Azusa Pacific Part 2

This weeks game was going to be at Azusa since we played them already at our home. Facing their defense meant we had to change up some of the run plays. Azusa runs a 4-3 defense with the mike linebacker always lined up off of the ball at eight yards. They also have a plug backer that lines up opposite of the three technique. For inexperienced lineman, it can make things difficult for them to make the correct calls and play assignment football. When facing a defensive front like this you have to take care of the first level and get off to the linebackers. If you don't, you allow the linebackers to make the plays and against our guys, we didn't fare to well.

The game plan was going to be the same, account for everyone upfront except the mike linebacker and make him make the tackles. Running the ball as in all of football, is critical for the pass game. We are down two running backs for this game and so we are relying on these two backs to pick up the slack.

Pass game won't change for this game. We know that we can take advantage of our match-ups, so it is up our guys to win those battles. The offensive line has to do a better job this week in protecting him and give the quarterback time to get the ball off. There blitz packages will make it hard to identify who we have so it will be key in identifying the mike and knowing who we have.

Beginning of the game started out good for us. We kept the same pace with them on both sides of the ball. When they scored, we scored. We even took advantage and forced a stop and took the lead but missed the field goal. It was deja vu all over again. We started fast and strong and went into half time with momentum. Now we had to get the monkey which has been on our back all season and take over in the second half. But like I said, deja vu all over again. Dropped balls, three and outs, and no stops on defense took place and we lost the game. We shot ourselves in the foot again and the monkey continues to run all over our back. 

Western Oregon

0-5. The record definitely does not reflect the talent that is on the team. The blow outs against some of the teams we have faced do not do justice to those guys on the field. I believe the game plans on the offensive side of the ball have been great, we've just had a lot of things not go our way. It happens though and this is football. You are going to have your highs and your lows but you have got to have the resiliency to over come those hardships and learn to get over it as a staff and team.

Western Oregon on film wasn't anything special. Their defensive end was a preseason all-conference and I believe that he was over hyped. He was ok on the field but nothing impressive. We knew as an offensive line that if we shut him down we were going to force the other guys on defensive to stop us. We did a good job at that and did a really good job at moving the ball early in the game but turnovers killed us on bug drives. Two crucial drives we were driving the ball and turned it over on fumbles, our kryptonite thus far this season.

I felt that we had plenty of chances to over come those turnovers, but when you lose momentum like that and there aren't enough seasoned or experience guys on the team to band together and rally, it's hard.

Our rushing game was held under 100 yards only gaining 37 the whole game. I know that I sound like a broken a record when I say this, but if you have no run it puts the offense and defense in bind. Forcing the offense to throw and allowing the opposing defense to blitz or sit back in zone and only rush three or four. This causes us to go three and out a majority of the time and puts our defense back on the field wearing them down.

The pass game was inconsistent at times and when it started to get going, we would turnover the ball or not make a big play on third down. When the game ended and you watch a team that should not have won the game,win, it makes you sick in the stomach. The final score of the game was 14 to 19, Western Oregon barely squeaking by with a victory. This is going to be another long bus ride back to St. George, and hopefully, we can figure this out.  We have Azusa Pacific next and I know their game plan against isn't going to change.

Simon Fraser

Trying to put the last four weeks behind us as a staff and team, changes need to be made. I won't get to in depth with topic, but changes need to be made. The moral of the players are beginning to fade and the trust between coaches and players is relevant.  Questions are beginning to circulate amongst the players questioning our ability as a staff. I understand the frustration they feel because I too fell that we haven't put our guys into a great position. Yet, on the other hand I do know that there are certain players we need in order to execute what we as a staff are trying to implement, but we are missing that aspect of the game as well. 

Putting that behind, our strategy on the offensive side of the ball going into the game against Simon was establish the run game to open the pass the game. Their middle linebacker Jordan Herdman will probably be the best linebacker we face all season. He can cover from sideline to sideline. He does a great job at shedding blocks and making tackles. So we have our work cut out for us. 

For the offensive line, it is going to be key for us to execute our double teams up to the linebackers and sustain our blocks. Simon Fraser's defensive line wasn't anything spectacular, but they do a good enough job holding the line and letting their backers read and get to the ball. 

Going into Saturday's game, I felt that offensive line didn't get enough time during the week during individuals to work on double teams and getting off to the backers. But, thats how it's been so far through the season. Another one of the frustrations I've come across this season. But back to the game, we started out slow which I felt was going to happen due to lack of preparation with the offensive line. We couldn't run the ball if our lives depended on it. We were lucky that the defense held strong the first quarter and that our passing game was able to bail us out and get us into the end zone in the first quarter. The rest of the game didn't fair out so easily for us as we turned over the ball for a score, a punt return for a touchdown and safety. Take away those 16 points we gave up and we have our first victory of the season. We out gained Simon 330 yards to 280 and outplayed them in almost all aspects of the game except rushing and turnovers. But that's where games are won. In the plus minus turnover battle and we haven't won that aspect of the game all so far this season hence the 0-5 record. 

Until next time bloggers, wish us luck because we are going to need it.

Azusa Pacific

After the loss to Humboldt, the coaching staff met for almost an hour after the game. Personally, I'm looking really hard in the mirror trying to figure out what it is that I'm doing wrong. I always look at myself first before moving onto the situation at hand. It was a very frustrating and emotional meeting. I won't disclose too much about some of the things that occurred in the meeting, but I am glad that things got resolved and worked themselves out.

