My observations ranked by importance.
1. Defense wins championships! No matter if your Offense is “lights out”…there are times when something doesn’t work like it should, you turn the ball over, the moon is in the 7th hour…whatever, BUT, if your Defense is championship level you will win far more tough games than you lose. This championship game featured two good Defenses…but SDSU was better. The play of the game was the 4th down stop at the goal line and once SDSU made that play, I felt immediately that the game was theirs!
SDSU didn’t really help themselves in the first half with the INT and the kick that bounced off the return team…but they never seemed threatened. After half they came out and put enough Offense together to win the game and it was their Defense that bought them the time to get in sync.
The Cats Defense this year was good but not great. We’ve spilled ink over bad tackling and lapses in coverage and the long term issue of big plays popping. I think with our new DC in Daly we’ll see a better version of what we were. But, we’ve got to bring in some LB’s and DL help IMO.
2. This goes with 1 but improved tackling is a key! Alex Singleton is now the best tackler in the NFL!
Based on most tackles/game. Ty Okada is now playing on the Seahawks because he was a sure tackler and smart player with toughness. Our DB’s and at times LB’s did get caught far too many times with shoulder bumping rather than tackling. That cost us games…point blank! If you don’t like tackling, this isn’t your game or, it isn’t your university to play at. Bring back the technique and pad level and wrap ups!3. Play with attitude and aggressiveness but don’t let the moment get you off your game. SDSU came out, played the game in the 2nd half like they would not be denied. No hype, no tricks…just play the game you play…RPO, run game, the right throws…gap sound…don’t try too hard…and you will win! That’s how SDSU came back to take the lead against us in the 3rd quarter…and at the end of the season we did not play that way.
4. Speed kills. Junior Bergman literally willed the gris into the championship game with his speed and heroics… and the D speed on both sides was noticeable. I feel like we’ve got good Offensive speed but we need to get more juice in the LB/DB ranks.