The Unofficial Unofficial Game Day Thread - Cats-Mercyhurst

[AFCAT]

All those folks complaining about scheduling a non-compettive Mercyhurst team right now.

[onceacat]

I’m just glad we have a QB that can throw over the middle and absolutely is terrified to let it rip. We are so much better because of that. When it’s past ten yards he has to dial his agent to ask if that’s allowed. Hahaha. We will lose games because of it.
Put in 15 or 13 in, they are more athletic and can make the same exact throws he can. Defense isn’t the problem, the lack of offense is. The line looks bad because the defense has zero respect for 8, so they can simply plow the box and make the run look bad.

This is a McKay situation.

What was the Cats record with Matt McKay at QB again?

[MSU01]

Horrible game by Lamson today, he missed a couple wide open receivers for easy TDs and then for some reason made that throw into double coverage for the INT. Will he get better or is this Matt McKay all over again. Too many unforced penalties and the defense could not get off the field letting Mercyhurst have their 8/9 minute drives that led to nothing. Oof, I don't know what to think!

[JoeCatsJoe]

Mercyhurst just ran 10+ minutes off the clock and 21+ plays and won't score. What a weird weird game.

Sorry but I don't even think we're playing bad?!?!

I’m worried about our offense. I think our D is quite good, but I’m not sure we have a quarterfinals level O. I’d like to know what you think about that

Offense played great in the 1st half and ran like 8 plays in the 2nd before this drive as Mercyhurst was good running the clock and dink around on offense.

We 1000% have a quarterfinals level offense (whatever the hell that means). Sorry every game isn't 50-14 because Tommy doesn't save a bad offensive day with an 80 yard run.

Do any of you remember Utah Tech last year?!

Hey, this is why I ask more knowledgeable people like you lol. I don’t really know what I’m looking at. It just felt like we haven’t been in much of a rhythm on offense this year, perhaps with the exception of San Diego. There were some things that made me nervous for when we play good teams, this could have been 13-17 easily.

[onceacat]

#weirdestgameever.

Despite the onslaught of a few posters frothing to storm Vigen’s house with pitchforks, I think after a good ass chewing and and an ass kicker week of practice they will look better next week.

Things that left me WTF’ing. So far Davis has been our most consistent back, he needs to be back their on 1st down, he’s always good for a few yards more times than not, I would argue that Coon is our next back who is great at getting positive yards. Lamson did not need to take those deep shots. The offensive line shuffling is weird. Defense would not have had a shutout if they decided to kick a field goal. D-line should be manhandling a team like Mercyhurst, their quarterback had to much time and our secondary seemed to be picking dandelions in center field, they just looked like they were reacting and playing with no instinct.

We may or may not be a championship team this year, what I will say is there have been years where NDSU wins in the same fashion as today. We were also never in a hurry to put a lot of points up in this game, I can safely say the play book was never opened up today.

Good post. Of course you'd like to see the Cats dominate a team like Mercyhurst. But it's not like this was as close as...for example the Gris vs Central Washington. I would have liked to be resting the ones after half.

I expect the ship to get righted...if you can even call it that. We already know that the Cats can go toe to toe with SDSU, so I'm not really worried...but I'd like to have a more impressive showing. No doubt this team is talented enough for a deep playoff run, but, man, I'd love for the Cats to show it a little more.

[Prodigal Cat]

I’m just glad we have a QB that can throw over the middle and absolutely is terrified to let it rip. We are so much better because of that. When it’s past ten yards he has to dial his agent to ask if that’s allowed. Hahaha. We will lose games because of it.
Put in 15 or 13 in, they are more athletic and can make the same exact throws he can. Defense isn’t the problem, the lack of offense is. The line looks bad because the defense has zero respect for 8, so they can simply plow the box and make the run look bad.

This is a McKay situation.

What was the Cats record with Matt McKay at QB again?

That was 2021. My memory is fuzzy… Cats went to Frisco that year right???

[KIX]

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

[MSU01]

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

[onceacat]

I’m just glad we have a QB that can throw over the middle and absolutely is terrified to let it rip. We are so much better because of that. When it’s past ten yards he has to dial his agent to ask if that’s allowed. Hahaha. We will lose games because of it.
Put in 15 or 13 in, they are more athletic and can make the same exact throws he can. Defense isn’t the problem, the lack of offense is. The line looks bad because the defense has zero respect for 8, so they can simply plow the box and make the run look bad.

This is a McKay situation.

What was the Cats record with Matt McKay at QB again?

That was 2021. My memory is fuzzy… Cats went to Frisco that year right???

Mine too. But I think the Cats only lost 2 games, one of them to Brent Vigen & Shawn Chambers at Wyoming. And then the Cats trotted out Tommy & the rest as they say, is history.

If the Cats finish the season with 2 losses, I think thats pretty solid.

