Sometimes the universe just delivers an absolutely perfect day for football and Saturday was one of those days. If you even kind like the sport, its hard to beat 68 and sunny with just slight fall breeze... Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from the Herd's important win over Louisiana Monroe.
The good -
• Running back depth - Turner started the game but took a couple of shots early. Fortunately for us, Ethan Payne and Houston picked up the slack and showed well for themselves.
• Ball security - Any time you play a game and turn it over one time or less, your chances of winning go way up. We have been good about holding on to the ball this year and it's shown up in close games.
• Red zone defense - Really the defense as a whole played well throughout with the exception of two big plays. A tipped ball that was caught for a TD and a 70+ yard run were about all we gave up.
The bad -
• Field goals - After two weeks of being in the good category, Verhoff had a pretty awful day against ULM. I understand there was an issue with the hold on his first miss, but the second was just a dead push. Two misses inside 40 yards made the game closer than it probably should have been.
• Gameday operations - We talk about it a lot and it never gets better... The announcer calling ULM "North" multiple times, music not stopping before the snap, the on field promos during timeouts being fumbled like was dont have a script, etc.
The ugly -
• The play of the game - A bad snap, worse catch, fumble recovery and 60 yard punt sounds like a mess and it was. But in hindsight that play saved our tails. Great job by the punter recovering the ball and getting a kick off rather than giving the ball away inside our 10 yard line.
Overall, solid win over a team with a winning record, which is always nice... Next week its on to Southern Miss, a team with nothing to play for, but a road game nonetheless. Hopefully we get our road woes sorted out and put ourselves squarely in the picture to win the division.
The good -
• Running back depth - Turner started the game but took a couple of shots early. Fortunately for us, Ethan Payne and Houston picked up the slack and showed well for themselves.
• Ball security - Any time you play a game and turn it over one time or less, your chances of winning go way up. We have been good about holding on to the ball this year and it's shown up in close games.
• Red zone defense - Really the defense as a whole played well throughout with the exception of two big plays. A tipped ball that was caught for a TD and a 70+ yard run were about all we gave up.
The bad -
• Field goals - After two weeks of being in the good category, Verhoff had a pretty awful day against ULM. I understand there was an issue with the hold on his first miss, but the second was just a dead push. Two misses inside 40 yards made the game closer than it probably should have been.
• Gameday operations - We talk about it a lot and it never gets better... The announcer calling ULM "North" multiple times, music not stopping before the snap, the on field promos during timeouts being fumbled like was dont have a script, etc.
The ugly -
• The play of the game - A bad snap, worse catch, fumble recovery and 60 yard punt sounds like a mess and it was. But in hindsight that play saved our tails. Great job by the punter recovering the ball and getting a kick off rather than giving the ball away inside our 10 yard line.
Overall, solid win over a team with a winning record, which is always nice... Next week its on to Southern Miss, a team with nothing to play for, but a road game nonetheless. Hopefully we get our road woes sorted out and put ourselves squarely in the picture to win the division.
