[msqueri]

10. I got what I've been clamoring for: all Flintoft all the time. Frankly, he did not have his best day, with nets of 34 to the 46, 39 to the 29, 33 to the 42, 29 to the 20 due to a touchback, 54 to the 10, and 35 to the 16. One boomer but overall pretty lacking in net distance and not very situationally effective. It would be funny if the competition with Weselman was bringing out the best in Flintoft and the calls to definitively bench Weselman prove to not be helpful, but for now I'm going to say this is only one game and Flintoft's mediocre outing is not indicative of what we'll see going forward. Karty made his kick but again is not being given all the opportunities he could be. I think going for it on 4th and 1 at the 14 is very defensible, something analytics are probably more supportive of than old school tendencies to get points on the board in a defensive game, but we are fortunate the defense kept holding so strong after that gut punch of a red zone turnover on downs. Getting zero points out of a red zone trip in such a low-scoring game is brutal. We later had a similar situation at 4th and 1 at the 23 in crunch time and again didn't let Karty eat. I know hindsight is always 20/20 but we ended up with three points instead of six and once again significantly damaged our All-American kicker's prospects for national honors. I give Taylor some slack because he is trying to establish an identity and going for touchdowns rather than field goals and being confident in high-leverage short yardage situations are part of that, but at the same time we are #100 in red zone touchdown conversion percentage and have the best kicker in America, so Taylor's decisions are costing the team points. In the return game, Farrell had an 8 yard punt return and a 9 yard kick return (!). I really can't emphasize enough how bad I think Farrell is at everything he does and how much we need to replace him on both offense and special teams. He is #54 of 55 qualifying kick returners nationally and has only returned two punts (neither has been great and if he qualified his average would be 49th of 55 nationally). On coverage, Morris had yet another awesome tackle. I am not kidding when I say he should get very serious all-conference consideration. Walk-on Kazemervisz has also had a very nice year on special teams.

11. Game balls: Levi Rogers, Teva Tafiti, Aaron Morris, Bobby April III

12. This is the first time this season I've felt that the team could genuinely have the psychological ingredients for some momentum. I don't want to overstate this because I take them at their word that the team-wide ethos is one week seasons, so fundamentally one shouldn't view any particular game as more or less likely to see the team show up. The character of this team is a steady, resilient bunch. That has shown up in consistency the last six weeks that is remarkable in hindsight - four games playing like a Sagarin 36-42 team. If anything, we are getting to a point where that respectable but still not quite good level of play is what we can expect. Still, I can't help but think that reaching those aforementioned psychological barriers (at least matching the last two seasons' win total, showing up two weeks in a row, beating a team nobody in the program had ever beaten before, finding a way to win despite offensive struggles, finding a way to salt a late lead) creates a different sense of momentum than we had after the Hawaii and Colorado wins. This feels like more solid ground in being on the right track. That doesn't mean we are immune from setbacks. We could fall on our face against Oregon State like we did against UCLA. I think we can keep this next one within two scores (though it's possible I'm getting carried away....Sagarin would have us down three scores), which for a resilient bunch learning how to win means we really could have a shot.

[msqueri]

10. I got what I've been clamoring for: all Flintoft all the time. Frankly, he did not have his best day, with nets of 34 to the 46, 39 to the 29, 33 to the 42, 29 to the 20 due to a touchback, 54 to the 10, and 35 to the 16. One boomer but overall pretty lacking in net distance and not very situationally effective. It would be funny if the competition with Weselman was bringing out the best in Flintoft and the calls to definitively bench Weselman prove to not be helpful, but for now I'm going to say this is only one game and Flintoft's mediocre outing is not indicative of what we'll see going forward. Karty made his kick but again is not being given all the opportunities he could be. I think going for it on 4th and 1 at the 14 is very defensible, something analytics are probably more supportive of than old school tendencies to get points on the board in a defensive game, but we are fortunate the defense kept holding so strong after that gut punch of a red zone turnover on downs. Getting zero points out of a red zone trip in such a low-scoring game is brutal. We later had a similar situation at 4th and 1 at the 23 in crunch time and again didn't let Karty eat. I know hindsight is always 20/20 but we ended up with three points instead of six and once again significantly damaged our All-American kicker's prospects for national honors. I give Taylor some slack because he is trying to establish an identity and going for touchdowns rather than field goals and being confident in high-leverage short yardage situations are part of that, but at the same time we are #100 in red zone touchdown conversion percentage and have the best kicker in America, so Taylor's decisions are costing the team points. In the return game, Farrell had an 8 yard punt return and a 9 yard kick return (!). I really can't emphasize enough how bad I think Farrell is at everything he does and how much we need to replace him on both offense and special teams. He is #54 of 55 qualifying kick returners nationally and has only returned two punts (neither has been great and if he qualified his average would be 49th of 55 nationally). On coverage, Morris had yet another awesome tackle. I am not kidding when I say he should get very serious all-conference consideration. Walk-on Kazemervisz has also had a very nice year on special teams.

11. Game balls: Levi Rogers, Teva Tafiti, Aaron Morris, Bobby April III

12. This is the first time this season I've felt that the team could genuinely have the psychological ingredients for some momentum. I don't want to overstate this because I take them at their word that the team-wide ethos is one week seasons, so fundamentally one shouldn't view any particular game as more or less likely to see the team show up. The character of this team is a steady, resilient bunch. That has shown up in consistency the last six weeks that is remarkable in hindsight - four games playing like a Sagarin 36-42 team. If anything, we are getting to a point where that respectable but still not quite good level of play is what we can expect. Still, I can't help but think that reaching those aforementioned psychological barriers (at least matching the last two seasons' win total, showing up two weeks in a row, beating a team nobody in the program had ever beaten before, finding a way to win despite offensive struggles, finding a way to salt a late lead) creates a different sense of momentum than we had after the Hawaii and Colorado wins. This feels like more solid ground in being on the right track. That doesn't mean we are immune from setbacks. We could fall on our face against Oregon State like we did against UCLA. I think we can keep this next one within two scores (though it's possible I'm getting carried away....Sagarin would have us down three scores), which for a resilient bunch learning how to win means we really could have a shot.