Two games concerns???

[mcnabb7542]

All right we have had two games, 2-0 a good game for the defense, then a good game for the offense,

So with that said what is killing you right now about this team???

 

[WizardHawk]

I'm not sold that defense has had a good game yet, but maybe that's me. I saw Hawaii struggle in the second half of that game, but not sure I'd put much of that on defensive changes.

I'm still on the same two things that give me concern moving forward right now:
Youth in the secondary - Been burned badly and don't have confidence yet, more or less are they starting to be in the right position consistently.
Play calling - The offense had a good game, but let's face it EW's defense sucks ass. A lot of those yards were on totally broken coverages and poor tackling.

Add a 3rd that most of Miles passes were not on target. Even the ones caught were a little behind, low, etc and not hitting the player in stride where they can do the maximum damage. Even on screens and other easy routes.

I'm not that worried about Miles because we know how far behind he is with all the suspensions and not getting the quality reps with the 1's on the team. He's still in spring training ffs.

That's why the only thing I'm worried about with the offense is Smith's calls. Mark my words: We will be complaining about them all season.

 

[TheDayMan]

In which game was the defense good? They gave up 200+ rushing yards to a Mountain West team, and then almost 600 total yards to an FCS team. I wouldn't blame all of the 400+ passing yards given up to Eastern on a young secondary, the defensive coaching was terrible as well. It was like watching a throwback to the Holt or Willingham days when it seemed like they just refused to try to make any adjustments based on what was happening.

This could be a long season if they don't get some things figured out in the next couple weeks.

 

[WizardHawk]

Yeah, and not having a bad ass pass rush against FCS level Online was troubling. Adams had entirely too much time in the pocket much of that game. This is what has me worried about their change over to the 3-4 defense.

 

[TheDman875]

My concerns

1 - Quarterback position - UW is loaded with talent at the receiver position, but having Miles miss all those practices due to suspension to learn Petersen's new system really showed. I hope that is a point of emphasis over these next 2 weeks before UW hits the P12 portion of their schedule because UW's running game will be keyed on pretty hard next week.

2 - Defense - The secondary is going through some obvious growing pains and Peters needs to be leading that group, not getting himself benched for the game for acting like a tard drawing a penalty on a critical 3rd down play that would have had EWU punting. Secondly, I thought the defensive scheme rushing 3 lineman while playing man was a horrible idea. I was screaming for the DC to send the LB's and when they finally did, UW was able to make the QB make bad throws under pressure, take sacks, and create stops (what few there were late in the 3rd and in to the 4th quarter), but more dumb penalties kept drives alive.

Credit to EW's QB, 4 of those TD passes were dimes in some pretty good coverage, but 3 of them UW just flat out got torched. The pass rush needs to be there to help those kids in the backfield out. I don't care if they don't get one sack next week, just hit the QB constantly and get him off his game.

 

[Ironbreaker]

Linebacker play in the 3-4 is my only true concern.

I'm starting to come around to seeing why we are running a 3-4. Its a proven defense against pass happy offenses and we are in a pass happy conference.

We are built for the 3-4. Dominating nose tackle and excellent LBs.

The problem is the LBs arent hitting the QB enough. I think this is being covered this week in practice so I'm expecting a better performance vs the Illini from our linebackers.

Hau’oli Kikaha isn’t letting the Huskies’ young defensive backs take all the heat this week.
“You know what I think, personally: The big-time guys need to make big-time plays,” said Kikaha, UW’s senior buck end. “I think some guys may have tried a little too hard, but our front seven has to show up consistently. If that’s our strength, we need to be able to make it a lot easier on those guys in the back end, you know? Unfortunately, we didn’t make it too easy on them. So that’s on us in the front as much as it is on the back.”

Kikaha said he appreciates the coaching staff’s positive approach to addressing obvious issues on defense.
“In the past, people have crumbled in that situation,” Kikaha said. “The way that our coaches approach it now is way better than I’ve ever seen. The positive reinforcement should have positive results, and I have full confidence that that will happen.”


To the bold, it's good hearing things like that from the players.


I'm backing off the assistant coaches for now. I want to see our LBs perform better in this third game coming up. I think they will.

 

[RegentDenali]

I'm giving our new coaches the benefit of the doubt right now. A lot of it.

I think what's causing some of the questions is the fact that they're testing different schemes way more than we thought they were going to early in 2014. Another impact is that they are rotating players in and out like crazy to get them test reps as well.

It was easy to assume that CP and the new coaches were going to ease the transition by running a lot of things similar to Sarks this year, while SLOWLY start moving things in the direction they wish. But these guys are being very aggressive with the acceleration of the transition.

They appear to be using these 4 OOC games for a lot of testing and getting non-starters who are still critical to the depth as much game experience as they can.

I'm not going to get overly critical of these games right now. Yes, on paper, we should of performed better in both games. But still 2-0, and we already saw a vast improvement in the offense in week 2.

Illinois will be another test. Get another W. Even if it's uglier than it should be. Whatever it takes to get things tuned up for PAC play.

I am appreciating the discipline I'm seeing out there for the most part. Stupid penalties are way down compared to Sark.

 

[mcnabb7542]

I'm giving our new coaches the benefit of the doubt right now. A lot of it.

I think what's causing some of the questions is the fact that they're testing different schemes way more than we thought they were going to early in 2014. Another impact is that they are rotating players in and out like crazy to get them test reps as well.

It was easy to assume that CP and the new coaches were going to ease the transition by running a lot of things similar to Sarks this year, while SLOWLY start moving things in the direction they wish. But these guys are being very aggressive with the acceleration of the transition.

They appear to be using these 4 OOC games for a lot of testing and getting non-starters who are still critical to the depth as much game experience as they can.

I'm not going to get overly critical of these games right now. Yes, on paper, we should of performed better in both games. But still 2-0, and we already saw a vast improvement in the offense in week 2.

Illinois will be another test. Get another W. Even if it's uglier than it should be. Whatever it takes to get things tuned up for PAC play.

I am appreciating the discipline I'm seeing out there for the most part. Stupid penalties are way down compared to Sark.

100%

This is a transition period, with that said I still expect them to be racking up the W's blow out's or ugly, a win is a win....