Cougars vs. Wisconsin

It was a hot and cold day for the Cougars on Saturday. The offense looked good, but the defense, especially the secondary, was horrible. I think that the offense gave Cougar fans a reason to optimistic for the rest of the season. Scoring should not be a problem and the running game looked good.

Here are things that I was impressed and encouraged by:

The offensive line:
This unit held Wisconsin to only 1 sack. With both tackles being new, that is very impressive, even more if you factor in that Matt Shaughnessy was going against redshirt freshman Micah Hannam. The running game’s success was the direct result of the line’s play.

The running game:
Dwight Tardy: 21 rushes, 96 yards, 1 TD
Chris Ivory: 7 rushes, 29 yards, 1 TD
I liked Tardy’s speed off tackle and I thought he did a good job of not going down after the initial hit. Ivory was not a dropoff and he was able to give Tardy a breather without costing the team. Both also did a good job in protection, especially Tardy who picked up the blitzing LB a couple times when he was going to kill Brink.

Alex Brink:
Brink went 17 for 27, 171 yards, 1 TD, 0 Int. The most important thing was that he didn’t turn the ball over. He allowed the team to stay close for much of the game by not making mistakes. His reads were good, but his long ball needs some work. He had Gibson deep once that if he had thrown the ball accurately would have been a TD.

Here are the things I was disappointed in:

The defensive as a whole:
The line and LB’s were not getting any pressure on the QB. The secondary played like crap but the front 7 didn’t helpout by giving Donovan all day to throw the ball. The zone blitzes were not effective and the TE and slot receivers were sitting in holes in the middle of the defense. The secondary looked like they had no idea what coverage was. They got confused on the who’s responsibility was who’s. The holes in the zone were so huge and the receivers were just sitting in them that something had to be done. They never jammed the receivers at the line, allowing them to go 10 yards before they even were touched. I know that they are young, but its going to be a long season if that problem is not addressed.

Special Teams:
The blocked punt could have been disastrous. They got lucky with the recovery. The kickoffs were too short giving Wisconsin great field position all day. I know they moved the kickoffs back, but they still need to be improved. I do not like the new punt formation and I think it might cost them sometime this season.