Good, bad, and ugly Oregon edition

[onceacat]

Here’s my overall take:

Last years team would have lost by a larger margin to this Oregon squad.

I don’t really take anything away from this for MSU other than Lamson to Dowler should be fun to watch, and that Lanning seems to have by far the most physical team of his four at Oregon. Their D-Line was manhandling an otherwise excellent FSC Bobcat OL.

Throw it away and prepare for a very winnable game at home next week against a now rival.

1. So now we have to degrade last year's team to "feel good" about getting thumped. With absolutely no explanation. Nice...
2. Do we know the line is excellent? We have 3 pretty much new starters and two guys out of position. Maybe this line was hearing a little too much how great they were and needed a little humble pie. Not being able to run at all is not a good look. They actually surprised me a little on the pass side, I thought that was kind of our weakness last year.

May not have run blocked well but they pass blocked well enough to allow for 23 completions on 31 attempts. Msu fans either have to credit the line or Lamson for that. Almost all of the receptions were routine so it isn’t like Lamson was getting bailed out by his receivers a lot.

The RBs rushed 16 times for 47 years, thats 3 YPC. (Lamson had 11 for -1, a bunch of those were broken pass plays where he barely got back to the los...)

And that was in a game where no-one expected the Cats to run. The Cats aren't going to see another D-line anywhere close to the scrubs that Oregon put in late...I mean, the Cats O-line had to block 3-4 guys who are going to play on Sundays. Uiagaleli is projected as a Top 20 pick in next years draft.

For the Cats to average 3 ypc and protect Lamson enough to put up really decent numbers is a pretty huge win in my book. SDSU is going to look like playing in slo-mo after watching this game.

[PapaG]

Here’s my overall take:

Last years team would have lost by a larger margin to this Oregon squad.

I don’t really take anything away from this for MSU other than Lamson to Dowler should be fun to watch, and that Lanning seems to have by far the most physical team of his four at Oregon. Their D-Line was manhandling an otherwise excellent FSC Bobcat OL.

Throw it away and prepare for a very winnable game at home next week against a now rival.

1. So now we have to degrade last year's team to "feel good" about getting thumped. With absolutely no explanation. Nice...
2. Do we know the line is excellent? We have 3 pretty much new starters and two guys out of position. Maybe this line was hearing a little too much how great they were and needed a little humble pie. Not being able to run at all is not a good look. They actually surprised me a little on the pass side, I thought that was kind of our weakness last year.

Pass protection for the OL was actually solid considering the opponent. I just assume that they will be able to push around most FCS DLs.

[onceacat]

Here’s my overall take:

Last years team would have lost by a larger margin to this Oregon squad.

I don’t really take anything away from this for MSU other than Lamson to Dowler should be fun to watch, and that Lanning seems to have by far the most physical team of his four at Oregon. Their D-Line was manhandling an otherwise excellent FSC Bobcat OL.

Throw it away and prepare for a very winnable game at home next week against a now rival.

1. So now we have to degrade last year's team to "feel good" about getting thumped. With absolutely no explanation. Nice...
2. Do we know the line is excellent? We have 3 pretty much new starters and two guys out of position. Maybe this line was hearing a little too much how great they were and needed a little humble pie. Not being able to run at all is not a good look. They actually surprised me a little on the pass side, I thought that was kind of our weakness last year.

I’ll address point 2 from my simple perspective. No FCS team and only the Ducks direct peers will be able to push their lines around. Same thing happens when we play low tier FCS or D2 teams, I understand that even then they have some diamonds in the rough and have decent runs or sneak one by our guys, so why can’t we do the same? Because their defensive line were the top 1% of athletes, heck some of them didn’t even look like down linemen, they looked like NFL linebackers. When their tightend is 6’3”, 245 lbs, runs 23 mph and can bench over 400, imagine what their ‘big guys’ can do.

I think people forget the talent disparity between the Cats & Oregon sometimes. The Cats have a bunch of really good athletes.

