Vandy defeated Western Carolina by the score of 45-0 in their opener. They put up 620 net yards of offense on 95 plays from scrimmage. 433 rushing on 70 attempts. (not a typo. 70 attempts) scoring 5 rushing TD's. Their longest run was 20 yards, so they are not doing this by busting big plays. They were 13 of 25 passing for 187 yrds and 1 td and 0 interceptions. They turned the ball over 1 time on a fumble. TOP = 34:44. Their defense only gave up 115 yrds. 41 rushing and 74 passing with zero scores. They held Western Carolina to 0 of 13 on 3rd down conversions, and 0 of 1 on 4th down. They recovered 3 WC fumbles, and intercepted 1 pass for a total of 4 created turnovers. I know it was a cream puff opponent, but these are impressive numbers. Vandy is going to play tough, and if we dont tighten up on defense and open up the offense Brett will have to shut the board down next Saturday after the butt whoopin we will receive. Discuss.
Vandy looked great, that's for sure. In every facet of the game. The biggest thing now with Vandy watching film on us, is that we are beatable, even at home. They will come in with supreme confidence they can win this game. And that spells potential trouble. Does the 2nd half LSU team come out to play this Saturday night? I think so.
Honestly, I don't think even the second half LSU team from last night will beat Vandy. The gameplan is what I'm worried about more than anything. Our players are better, but our gameplans suck under Miles except for the bowl games.
Honestly not too worried about it. I think we will be fine with return to a familiar routine, having gotten all the first game stuff out of the way, and the motivation factor that Miles will drive home all week in practice. Us showing our best the week before will be a blessing as we know we can't play that way vs. a conference opponent. Vandy did look great, but WCU is a lower tier SoCon school. They would lose by 3 TDs to ULL or ULM. I am not saying I think we're gonna blow doors off of the Commodores, but I think another 31-17 sort of victory is in order.
Maybe the gameplan was to shelter and protect a rookie QB from having to win a game by himself? Perhaps that's why we tried to win the game with a power running game while waiting for the right time to throw to our receivers? 3 TD's 0 INT's on the road doesn't impress anyone? While this is debatable, I think if we DON"T send an all out blitz on their first 3rd down play of the game, and subsequently give up a huge screen play, we win this game much more handily. As it was, did you ever feel we wouldn't win the game? I mean we never even took the cover off of Russell Shepard. Just treat it as a pre-season game and stop worrying! Vandy played a Div II team that barely won a game in the SUBdivision of football last year...geez.
I would rather a 24-7 win with more accent on our defense playing really well. Vandy scoring 17 at Death Valley is still a bit too much for me.
Unless we run the football a lot better (ie, Scott returns to 5 YPC) we won't have our D off the field enough to keep them to single digits. I would love an old fashioned mini-blowout of the 31-7 or 24-3 variety but I don't think our team is there yet. I gotta believe Vandy puts up at least 2 TDs, unless we just run all over them and keep our D off the field.
I think we played it close to the vest last night and didn't show what's to come. The worst thing I saw last night was missed tackles. That is fixable. You know the old cliche: The biggest improvement is from game 1 to game 2. If the coaches read these forums they'd have a good laugh at how excited fans get after one game.
Yup, the good news is week one is over. You won a road game against a BCS conference team. You are 1-0. Should you have lingering questions or concerns with this post, call Bob Stoops, Ron Zook, or Mark Richt for further clarification.
Yep, I am sure Iowa boards are calling for Ferenz' head after that fiasco yesterday. So you can relate.
