But why not just run right over Boise State?

This is a thought that has haunted me since the opening snap (false start) against Boise. Why did we not just blow them off the ball and shove it down their throats? I don't understand it. I don't understand how we didn't line up, keep our pads low, and drive them backwards.

I play NCAA12 by EA sports. Now, aside from the game being horribly glitchy and an overall awful representation of what a finished product should be, it does a few things right. Namely, it does a great job of imitating Alabama's running scheme. The Alabama OL on that game is enormous, and they basically drive straight forward and pancake the defensive line. It's "video game football" at its best. My question - if we're gonna line up in Video Game unis, why not play video game football? Why would we not just pound the other team senseless?

Going into the game, I had a feeling we would pound the ball between the tackles, then, when the defense was tired, start firing it downfield to our speedy receivers. Doesn't that make sense? Would it be perfectly reasonable to expect our team to work to its strength and size, and then, only after we've tired the other guys out, start to beat them up in space? I think it makes sense. Apparently not. Apparently, the smart thing to do is come out in shotgun and try to run counters and traps, because the defense is "expecting" the pounding. This will catch them off guard and create success.

Ridiculous.

I believe I said in a blog last year that I believe in grabbing hold of a style of play, getting good at it, and then riding it until someone else can stop it. That's what the best teams do. You're not gonna see Oregon come out in a Power-I in the national title game because they've been running the spread all year, and Auburn would be ready for that. It's just plain dumb.

When you're bigger, stronger, and faster, be the bully. That's what I wanted to see - bully football. I didn't need pulling guards coming around and assisting on a block, only to completely avoid an untouched man in the middle of the hole. I didn't need to see a handoff six yards deep in the backfield instead of a dive where we rock guys off the line of scrimmage.

But, I don't make gameplans. No, I just complain about them.

To be fair to Mike Bobo, I don't think there's any way he could have imagined Aaron Murray would play so poorly. Let's be honest - the majority of Murray's mistakes were not due to a heavy pass rush. The majority of his mistakes weren't due to receivers letting him down. The majority of Murray's mistakes came as a result of his inability to produce under pressure. This game had a lot of hype on it. All eyes were on Murray. The gameplan was apparently geared toward letting him distribute the ball and make things happen...to take pressure off the tailbacks. But, the QB - supposedly the one absolute "sure thing" on the offense - did not hold up his end of the bargain. As an OC, you don't plan for that. You don't plan for your Freshman-All SEC and Pre-Season All-SEC QB to lay a fat steamer on the field at the dome.

That's the only explanation I have. Bobo must have built his gameplan around the wrong assumption - that when all else fails, Murray will deliver. He didn't. We lost.

Go Dawgs.

There's no reason to believe it will happen...

But I began to think about something today. Richt is 2-9 in his last 11 outings against Ranked opponents. Provided this season spins on a dime, and the Dawgs smack USC in the mouth, and provided they get a real run going and make it through the SEC title game, we could face as many as 6 top 25 teams between now and the end of the bowls. Winning those puts him at 8-9. Still a losing record, but how much better would we feel at that point?

A guy can dream.

Go Dawgs.

Richard Samuel starts again, and the blognation goes stupid.

I enjoy reading about the Dawgs, generally speaking. I enjoy fan criticisms, generally speaking. But, I tire quickly of reading a culture of sheep following the most incendiary of talking points right off the cliffs of insanity.

Isaiah Crowell played well on Saturday, but please - don't annoint him. When I saw his statement after the game: "I couldn't have played any better," I began to question him a bit. I mean, I get it. He's 18, he's a bit arrogant, and he thinks the world is his. I understand that. I played with some guys like that. Of course, we didn't win championships at UGA back then, so I don't fly the "played with guys like that" banner proudly.