Oregon only extends offers to total athletic freaks. Guys like Dakota Prukop and NFL talent like Travis Jonsen & Daniel Hardy ride the bench there. Literally every single guy they offer has Troy Andersen/Tommy Mellot measurables PLUS have a ton more development & coaching coming out of high school.

I think those passing numbers & 3 ypc (excluding Lamsons rushes, which included 3 sacks) against a line that has 3-4 future NFL players & one guy thats a potential top 10 pick is plenty impressive.

[wbtfg]

So....are we going to talk about the 1st half punting? Actually was great Colby got settled in later. But yikes did that not help our D.

I posted on one of the threads, it looks like Colby takes a little false step hop when he receives the snap. I’m not sure if he corrected it or if Oregon called off the dogs on Punt block.

[SparkCat]

Here’s my overall take:

Last years team would have lost by a larger margin to this Oregon squad.

I don’t really take anything away from this for MSU other than Lamson to Dowler should be fun to watch, and that Lanning seems to have by far the most physical team of his four at Oregon. Their D-Line was manhandling an otherwise excellent FSC Bobcat OL.

Throw it away and prepare for a very winnable game at home next week against a now rival.

1. So now we have to degrade last year's team to "feel good" about getting thumped. With absolutely no explanation. Nice...
2. Do we know the line is excellent? We have 3 pretty much new starters and two guys out of position. Maybe this line was hearing a little too much how great they were and needed a little humble pie. Not being able to run at all is not a good look. They actually surprised me a little on the pass side, I thought that was kind of our weakness last year.

I’ll address point 2 from my simple perspective. No FCS team and only the Ducks direct peers will be able to push their lines around. Same thing happens when we play low tier FCS or D2 teams, I understand that even then they have some diamonds in the rough and have decent runs or sneak one by our guys, so why can’t we do the same? Because their defensive line were the top 1% of athletes, heck some of them didn’t even look like down linemen, they looked like NFL linebackers. When their tightend is 6’3”, 245 lbs, runs 23 mph and can bench over 400, imagine what their ‘big guys’ can do.

I think people forget the talent disparity between the Cats & Oregon sometimes. The Cats have a bunch of really good athletes.

Oregon only extends offers to total athletic freaks. Guys like Dakota Prukop and NFL talent like Travis Jonsen & Daniel Hardy ride the bench there. Literally every single guy they offer has Troy Andersen/Tommy Mellot measurables PLUS have a ton more development & coaching coming out of high school.

I think those passing numbers & 3 ypc (excluding Lamsons rushes, which included 3 sacks) against a line that has 3-4 future NFL players & one guy thats a potential top 10 pick is plenty impressive.

Reflecting on the game, I actually love what I saw for the most part. I think fans will have more growing pains than the team, especially with the new offensive look. I was actually blown away with Grays speed when he ran down their running back on a breakaway. He was blowing the doors off everyone until he ran him down.

[TomCat88]

Here’s my overall take:

Last years team would have lost by a larger margin to this Oregon squad.

I don’t really take anything away from this for MSU other than Lamson to Dowler should be fun to watch, and that Lanning seems to have by far the most physical team of his four at Oregon. Their D-Line was manhandling an otherwise excellent FSC Bobcat OL.

Throw it away and prepare for a very winnable game at home next week against a now rival.

1. So now we have to degrade last year's team to "feel good" about getting thumped. With absolutely no explanation. Nice...
2. Do we know the line is excellent? We have 3 pretty much new starters and two guys out of position. Maybe this line was hearing a little too much how great they were and needed a little humble pie. Not being able to run at all is not a good look. They actually surprised me a little on the pass side, I thought that was kind of our weakness last year.

May not have run blocked well but they pass blocked well enough to allow for 23 completions on 31 attempts. Msu fans either have to credit the line or Lamson for that. Almost all of the receptions were routine so it isn’t like Lamson was getting bailed out by his receivers a lot.

The RBs rushed 16 times for 47 years, thats 3 YPC. (Lamson had 11 for -1, a bunch of those were broken pass plays where he barely got back to the los...)

