I think we were lucky to win this game on a night we were outgained by 222 yards and our defense struggled mightily, but there were many positives to take away:
1. Ridiculous run #1 - Rutgers is backed up at their own 5 yard line, and Kyle Monangai finds a crease and then bounces off of five would-be tacklers on his way to a 40-yard gain. That play allowed us to flip the field and hold off UW’s offense for a while.
2. Ridiculous run #2 - Sam Brown finds a hole on the left, cuts back toward the middle, runs over a safety and somehow maintains his balance, and then turns on the jets and outraces the UW defense for a 37-yard TD. Folks, if it wasn’t already evident from his performance against VaTech, Samuel Brown V is BACK.
3. The defense was generally bad. Like really bad. But they made stops when they really needed to. UW was 2-12 on 3rd down conversions and 2-4 on 4th down conversions. That’s 4-16 (25%) on drive stopping plays, which is pretty amazing.
4. Ian was STRONG - he only had 5 catches for 40 yards, but go back and take a look at those 5 grabs. All of them were in traffic, all of them were clutch, and the TD catch on the fade was a thing of beauty. On a night where Dymere Miller was held in check, Ian Strong came up BIG.
5. Athan Kaliakmanis had pretty pedestrian numbers (14-24, 115), but he managed the game well and once again didn’t put the ball in harms’ way. He was a little “off” with some of his throws (mostly high throws), especially early, but after the hype wore off, he made some really nice throws, scrambled for a first down to avoid a sack, and made that beautiful throw to Strong for the TD.
6. Jakob Anderson had a nice night punting the ball. He had 7 punts for a 41.6 yard average, and a long of 47, and those two punts in the second half from our own end went for well over 40 yards, with good hang time, and did not allow for returns. The kid is a freshman, and while he’s not Adam Korsak, he’s making nice progress.
1. Ridiculous run #1 - Rutgers is backed up at their own 5 yard line, and Kyle Monangai finds a crease and then bounces off of five would-be tacklers on his way to a 40-yard gain. That play allowed us to flip the field and hold off UW’s offense for a while.
2. Ridiculous run #2 - Sam Brown finds a hole on the left, cuts back toward the middle, runs over a safety and somehow maintains his balance, and then turns on the jets and outraces the UW defense for a 37-yard TD. Folks, if it wasn’t already evident from his performance against VaTech, Samuel Brown V is BACK.
3. The defense was generally bad. Like really bad. But they made stops when they really needed to. UW was 2-12 on 3rd down conversions and 2-4 on 4th down conversions. That’s 4-16 (25%) on drive stopping plays, which is pretty amazing.
4. Ian was STRONG - he only had 5 catches for 40 yards, but go back and take a look at those 5 grabs. All of them were in traffic, all of them were clutch, and the TD catch on the fade was a thing of beauty. On a night where Dymere Miller was held in check, Ian Strong came up BIG.
5. Athan Kaliakmanis had pretty pedestrian numbers (14-24, 115), but he managed the game well and once again didn’t put the ball in harms’ way. He was a little “off” with some of his throws (mostly high throws), especially early, but after the hype wore off, he made some really nice throws, scrambled for a first down to avoid a sack, and made that beautiful throw to Strong for the TD.
6. Jakob Anderson had a nice night punting the ball. He had 7 punts for a 41.6 yard average, and a long of 47, and those two punts in the second half from our own end went for well over 40 yards, with good hang time, and did not allow for returns. The kid is a freshman, and while he’s not Adam Korsak, he’s making nice progress.
