Moving Forward

by Nestor on Oct 10, 2006 6:10 AM PDT in Football

Now that the good news (no surgery) and bad news (MCL tear - out at least 4 weeks) on Ben Olson is out of the way, let's wish Ben a speedy and healthy recovery, and move forward. Let's also put rest to talks about transfer. Ben is not going anywhere neither is Pat. As Cowan and his coaches have said already he was more than prepared to go in. And now that he is in charge, the Bruins Nation can expect him to hold down the fort, and maintain the reasonable expectations of winning 9 games and beating Southern Cal. As pointed out yesterday Bruins have 3 tough road games this season against team with winning records: Oregon, ND, and Cal. Now if Dorrell is really an above average coach, and Cowan is the capable 2nd QB in the program, then the Bruins should be able to pull out at least 1 win out of these 3 tough games, and keep us on track for having a very good season.

Dorrell is certainly not saying anything to minimize or adjust our expectations with Pat Cowan taking charge:

"Pat's proven that he can win because of what he accomplished last week," Dorrell said of Cowan's performance off the bench in a 27-7 victory over Arizona at the Rose Bowl.

As a second-stringer, Cowan got only about 30% of the snaps in practice through the early part of the season, but his coach praised him for studying carefully from the sideline.

One of his two touchdown passes against Arizona came on a play that he had not gotten the chance to practice.

"That just shows you right there how he stayed involved in the game planning," Dorrell said. "Really watching what's important about his reads and the timing aspects."

Dorrell said he was so confident in Cowan's abilities that he wasn't about to turn conservative when Olson went down early in the game.

And more gushing from Dorrell:

"Our team will rally around him," Dorrell said of Cowan. "They feel just as confident about him (as) Ben, whoever is at the trigger of our offense. Pat has proven he can win because of what he accomplished last week and we'll continue to get better with Pat now at the helm."

Dorrell is putting a lot of stock in PC's first half performance against Zona:

"I wanted Pat to come out blazing," Dorrell said. "We thought, 'We're not just going to slow down and get his feet wet.' "

Well we are going to take KD at his word and not adjust our expectations for rest of the season. But to beat Oregon we are going to need a little more than the "blazing" performance we had against Zona in the second half in which our offense scored 2 FGs, and chickened out from going for it on 4th and 1 deep in Zona's territory, when a touchdown would have hammered a nail into Stoop's team cheap coffin. Hopefully Dorrell's offense led by Cowan can keep up the "blazing" performance, and turn it loose for both halves against a talented Ducks team at Autzen. We are not going to beat the Ducks just with Justin Medlock.

Anyways we have more Cowan mania in the tradtional media. Diane Pucin of LA Times is in love with Cowan. Here she is going all Marky Foley on the Cowans brothers, talking about their crucial attributes that apparently makes them awesome football players:

Older by 18 months, Joe is 6 feet 4, has black hair and dark eyes. He guards his words and catches the football.

Patrick is blond, an inch taller, is freer with his thoughts and throws the football.

"It's a good thing Joe is the receiver and Pat is the quarterback," Anita said. "You could always tell the difference. Pat's bolder and a little more of a leader. Pat's more like a quarterback."

Uh yeah ... Cory Paus has blond hair too Diane. And he was (cue up Bill Walton's voice commenting on Charlie Ward as the Knicks pg) TERRIBLE. Whatever. I just don't get how these losers get to write on sports for a newspaper that blessed us with Jim Murray.

Hey I am all for Cowan shining. And I sure hope he can lead this team to a 2-2 record in next 4 weeks, but all these premature gushing after 3 and half quarters against one of the worse pass defense in the country is kind of nonsense. Let's just hope this is not getting into PC's head and also that the coaches will also work on getting Osaar Rasshan ready, should God forbid something happens to Cowan.

Elsewhere Olson is not the only key player in the current Bruin mash unit. There are few others, and here is the update from the OC Register:

Christian Taylor, who suffered a sprained left ankle in the victory over Arizona, will try to get on the practice field this week. "We'll list him as day-to-day," Dorrell said. "I know that he feels a lot better." If Taylor is unavailable at Oregon, John Hale (Los Alamitos High) would float inside and backup Kyle Bosworth as well as linebacker Aaron Whittington.

Defensive tackle Chase Moline (Mission Viejo High), who has missed the past two games because of a back injury, is expected to do some drill work in practice but remains questionable to play at Oregon.

Split end Joe Cowan (knee) and cornerback Michael Norris (knee) also will try to do some individual practice drills this week. "They both will do drill work and give their knees more of a test of what game conditions will be," Dorrell said.

It will be interesting to see how the team will react should Christian is not out on Saturday. He is the quarterback of this defense who calls the play from LOS. However, I think Hale and Bosworth are going to fill in well. They should be able to considering injury shouldn't be excuses at this point. Every team has them including the Ducks who are also banged up:

As for Oregon, the Ducks are banged up, especially on defense. Linebacker Brent Haberly, cornerback Jackie Bates, defensive end Victor Filipe and defensive tackle Cole Linehan, each projected starters beginning the season, are all out. Also, cornerback Terrell Ward (knee) missed Saturday's loss at Cal and is questionable.

So no excuses and this team and his players must move forward.

We are going to find out a lot about the character (we keep hearing about) of Dorrell's program this coming Saturday. Cannot wait.

GO BRUINS.

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Low expectations...