And that was in a game where no-one expected the Cats to run. The Cats aren't going to see another D-line anywhere close to the scrubs that Oregon put in late...I mean, the Cats O-line had to block 3-4 guys who are going to play on Sundays. Uiagaleli is projected as a Top 20 pick in next years draft.

For the Cats to average 3 ypc and protect Lamson enough to put up really decent numbers is a pretty huge win in my book. SDSU is going to look like playing in slo-mo after watching this game.

They have a new stat this year called SackAdjustYards. So, Lamson was sacked three times for 21 yards. They subtract the sacks from rushes and add the yards back in. So, MSU was 24 carries for 67 yards as a team.

[94VegasCat]

Good: we can throw the ball, with a cobbled together OL. Almost 3/4 million dollars in the bank. Iron sharpens iron so we should’ve learned some great lessons. Next man up ability!

Bad: did we get good enough tape to make great evaluations from? Do we really know what we have?

Ugly: losing starters that can keep stepping up. Are the 3s as good as the 2s that did good filling in for the 1s that got hurt? Are the 4s ready?

[Travelingcat]

Traveled to the game with my son. We both largely concurred with the more positive sentiments that seemed to predominate here. It is strange to feel fairly positive coming out of a 46 point shellacking, but as many have said, the quality and the athleticism of the opponent needs to be taken into consideration. Our guys never stopped competing and never seemed to get down on themselves. And there were a number of things to like.

GOOD:

Lamson was overall, excellent facing a really talented team. The QB we saw yesterday would obliterate most FCS schools-- QB was the biggest question for me heading into the season, so seeing it seemingly answered positively, means we are likely to have a team that can be a title contender

Taco Dowler: Didn't just look like a Power 4 receiver-- looked like an NFL slot guy with upside in the return game. I would compared him quite favorably to the similar sized Junior Bergen-- quicker, and I think he will put up a faster 40 time.

Rocky Lencioni: Looked very fluid on his four receptions. Only a Freshman-- has me excited for the future.

Josaiah Asuega. Breaking into a stacked depth chart as a true Freshman DT isand getting two tackles is an incredible positive sign. 247 profile on him says "he has a very big upside and should be recruited at the high Power 4 level." We may have a gem there.

Lack of Big Plays given up: Oregon had very few huge chunk plays on offense, despite their substantial scoring output. We came very close to getting their offense off the field several times-- but just couldn't quite get over the top.

BAD

Punting/kickoff game. Still plenty of time to correct, but two blocked kicks really set us back. Kickoff distances were not Hall-like-- but this is a Freshman in his first game-- not panicking by any means.

Interior OL-- Again, most of this is just Oregon is good, but Carr in particular seemed to have some challenges on plays I watched him. Again-- everyone playing out of position didn't help things.

Defense-- we came *close* to getting them off the field-- but at the end of the day, we never forced them to punt. We have to finish those drives.

UGLY

THe Ducks Yellow and Green color scheme.

[BelligerentBobcat]

Traveled to the game with my son. We both largely concurred with the more positive sentiments that seemed to predominate here. It is strange to feel fairly positive coming out of a 46 point shellacking, but as many have said, the quality and the athleticism of the opponent needs to be taken into consideration. Our guys never stopped competing and never seemed to get down on themselves. And there were a number of things to like.

GOOD:

Lamson was overall, excellent facing a really talented team. The QB we saw yesterday would obliterate most FCS schools-- QB was the biggest question for me heading into the season, so seeing it seemingly answered positively, means we are likely to have a team that can be a title contender

Taco Dowler: Didn't just look like a Power 4 receiver-- looked like an NFL slot guy with upside in the return game. I would compared him quite favorably to the similar sized Junior Bergen-- quicker, and I think he will put up a faster 40 time.

Rocky Lencioni: Looked very fluid on his four receptions. Only a Freshman-- has me excited for the future.

Josaiah Asuega. Breaking into a stacked depth chart as a true Freshman DT isand getting two tackles is an incredible positive sign. 247 profile on him says "he has a very big upside and should be recruited at the high Power 4 level." We may have a gem there.

Lack of Big Plays given up: Oregon had very few huge chunk plays on offense, despite their substantial scoring output. We came very close to getting their offense off the field several times-- but just couldn't quite get over the top.

