Back in the win column!
Game Recap in Three Sentences
The offense finally got going and topped 400 yards for the first time this season.
The defense wasn’t amazing but they held Mercer to only FGs when it mattered.
Two turnovers helped break the game open and keep a comfortable lead.
Above The Line of the Week
- Justice Haynes. 22 carries for 141 yards and 2 scores plus a receiving touchdown; this is what we went and got him for. Let’s hope the OL improves in front of him because he’s gotta fight the whole defense for every yard.
- Chick-fil-A chicken and waffles. Why did it take them this long to do this? Don’t they employ like a zillion scientists?
- Alberto Mendoza. This was exactly the game you wanted out of him: efficient, safe, accurate, productive. He made good decisions and let a couple deep balls rip.
C’mon Y’all of the Week
At the final whistle, about a third of the team immediately ran right past me into the locker room while the state troopers had to direct the others with “hey go sing the fight song with the students”. First home win confusion I guess? Thing I never
thought I’d write on this blog: thanks GSP for helping keep our campus traditions alive.
5 Star (7 Star, 5 Star) Developmental Program Haiku of the Week
Bear with me, it’s hot
The sun shines on Bobby Dodd
Still can’t tackle though
Shrug
I don’t have a lot to say after that one. We mostly went out and did what we needed to do; the offense put together drives, the big names looked the part, and the defense didn’t allow touchdowns. There is of course also plenty to work on – run defense was still sloppy (can’t let a backup QB named JP Pickles run for 5 ypc on you), the OL was pushed around by an FCS DL, and for some reason we can’t consistently get PATs off cleanly. It’s a good thing Justice Haynes is elite at breaking tackles because he was getting touched pretty much immediately on almost every play.
The best thing to come out of this game might be that Mendoza looked really solid when pushing the ball downfield. The one knock that always came up for Haynes King was that his medium/deep throws were all over the place but Mendoza has put the ball right on the money pretty much every time. We still don’t have a dominant receiving threat for him to target consistently, though Penson, Allen, and Roche have proven to be a decent trio so far. I’d love to trade some of the uninspired runs up the middle for a few more Mendoza passing attempts and see what his arm can do.
Idk, these are the games I find it hard to write about. I don’t think there’s a whole lot to be learned from games like this – the emotional side of my brain wants to nitpick and complain but the rational side knows it’s not a representative sample. You could even convince me that’s true for the first couple games as well; maybe Colorado was just first-game rust and growing pains, and maybe Tennessee was just letdown from Colorado combined with a much more talented opponent. We’re going to learn a lot more about this team over the next couple games as we get into conference play.
Look Ahead
Up next is Stanford (9/26, 10:30pm). Staying up to watch this game is for the real sickos; so far this season Stanford hasn’t shown anything remotely impressive. If this season is gonna get turned around it needs to start here in a big way. Beating the basement-dwellers of the conference is the bare minimum at this stage of the program – anything less than an emphatic win against a bad team would be a bad omen for the rest of the year. Let’s get after it.
35mm sideline pics will be up later today or tomorrow!
