Top 12 — Ohio State, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, Notre Dame, Georgia, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee, South Carolina, Miami, Indiana.
Our neighborhood — Duke, James Madison, Louisiana-Lafayette, Syracuse, Oklahoma State, #64 Rutgers, Houston, Montana State, Boston College, Maryland, South Dakota.

Hopefully RU puts on a good show.

After all, that's their new mascot!

I don't even watch soccer since it seems so boring. But, last night I found the women playing the #1 seed in the league tournament and found it tremendous. RU women lost a player to a red card early on and still were able to tie the game short handed. Then, they played tremendous defense and our goalie was playing out of her mind to stop them in regulation and 2 overtimes! Then, she blocked all 3 attempts with penalty kicks while our girls made all 3. On to the championship game!!! Nice to see one of our teams with D!

1 specific example I can point to is in the 4th quarter with roughly 7 mins or so left
-we run on 1st down for a 3 yard gain
-go deep on 2nd down, incomplete
-run on 3rd and 7 for little to no gain
Now I personally think it was way too early to try and run clock, but if that was the goal, you’d run all 3 downs. Once you decide to throw on 2nd down (which I agreed with being aggressive), how the hell do you not throw on 3rd and 7 to at least give yourself a chance at converting and moving the chainns??? We also took a lot of deep shots on 1st downs, which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me because it makes it very difficult to get to 3rd amd manageable. We were 4 of 14 on 3rd down conversions for the day, and have been horrendous in that department all season, and I attribute that to the play calling sequence makes zero sense at times.

Currently committed to LSU--Michigan bound?

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hate to see it

I became a Chiefs fan because of Pacheco, and watched every game since he was drafted. I know that not everyone has Kelce and Noah Gray, but it seems to me that using some two TE sets, can be really difficult to cover. I know we have had a hard time attracting any TE's, but Fletcher looked like he was really starting to play well.

Maybe now that Kirk has the RPO going in the right direction, we can attract some TE's. Am I wrong?

If I was spending some NIL money, we are clearly going to need to spend on the OLine, but I would spend on a few proven pass catching TE's. They are hard to tackle if you can give them a little blocking, I think would flourish with Athan next year and we can build on that with Surace.

Also obviously need a stronger Dline, but on the offense, if i was a TE and wanted to get noticed by NFL scouts, this could be the place.

So much good outweighing the the other side this week.

GOOD:

1. AK. QB had his best game at the time he most wanted it and perhaps when RU most needed it. Has really been good most of the season.
2. D line. Hell yeah-stopping the run and then the sacks out of nowhere in the second half. Well done.
3. Longrebeam-Looked like his old self. Difference maker when healthy.
4. Powell--Same as above. Key in stopping the run and laid some big hits.
5. J Benajamin. Always liked his burst. Really had a nice game.
6. Raymond. Think Benjamin ran better but his pass blocking was needed and well done.
7. Strong--A weapon. Fights for the ball.
8. Duff. Coming in to his own. Strong still high points and uses his height where Duff lets the ball come down to him, but such a big body can create matchup and open area issues. cant imagine him and Strong as hs wideouts on the same team.
9. Dremel punt return. Was real helpful. I say end the hard and fast rules on punt returns and trust him to fair catch where needed and try to advance where needed. Isnt that the point of develeopmental programs-to coach up and trust?
10. Miller's first half. Great route runner and nice catch on a very tough ball on the first TD.
11. Coaching-Credit where due. Came out ready to play and used the weapons that are there. (Long and Black on back burner with Strong and Duff choice apparently..gather the "jumbo" wr lineup.

NOT SO GOOD:

1. KO returns. Lets get Ben Black back there and coach him if in the end zone fair catch and if not give it a shot. Still need all the big plays that can be manufactured. The post safety free kick fair catch was outright absurd. Could have been out to 35 or 40 before engaged.
2. LB s isolated with TE and rbs. Still an issue. Minny figured it out for a bit but the Dline came out of nowehere and changed the game complexion. Overall still better but an issue that can be exploited. Hate to isolate anyone but M Walker I didnt see and wasnt on the injury report so perhaps they finally figured all of the chunk plays occurred while he was out there and getting taken out of plays or choosing wrong angles. Djabome made betrer choices yesterday and Wright is just the better choice.
3. Where are the screens?? Minny nearly all out blitzed for a prolonged period and it cried out for screens to halt the aggresivenes. We have two great options--the screen we have ussed to Strong, and bubble screens to Miller or Black. Hopefully like with lb issue this issue gets caught up on.
4. Miller drops. Kid has been excellent all year largely. Yesterday (and the 4th down USC drop) there were some drops that could have been consequential. Such a great route runner. Hopefully just needs to get back on track.
5. Obvious play calling. Yes a broken record as to AK and a running back running up to the line as if a play change occurring to something different...and then a routine handoff has ALWAYS come. UCLA saw it coming and Minny did at least two times. Dremel in motion on short yardage ALWAYS a run (why him and not a bigger receiver to block backside?). There are more but KC is real obvious if you watch just a little bit of this O. Maybe we are waiting for the one big pass to come out of the sequence:).

All in all a very good outing all around at avery needed time.

Thoughts on RU chances after today

Both these guys barely played today, looks like Djabome and Sanders will be the guys going forward.

Do we have any idea if Sanders is happy at RU? Looks like his dad was pretty upset a few weeks ago and he “thumbs down” the highlight pic that Rutgers football posted on Instagram tonight.

I made my share of "row the boat back to st. paul" comments yesterday but watching him in the press conference he really comes off like a positive, articulate, down to earth and well adjusted leader.