Yuck. For as bad as the Clone Zone feed was, this quickly went worse. Up 11 with 5:25 left in the game, special teams quickly gave up the game.
We played better than I thought we would on both offense and defense. I was expecting a letdown after the Iowa game and I suppose we sort of got that during the first half. I liked our playcalling as a whole, and we were the better team during the game, but that can be all thrown out the window thanks to freak plays like bad snaps from the deep snapper or getting a field goal blocked.
Quarterback
Meyer continued some decent play. his interception was kind of a WTF throw, but he managed the game nicely and had some nice runs. Worked the outside of the field decently again and actually went deep a couple of times to Blythe........B
Runningbacks
JJ Bass really worked to wear down Toledo on the ground and would've probably finished with 175 yards barring some shoestring tackles. That being said, he was strangely absent during the last couple of drives. Alexander Robinson didn't really do much with the ball at all.........B-
Receivers
Did a nice job as well today. Blythe finished with seven catches and I even saw him and RJ Sumrall get out there and run block. Ben Barkema had some really nice grabs and Derrick Catlett had some nice awareness down near the goal line. Wallace Franklin also gets his first career touchdown......B+
Offensive Line
I think they are getting worn down at the end of games. They aren't doing anything special, but I think we're still easily impessed by them because of the clusterfuck that was our offensive line last year. Schmeling and Lamaak are our guys to run behind. Only allowed one sack, though.....B-
Defensive Line
Got absolutely pancaked early in teh game only to improve later on. I've been liking our group of Lyle-Johnson and such with the size they give us. My optimal line would probably be Parker-Johnson-Rubin-Taylor. They've got a ton of room to improve, that's for sure........C+
Linebackers
Like the defensive line, improved as the game went on. Alvin Bowen got a pretty nice interception that he tipped twice before coming down with it. Wish they could have been more of a factor in the offensive backfield......B-
Secondary
Looked like crap early, but, again, like the rest of the defense, improved as the game went on, though they weren't on the field much late in the game. Still kind of unclutch on third down. Brown and Smith look pretty good coming up from the safety spots and should theoretically only get better.....B-
Special Teams
A five minute stretch at the end of the game kills us. We go up by 11 and Jalen Parmele makes us his bitch, breaking tackles and shaking and baking his way into the end zone. We get the ball back and go to fourth down when Matt Purvis snaps it through Michael Brandtner's legs, where he starts getting knocked around and can't take the safety. Finally, with fourtenn seconds left, Culbertson's kick runs into the hand of a Toledo defender, ending the game. They lost the game.....F
For all the momentum we could have had from a second big win in a row, we're going to be pretty deflated going into Nebraska. We were the better team for 54 minutes, but that really didn't matter.
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