tonight.  He was being double-teamed and thus free-ed up Tyson, but I expected more from him.  Good first game though and he didn't get hurt.  He's still a monster.

O-line – Looked somewhat sluggish tonight, but protected Riley.  There were some good seal blocks, but not a lot of holes up the middle.  Only gave up one sack but Riley’s pocket was a bit tight tonight.  Not a single time did the announcers say…"Riley has forever to throw"… Riley did a great job of getting rid of the ball fast on every down.  But if someone like Jahvid is averaging under 5 yards per carry (4.7), then the O-line didn’t play their best.

"What the F***?!!   I read on the internets that you were one of the best backs in the country!"

STOCK DOWN

Nate Longshore - Longshore was not good.  He was 3/5 for 60 yards, but one of those passes was a 50yard bomb to Morrah.  His biggest mistake wasn't the two INTs... it was that he threw the first INT when we were in the MichSt red-zone ready to score and the DB returned it for 53 YARDS!!!!  The second INT came in our OWN 32 yard line... close to the red-zone for an easy pick-six.  (At least 3)+7=10pt swing.  He didn't look nervous, his footwork was good and his balls had zip... he just threw it into coverages... his mistakes were in his head... not his body.

Darian Hagan – we need to start over with this guy... he's much faster than Conte and Conte wasn't that great either, but he blew coverages, had a 15yrd face-mask penalty, didn't turn around for the ball and worst of all, had FOUR chances to intercept the ball.  FOUR CHANCES!!!!  He dropped each one.  The one where he caught it at the same time as the WR was his mistake for trying to catch the ball with his body... he could have used his hands and caught it at the highest point.  He had more mistakes that I can remember right now, so I'll update or admit my inaccuracies later.  Bottom line, he's be in our system too long to look that bad. 

Nyan Boteng - Very strange performance... looked like he was icing himself.  Two drops... BOTH ON 3rd DOWNS????.... and he really wasn't getting open often with his speed, as expected.  I know he can do better than this... we need to get his confidence up again and I think he'll be a weapon later on... but his mind was just off. Strange.

Lyrelle Cunningham - one drop and one catch for seven yards.  When given the starting WR spot, you gotta contribute more than this and catch the ball.  He's been catching Riley's balls on the 2nd team for over 2 years now!  Plus he has the most experience of our WRs.  Since Morrah was getting the ball so often, this means Cunningham was not getting open as well. 

Hicks – one blown coverage… and one missed tackle on Dell that resulted in a sub-one-minute touchdown. 

Teveggio - Each...kickoff...was...short...  Zero touchbacks, zero fair-catches.  Gave up over 100 yards in KORs with Ringer averaging 21yrds per KOR with two over 30yrds.

Sundberg – perfect except for a high snap that resulted in a MichSt TD… If we need to call his name, it means he had a bad game.

Our Secondary – gave up 321 yards passing and missed countless INT opportunities.  Al Simmons has his work cut out for him this week.