If Crowell honestly believes he couldn't have played any better, then he deserves to be ranked #2 in the pecking order, if for no other reason than to put it in his head that he in fact COULD have played better. I honestly don't know how many people read my blog, or bothered to check out the extensive work I did on the play-by-play recount of the game. So, if you didn't, let me give you a quick run-down - Crowell's vision was less than stellar. He did make some good reads, and some good hard runs. He also left some yards on the field. More than once he didn't see how blocks were setting up, and cut into the wrong hole, or cutback when bouncing outside was the better option. In the moment, it's hard to see everything, so I'm not knocking the kid too hard. Still, to say "I couldn't have played any better" is just plain stupid.

It sounds like he's saying with better blocking, he would have been vastly more successful. There are some instances where that is likely very true. There are also instances where the blocking was there, and he didn't follow it. Then there was that blitz on which he whiffed. I'm not certain that is was the same play...but it looked a whole hell of a lot like the Washaun Whiff versus Arkansas. There were other pass plays when he picked up his man quite well. He's definitely still learning and is an obvious talent, but there may be some attitude issues to work on.

So, Samuel will get the start. Maybe the gameplan versus South Carolina will be different. Maybe we're going to line up and try to play powerball. I still don't understand why we didn't do that against Boise. You're not going to sell me on "our RBs are unproven, so put it in Murray's hands." I'm sorry, I like Aaron Murray - I think he's got a ton of heart. But, he's 6-8 as a starter, and has won zero big games. He hasn't flourished against good teams, and he hasn't led the team to anything. He beat up on some bad teams, and had limited success against good ones.

Our line was a question mark coming into Boise....well, what is it now? Looks like an exclamation point, as in "Oh, Crap!"

Remember how excited we were a week ago at the prospect of the I-Formation combo of Samuel and Figgins running behind a mammoth line? Maybe we'll actually see some of that this week.

Or maybe we can line 4 DBs in the backfield and play "who wants to run the ball"?

Go Dawgs.

PS - "Starting" really doesn't mean much when your backs are in a constant rotation.

It wasn't a reverse, it wasn't a counter...it was a basic sweep.

I have seen so many things written about Boykin's run, ignoring completely what it was. People are trying to make it into some trick play, something that was completely out of the gameplan. It wasn't.

We lined up in Trips left, with a fullback and WR to the right. Then, Boykin shifted down to the HB position, where Murray waited only a moment to allow Boykin to set his feet before calling for the snap. Boykin immediately took the hand-off and ran to the right, led by his fullback, Bruce Figgins, who got on the edge and made the key block on the outside linebacker. Wooten had run his guy downfield. There was now no one left to make a play on speedster Boykin as he ran around the end. Then, he cut back inside of BSU CB #4 and was able to out-leg him to the endzone.

It was not a counter. There was no fake to the left.

It was not a reverse. There was a single handoff and the blocking was set up in front of him.

It was not an end-around. He came from the RB position.

It really wasn't even a Jet Sweep because he started from dead-still, instead of in-motion.

This was a sweep with Boykin at HB instead of Crowell or Samuel.

Now, I have also seen people question why, with the success of that play, we didn't go back to something off that sort of look. That's a question worth asking. For my money, I think sometime in the third or fourth quarter, we should have put Boykin back in that position, shifted him down to HB, and run a playaction to Mitchell or Orson Charles. There's no way everyone would have ignored the guy who popped them for 80 yards earlier in the game.

But, I'm no football coach.

Go Dawgs.

Breaking down the Breakdown - Quarter 4.

So here we are, 28-14. I'm thinking...it's a whole Quarter. We've stopped them a bunch today. If we can pull off two more stops and get scores, we'll be in position to win the game. This is definitely possible. I think it's time to ratchet up the pressure on Kellen Moore...because what we CAN NOT do, is allow him to move them down the field like they did to open the third quarter. Shut that down, and we have a chance. This is what we preached all offseason - win in the fourth quarter. We're supposed to be conditioned. We're supposed to be mentally tough. This is what all the preparation was about. We need to shut them down on D, and out gas them on offense. We Have to win the Fourth in 2011!

