Second Hand Spring Game Report

OK, as I mentioned, I couldn't make the spring game due to youth baseball commitments, but Ryan of The Blade did, and he blogged about it.

I can predict a few reactions from the Falcon Nation:

• Oh my god, the world has ended.
• What is Brandon doing?
• He must be fired now.

Just kidding. The problem with these scrimmages is if the defense dominates, than you wonder, did the offense suck, or did the defense really play well. And its especially true when the final score is 7-3.

We have identified since the beginning that the biggest challenge for this year's team is the offensive line. Here is what Ryan says:

For starters, the line is not blocking well. Anyone who thinks you can replace Lichtensteiger, Nystrom and Huelsman without any problems is delusional. It’s going to take some time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of the “New Blocks” find their way onto the two-deep in the fall.

Delusional. One of my favorite words. Coach went on to say that the squad was split, and that hurt the cohesiveness he has tried to build. Either way, Diryal Briggs and Micheal Ream ate our O-line for lunch Saturday.

The line got all kinds of pressure on the quarterback, the linebackers didn’t miss many tackles, and the secondary didn’t give the receivers much room to operate. Diyral Briggs (five sacks) and Michael Ream (three sacks) were outstanding.

By the way, I'm OK with that. I believe we will move the ball, but the defense simply must perform for us to win the MAC.

Oh and Vrvilo missed two field goals. Cue the hand wringing.

If you look at the numbers here, Sheehan (who QB'd both teams) had a decent day, and he's coming off a serious injury, so that's not too bad. We did not run too effectively, but I also believe that will happen, so long as the line comes around.

So, now they pack the stuff away, and we'll see them next in August. Let's hope we have our line ready to go when the MAC season kicks off.