"And I sure hope he (Pat Cowan) can lead this team to a 2-2 record in next 4 weeks, but all these premature gushing after 3 and half quarters against one of the worse pass defense in the country is kind of nonsense."

I know I'm going to take some heat for this but 2 - 2 is too looooooooooooooowwwwwwwwww. Yes, I am still gushing over Pats performance. It was far better then John Bootys performance against the same team. 24/39 179yds 1 Td 1 Int. Pat is our backup and he came in with no real game snaps this year and got the job done. He can and will lead this team to victory! If our offense can put up some points and let our "D" rest between series then we will win. We got killed in Washington because our "D" was on the field every 2 minutes. I WILL NOT BE CONTENT WITH 2 - 2!!! This team is better then that! Much much better then that! The coaches woke up and pulled the cuffs off the offense! WE ARE CAPAPBLE OF WINNING OUT!!!! GO BRUINS!!!

by bruinelder on Oct 10, 2006 7:53 AM PDT 0 recs

Why was KD smiling?

when BO went down? Because a thousand pounds of pressure just came off his back. PC just became his scapegoat for a 6-6 or 7-5 year, and once again he may get a "pass" from the AD for another mediocre year. Any better than that, and he looks like a genius for recruiting a kid on nobody's radar and "developing" him in the off season. But I am glad the prevailing theme around here in BN is that in no way expectations are minimized or adjusted for a 9-3 year! Let's maintain that perspective. There are no free passes this year.

by godblesstyus95 on Oct 10, 2006 12:37 PM PDT 0 recs

Wow!

A very unusual take. I think your reading way too much into a smile. Did you ever stop to think he was trying to relax Pat? I understand your frustration with KD and his coaching style or lack thereof but you are really stretching with your comment. I seriously doubt he was thinking.....Oh I cant be held accountable now because our QB went down. Attack his coaching all you want but reading into his body language weakens your real argument. GO BRUINS!!!

by bruinelder on Oct 10, 2006 8:43 PM PDT up 0 recs

Let me explain

I was figuratively speaking about Dorrel smiling to make the point that BO going down would be a scapegoat for getting a pass this year on going 6-6. Obviously I don't think any HC would be happy to see his starting QB go down under any circumstance. I also wanted to echo the sentiments around here that there are no free passes this year, period.

by godblesstyus95 on Oct 11, 2006 8:08 AM PDT up 0 recs

I agree.

No free passes this is KD's team! Period. Win or lose he is at the helm. Despite our loss to Washington we are still on pace for a 9 - 3 season. I think we'll win 2 out of 3 against our tough road opponents (Oregon,ND,Cal). I didn't realize how mobile Pat Cowan can be. He is definitely capable of running for a first down if no one is open. I also think being right handed helps the receivers out mentally. GO BRUINS!!!!

by bruinelder on Oct 11, 2006 10:33 AM PDT up 0 recs

no balls...

anyone see how pissed off walker was when dorrell sent the punt team on the field again for a fourth and short situation in the fourth near midfield. we were up by i think two scores but it was short drive. i think he has too much faith in the defense and obviously little in the offense still. i feel like in a similar situation he'll use that as a scapegoat when the defense eventually folds for once and pass blame to walker then himself. i almost thought the offense wasnt going to come off the way tevaga, chai and the offensive line were resisting

by redsand514 on Oct 10, 2006 5:14 PM PDT 0 recs

Conventional wisdom.....

says you punt on 4th down when you are anywhere near the 50 with a two score lead in the 4th qtr. Let's be honest. If he did go for it and we failed to convert you would be all over him. Why did KD do that? Everyone knows thats stupid...blah,blah,blah. KDs coaching style leaves plenty to be desired but saying he should go for it on 4th down near the 50 with a 2 score lead is NOT something he should be attacked for. That was a good coaching decision. If we are down by two scores.....maybe.

by bruinelder on Oct 10, 2006 8:50 PM PDT up 0 recs

We were not neat the 50

We were deep in Zona territory.

Conventional coaching perhaps gets you to a decent bowl game.

Aggressive/dynamic coaching gets you championships.

by bluestreet on Oct 11, 2006 8:40 AM PDT up 0 recs

I disagree.

Arizona was all but dead at that point in the game. If we go for it and we fail we give them new life and momentum. We we're up by two scores with our "D" playing awesome. Kick the FG or Punt the ball. Pin them deep. Force Arizona to go at least 80 yards on our "D" to score. That's going to eat up a lot of clock and secure a win for the BRUINS! It's nice to dominate a team by going for it on 4th down but that was not the time.

Since you are such a fan of aggressive play calling you must have loved the on-side/squib kick we almost recovered? That took balls. Why didn't you mention that in your post?

Ask Pete Carroll where agressive play calling got SUC last year in the championship game? I'm in no way comparing KD to PC.

There is a time and place to be agressive. 4th and 1 at ND stadium when we are up by two scores is a different story. Then its appropriate because we are trying to take the crowd out. Just my 4 cents. GO BRUINS!!!

by bruinelder on Oct 11, 2006 10:50 AM PDT 0 recs

I agree with bruinelder

KD made the right call to kick the field goal on 4th and 1 because of the situation: 1) A very low scoring game, and 2) a field goal makes it a two score game (14-7 at the time). If our 4th and 1 came when we were up 17-7, then that is the time to go for it.

by bornagainbruin on Oct 12, 2006 12:49 PM PDT up 0 recs