[Prodigal Cat]

I’m just glad we have a QB that can throw over the middle and absolutely is terrified to let it rip. We are so much better because of that. When it’s past ten yards he has to dial his agent to ask if that’s allowed. Hahaha. We will lose games because of it.
Put in 15 or 13 in, they are more athletic and can make the same exact throws he can. Defense isn’t the problem, the lack of offense is. The line looks bad because the defense has zero respect for 8, so they can simply plow the box and make the run look bad.

This is a McKay situation.

What was the Cats record with Matt McKay at QB again?

That was 2021. My memory is fuzzy… Cats went to Frisco that year right???

Mine too. But I think the Cats only lost 2 games, one of them to Brent Vigen & Shawn Chambers at Wyoming. And then the Cats trotted out Tommy & the rest as they say, is history.

If the Cats finish the season with 2 losses, I think thats pretty solid.

[VimSince03]

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.

[bobcatbob]

Still too many times on first down we didn’t get any yardage. That has to improve.

That was a frustrating game to watch. Still have a lot to improve upon.

Bring on conference play!

[GoldstoneCat]

This has been... weird. Couple bad plays at QB kept this thing from getting out of hand, and then we could not possess the ball at all. But yet they were never in danger of losing. Odd game. On to the next, I guess.

If we beat Eastern by 40, no one cares about this one.

Agreed.

[AFCAT]

I’m just glad we have a QB that can throw over the middle and absolutely is terrified to let it rip. We are so much better because of that. When it’s past ten yards he has to dial his agent to ask if that’s allowed. Hahaha. We will lose games because of it.
Put in 15 or 13 in, they are more athletic and can make the same exact throws he can. Defense isn’t the problem, the lack of offense is. The line looks bad because the defense has zero respect for 8, so they can simply plow the box and make the run look bad.

This is a McKay situation.

What was the Cats record with Matt McKay at QB again?

That was 2021. My memory is fuzzy… Cats went to Frisco that year right???

Mine too. But I think the Cats only lost 2 games, one of them to Brent Vigen & Shawn Chambers at Wyoming. And then the Cats trotted out Tommy & the rest as they say, is history.

If the Cats finish the season with 2 losses, I think thats pretty solid.

Vigen was the Cats head coach that game.

[gris_h8er]

Whose fault is the first and goal from the one turned into a field goal since it can’t possibly be poor coaching from the vegetarian?

Good lord. Are you watching? Lamson missed a layup td. Vigen can't throw it for him. Clueless post, again.

So we’re gonna pretend that the o line blocked a subpar team well? (What happened to the culture?: coaching) We’re gonna pretend Adam jones is a good short yardage back? (Personnel: coaching) Just wanna be clear that on whose fault it is since it violates the laws of nature for Vigen to make a mistake.

On a real note: the coaches have to set the players up for success. Then the players have to perform. Yet again seeing players not being put in positions to be successful. Yes there was success today but against a subpar opponent. You saw what happens again evenly matched opponent (sdsu). If there was a ton of wiffed blocks, dropped balls and missed tackles is the players. Bad personnel decisions, bad play calls (nothing new here in the Vigen era), o line miscommunications and still on max cover punt (this one baffles me after the blocks from sdsu and Oregon) are not even remotely on the players.

Things can be learned from victories but only through careful and purposeful reflection blaming the miscues on the goal line on the players is deflection and doesn’t even scare purposeful reflection.

[RockyBearCat]

Very disappointed in DB play. Way too much cushion in 3rd and 4 or 4th down.

[nutman]

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.

[nutman]

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.

[onceacat]

I’m just glad we have a QB that can throw over the middle and absolutely is terrified to let it rip. We are so much better because of that. When it’s past ten yards he has to dial his agent to ask if that’s allowed. Hahaha. We will lose games because of it.
Put in 15 or 13 in, they are more athletic and can make the same exact throws he can. Defense isn’t the problem, the lack of offense is. The line looks bad because the defense has zero respect for 8, so they can simply plow the box and make the run look bad.

This is a McKay situation.

What was the Cats record with Matt McKay at QB again?

That was 2021. My memory is fuzzy… Cats went to Frisco that year right???

Mine too. But I think the Cats only lost 2 games, one of them to Brent Vigen & Shawn Chambers at Wyoming. And then the Cats trotted out Tommy & the rest as they say, is history.

If the Cats finish the season with 2 losses, I think thats pretty solid.

Vigen was the Cats head coach that game.

Yep, sorry. I said my memory was fuzzy.

[The Butcher]

All those folks complaining about scheduling a non-compettive Mercyhurst team right now.

The offense still seems to be in the process of figuring things out, and that includes the offensive coordinator getting into a rhythm. Up front, the O-line just hasn’t shown the same level of physicality and aggressiveness that we’ve gotten used to over the past 2–3 seasons, which makes a big difference in setting the tone. On the other side of the ball, the defense has been steady, but I can’t help wishing they’d mix things up a bit more with their pass-rush schemes—bringing some variety could really give them an edge.