BAD

Punting/kickoff game. Still plenty of time to correct, but two blocked kicks really set us back. Kickoff distances were not Hall-like-- but this is a Freshman in his first game-- not panicking by any means.

Interior OL-- Again, most of this is just Oregon is good, but Carr in particular seemed to have some challenges on plays I watched him. Again-- everyone playing out of position didn't help things.

Defense-- we came *close* to getting them off the field-- but at the end of the day, we never forced them to punt. We have to finish those drives.

UGLY

THe Ducks Yellow and Green color scheme.

My BIL and I talked about this…the last time Zimmer and Carr started, they were playing Montana HS opponents. Imagine going from that, to playing some of the top players in the nation. Quite a bump in difficulty. Great way for them to learn.

[TomCat88]

BAD

Punting/kickoff game. Still plenty of time to correct, but two blocked kicks really set us back. Kickoff distances were not Hall-like-- but this is a Freshman in his first game-- not panicking by any means.

Probably nothing, but I wonder how much the kickoffs were affected by altitude and humidity. I think Keaton and Leo were saying it was hazy and humid. Elevation is only 430' in Eugene. I'm trying to remember Hall's kickoffs in Portland last year. They were all into the EZ, but can't remember if they were out of the EZ like almost all of them at home.

[MSU01]

BAD

Punting/kickoff game. Still plenty of time to correct, but two blocked kicks really set us back. Kickoff distances were not Hall-like-- but this is a Freshman in his first game-- not panicking by any means.

Probably nothing, but I wonder how much the kickoffs were affected by altitude and humidity. I think Keaton and Leo were saying it was hazy and humid. Elevation is only 430' in Eugene. I'm trying to remember Hall's kickoffs in Portland last year. They were all into the EZ, but can't remember if they were out of the EZ like almost all of them at home.

MSU probably isn't going to have another Brendan Hall for a while, I think we'll all need to adjust back to having normal kickoff distances after two years of Hall's kicks routinely going through the field goal uprights.

[TomCat88]

BAD

Punting/kickoff game. Still plenty of time to correct, but two blocked kicks really set us back. Kickoff distances were not Hall-like-- but this is a Freshman in his first game-- not panicking by any means.

Probably nothing, but I wonder how much the kickoffs were affected by altitude and humidity. I think Keaton and Leo were saying it was hazy and humid. Elevation is only 430' in Eugene. I'm trying to remember Hall's kickoffs in Portland last year. They were all into the EZ, but can't remember if they were out of the EZ like almost all of them at home.

MSU probably isn't going to have another Brendan Hall for a while, I think we'll all need to adjust back to having normal kickoff distances after two years of Hall's kicks routinely going through the field goal uprights.

Oh no, I get that. I'm just wondering if Hall's kicks were going as deep as they go at home when he was in Portland. All but one was a touchback in Portland, and the one they returned may have been deep in the EZ, but I don't recall if they were sailing all the way out of the EZ like they often do in Bozeman. I don't recall. Just think that maybe Frojker's kicks will get into the EZ in Bozeman. I'm not necessarily sure if it's a super bad thing that they don't. I think MSU's cover teams can often keep returners from reaching the 25.

[catatac]

I'm going to add a level and have a Great, Good, Bad, and Ugly... just so we even out the positive and negative comments... LOL.

Great: TACO!!! Was one of the best players on the field yesterday.

Good: Lamson and the offense being able to do at least a few things against THAT defense, with a shuffled OL.

Bad: Tackling. I know some on here are arguing this point but I saw a few instances where we just went for the hit and did NOT focus on tackling to the ground.

Ugly: Penalties and special teams blunders. Everyone knew going in that the Cats would have to play perfect game in terms of focus and execution to not get blown out of the water... and then we go in and make a bunch of mistakes.

[TomCat88]

Bad: Tackling. I know some on here are arguing this point but I saw a few instances where we just went for the hit and did NOT focus on tackling to the ground.

