I suspect you're right about that. Not to mention the game was televised. Teams are going to figure out what MSU is doing soon enough, but it could be the coaches didn't want to get too carried away.HelenaCat wrote: ↑Sun Apr 25, 2021 2:06 pmI did not make any weekday practices, but I made every Saturday including the last two which were pretty much full contact (including all QBs). McKay has looked extremely good previously, not as sharp yesterday. With the Yellow shirt, we really had no chance to see his athleticism. As B99 pointed out, his running ability is what sets him apart. He is a capable thrower. I am not an expert, but I rate him a bit better than Rovig as a thrower.
Bauman has looked much improved and I am hopeful the new staff can develop him. He has, by far in my opinion, the strongest arm of the five. He is not near the runner that McKay is, but he is not a statue either. Too bad he had to sit out.
I thought Rovig looked much better yesterday than the previous weeks. Other than the one bad interception, he played well.
I also thought both Thelen and Mellott looked better yesterday than the previous weekends. But they have both shown they have some natural ability and again, I am hopeful that Vigen and Housewright are better at developing QBs than our previous staffs.
Really overall, I have thought our offense looked much sharper in terms of QB play the last few Saturdays than they looked yesterday. I suspect the play calling was pretty vanilla and maybe our defense is catching up a bit. Prior to yesterday, I came away from the previous scrimmages quite impressed with our passing game in general, especially compared to our last few years. Receivers open, QBs delivering the ball on time, and receivers catching the ball.
The one consistent every week has been our running game. The No. 1 O-line, no matter who has been in the rotation, has consistently opened huge holes and as discussed by everyone we have quite a few good backs. They have not been as consistent in pass protection, but boy are they good at run blocking.
I have been concerned about our defense, but thought they played much better yesterday. I am hopeful that our offensive line is just that good, plus we get a lot of really good players back in August.
As for the defense, which nobody is talking about, it is a concern. No Andersen, Benson, Williams, Okada and O'Reilly, so it's hard to say. The depth doesn't look great. You have to like, along with those five, Thomas at one corner and Hardy at DE/OLB. That's seven very good starters, but the defense needs all 11, along with some backups, to be effective. One guy I really like is Miles Jackson as he really jumps off the field at you. Looks like a player. Jeffrey Manning had some moments at safety, but he didn't appear to have a chance on Ifanse on that TD run. Ifanse is great, but Manning needs to be able to at least slow him down until the cavalry arrives. Rygg, Valdez, and (was that Ethan Bullock (89) playing DE?), all made a couple plays. I didn't hear Rollins name called much, but that may just be due to the position he plays. The linebackers didn't seem to do much.
It's a tough call on the defense with so many players out and the MSU OL is really, really good and they're blocking for some very good backs. Elliot doesn't mess around. I thought he'd be someone that dances around in the hole a bit, but I didn't see that at all. Didn't like the fumble, but he came back and totally redeemed himself by continuing to run hard (wrap up the ball) and then scored a TD. (I'll stop now before I digress back into talking about the offense again).