The score doesn't show how close this game was. What was it, 7 interceptions? And yet we still had under 300 yards of offense. Let's consider the factors though, with a new OC, WR coach, OLine coach, and new WRs, 2 new starters on the OLine, and a new QB. This offense still has to come together, and I believe that we kept the playbook simple to ease the transition & also to make it tough for VT to game plan for us. None the less, our OLine needs to improve very quickly. MSU's DLine is pretty good and played very well, but VT's will be better. Run & Pass blocking both require tremendous improvement for an effective offense, particularly Hitt & Stewart. Flynn looked good - great pocket awareness and good decisions, but once again he needs the OLine to give him more time. RP looked very good as well. RBs looked good when given some space. We need some more creative ways to use Trindon, as Miss St had him pretty much figured out. Murphy looked good, but but it was late against a worn out defense. Doucet looks to be the beast we thought he could be this year (Blitnikoff?). LaFell looked good (nice block!), but it appears that Flynn hasn't built trust with the other guys. Toliver showed what he's capable of. On defense, DLine looked good, but not as great as they are capable of being. They got better as the game went on. Same thing with the LB's. Highsmith looked great, Beckwith supposedly had a minor injury. DB's looked great - how about Steltz w/ 3 picks!? We wouldn't have looked that good against a good QB though. Special Teams looked good, coverage was good. My only complaint is that Fisher wasn't controlling his punts enough getting them to fall before the endzone, but if he can get the distance when we need it then no big deal.
Turned out to be a good game... MSU has a LOT of work to do on offense. Their D did a pretty good job considering. Doucet impressed me...
But you also have to consider that our offense had short fields to begin probably 5 of those drives following the turn over and return. Hard to "pile up the yardage" when you only have to cover 30-40 yards to score a TD.
I agree with CParso. I enjoyed seeing the young guys, and they looked as good as their press clippings, but the game was over. Chad Jones made a heck of a good tackle to save a long game, he moved real fast from what I saw. Perrilloux looked really good. Not a fancy game, but an enjoyable way to start the year. But the MSU QB gave us a lot, not sure how much we really learned. Dogfight next Sat.
I was really surprised at how well Flynn could run. He did an excellent job, he looked rusty at first, but that TD pass to Doucet was picture perfect.
Our offensive line is what needs the most work. I was really pleased with everything else. including the coaching and play calling. I think there is alot more to come next week.
