7. The defense took its lumps but given the opponent, injuries in the secondary, and total lack of help from the offense, I am reasonably proud of the defensive effort. Notably, the run defense kept its streak going of doing better than the opposing run game's norm (though this one was close, 4.71 vs. 4.82 yards per carry, and perhaps Breshard Smith being benched for the first half should give this one a big asterisk). It continues to appear we have a solid and maybe even quite good run defense. We are now #61 in yards per carry allowed but considering who we have played that is very impressive and the stats should look a lot better after we play bad rushing teams Wake Forest and San Jose State and terrible rushing teams NC State and Cal. For the pass defense, 11.9 yards per attempts and a 192.40 passer rating are obviously gargantuan numbers to give up, the yards per attempt the most we have given up in over two years. But I don't view this as a defense-wide failing as it was the fault of one unfortunate soul more than practically ever see at this level. Also, Jennings is good - top 14 percent of Total QBR on the season - so us making him play like a top 29 percent QB in Total QBR is not bad.
8. That is especially the case when you consider that almost all of the biggest success SMU had yesterday was picking on a true freshman benchwarmer forced into duty against one of the better QBs in the nation. Cam Richardson was a lamb being fed to the wolves. That was tough to watch. Thoughts with Richardson right now. Taylor referenced in the post-game press conference better health ahead for the defense, so we have to hope that Manley and/or Morris (I really hope Manley) is back soon. Take out Richardson's first quarter and this game was a nice showing by the defense. We had a modest six players show up in the box score with multiple positive plays (Leigber, Sinclair, Frausto-Ramos, Bailey, Bernadel, Cooper) and Bernadel and Cooper only got there with garbage time but there was grit throughout, especially considering the limitations and scoreboard adversity. Bailey, whose pass rush forced two punts, is clearly our best player and hopefully his 41 snaps in this game is an indication that health really was limiting him in recent weeks and we will be able to benefit from his havoc in the coming weeks. He is now 57th in the nation in sacks after being 74th last year, the only Cardinal player to make the national leaderboard in the last half decade (before that Toohill 34th in 2019, Phillips 79th in 2017 and 70th in 2016, Thomas 47th in 2016). I am very encouraged that Frausto-Ramos followed up his excellent game last week with a good game yesterday, contributing a few stops that prevented the chains from moving and going back to back on sacks with Staples to push SMU far enough back to miss a field goal (continue to like what Staples is showing for this stage of his career). Three sacks for the defense is nice work against Jennings as SMU typically does a pretty good job keeping QBs clean. But to me the performance to most shout out from yesterday was Leigber. We really needed him to step up with so much of the secondary injured and he delivered, giving us our biggest play of the day on the interception (with major credit to Sinclair for pressuring the bad decision) and multiple third down stops, one of which forced a punt. These contributions were all prior to garbage time and were much appreciated.
9. Similar shout out to Sam Roush for stepping up. I have not been a fan of his play but he helped us yesterday and the offensive performance would have been even worse than it was without him and Ayomanor being the only people we could trust to move the chains. [Moving the chains (first down) leader board: Roush (4), Ayomanor (4), Ford (3), Daniels, Bachmeier] I especially liked the yards-after-catch and effort Roush showed. We need some fire all over the place in a season in danger of a morale implosion so getting it from a guy who has frankly struggled was nice to see. Conversely, Mosley really hurt us yesterday. I hope he bounces back soon. So far it's been a lot of hype and a lot of frustration. His fourth down drop ruined what was shaping up as by far our best drive of the game (a catch would have been our fourth first down of the drive) and almost certainly took points off the board, capping off a rough game for him. For the offensive line, by my naked eye and the commentary of the announcers (by the way, totally moronic, as bad as I have seen in major college football in a while) it seemed to be a mismatch, men against boys, etc. In PFF's view, Maikkula, House, Leyrer, Baklenko, and Pale graded in that order but all sub-par and none disastrous. Five sub-par OL explains pretty quickly the struggles we continue to see. I continue to really struggle to see the theory of the case for how this OL ever becomes good. I hope after this year we abandon hope in the current model and dedicate ourselves to building OL via the transfer portal.
