In no particular order...(oops, premature posting lol, more to come)
- Don't ever let Rochelle run back another punt; just like last week, a huge TO at the end of the first half turned an even game (or almost even potentially) into a significant deficit. In fact, late in the first half where odds are you're going to run the clock out, I'd simply rather not field such a punt, as the downside of a muff outweighs the upside of saving a few yards via a fair catch. Same thing near the end of a game where one has a lead - just don't field the punt, as muffed/fumbled punts occur 3X more than fumbles in all other situations. https://www.milehighreport.com/2016/8/17/12421630/the-return-game-why-ball-security-is-paramount
- Thought Gavin played pretty well and his stats didn't reflect as well as he played, given the big drop by Strong, followed by another drop by Strong which became an INT late in the 2Q (and I recall one more drop). The other INT was on Gavin, but 16-28 and 1 INT sounds a lot better than 13-28 with 2 picks, plus he threw a bunch of gorgeous balls.
- Monangai was just a beast in the 4Q - wish I knew why we're getting off to slow starts running the ball, though.
- Dremel had a great game catching the ball.
- Schiano made the right call making MSU repunt in the 4Q after the illegal formation, especially on a wet day and where the potential for a big play is much more important than 5 yards.
- I'll take credit for this one, lol: I called for us to do a little pop-up kick-off after the first 4Q TD with MSU playing the hands team up, in case of an onsides kick with only 1 guy deep, but we kicked it deep and then after the 2nd TD I said the same thing given the same MSU formation and we did it and it worked perfectly - the kick was nice and high and close to the sideline and after letting it drop Amankwaa did a wonderful job of taking the ball away for us.
- How cool was it to dominate the last 6 minutes, grinding out first downs and running out the clock without any drama of giving the ball back to MSU? Imposing our will was beautiful.
- The defense played good, but not great. Looked bad on the first drive of each half, but the other TD was obviously not on the D, and we looked great in the 4Q when we had to.
- The refs were abysmal as many have noted/analyzed - so many calls were inexplicable, especially the non-targeting call on the hit on Dremel, who was defenseless and the targeting call on Powell who was taking on a non-defenseless RB...and the missed OPI on MSU that would've likely killed that drive of theirs...and the missed facemask.
- We outgained MSU by 140 yards, 120 to -20, in the fourth quarter and by 295-245 overall.
- It simply never should've been worse than 7-6 at the half.
- Wimsatt is leaning back right before the snap less than he was; I assume the staff has coached him on this.
- Let's go beat IU and make our first "real" bowl in 9 years, with the last 4 games playing with house money and maybe we can surprise someone.
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