Looking onto Azusa, we changed our whole game strategy and planned this game differently. Personal changes were made and took a step back from running a high tempo offense. We just didn't have the correct personal in to execute what we wanted and after losing our starting right guard and running back, we needed to make some changes. The first change we made was at the quarterback position. We went with Ben Longshore. He gave us the passing game that we struggled to put together in the past 3 games. Although Ben didn't give us the versatility in the run game, he brought a different dynamic in the pass. He was the most accurate of the quarterbacks and gave us exactly what we needed in the pass game. By going with Ben we had to slow things down. We huddled up instead of running no huddle giving us a chance to break down the defensive front  and allowing our young offensive line to adjust to the game. We also had new two new guards in so trying to find a rhythm and unity among the front five was going to be the task at hand. This would also help slow down the game and give our defense the rest they needed.

We had a strong game plan and it showed in our first drive. We went down the field and scored on our first drive. Going against one of the top offenses in the nation because of their run game, we knew we needed to match them drive for drive. If they scored on drive, we had to answer and score as well. We kept up the pace and tempo through the first half matching them drive for drive and scoring on all three of our drives. The score was 21 to 20 going into half time. We missed a crucial extra point on the third touchdown but the momentum was ours. We did everything we could as a couching staff to keep the guys energy levels high and try and sustain what we built in the first half. But things took a dive for worst.

It was our ball at half time and we knew we needed to score coming out to keep the momentum going. But the thing that kept us from winning so far this year came out to bite us again and halt us from scoring on our first drive, ourselves. Turnovers, missed opportunities and  key penalties halted our momentum and kept us scoreless after a field goal in the third quarter. We lost a game again that we should have won. The final score of the game would be 42 to 23. Back to the drawing board.

Hunboldt State

Tough loss again. 50 to 3 speaks for itself. Losing our starting right guard and center added to the pain a grief of the beat down Humboldt put on us. I know I was suppose to update the blog after the game, but having to reflect on why we lost I believe is the better way to go. If I was to update right after the game I think there would be a lot of anger and frustration that would be said and words that I could not take back.

The game plan for the week was good. A lot of time and energy was put into it. Humboldt had just come off the biggest win of their season, knocking off Azusa Pacific who just beat Grand Valley, the number two team in the country. If we needed a win it needed to be against these guys to get our season rolling. That wasn't the case.

The struggles with the offensive line have been a lack of consistency, and I'll take a majority of that blame. Although I am not the head offensive line coach, I know I needed to do a better job at putting them into a better position than I have. I won't rant on to much about that issue but I believe that that issue will work itself out.

When you lose, there isn't much to say about the loss except, things need to cleaned up on both sides of the ball. On the offensive side, the run game needs to be established. Not having a solid run game makes you one dimensional and being a one dimensional offense gets you no where. This was best front seven that we have seen so far and would be for the rest of the season. So it was a task I believed our guys could have accomplished, but I don't know if they fully believed in themselves and their play that night showed it. My faith alone in the guys wasn't going to be good enough to get the job done. They needed to believe that they could over come the obstacles ahead and pull out a victory. Coming out at half time would be a different story and the game just got away from us.

I had some unkind words with offensive line that night and they came out at a bad time. The crowd was quiet and I was right in front of families and the administration and they one professor did not like my choice of words that night. I had to write a letter of apology for my conduct and had to pay a visit to administration and apologize for my actions. I get it though, I am in Southern Utah and while the same kind of profane language that is used outside of this state in on the football field is normal, it is not the norm here.

Central Washington

Going into the second week of the season, the loss to Colorado Mesa was heart breaking loss. Knowing that we lined up physically on both sides of the ball and beat them physically is what hurt the most about the loss.

On Sunday afternoon we met as a staff to break down the film and give the guys their grades and then move on. After a tough loss, you can't dwell on it or it will affect your preparation and mind set for the next game. Being a new to coaching, I didn't take the loss to well and it definitely hinder my preparations for Central Washington and might have affected the way the offensive line played. I felt that the offensive line had a great week of practice and we did everything we could as a coaching staff to prepare them for Central. That wasn't the case in the first quarter of the game.

We started out flat and dead. Both sides of the ball were sluggish and unresponsive to the pounding that Central was giving us. Now it could have been the 16 hour bus ride up there, but we could not do anything on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive line looked like a deer in head lights from the start of the game to the end. My anger level was on the high the whole game because we were not performing at the level I knew we could perform at. Maybe I set the level of expectation high for my guys, but that's how I've always been coached and I don't know any other way. We couldn't establish a running game and that killed the momentum of the drives fast. It was also putting our defense into a predicament because they were constantly on the field because of the three and outs.

We went into half time only down 28 to seven which was still a game we could have come back from. Being a young team and only having one returning senior on the offensive line, it was hard to get the guys to rally and come back. Adversity had set in my yelling and cussing at the guys probably didn't help bring their spirits up.

We lost the game 14 to 48. It was a long a bus ride back to St. George. Long enough time that I started to question myself. After losing two straight I had to look at myself first before looking at my guys. Questions set in and trying to figure out a different approach to see if there was something I could do to boost the morale of the guys.

Colorado Mesa

I am a few weeks behind and haven't had the chance to post about the last four games we played, but it has definitely been a rough four weeks. Losing all four games has felt like a roller coaster. Week one was a tough loss because of the way we played. We beat Colorado Mesa in every aspect of the game except for were it really counted, turnovers. Losing the turn over battle never ends well for team in the negative, and we were in the negative. You cannot win a game when with five turnovers.

There was a lot of positives from the game that we were able to build off of. Our offense had over 600 total yards. The offensive line and running backs rushed for over 200 yards and our quarter back helped the rushing game with 100 yards as well. Our over all performance was good, but not good enough because we came up short and lost a game that we should have won.