10. Special teams helped us quite a bit, obviously, given the turnovers in the punt phase. Not sure how much of that skill and how much is luck but I'll always take takeaways. Flintoft had a very busy night, with net punts of 14 to our own 49 (obviously a disaster but he may have done well to not have it blocked given how poorly we blocked the rush), 38 to the 7 (very good), 29 to the 45 (first of several odd results defined by muffs and what ensued), 35 to the 45 were it not for the muff (would have been very bad without the muff but with it a great result), 41 to the 6 (very good), 48 to the 20 (solid), 40 to the 36 were it not for the forced fumble (would have been meh were it not for the forced fumble but with it a great result), and 40 to the 20 (pretty bad from that part of the field. A question I'd have for special teams cognoscenti is whether all the drama in this phase was to our credit/game planning/execution or more akin to luck. Is it good that punts were coming down 35-40 yards downfield and resulting in screw-ups or did we just get lucky? Regardless, what I do know is Dubre put on massive hits on both kick coverage and punt coverage, the latter resulting in a fumble and key turnover. That was certainly good, and also shout out to Sinclair for recovering that one and Bernadel for recovering the one that was a pure muff. Also noteworthy was Nicholson making multiple coverage tackles on special teams. In the kicking game, not much opportunity for Kenney but he made the 42 yard field goal he attempted. Don't know if Kasemervisz or anybody else did anything wrong, but field position at the 30 after an unnecessary roughness post-touchdown penalty was mildly disappointing.
11. Game balls: Roush, Leigber, Dubre, Gregory
12. The season isn't over yet. We just finished a streak playing, in succession, the #55, #13, #28, #5, and #16 teams and are now going to play, in succession, the #88, #75, #26, #57, and #93 teams. It gets so much easier from here. Let's see if the team, including possibly with a new QB1, can do something with that. We can still make this season a success if we win three of the last five games. That would be a trajectory I think we could sell and that would give the team some credible internal and public-facing sense of momentum. More likely is something less successful than that. But I do think there has to be some success in the remaining weeks. Taylor says all the right things about our players being the most resilient and resourceful he's ever been around, but everybody has a limit. At some point they will lose belief in themselves, each other, and their coaches. Frankly, the way they have played the last months fans could be forgiven for wondering if that point has already arrived. This coaching staff needs to start showing us results that banish those dark thoughts. Wake Forest at home is the best time to do it as it may be our easiest game the rest of the season. I don't think it's too dramatic to call this a must win.
8. That is especially the case when you consider that almost all of the biggest success SMU had yesterday was picking on a true freshman benchwarmer forced into duty against one of the better QBs in the nation. Cam Richardson was a lamb being fed to the wolves. That was tough to watch. Thoughts with Richardson right now. Taylor referenced in the post-game press conference better health ahead for the defense, so we have to hope that Manley and/or Morris (I really hope Manley) is back soon. Take out Richardson's first quarter and this game was a nice showing by the defense. We had a modest six players show up in the box score with multiple positive plays (Leigber, Sinclair, Frausto-Ramos, Bailey, Bernadel, Cooper) and Bernadel and Cooper only got there with garbage time but there was grit throughout, especially considering the limitations and scoreboard adversity. Bailey, whose pass rush forced two punts, is clearly our best player and hopefully his 41 snaps in this game is an indication that health really was limiting him in recent weeks and we will be able to benefit from his havoc in the coming weeks. He is now 57th in the nation in sacks after being 74th last year, the only Cardinal player to make the national leaderboard in the last half decade (before that Toohill 34th in 2019, Phillips 79th in 2017 and 70th in 2016, Thomas 47th in 2016). I am very encouraged that Frausto-Ramos followed up his excellent game last week with a good game yesterday, contributing a few stops that prevented the chains from moving and going back to back on sacks with Staples to push SMU far enough back to miss a field goal (continue to like what Staples is showing for this stage of his career). Three sacks for the defense is nice work against Jennings as SMU typically does a pretty good job keeping QBs clean. But to me the performance to most shout out from yesterday was Leigber. We really needed him to step up with so much of the secondary injured and he delivered, giving us our biggest play of the day on the interception (with major credit to Sinclair for pressuring the bad decision) and multiple third down stops, one of which forced a punt. These contributions were all prior to garbage time and were much appreciated.
