Spring Game Over, Falcons Win/Lose
To the left you see the scene from the Doyt today, with a decent turnout from the Falcon faithful.
Scrimmages are hard to judge. If the offense lights it up (as they did last year), then you wonder if its the offense or the defense. And vice versa and the other way around, too. Ying and yang.
The offense won using the goofy scoring system coach came up with (no points for sacks), but I thought the D was really the story. Some random uninformed thoughts.
First, Turner was pretty good, and Barnes wasn't too bad, either. Neither, however, blew the doors off the place. They both had 50% completions but a lot of short balls. We only scored two TDs the entire time. In last year's scrimmage, we had something like 6 TDs in the first quarter.
We ran the ball a lot more, and obviously will in the runspread. Dan Macon was very reassuring at RB. I think he will do well.
I thought the receivers were OK. Corey played well, though I think he had a drop, and we just don't seem to have any jets. I am as worried about WR as I am about QB.
I thought the defense was good. Dozier laid a hit on Marques Parks that was epic. Parks was knocked into adolescence. We seemed to tackle well, and we played really hard. For a young D, that was great. I hope Lovett is beginning to have some influence. The corners were great again, that's a team strength. The D got tons of pressure on the QB, though some of it was AT and Barnes holding onto the ball FOREVER or maybe some coverage sacks when guys couldn't get open. Even having said that, we need the defense to hold teams in the low 20's, and I was impressed today.
Our freshmen kickers better make it to campus next Fall, because without them we might well have the worst kickers in DIA.
The Oline was banged up, so hard to judge, but they seemed to block the run pretty well, and the pass not so well. Healthy, I think it is a team strength.
Overall, I guess I left happy to have been there, and worried about the offense. My opinion continues to be that this team is a year away, and I would love to have that opinion look ridiculous upon leaving Ford Field next November with a MAC Championship.
But, hey, enough of what I thought. What about Coach (snide comments from me are in italics).
Things you were encouraged by and things you were discouraged by today?
GB: "I really liked the effort on both sides of the ball. We went 110 plays today. It was a practice most definitely. I'd like to have 16, 17, 18 next week but I don't. Next time we get together is August and we're going to pick up right where we left off. It was encouraging with the effort. (AHHHH! That's got to make you worry). Some of the things defensively... We did a pretty good job at keeping the offense out of the end zone, I think there were two scores. We still gave up too many big plays. We needed to get some more three and outs, so we've still got some things to work out in that regard. Offensively, I feel confident that our offense can run the ball. (And, by implication, less than confident we can pass it?) Our backs ran hard, our line blocked well and our quarterbacks did some nice things, Turner and Barnes. Very encouraged by both sides of the ball with the effort and the enthusiasm of this team is what really gotten exciting. (Were they trying last year? He seems surprised to see it)"
How nice is it to get the spring game over with?
"I asked them if they wanted to play another quarter. I think they would play another quarter. Like I said, we still need to practice a lot. We're still young, particularly in the secondary and the linebacker and we need to practice and play."
There were a couple of big hits on defense there. Just talk about that, obviously that's quite impressive this early?
GB: "Erique Dozier had a big pop there towards the end and there were some more big sticks by our defensive end. I really like the effort and our intensity both sides of the ball. (Hmm, sensing a talking point). There was some good football, some good, clean, hard hits. It's fun to turn these kids loose and let them play."
OK, bring on the Badgers.
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