1st and Ten Boise - Quick WR screen - only a 2 yard gain. 2nd and 8 - and the running QB comes in. Now, I personally say to my friends watching the game, "He's run it the last two times, so he'll be handing it off here, cause we'll be ready for the keep." At the snap, we win the line of scrimmage. But, Jarvis Jones blows too far upfield, and has to redirect. When he does, he's screened off by the man trying to block John Jenkins, who has also blown upfield. The result is just enough room for the Boise back to squirt through.Harper ends up getting about 18 on the play. The biggest issue was the failure of Jordan Love to maintain the integrity of the outside. He gave up contain, and we got killed for it. The hole was plugged. If Love keeps contain, it's maybe a three yarder.

First and 10 BSU - Moore gets flushed from pocket, throws what looks to be a pass deflected nicely by Love, but he's called for P.I. 15 yards.

First and 10 BSU - End around for 10 yards.We win at the point of attack, but our LBs over pursue down inside, and we lose contain again.

First and 10 BSU - Running QB hands off again, we stuff it for no gain. 2nd and 10 Pitch play...we get dominated at the point of attack. They simply get their guys out on the edge and in position, and we don't play through the blocks well enough to slow the runner down. First and goal at the 2. Easy pitch and score.

Boykin returns kickoff to 35.

First and 10 UGA - Roll the pocket right, throw deep over the middle to TK. Overthrown by five yards - and again closer to the DB than to our WR. 2nd and 10. Quick short pass to Malcolm Mitchell over the middle. 3rd and 5. Quick slant to Rantavious Wooten. First down Georgia at our own 49.

First and 10 UGA - Murray hits Malcolm Mitchell on the skinny post for a 51 yard TD. Georgia trails 35-21. I'm thinking "Ok, that was quick. Let's make a stop and we can do this." Forgive me, but I'm still believing. I'm still thinking that we can outlast these guys for some reason.

Kickoff - touchback.

1st and 10 Boise - Playaction middle screen. Ate up our aggressiveness. Gain of 16.

1st and 10 Boise. We win the line of scrimmage, but Martin picks up three on the ground. 2nd and 7. Moore throws the quick slant, gets 8 when he needed 7.

1st and 10 Boise - run up the gut, with a fairly gaping hole. Now, admittedly I didn't play under Grantham and don't know all the nuances of his particualr defense. However, as I understand it, it's a one-gap 3-4, meaning each man has a single-gap responsibility. Looking at this play, it appears that Christian Robinson had the B-gap (which is where the ball goes). Unfortunately, he steps in towards the A-gap and reads the play...then steps OUT to the B gap and is run over by Martin. He hangs on and makes the tackle, but we give up 8 yards. 2nd and 2. D-line crushes them, no gain. I found it interesting that there was then a shot of Murray on the sideline, mouthing "Please stop them." I will write more about Murray later, but I'll just let the "Jury's still out" label hang for now. 3rd and 2. Toss out to the left. Now, this time, there aren't a gang of blockers in front of him. We're supposed to have the all-world athletes. We're supposed to be conditioned in the 4th quarter. We have to WANT this play bad, right? Jones blew through the line, and it looked like he got held a little bit...but not enough to get the flag. (Just enough to prevent him from making a play) Branden Smith got chopped down on the corner, then run over by Martin. I thought that was why Commings originally took his spot.

1st and 10 BSU (so far, this drive is at about 4 minutes...btw, time is precious) - Pitch to right. Defense kills it at the point of attack, stops Martin 6 yards in the backfield. So, 2nd and 16. Middle screen for about 6. 3rd and 10. We blow pressure straight up the middle, and they try the middle screen. Incomplete. Punt fair caught at 9.

1st and 10 UGA - Quick hitch to Mitchell for 8 yards. We get up to ball, but it takes about 15 seconds to snap the ball. 2nd and 2 - quick pass to Richard Samuel for a gain of 19 (he fumbles it as he's hit out of bounds).

1st and 10 - End-Around to Malcolm Mitchel for a gain of 17.