9. Similar shout out to Sam Roush for stepping up. I have not been a fan of his play but he helped us yesterday and the offensive performance would have been even worse than it was without him and Ayomanor being the only people we could trust to move the chains. [Moving the chains (first down) leader board: Roush (4), Ayomanor (4), Ford (3), Daniels, Bachmeier] I especially liked the yards-after-catch and effort Roush showed. We need some fire all over the place in a season in danger of a morale implosion so getting it from a guy who has frankly struggled was nice to see. Conversely, Mosley really hurt us yesterday. I hope he bounces back soon. So far it's been a lot of hype and a lot of frustration. His fourth down drop ruined what was shaping up as by far our best drive of the game (a catch would have been our fourth first down of the drive) and almost certainly took points off the board, capping off a rough game for him. For the offensive line, by my naked eye and the commentary of the announcers (by the way, totally moronic, as bad as I have seen in major college football in a while) it seemed to be a mismatch, men against boys, etc. In PFF's view, Maikkula, House, Leyrer, Baklenko, and Pale graded in that order but all sub-par and none disastrous. Five sub-par OL explains pretty quickly the struggles we continue to see. I continue to really struggle to see the theory of the case for how this OL ever becomes good. I hope after this year we abandon hope in the current model and dedicate ourselves to building OL via the transfer portal.
10. Special teams helped us quite a bit, obviously, given the turnovers in the punt phase. Not sure how much of that skill and how much is luck but I'll always take takeaways. Flintoft had a very busy night, with net punts of 14 to our own 49 (obviously a disaster but he may have done well to not have it blocked given how poorly we blocked the rush), 38 to the 7 (very good), 29 to the 45 (first of several odd results defined by muffs and what ensued), 35 to the 45 were it not for the muff (would have been very bad without the muff but with it a great result), 41 to the 6 (very good), 48 to the 20 (solid), 40 to the 36 were it not for the forced fumble (would have been meh were it not for the forced fumble but with it a great result), and 40 to the 20 (pretty bad from that part of the field. A question I'd have for special teams cognoscenti is whether all the drama in this phase was to our credit/game planning/execution or more akin to luck. Is it good that punts were coming down 35-40 yards downfield and resulting in screw-ups or did we just get lucky? Regardless, what I do know is Dubre put on massive hits on both kick coverage and punt coverage, the latter resulting in a fumble and key turnover. That was certainly good, and also shout out to Sinclair for recovering that one and Bernadel for recovering the one that was a pure muff. Also noteworthy was Nicholson making multiple coverage tackles on special teams. In the kicking game, not much opportunity for Kenney but he made the 42 yard field goal he attempted. Don't know if Kasemervisz or anybody else did anything wrong, but field position at the 30 after an unnecessary roughness post-touchdown penalty was mildly disappointing.
11. Game balls: Roush, Leigber, Dubre, Gregory
12. The season isn't over yet. We just finished a streak playing, in succession, the #55, #13, #28, #5, and #16 teams and are now going to play, in succession, the #88, #75, #26, #57, and #93 teams. It gets so much easier from here. Let's see if the team, including possibly with a new QB1, can do something with that. We can still make this season a success if we win three of the last five games. That would be a trajectory I think we could sell and that would give the team some credible internal and public-facing sense of momentum. More likely is something less successful than that. But I do think there has to be some success in the remaining weeks. Taylor says all the right things about our players being the most resilient and resourceful he's ever been around, but everybody has a limit. At some point they will lose belief in themselves, each other, and their coaches. Frankly, the way they have played the last months fans could be forgiven for wondering if that point has already arrived. This coaching staff needs to start showing us results that banish those dark thoughts. Wake Forest at home is the best time to do it as it may be our easiest game the rest of the season. I don't think it's too dramatic to call this a must win.