Drake Scrimmage Roundup: Bruins Get Out Healthy
Let’s start with the most important piece of information from yesterday’s scrimmage. Bruins got out of the deal fairly healthy:
Defensive end Korey Bosworth was the only known injury in the scrimmage. He sprained his left ankle, but it is not considered serious, Neuheisel said.
I am sure the beat reporters and number of fans went down to Westwood to look for offensive fireworks. But as expected the coaches kept the affair totally vanilla sitting out lot of their key offensive players. For example, Kahil Bell carried the ball only once (for a loss) and wasn’t ask to do much for rest of the day.
For the stat geeks who are wondering how our QB did, Chris Forcier was 7-13 for 71 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception:
Forcier Connects. Photo Credit: dabruins07's photostream (flickr)
While Kevin Craft as 8-18 for 93 yards and 3 picks. He did have a 14-yard rushing touchdown:
Craft heads for the endzone. Photo Credit: dabruins07's photostream (flickr)
And a 3-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Everett. Check out all the (meaningless) stats here.
As Ted Miller from WWL noted we shouldn’t read all that much out of Craft’s TD because no was allowed to hit him and Harwell and Price were out during that play. With that said here is Miller’s assessment of QB’s performance from yesterday:
Craft was outplayed much of the day by redshirt freshman Chris Forcier, who completed 7 of 13 for 71 yards with an interception and fumbled snap.
At one point, Craft had produced just one first down compared to six from Foricer.
But Craft did provide the offense's lone highlight, an eight-play, 68-yard drive in which he went 4-for-4 and tossed a short TD pass to Marcus Everett.
"I thought [Craft] passed the test of not going into the tank because it's not going well," Neuheisel said.
Said offensive coordinator Norm Chow, "All in all, I thought he handled himself well."
The drive that Craft put together was somewhat noteworthy because that came after his six straight incompletions. That's why CRN referred to him "not going into the tank." He stuck with it. And before you get too excited about Forcier, here is a little reality check from CRN:
Neuheisel said the redshirt freshman still lacks a grasp of the offense.
"It's just like you wouldn't let your son drive until he knew all the rules, but you know he can drive someday," Neuheisel said.
I think Forcier will have his moments at UCLA before it's all said and done. Again, right now there is really no reason to be discouraged from a defensive dominated scrimmage from yesterday. Here is Chow with perspective on this type of vanilla affair:
Offensive coordinator Norm Chow noted that the offense was without a few key players and that he didn't allow his quarterbacks to call audibles.
Still, the Bruins-by-the-numbers seemed to add up to concern: eight sacks, four interceptions, two blocked field goals, one safety, one fumble.
"This is not a game that you evaluate personnel, this is a game where we make sure we get plays run and make sure we get ready to go," Chow said. "We don't play UCLA, you've got to keep that in mind. UCLA is not on our schedule. We wanted to run plays and get out of that thing."
And as noted in the very beginning, the most important news from yesterday evening (emphasis added):
"I thought the effort was good, but I was not happy with the way we pass protected," Chow said. "But we would do some different things come game time. All in all, we got out of it healthy."
Bruins now will need to get back to work and start focusing on Tennessee. Aundre Dean set the tone after yesterday’s scrimmage for what’s ahead for our boys:
"We have a lot of work to do before we play Tennessee, and that's the bottom line," Dean said. "The coaches know that, we know that, the offensive line knows that, the receivers know that and the defense knows that. It's all on us. We have to fix it and we'll fix it in good time."
Remember, if you want to take in any more practices this fall, Wednesday is the last day. Starting Thursday all practices will be closed, as Neuheisel and his staff will begin preparations for the Volunteers.
GO BRUINS.
0 recs |
4 comments
Comments
Forgot to mention
It was good to see Drew Gordon on the field after the scrimmage.
by SuperBruinMan on Aug 17, 2008 2:08 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
I would just like to say ...
I returned from vacation and decided to attend the scrimmage with my kid.
And — for whatever reason — it was very boring.
Very little action. No memorable plays.
I don’t think it means anything.
But other than bumping into to some old friends — I thought it was a waste of my time.
(Just as a point of reference — the last scrimmage I went to was one of Toledo’s and I remember having a great time. I don’t remember why.)
Go Bruins
by Achilles on Aug 17, 2008 2:28 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
I wasn't there
but from what I understand, two of Craft’s interceptions were caused by receivers dropping the ball. If that is the case then the raw stats do give an indication of his true performance. Other than that I think that the quarterback situation will work out like I imagined it would. I’m not a football genius but it doesn’t take much to foresee Craft as 1 and Forcier as 2.
I think that we might see both of them in games in a run/throw QB set-up because it requires opposing defenses to expend more time getting ready to play us and offers the offense more flexibility. We are more likely to be able to pull-off the unexpected on the opposition (from their POV) and have it be successful if our offense is dynamic in this regard. The drawbacks are first, that competition between two teammates is sometimes not good. If both these kids are mature mentally this shouldn’t be a problem. Second, in a game, neither may never develop a rhythm. Very important to a QB. And last, neither may develop the confidence they need to play or lead the team. This is probably the most considerable factor in such a system for our circumstances because both QB’s are more or less inexperienced.
At this point given the current condition of our offense, we have to use every cheap trick we can. I’m getting the impression that we will be slightly better than most think but that’s all. Slightly. BTW, has anyone taken a look at the USC offense? I know one poster has commented on this but I think that this goes to show that these growing pains are pretty much universal or at the very least, we have a chance at beating them THIS year. Nonetheless, everything is going to be all right.
by Bruins102NCAA on Aug 17, 2008 4:16 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
just a thought
A lot of people have mentioned that Craft is very inexperienced, but it has also been pointed out that despite the fact that Ben Olson is much older and a red shirt senior, he has only started or played in about a dozen games (don’t remember the exact number). I think that Craft actually has about as much game experience as Olson between his time at SDSU and Mt SAC, all he lacks is knowledge of the team members, and the system (which to his credit everyone is learning this year). I just think that we don’t really lose much in terms of experience by going with Craft, and we will be okay. Not great or stunning, but we will be fine at QB. I am most interested in the continued progression of the O-line.
by sponkey21 on Aug 18, 2008 12:27 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

by 






