1st and 10 - Absolutely no pressure, Murray scrambles and misses a wide open Mitchell, throwin over him leaping. 2nd and 10. Murray again plenty of time, and again throws too high for his receiver, this time Orson Charles. 3rd and 10. Murray hits Orson for a gain of 8 on a quick drag. 4th and 2, Murray throws way too high for Tavarres King. Turnover on downs.

1st and 10 BSU - Defense stuffs the run up the middle. 2nd and 9. They try the end around again, but Commings reads it, meets Burroughs at the line. 3rd and 9. Doug Martin cracks through a couple of tackles, but can't get to the first down marker. 4th and 2. Punt is a knuckle-baller and gets to the 9.

1st and 10 UGA - They run a twist, and no one touches the DE. Sack to the 1. 2nd and 18. Orson drops a six yard pass. 3rd and 18. we do the same play again, and this time Charles catches it. 4th and 12 - and I don't even know why we snap the ball. We snap it, Murray gets sacked as Cordy Glenn gets speed-rushed. Turnover on downs.

1st and Goal Boise - Kneel.

Absolutely unbelievable to way to go out of this game. We had a bunch of opportunities, and cashed in on basically none of them. The offense was a big-play offense. The problem is that we couldn't remain on the field consistently enough to create any more of those big plays. The defense looked confused far too often. The same problems consistently hurt us - we lost containment, we didn't get solid run support from the corner position. We couldn't create enough pressure - which appeared mostly to be by scheme. We took away the deep threat that Boise is known for...at least, they didn't go for it. But, we also took it away from ourselves by failing miserably to cash-in early on opportunities. In actuality, the defense didn't finish this game terribly, but they sure didn't play lights-out all game either. They'd play great for two plays, then get hit hard for three firsts-on-first in a row. That will kill a team. It's hard for me to call whether this is more a failure of gameplan or execution, but I'm really going to err more one side of execution. Upon watching it the second time, the runs that I thought were bad calls, weren't bad calls...but they were badly run. We did run better as the game wore on - perhaps that was Boise getting tired, perhaps it was Isaiah developing a better understanding of the game. I don't know. Still, when we needed playmakers most, they failed us.

Ugh.

Go Dawgs.

Breaking down the Breakdown - Quarter 3.

We kickoff. They get it to the 24. Ok, that's one of the worst field-positions we've put them in. Let's see what we do with it.

1st and 10 - Doug Martin gets NOTHING. 2nd and 10 - Pass out to Burroughs. Jeremey Sulek misses the initial tackle, but is able to clean it up. 3rd and 2. They go play-action and confuse the hell out of the defense. I don't know if it was Commings or #52 who should have covered up the zone, but they get the first at the 40. 1st and 10 - quick out to the TE. Williams makes the tackle after a 5 yard gain. 2nd and 5. Martin stuffed up the middle. 3rd and 5. Sulek blows a coverage, steps out to the wideout (who is covered by the Corner) and leaves Burroughs wide open for the short first down. 1st and ten at our 46. We rush 4, get no pressure. The pass goes to Kirby Moore on a button-hook. I'm not getting a great look at the DBs, so I don't know what the coverage is...but it looks to be one where either Sulek didn't get over in time, or Smith dropped too deep and they just hit the empty hole. 1st and ten at our 36. We're not in position. Sulek can't make a play on a pass over his head, and it's a first down at our 24. We call timeout to avoid a 12-men-on-the-field penalty. Guys look tired. This is the first possession after the half. Where is the conditioning?

1st and ten - this one is a throw-back to last season's foibles. We get in his face, but he's able to toss a pass up to the tight-end on a wheel-route. We were in zone. Robinson and #52 step up to protect against the run, and end up getting beat. 1st and Goal at the 5. Martin stuffed for a 2 yard loss. 2nd and goal at 7. Toss-sweep to Martin, Branden Smith gets outplayed on the edge. Touchdown.

