MUHAWKS
September 25th, 2022, 02:11 PM
Great atmosphere at Nova- It was family weekend and for about 3 quarters the place was packed. Decent turnout from MU as well. One of the more fun games I have been to in a long time and one that took a lot of mental toughness to win (regardless who had won) b/c there was very little room for error as both offenses seemed to do what they wanted.
As I expected we were able to run the ball very well and because of that and also b/c we have solid skill guys and a good QB, we were effective in the passing game as well. Nova essentially ran the ball at will as well and their kid Jackson is legit.
Also as expected our undersized D Line got no push and at the start of the game it seemed we may lose by 30 b/c Nova was literally getting 8-10 yards every rush. We adjusted somewhat with some blitz packages and putting more guys in the box but in reality the success of our offense allowed us to sort of let them run the ball like that b/c they needed to sustain drives and be perfect as well getting 7-10 at a clip. We never trailed in the game which was huge. No way we could have won that game playing from behind- Nova running game too much for our D line who looked like oversized LB's against the Nova OL.
I will make note to those that are saying "I never thought Nova was that good" etc. which I knew would happen if we won, that we were without several starters. Not only were we without our best OL and best CB who are both all conference and 5th yr guys but we were already down 2 DL and lost 2 more in the second half. On top of that one of our best WR's also went down and another OL who sees time did not play. I am not saying that other teams do not have injuries but just saying we were not even close to full strength. Ironically, we have a Walter Payton award Candidate (Juwon Farri) who is now the 2nd option behind NCAA FCS leading rusher Jayden Shirden who lit Nova up for 211.
To be fair, I did not think Nova was as good as their ranking either but after the Army loss and considering all other things this was a huge win for us and one that IMO will propel us confidence and momentum wise. Our offense is legit and our line is coming together. We are deep at every position. If we can somehow get our D to just be like a C+ type Defense we may end up having a say in all this. It is hard to see as of right now us being able to compete with Delaware or anyone really good with how our defense is. What I can say is that I do not think we are stuck with this D- meaning, we have some very very good players on D but the D line is so small and maybe just not that good that we get run on and then no pass rush. So we need to blitz, take chances and bend but don't break but that is possible and if the O keeps going, maybe we can win games 42-38 which will require some luck. I do not think we have played even close to our best and the UNH and Fordham games really sting right now, but whatever.
Our remaining schedule in order- Lehigh, Albany, Maine, URI, Towson, Delaware, Stony Brook. Our bye comes after Delaware which sucks b/c we are very banged up. Nobody can take any teams lightly and certainly not us, but if we do the "
on paper" thing- we should beat Lehigh. I think both Albany and Maine will be tough games unless they have bad defenses. So hypothetically if we can split with Albany and Maine, beat Towson and Stony Brook and split with URI/Delaware that would leave us @ 7-4. 7-4 for us makes us 50/50 for playoffs at best UNLESS we also beat Delaware while doing so.. As of right now the UNH and Fordham losses look "decent".. So early still so this is all just for fun but at least now we can be relevant. But 3-4 plays away from being 4-0 really stings-- Even just 3-1! Ugh.. oh well, moving on. This is truly a week to week season this year, more than most years. The CAA has a few teams who look like legit top 10-25 teams (Delaware, W&M, Elon, Richmond) or thereabouts and there is just no chance that the CAA gets 5 teams in (or very little chance) so not sure what it will take but even 4 teams would be a big number so a couple good teams will be left out. Seems that 8 is really the magic number unless the 7 wins come with an FBS loss and 2-3 very good wins.
I am very excited about this win but am also realistic that unless our D improves in a major way we will need to get lucky to get to 8 wins.
As I expected we were able to run the ball very well and because of that and also b/c we have solid skill guys and a good QB, we were effective in the passing game as well. Nova essentially ran the ball at will as well and their kid Jackson is legit.
Also as expected our undersized D Line got no push and at the start of the game it seemed we may lose by 30 b/c Nova was literally getting 8-10 yards every rush. We adjusted somewhat with some blitz packages and putting more guys in the box but in reality the success of our offense allowed us to sort of let them run the ball like that b/c they needed to sustain drives and be perfect as well getting 7-10 at a clip. We never trailed in the game which was huge. No way we could have won that game playing from behind- Nova running game too much for our D line who looked like oversized LB's against the Nova OL.
I will make note to those that are saying "I never thought Nova was that good" etc. which I knew would happen if we won, that we were without several starters. Not only were we without our best OL and best CB who are both all conference and 5th yr guys but we were already down 2 DL and lost 2 more in the second half. On top of that one of our best WR's also went down and another OL who sees time did not play. I am not saying that other teams do not have injuries but just saying we were not even close to full strength. Ironically, we have a Walter Payton award Candidate (Juwon Farri) who is now the 2nd option behind NCAA FCS leading rusher Jayden Shirden who lit Nova up for 211.
To be fair, I did not think Nova was as good as their ranking either but after the Army loss and considering all other things this was a huge win for us and one that IMO will propel us confidence and momentum wise. Our offense is legit and our line is coming together. We are deep at every position. If we can somehow get our D to just be like a C+ type Defense we may end up having a say in all this. It is hard to see as of right now us being able to compete with Delaware or anyone really good with how our defense is. What I can say is that I do not think we are stuck with this D- meaning, we have some very very good players on D but the D line is so small and maybe just not that good that we get run on and then no pass rush. So we need to blitz, take chances and bend but don't break but that is possible and if the O keeps going, maybe we can win games 42-38 which will require some luck. I do not think we have played even close to our best and the UNH and Fordham games really sting right now, but whatever.
Our remaining schedule in order- Lehigh, Albany, Maine, URI, Towson, Delaware, Stony Brook. Our bye comes after Delaware which sucks b/c we are very banged up. Nobody can take any teams lightly and certainly not us, but if we do the "
on paper" thing- we should beat Lehigh. I think both Albany and Maine will be tough games unless they have bad defenses. So hypothetically if we can split with Albany and Maine, beat Towson and Stony Brook and split with URI/Delaware that would leave us @ 7-4. 7-4 for us makes us 50/50 for playoffs at best UNLESS we also beat Delaware while doing so.. As of right now the UNH and Fordham losses look "decent".. So early still so this is all just for fun but at least now we can be relevant. But 3-4 plays away from being 4-0 really stings-- Even just 3-1! Ugh.. oh well, moving on. This is truly a week to week season this year, more than most years. The CAA has a few teams who look like legit top 10-25 teams (Delaware, W&M, Elon, Richmond) or thereabouts and there is just no chance that the CAA gets 5 teams in (or very little chance) so not sure what it will take but even 4 teams would be a big number so a couple good teams will be left out. Seems that 8 is really the magic number unless the 7 wins come with an FBS loss and 2-3 very good wins.
I am very excited about this win but am also realistic that unless our D improves in a major way we will need to get lucky to get to 8 wins.