Baker has to stop throwing off the back foot.
He has to have a little protection too.
Protection looks bad at times because he’s 5’8 and has to take off because he can’t see. Happened last game. Step up in the pocket and see downfield. Instead he backs out of the pocket or leans back on back foot and floats the ball.
The only word that comes to mind after watching that performance is..pitiful. I agree with all the comments on here, if we don't get our act together this season can go straight down the toiled real quick if we continue to play like that.
I think our D played well, and that's the only positive from this game.
QB, Oline, discipline, HC play calling were all lousy.
Think WIU was nuts to not kick the PAT and go to the 2nd OT, since they outplayed us for the majority of the game. Thanks to their coach.
Will be a long season if we don't play way, way better, and if Cox is out for weeks, we are in big trouble.
Next 4 games are tough and possibly no Avante Cox:
@ South Dakota State
vs North Dakota
@ Northern Iowa
vs Missouri State
and then you finish with @ Indiana State and Youngstown State which *should* be wins. Would 1-3 against the next 4 be good enough to make the playoffs?
Whatever the case, as ugly as this one was; they had to win and they did. The path gets a lot tougher if they lose this game.
Just win baby! I think the conventional thinking is you go for 2 on the road and the tie at home. Their coach went for the win and lost. Good coverage on last play. D played well until they got tired. Offense looked bad after Avante got hurt. If he's in a sling and it's the shoulder, probably a separation. Just a guess, would end his season. Injuries are mounting.
The book on SIU is now officially bring the house on defense. ISU and Western brought extra pressure or all out blitzes countless times and it worked well.
Take the win and hope we can get some guys back. Hopefully one, or both DT's are back soon. I think Strong is still a few weeks away too.
No gimmies in the mvfc. Indy State and YSU should be wins on paper, but so did WIU. MSU, UND, SDSU and UNI will be really tough, especially if we don't get several of our key guys back!
Almost hard to call that a win. Helps to be lucky sometimes. Coach surprisingly seemed chipper on the postgame. I sure as hell wouldnt be.
But we do have key injuries. A win is a win.
Almost hard to call that a win. Helps to be lucky sometimes. Coach surprisingly seemed chipper on the postgame. I sure as hell wouldnt be.
But we do have key injuries. A win is a win.
I think it's understandable coach is happy immediately after turning a potentially season crushing loss, into an mvfc road win, as ugly as it was. He did point out that we have tons to clean up. Western's offense is legit, and they will win some more home games this year. It's going to be hard for the dawgs from here on out with as many key injuries as we have. Unfortunately, Hill didn't sound optimistic regarding the Cox and Francis injuries....
That was an awful win, but like last week's big comeback win against ISU, maybe this narrow victory will result in some positive lessons learned. Losing Cox is going to be a big wake up for the team. Time to circle the wagons and wait for the calvary to return. I'll say one thing. If that poor WIU announcer has his heart set on a broadcasting career, he needs to transfer to SIU and get into a good department.
We won, on the road, in the toughest conference in FCS. I'll take it. I will admit that for the second game in a row I was composing a snark-laden post in my head that fortunately I wound up not posting due to a W. Again, I'll take that--any day of the week.
(Inflammatory political snark)
One thing seems to be missing in all the comments is the abysmal run game if you can run it it opens all the offense and takes pressure of the passing game easy to play defense when you are one dimensional this especially disappointing since this was a top rushing team in the spring
I just came back here to make this exact comment. Thank you.
Indeed, WTF???
That is not Baker's fault, nor does it have a damned thing to do with the defense being tired. Anyone have any thoughts on why things were so dismal on that end?
It also has to be said: we had three major players lost to injury. We still won, on the road, in the toughest FCS conference in the country. Yeah, it was ugly and it sucked, but no cause for pushing the panic button.
(Inflammatory political snark)
Not a pretty win, but they count just the same. Injury bug has really started to rear it's ugly head. We are down the following:
WR: D'Ante Cox, Avante Cox (Starter)...could both be out for the year (D'Ante is for sure done)
RB: Elliot (although I'd heard he was supposed to be back this week)
OL: Calvin Francis (Starter)
LB: Bryson Strong (Starter)
DT: Foxworth, Glajchen (Starter)
CB: Ceaser (Starter)
That's five starters we are down and 3 backups who get/got significant minutes. This is why you try to develop some depth, but this will be tough to overcome. Just have to hope we can tread water over the next few weeks until we can get some of these guys back...or better yet, have some guys start to step up! Big game next week.
All 4 teams we beat lost today including SEMO to 1-4 Tennessee Tech. I think having name recognition after last year will make up for a weak non-conference schedule. And of course beating some good teams coming up.
Totally agree with the posts here about the WIU win. Glad we hung on and any road win in MVFC is a good one. Feel bad about the mounting injuries, really a shame.
That said, we're in a heap of trouble and a lot of work to be done, if we have any hope of making playoffs.
March on triumphantly!