Boykin slips on the kick return. We get it at the 15. 1st and ten. I-Formation. Play-action for 11 yards to Orson. 1st and ten. Play-action to Orson, gets us to the BSU 45. 1st and ten. I-Form Isolation play. Our line really not getting any movement. We pick up only 3 yards. Ben Jones got out to #36, but wasn't able to move him enough. He fought off and was able to get to Samuel. 2nd and 7. Play-action to Aron White, gain of 14. 1st and ten at the 28. Cordy Glenn jumps early. 1st and 15 at 33. We go with the Sweep. Crowell outsmarts himself. Glenn was out in front of him, and in position to make a block. Crowell tries a juke to the outside instead of cutting it sharply upfield. The juke does aid Glenn in making the block, but the block was already set up. If Crowell cuts upfield, he gets more than the 3 yards he ends up with. The move slowed him enough for the cavalry to get there. 2nd and 12. Shotgun - twins right, Mitchell in motion from the left. They blitz, we pick it up fine. Tevarres runs a seven-yard out...Murray throws it three yards behind him. King tries to come back to it, but drops it. Murray's follow through looks strange on this pass. 3rd and 12. Line makes decent blocks initially....but one thing really worries me. Cordy Glenn dives at a linebacker (not the first time I've seen it). We try a double-move, and can't protect for 3 seconds. Then, we attempt a 55 yarder. No wind. We're in the dome. Walsh misses.

1st and ten they hit a wide-open five yarder. 2nd and five, they try a WR screen, get only 1. 3rd and 3, we snuff the quick-out, force a punt.

1st and 10. We try to go deep to Rantavious Wooten.....who is covered by #4. Murray overthrows both the receiver and the corner. I-Formation Lead play to the weak side. Figgins avoids the linebacker for some reason. The linebacker, of course, is the only guy who ISN'T blocked. Mitchell half-assed a chip on the LB as well. 3rd and 7. Murray gets 3 seconds then is forced out of pocket, and doesn't get rid of the ball. Result? Sack.

Punt.

We miss 4 tackles on the punt return and give them the ball on the 28. 1st and ten - Moore gets rocked as he throws an incomplete fade. 2nd and 10. Harper breaks 4 tackles during a seven yard run, but gets facemasked. Total gain - 17 yards.

1st and ten at 11. QB run to the right. LBs bite on the fake handoff again. Result - gain of 7. 2nd and 3 - stuffed on run up middle. 3rd and 2. Play-action sucks Williams into the hole, leaving Shoemaker wide open in endzone for TD.

Boykin returns kickoff to 44. First and ten at 44. Sweep to Crowell, breaks a couple tackles, picks up 11. 1st and 10 at their 44. Whole right side of line takes the play off, Crowell gets stuffed in the backfield. 2nd and 11. Murray playaction rollout. Fires to Tevarres King, who drops the first-down catch. 3rd and 11. Penalty on Glenn (and that was a horseshit call. I think his butt was itching). So, 3rd and 16. And, can anyone call the play with me? "DRAW". We pick up 8. 4th and 7. We line up to punt for some reason. I don't get that. I thought we ran the draw so that we could make it an easier 4th down to pick up...but apparently, no. Apparently we ran the draw on 3rd and 16 because we honestly thought we'd pick up the first down. I think that worked once back in 2003 or something. As it turns out, the punt call isn't completely awful, because BSU had a brain fart and lined up offsides resulting in us having a 4th and 2. This is a play that no one will give Bobo any credit for. Initially, we line up shotgun twins left. But, we motion Mitchell to the left as well. This pulls the safety more to the center of the field because he doesn't have to cover a wideout on the sideline. The corner stays in the flats to cover Crowell for the short gain. So, what happens? Orson Charles has an easy outside release past the linebacker, and because the safety is out of position, Murray can easily hit him for the 36 yard touchdown.

Martin returns the kickoff to the 25. 1st and ten. They're able to pick up 2 on a run. 2nd and 8. Jordan Love leaves his man-man responsibility, resulting in an easy completion on the drag for a first down.

End of 3rd Quarter. 28-14.

