The Unofficial Unofficial Game Day Thread - Cats-Mercyhurst

[BelligerentBobcat]

Also, GET TACO THE DAMN BALL MORE. Zero touches in the second half isn't going to cut it.

They had the ball for 3 possessions and only on 2 of those were they trying to score.

[BelligerentBobcat]

Really weird game. Not sure what to think or take away from it.

[Montanabob]

waiting for the official ratings, but it still looks like oline pass blocking good but run blocking wasnt there...

good enough to win.

and d shut down mercyless way better than suck state did.

and i think isu is pissed and taking it out on lincoln. maybe 100 points today.

[MSU01]

Also, GET TACO THE DAMN BALL MORE. Zero touches in the second half isn't going to cut it.

They had the ball for 3 possessions and only on 2 of those were they trying to score.

I know that. Find a way to get him the ball instead of going three and out on three runs up the middle, he's the best chance MSU has to create the explosive plays on offense they're so obviously lacking right now.

[Cats and Dogs]

Uninspired, underwhelming, emotionless,! I don’t know, call it a shut out non conference win! It certainly did not look like a legit title contender. More like a semi young team with new QB, OC, DC but isn’t that most teams in the FCS. Vigen probably has them practicing right now! O line looked soft! Didn’t even react when the dude was reefing on Lamson’s ankle after the play. Need some damn JYD mentality! Maybe they don’t have any real alpha dog team leaders established yet? Who knows but they need to blow up Eastern next week!

[OldGriz]

What was the final score? The score I saw had to be for the first quarter only.

[KIX]

Second half was an awful display of football. Got a bunch more work to do than I thought.

Played flat in the 2nd half. It happens...doesn't mean I gotta like it! Offensively I felt we ran the ball very well and had the identity back. Then we came out great in the 2nd, took the deep shot, and then Mercyhurst ran 30 plays to our 3 over the next 15 minutes roughly.

Again, odd game.

Odd game. Yes. Lamson needs some work or coaching. He is making bad decisions. Way too may open receivers downfield in passing game. Then it's a question of if he can complete it. Bad today.

[hokeyfine]

Strange game. Never had the feeling the cats were going to lose or were in trouble.
I would like to see lameson run less, use the short and mid game, and stop with the hero ball. The receivers are doing a great job catching the ball. They must be stoked at getting lots of opportunities.

[canyoncat]

Looking ahead to Eastern? I don't know, but they seemed way off today. Saw flashes of great play, then on the next a total WTF moment. To me it looked like it was a very vanilla game plan. Especially on defense. I didn't see or notice any or very few pressure packages. Seemed like the coaches just wanted the front four to do all the work. Way too many 3rd and long plays that put them into 4th and short where they converted. How many 4th down plays did they convert on that forever drive? As fans just flush this one and look forward to Eastern.

[Montanabob]

watching the pass to taco in the end zone, looked like pass interference to me ( watching on my phone ) and the DB pushed off and went through him to get the ball

[tetoncat]

Were TE targeted at all. Rotated OL, RB, and receivers early. May have impacted flow.

[MSU01]

Just looking over the play by play from the game and wondering if Mercyhurst could be the first team ever to have an 11-minute drive that ended in a punt.

[84CatGrad]

Ok drama queens. This game, and particularly the play calling, came down to the second half. The one where there were no points. Vigen has shown time and again that handcuffing the team with a vanilla playbook and calls makes for a better team in the long run. Trust the process.

Today was vanilla defensive calls knowing the opponent didn’t want to bring out their kicker. What really sucks( not for us btw) is that their guys played super gutsy today and are better than their coaches giving up 12 points on field goals that would have made their second half stand in n the goal line epic.

Why? Why would a coaching staff do this? Vanilla calls force a player to become a playmaker. Trust the process. Vigen has not let you down.

[84CatGrad]

I will never complain when we win. Hats off to Mercyhurst. Much improved over last year. Let's go get EWU.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Mtcatfan]

What was the final score? The score I saw had to be for the first quarter only.

Ok “lil bro”.

[Catbacker_1]

Ok drama queens. This game, and particularly the play calling, came down to the second half. The one where there were no points. Vigen has shown time and again that handcuffing the team with a vanilla playbook and calls makes for a better team in the long run. Trust the process.

Today was vanilla defensive calls knowing the opponent didn’t want to bring out their kicker. What really sucks( not for us btw) is that their guys played super gutsy today and are better than their coaches giving up 12 points on field goals that would have made their second half stand in n the goal line epic.

Why? Why would a coaching staff do this? Vanilla calls force a player to become a playmaker. Trust the process. Vigen has not let you down.

If you were at the game you and watched the kicker warming up he was shanking 30-35 yard kicks 10-20 yards left almost every time. They were never going to kick it.

[aucat]

I guess when we win by 17, the D get a goose egg and the fans are complaining, we obviously have a strong program in place.

[John K]

Aside from the San Diego game, the offense has scored a grand total of 40 points in regulation in the other three games, only 27 against the two FCS teams, and zero points in the 2nd half (the one 2nd half TD against SDSU came off their botched punt attempt, and then of course we got the one TD in OT). And sure, we pitched a shootout on defense today, but that was mostly because of their mistakes in the red zone, penalties and turnovers, and their reluctance to attempt any FG. This is the same team we beat 52-13 last year. You can sugar coat it all you want, but we've got a lot of work to do if we're going to be any better than a one and done playoff team this year. You can say we had a vanilla game plan, but the last few years our O-line and running game would have ground these guys into the turf, and consistently picked up 5-10 yards on virtually every play, with the odd big gainer sprinkled in here and there. We would have scored at least 40 points against a team like Mercyhyurst, even with the most vanilla of game plans. Obviously life is very different this year, without Tommy, and we lost a bunch of other very talented players off last year's team, Griebe, Humphrey, et al. I didn't expect this team to be a legitimate NC contender, with all the talent we had to replace, but from what I've seen so far, the decline from last year has definitely been more than I had expected/hoped for.

[grizzh8r]

Ok drama queens. This game, and particularly came down to the second half. The one where there were no points. Vigen has shown time and again that handcuffing the team with a vanilla playbook and calls makes for a better team in the long run. Trust the process.

Today was vanilla defensive calls knowing the opponent didn’t want to bring out their kicker. What really sucks( not for us btw) is that their guys played super gutsy today and are better than their coaches giving up 12 points on field goals that would have made their second half stand in n the goal line epic.

Why? Why would a coaching staff do this? Vanilla calls force a player to become a playmaker. Trust the process. Vigen has not let you down.

Nailed it. Except there are a few here with an axe to grind against Vigen and have even suggested that he's thrown games against NDSU because it's his alma mater. So they've NEVER trusted his process.

Bunch more Karens coming out of the woodwork after this game. @MSU01 throwing Lamson under the bus in multiple posts is NOT ok. Did he short arm/pull the string on the TE drag in the EZ? Absolutely. Did he throw into double coverage on the INT? Darn right. But he still threw the ball, when he could have just run it, and then people would be tickled about how many times he ran the ball! Saying he had a terrible game is inappropriate.

And it was a vanilla game plan. However, they did try to run a trick play with Chance Wilson at WR but someone false started and the element of surprise was gone, so they ran another play.

I swear, some people invest far too much of their personal happiness on the performance of 18-22 year olds in a GAME...