Victory!
Sometimes the light's all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it's been
What a night. What a strange night. From a 2 1/2 hour storm delay, to three safeties, to a thumping no one expected, it was one of those weird nights.
Thank goodness that this time, it bounced in our favor!
On Sunday, I published some things we had to do to win, under the heading of "IF." Let's take a look at how they came out.
If....Omar plays AND is sharp--like the early Wisconsin game, we can win.
Omar was pretty sharp. He was 21-34, though he threw 2 INTS. (I think Ruiz short-armed the second one). We were very conservative, so he only had 178 yards and no completion over 22 yards. 4 of his 21 completions were to Pope for a total of 4 yards, so that hurt. Still, the offense was humming when it needed to be, and adjusted accordingly when we had a big lead.
If...Turner plays, and we see the results of an offensive mastermind at work in our game plan, using the bye week to put new wrinkles into our attack, we can win. (Remember when that Missouri writer called our offense diabolical?)
Turner didn't play until it was over. We did have a better offensive game plan. We ran the ball when they dropped eight, we had a FL pass for a TD and we ran that throwback play for the first time in a long time for a TD. Our game plan was still very, very conservative. Tons of screens (which were not there), but then again, we had a big lead.
If...our year of hard knocks learning on rugby punts work and Ryne Robinson doesn't get any big returns off, we can win.
The punting game was good, as were the special teams in general. Robinson was contained on special teams.
If...the defense can get off the field, even occasionally, we can win.
The defense played its best game of the season. I was really happy with how they played. They seemed to do a lot more switching up and blitzing, a lot more changing looks, we got good pressure on Betts, coverage was generally there, we stopped the run effectively for much of the game--and this against a team which was really moving the ball coming into this game. Betts was obviously off his game, but we were making it hard on him. We contributed to that. As for getting off the field, Miami was 2-13 on third down.
If...we used the bye week to really prepare an aggresive, winning game plan, we can win.
I think we did.
If...we go at least +2 on turnovers, we can win.
How does +4 grab you? Then, add in the four punt/snap exchanges, which really are turnovers in every sense (especially psychologically), and you have a game where Miami made a bunch more mistakes than we did.
If...PJ Pope is a true weapon, running and catching, we can win.
The running game was strong early when we set the tempo, but did not finish strong. Pope only had 43 yards in 20 carries, and four catches for four yards. Miami did succeed in neutralizing him. (Remember when PJ used to catch passes downfield?) PJ dropped at least two other screens, too. I hope we spend this week figuring out how to get him into the game more against Toledo.
If...we get a lead and take the crowd out of the game, we can win.
Well, we did take the lead, but Mother Nature took the crowd out of the game for us. This was a huge break and it can't be over-estimated. Having the crowd out of the stadium negated a huge advantage that Miami would have had.
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Actually, not a bad prognosis on my part. All the elements did come together last night. You could lose a couple details in there (the problems rushing, only 19 first downs, etc), but I am thrilled with the win, and thrilled with how our guys responded. Wouldn't it be great if we are peaking now, just when we need to? Beat Toledo (maybe twice), and rally for a MAC title when we really were right up against it? That would be sweet. More later.
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