(had my 20 year high school reunion sat night) and thought the Oline took a step back. The running game was poor, but if you notice Kraft had very little time to throw the ball all night. He never had enough time to throw the ball down the field.

  First things first, in step with school starting last week, I want to thank my teacher “Tasser” for schooling this freshman on his first day. I always learned more from my mistakes anyway, but from now on I will use paragraphs and no more …… Now onward and upwards to bigger things, thanks again teach.

  I think the biggest thing that has caught my eye the last two weeks in the play of the freshman. Embree, Coleman, Ayers, Baca and R. Moore to name a few have really stepped up huge, but they are not just playing well, they are already becoming play makers. What makes this so exciting to me is it bodes not only well for this year obviously, but it should play HUGE dividends in recruiting this spring when all the recruits can see that it is not just lip service that the best player will play, regardless of grade, the coaches can point to it and the players can see it.

  The top recruits all have such huge egos, they of course think that they will all be the ONE that plays, and if on top of that you can get coached by NFL experienced coaches like Walker, DC and CRN on top of that! Well how sweet it is! I really think they are going to be able to play that angle up huge this spring, just as SC has always been able too. If your a top recruit, do you want to be one of 5-6 top recruits at your position, hoping to beat them out; or would you like to be THEE top recruit and play for our coaches? It really becomes a no-brainer, can wait to watch as this spring unfolds.

  Now back to this year. I agree with one post that said they like what DW started doing with the defense and mixing up the packages and schemes. I have been wondering why he didn’t start 3 games ago, but what I would like to see is to be totally aggressive from the kickoff, no need to wait until our back is against the wall. Personally I would rather get beat by trying to be aggressive, rather than sitting back in a prevent defense and die a slow, methodical death. Another by product of a VERY aggressive defense? Recruits flock to that style of play.

  I would also like to see us replace our SS Lockett, or at least move him to another position that might not be as critical. But as SS, he usually is the last man standing between the offense and the goal line. Maybe that is where we could put Ayers full time? Apparently he is gifted with incredible speed to keep up with the running backs and he delivers huge hits. It might be a little radical, and yes he is a freshman but aren’t those the qualities of a strong safety? Then maybe next year you can move him back to LB. But right now we have a desperate need at the SS, and he needs to be on the field more.

  Lastly, as for running backs, I say we go with the kids along with Bell. Dean, Coleman and Bell. Bell for all his heart is just not 100, and he may want all the carries, it would be better for the team to spread them out. Coleman with the power inside game, Dean with the speedy outside game, and Bell who (when 100) can pretty much go anywhere. That would not only give defenses different looks, and speeds it will help keep them all fresher and develop the kids quicker. I always read where the easiest spot to put in a young kid is running back. Because it is such a instinctual position and not so much technique, that is why it is not uncommon for rookie running backs to do really well right out of the gate. I also agree with the pass first to set up the run until the OL improves more.

  Lastly, great job on the improvement of the special teams. No quite there yet, but they have come a long ways. At this point in time, to me the defense has shown the least amount of improvement. Hopefully this week, we will finally see some improvement as they continue to tweak the personnel and schemes.

Go Bruins,

that Lockett did anything really bad Saturday, it was Norris who got burned consistently. He is the main liability on the defense right now. He let about four 30 yard passes get completed to the same receiver, luckily we had one or two called back for penalties. I also think that we shouldn’t get too worried about the run so soon. They had 9 guys in the box, so what were we going to do? What we should have done is mixed in a screen or two and at LEAST some draw plays to try and take advantage of their extremely aggressive defensive scheme. I absolutely could not believe that I did not see a single draw play, that is just one thing Norm really overlooked on Saturday. You need to catch the loaded box when they are backpedaling to defend the pass.
Those were my two peeves from the game. I loved watching the boys in blue win one, though we all know we could have played better and will need to do so to pick up a few more down the stretch.

The man he was guarding that got so wide open? #85 Jeshua Anderson
All he’s done is win an NCAA title in the 400m hurdles. According to the Wazzu fan I was sitting next to, he almost made the Olympic team, so Norris has some justification for being toasted. They just sent him on streaks and chucked it downfield, hoping he could catch it in stride.

Their main receiver, #4 Brandon Gibson, was really the one that was beating our defense. He had six receptions for 62 yards, so they basically got a first down everytime he caught the ball. I still haven’t seen any good man coverage on an opponent’s top receiver this season – I thought Walker’s experience was with DBs?

As for the offense, I think Norm Chow made the change in offensive philosophy at halftime of the Tennessee game as a result of Craft’s inexperience and physical shortcomings, and has been inching incrementally forward toward the full playbook as Craft gets more experience, but we won’t see the full playbook until we have a solid second-year starter.

Spring ball and most of fall practice were geared towards running an offense with Ben Olson in the pocket. He may not have looked comfortable in the pocket for much of his time in Westwood, but that can be attributed to having a different, incompetent OC each year. His arm was solid, IMHO the best since McNown, he just didn’t know who to throw to, so he locked on to a receiver and tried to force the throw.

Craft’s arm is weaker than Olson’s, and he is far less accurate. IIRC, in the Tennessee game, all of the first half interceptions were 10-20 yard routes that were poorly thrown. After halftime, every pass was a 5-10 yard route, and even those were not thrown all that well (I counted at least a half dozen “Amazing Catch” animations on the scoreboard as a result of receivers reaching behind or diving forward to make the catch).

I know Chow has said that they call a couple deep passes each game and that the only reason they aren’t making them is because the coverage is there, but I think the real reason is because Craft doesn’t have the arm to make the deep throw. Austin’s “breakout” against Wazzu was due to the fact that Craft was throwing timing-based slants, and Austin was able to get just enough separation to make the catch before being tackled. Against a team with decent corners, those throws wouldn’t be there.

Hopefully, Craft improves in his playmaking, and maybe gets more accurate with his throws.
Hopefully, the running game shows the same improvement from this week that it showed week-to-week from the first game through the Fresno game.
Hopefully, the defensive line actually puts some pressure on the QB, and the DBs cover the receivers better.
Hopefully, we keep it respectable in Autzen, and come away with hope of continued improvement, and maybe we’ll pull out a win against Stanford.

tells me that we are not in for a rough time at Oregon. For all the reasons that Nestor and others have already enumerated with cold clarity, we may well have to endure a trouncing. I admit it. I am braced for it. But, in keeping with the theme of “relentless optimism”, let me raise this question: How much better than Fresno State is Oregon, do you think? Haven’t we played our two best games as an underdog? (I refer to Tennessee and Fresno State.) Of course, those were home games, probably an important factor for a young team. But, hey, there’s a certain freedom, a nothing-to-lose element, to our situation this week. So I agree with the hopes that others have expressed, that we will be aggressive, open it up, go for it, whatever you want to say. Just play like real Bruins. If we do, anything can happen.