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Opener vs. THE University of Ohio

Cave_Johnson

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Rematch from last year when the Vandals lost 36-24 in Athens. Idaho had a lot of success throwing the ball last year and the Bobcats had no real answer for Josh McCain. He's gone now but Dezmon Epps should provide an equally challenging match up for Ohio assuming he doesn't get suspended again before tomorrow.

Ohio ran all over Idaho in last year's game. 272 yards averaging 5.8 yards per carry. 132 of those yards came from AJ Ouellette who was only a freshman at the time. Derrius Vick also returns, this time as the named starting QB. Ouellette and Vick combined for 218 of the 272 rushing yards last year with Vick tossing a TD and Ouellette rushing for another two.

Clearly Idaho needs to contain the Ohio rushing attack and limit the big plays they give up. Should be a challenge for new D coordinator Mike Breske bringing his 3-4 scheme over from WSU.

On the other side of the ball sophomore QB Matt Linehan needs to limit turnovers. He went 33/55 for 353 yards in last year's game with 2 TDs, but also had 3 interceptions. Ideally Elijah Penny and Aaron Duckworth pound the ball a bit to take some of the pressure off Linehan and what looks to be a patch work offensive line.

I would not be surprised to see the score end up looking like it did last year. I have Idaho winning three games this year but this is not one of them. Still I'd give them about a 20% chance to win here. Heading up to the Kibbie Dome tomorrow, should be a good one.

Final Score Prediction: Ohio 38 Idaho 30.
 

Cave_Johnson

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Technically should be Ohio University not the University of Ohio but I'm sure the two people who read this forum will forgive me.
 

Cave_Johnson

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Almost nailed the prediction if it weren't for Ohio's last minute TD. Still got within one score for each team so I'll count that as a win. Anyway, to my thoughts on the first game:

Offense: The first quarter was god damn awful. Could not move the ball at all. After that however things started opening up a bit. In general Linehan had time to throw and was able to pick through the defense on short crossing routes to Epps who had a spectacular game minus his one fumble. Matt still needs to work on the deep pass though. He overthrew open guys downfield on three occasions that I counted. Another one was on target but was missed by Deon Watson. At least he made up for that with the TD and 2 point conversion grabs. Not worried about the two picks. One on a tipped ball and another during desperation time with less than a minute left in the game.

As far as the running game goes Penny broke plenty of tackles and overall had a solid game, the offensive line just wasn't creating many holes for him. Credit Ohio's defense there. Linehan scrambled a lot and needs to learn to get the fuck out of bounds. He took way too many hits especially when you consider the QB depth on this team is terrible since Chalich transferred.

Defense: Oh boy. This was shit. Just absolute shit to the point where I'm not even sure how good Ohio's offense is. There is no way to tell. Most middle school teams could have put up 28 on the Vandals tonight. Ohio's QBs almost looked bored. Virtually no pressure, wide open WRs on nearly every pass play, missed tackle after missed tackle, and on top of that they were gashing Idaho's D in the running game at will. I'd single out Marc Millan and Quintin Bradley as having solid games but everything else......bleh. Might be the worst secondary in FBS. Large improvements are needed to win games without the offense having to score on every possession.

Special Teams: Muffing that first kickoff was unacceptable. Other than that the return game was mediocre at best. Austin "Uncle" Rehkow is still probably the best punter in the country but he didn't show it tonight. One shank and one decent punt. At least he put it out the back of the end zone on most kickoffs. He nailed both FG attempts but both were under 40 yards. He was basically automatic there last year but dropped to a coin flip outside that range. He has the leg to hit it from 60+ but just can't find any consistency.

Overall not a terrible result considering Idaho spotted Ohio 21 to start the game. Other than that abortion of a first quarter the score was 25-24 in favor of the Vandals. At least that's something positive to focus on before getting sodomized next week.
 
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