I hate to keep belaboring this, but I've spent some time on this and just want to see what I'm missing for future reference. I'm not football genius, but I've gone threw the game twice now and haven't seen this. Can you point these plays out? I ID'd four missed tackles and a couple plays that were more the offensive player making a great move than a missed tackle.

I think people need to realize the other team is trying too and that lots of the so-called missed tackles are when a player is fighting his way through a block and despite getting through it doesn't have the leverage to make a strong tackle attempt. Like I said earlier, this is like people yelling "Block Out!!" at basketball games when the reality is the player did block out, however, the ball came off the rim long and there was no way the player could get it.

[mslacatfan]

not sure if its been mentioned or not.....

Good category- Myles Sansted, 2 FG, both over 40 yards. well done!!!

[Bobcat4Ever]

Reflecting on the game, I actually love what I saw for the most part. I think fans will have more growing pains than the team, especially with the new offensive look. I was actually blown away with Grays speed when he ran down their running back on a breakaway. He was blowing the doors off everyone until he ran him down.

My wife made me stop the TV and back up on that play. She said, “There was somebody coming like a missile!” She was right and it was Gray. Not only did he chase him down from way behind, he didn’t quit, and he didn’t overrun him when he got there. He stayed under control and made a good tackle. Another ‘Cat helped by causing the Duck to change direction slightly. Very impressive performance by Gray. I hope they had the digital speedometer on him!

[Bobcat4Ever]

not sure if its been mentioned or not.....

Good category- Myles Sansted, 2 FG, both over 40 yards. well done!!!

Thanks, I forgot that in my post. Hit them cleanly, no doubt on either. 57,257 in attendance and he never flinched. We’re good there. Did we get the trailing “7” in our honor?

[iaafan]

Reflecting on the game, I actually love what I saw for the most part. I think fans will have more growing pains than the team, especially with the new offensive look. I was actually blown away with Grays speed when he ran down their running back on a breakaway. He was blowing the doors off everyone until he ran him down.

My wife made me stop the TV and back up on that play. She said, “There was somebody coming like a missile!” She was right and it was Gray. Not only did he chase him down from way behind, he didn’t quit, and he didn’t overrun him when he got there. He stayed under control and made a good tackle. Another ‘Cat helped by causing the Duck to change direction slightly. Very impressive performance by Gray. I hope they had the digital speedometer on him!

I’m watching now and I remember that play but not sure when it occurred. What quarter was it in?

[SparkCat]

Reflecting on the game, I actually love what I saw for the most part. I think fans will have more growing pains than the team, especially with the new offensive look. I was actually blown away with Grays speed when he ran down their running back on a breakaway. He was blowing the doors off everyone until he ran him down.

My wife made me stop the TV and back up on that play. She said, “There was somebody coming like a missile!” She was right and it was Gray. Not only did he chase him down from way behind, he didn’t quit, and he didn’t overrun him when he got there. He stayed under control and made a good tackle. Another ‘Cat helped by causing the Duck to change direction slightly. Very impressive performance by Gray. I hope they had the digital speedometer on him!

I’m watching now and I remember that play but not sure when it occurred. What quarter was it in?

I’d like to say 3rd or early 4th. It was actually incredible on the ground he was covering.

[iaafan]

mi

Reflecting on the game, I actually love what I saw for the most part. I think fans will have more growing pains than the team, especially with the new offensive look. I was actually blown away with Grays speed when he ran down their running back on a breakaway. He was blowing the doors off everyone until he ran him down.

My wife made me stop the TV and back up on that play. She said, “There was somebody coming like a missile!” She was right and it was Gray. Not only did he chase him down from way behind, he didn’t quit, and he didn’t overrun him when he got there. He stayed under control and made a good tackle. Another ‘Cat helped by causing the Duck to change direction slightly. Very impressive performance by Gray. I hope they had the digital speedometer on him!

I’m watching now and I remember that play but not sure when it occurred. What quarter was it in?

I’d like to say 3rd or early 4th. It was actually incredible on the ground he was covering.

Reminded me of Troy chasing down that shsu speedster. Would’ve had him but he got bumped into. I been saying that we got speed back there.