Hatemay Game thoughts- Fresno St. Edition

Big thanks to Crissie and Mr. Crissie for another great tailgate.  If any of you missed it, we were visited by the Muscle Hamster... no not Doug himself, but, indeed a muscle hamster.  The pics are up somewhere on OBNUG of the hamster.  Gotta see it.  I am hatemay, here are my game thoughts.

Quarterback- Another splendid performance.  I do not worry about the interception one bit, it was tipped.  Moore passed for 333 yards while exploiting the single coverage opportunities offered to him by the one and only Patricia Hill.  The riverboat gambler brought pressure all night long in hopes that his defense would force a sack, or something Un-Kellen like.  And yes, it did bring something un-Kelllen like.  It brought a 10 yard scramble for a first down from the Prosser Tosser.  The blitzing worked well to slow the running attack of Martin and Avery but opened things up for Moore to hurt the bulldogs deep.  Moore continued his un-canny ability to spread the wealth to his recieving corp but this weeks main targets were Pettis and Young.

Running backs- Doug Martin ran tough but credit must be given to the Fresno State defense which limited Martin from running wild past the second level.  Martin provided good balance for us as our coaches stuck with the run early on before finding more sure holes in the Fresno defense. 

Wide Recievers-  Austin Pettis came through very big.  I guess that relaxation therapist I sent his way really eased his mind.  Pettis made acrobatic side line catches all night long.  Pettis also caught two touch down passses in the red zone.  Titus Young took advantage of the brilliant idea to leave him in single coverage for most of the night to burn the defense frequently.  Young finished with 8 receptions for a whopping 164 yards, also two touchdowns.  Young broke a school record for recieving yards and needs just 12 more receiving yards to total 1,000 yards for the season.  Tyler Shoemaker added 77 yards in what seemed to be a quiet night for him.  This is because the defense decided to leave Pettis and Young in single coverage.  When the defense tries to play it safe by staying in zone coverage is when Tyler Shoemaker will make the defense pay with his routes over the deep middle portion of the field.  Pick your poison opposing teams.   

Offensive line-  This game was more of a test for our big men in the trenches.  Fresno State was bringing pressure early and often in an attempt to cause problems for our offense.  The rushing yards weren't as plentiful as games past, but like I have stated, credit must go to Fresno State having a pretty good front 7.  They possessed speed we haven't seen since VA Tech and plugged some of the holes with their run blitzing.  No sack was given up.  Good job big men. 

Defensive line-  Disruptive, physical, deep, strong, ferocious, and many other words could describe our 2 deep rotation of defensive lineman.  Ryan Colburn was not comfortable at any point during the game.  Which, I have said this about numerous quarterbacks this year.  Anyone else noticing a trend????  J.P. Nisby gets better each game.  Billy Winn appeared to cause a lot of problems and get pressure.  While maybe not getting a lot of tackles, he brought pressure and forced Ryan Colburn out of the pocket and his fellow defensive teammates helped out.  I am so excited to see our defense in action. 

Line backers-  As much as it pains me to say this.....I did not notice any drop off with the absense of "The Hout."  This isn't to say I don't want him healthy.  This is a testament to the depth that we have at the line backer position.  Derrell Acrey, Daron Mackey, J.C. Percy and Aaron Tevis made a statement against Fresno State that running the ball was a bad idea.  I am happy to see Daron Mackey back making solid contributions.  After his injuries and the imergance of The Hout and Tevis and Linebacker, I was afraid that he would be reduced to a special teams player.  But he continues to work hard and with the injury to The Hout he has made good plays. 

Defensive backs-  Dang it.  We dropped two interceptions.  But, on the brights side, we did catch two interceptions.  During 2nd and long situations we bring in Jerrell Gavins as a modified spy/ additional free safety.  Gavins works well in this role.  Winston Venable was a problem for Ryan Colburn.  If I remeber correctly, he was a problem last year in Fresno as well.  No one got burnt deep for a Touchdown.  And the most important part, zero points.  Fantastic job defense.   

Special teams-  We surrendered a little too much yardage on a few kick off returns.  Coach Choate utilized the pooch kick off that stopped the bulldogs  from running too far on the kick off returns.  Brotz pulled through with a big field goal.

Potpourri-  I expected our defense to play well, but not this well.  Aside from our Coughlin to Avery to Pettis to Shoemaker play, we kept things pretty conservative.  Expect the Coaching staff to open up the offensive playbook for the upcoming game in Reno.  I expect at least three offensive trick plays. Sitting next to my fellow season ticket holder, we couldn't help but notice a very fowl stench coming from behind us.  Did anyone else notice a fowl stench coming from the south end zone?  Also, "Tiny,"  a 6'5'' 345 lbs man tried to stand next to us, luckily he left.  The smell resembled that of the time I shot my first deer and had to gut the animal.  It was that kind of smell. All things aside, the game was fun. In my opinion, there is only one former defensive coordinator in the land that can stop us.  A man with Hollywood ties, a man, who holds the key to stopping us.  But luckily for us, we won't have to play him.  Any guesses to whom I am referring?

Looking forward-  We will win in Reno.  Nevada will score some points, but will not beat us.  I predict the score will be something close to 49-20.  I expect us to punt no more than 2 times in this game.  We must play assignment football in order to jam up the pistol offense.  I don't see us blitzing too much, but I do see us using someone to force Kaepernick when he rolls out of the pocket.  I see Venable or Tevis in that role.  This will be a big game.  Go Broncos.