Breaking down the Breakdown - Quarter 2.

We start the second quarter. I'm thinking "ok, maybe that first quarter was just rust." It was very ugly, with missed assignments and poor blocking...maybe this will be better. We start the quarter on our 46, with a second and ten. Shotgun. Great blocking. Murray hits Orson on a fifteen yard route, and he picks up 19 total. Perfectly run corner route. 1st and ten, their 35. Shotgun. Malcom Mitchel comes in motion, we fake it. We have six guys in protection. Initially, they bring four...then a LB comes on a delayed blitz. The problem? Bean turns inside when his DE rushes into the Guard. This allows the LB to come through untouched. Murray makes him miss, and breaks a tackle...but the defense converges on him for no gain. 2nd and 10. Sweep left with Crowell, 8 yard gain. Samuel comes in on third and 2. Play looks like it was supposed to be a shotgun-trap or a shotgun-counter play. I say supposed to be because it got completely blown up. Glenn pulled into the hole, which means Gates HAS to block the man on Glenn. The DE immediately crosses Gates's face, getting into the A-gap. Cordy Glenn's pad-level on his pull is awful, and he gets stuffed by a linebacker. This plugs the hole, and Samuel gets only one yard. Then comes the 4th and 1. I applaud Richt for having the WILL to go for it. That showed me that he's out to win more than just put 3 points up. And the execution was pretty dadgum great, with one small exception. NOBODY TOUCHED THE PLAYSIDE OLB! There is no way on God's Green Earth that the OLB isn't blocked in the play design. Either Charles was supposed to chip him, or Anderson was, or Ogletree was supposed to take the first thing that showed. I have no idea. It was an obvious missed-assignment and it resulted in the killing of our best drive of the game.

The D punches Boise off the field in 3 plays. To this point, the D has been playing pretty damn solid.

Malcolm Mitchell is back to return the punt, and nearly muffs it away.

1st and ten - We decide to move the pocket with a shotgun rollout. Zero pressure. He throws one far too high for Tevarres King...but probably more concerning was that he even threw to King on that play. King was between three players, but there was an underneath receiver running free. 2nd and ten. Shotgun handoff to Samuel. (At this point, Holly Rowe is interviewing Herschel in a split-screen and I may be the only Georgia fan who will say this, but I don't care anything about what Herschel has to say at this moment. I want the full screen devoted to the GAME ON THE FIELD) The play is blocked fairly well with the exception of nobody putting a hand on LB #36. I don't know the play design here, but from what I see, it looks as if the right side of the line was scoop-blocking, which is getting your face to the INSIDE of the player in front of you, cutting him off, and moving to the next level. #68 did not do this. Bean made the cut-off of the DE, which meant he was blocked. If 68 had run up into the second level, he would have blocked the LB, and Samuel might still be running tomorrow. Instead, He turned back and "aided" Bean, enabling the LB to make the stop. Gain of 5.

3rd and 5. My problem here is more with pre-snap than post snap. We line up in shotgun-trips right with the HB to the strong side. Then we send Mitchell in motion. Their corner slides inside our hash, looking to either be blitzing or faking the blitz. We need five yards. We have two receivers outside their closest defender, and no other DB within ten yards. I do not understand how Murray doesn't make a hot-route call there. There has to be some kind of check. The design of the play has one of the two receivers going deep, the other crossing to the middle of the field, with Mitchell coming back on the drag, and Samuel running a swing. All of this is long-developing. WTF?!?! Couple all of this with the fact that their Nose beats Ben Jones AND #68 with a simple spin move and the result is garbage. Murray avoids the initial pressure, then spins for no reason, and is tackled into the leg of Kenarious Gates...who misses the rest of the game with a high-ankle sprain. Awesome.

We punt.

Broncos run a slip-screen for 9. Boykin goes down with a cramp. 2nd and 1, We get no pressure and Moore throws a two-yard pass. Commings dives at the feet of the receiver, and they get about 20 more. 1st and ten, the D-line makes a good push, LBs stop Martin after a short gain. The running QB comes in and hands it off. 3rd and 7. We send heavy pressure, and Branden Smith intercepts a poorly thrown ball.

1st and 10. Shotgun handoff to Crowell. Play is blocked well (this is assuming our friend #68 was supposed to turn-in, and not block the LB), but Crowell can't make #36 miss. 2nd 5. Crowell runs to the left, makes one guy miss, but gets cleaned up. Gain of 2. 3rd and 3.

The interception.

Ok, on TV they kept talking about how this was the fault of Isaiah Crowell. For the rest of the night, they wouldn't shut up about Crowell being in pass-protection and about how he probably didn't know what he was doing because he was a freshman. This play is not the fault of Isaiah Crowell. There are other issues. #1. Orson Charles. The man lined up on Orson blitzes. We need three yards. There is no one in front of Orson save for the safety who is standing flat-footed 8-yards down the field. There HAS to be a hot read there. Orson has to know to stick a foot in the ground, make a sharp cut to the middle of the field, and pick up the first down. He HAS to know that. Murray's first read was in that direction. But, he can't throw to a guy who isn't on that page. Orson instead continues his route all the way to the safety before making a cut. At this point, Murray has moved on. Problem #2 - He makes the throw toward Mitchell. Now, Mitchell never had good position on #4 (remember him?). So, I have to wonder why the ball was thrown. Here, we could come back to Crowell's block. Murray was rushed a bit to make a decision. However, he has shown escapability in the past. He didn't try to avoid the rush. This makes me think he wasn't extending the play, but instead was trying to throw the ball away. I could be wrong. It could very well be that he thought he could somehow connect on that pass, even though Mitchell was never in a spot to make a play on the ball. No, I think Murray was trying to throw it away, but didn't get enough into the pass. Maybe I'm just being kind.

1st and ten, we blow up their running play. 2nd and 11. Christian Robinson makes a bad jab at their TE trying to jam him. As a result, the TE comes open and picks up a first down on an easy completion. 1st and 10 - they can't move our line. Martin picks his way to 3 yards. 2nd and 7 - Jordan Love gets beat on a slant in man coverage. First down and 10. The running QB comes back in. Rueben Faloughi gets sucked in by the fake handoff. QB bounces it outside for gain of 12. 1st and ten at 11. They try the direct-snap to Martin. Loss of 1.

2nd and 11 at the 12. Touchdown on a short pass-and-run. This one is either on Boykin or Jarvis Jones. We drop into zone coverage, and nobody steps into the short zone on the hash. It looks like that should have been Jones' responsibility. Jones is watching Moore's eyes, and gets pulled too far to the center of the field. Boykin looks to be covering the wide side. In this case, Jones has to know that there is only one receiver on the far side of the field, and there are multiple guys there to cover him. However, Boykin also bailed deep with the receiver in front of him, though there were two safeties there to take care of him. Either Jones or Boykin busted on this one, and that can't happen against a QB like Moore.

Kickoff - Boykin gets the ball to the 15. Jeez.

1st and 10 - shotgun - 4 wide. Screen pass to Samuel. Tevarres doesn't make much of a block downfield, and #68 is too slow in getting out on the Screen. Play gets blown up. 2yard gain.

Sweep to Crowell to close the quarter. We're down 14-7, and playing sloppy.

As they go into the half, the commentator says the Defensive line is getting whooped by the Boise State Broncos. This is a fallacy. The D-Line has been very strong for the majority of the day. We haven't sent much pressure, most likely because we're afraid Moore is gonna slice us up. When we have sent pressure, it has paid off. My thought going into the half - dial up the pressure in the second half. Overall, I'm not excited - but I've seen enough to know that we can play with these guys (Jesus, I can't believe that's my thought at this point).

I'm watching this game for the second time, and since I know the ending, I'm not as emotionally pained by what I see. My mind has switched to pure diagnosis - and the things I'm seeing are fixable by week two. I don't know why they weren't there in week 1...but they can be corrected.