BisonNeil
09-21-2008, 03:35 PM
First off, this thread is not for card-carrying OCKADHBFs (Over confident kool aid drinking homer Bison fans). You know who you are, as defined by your leader LakesBison, so simply go to another thread. You won't want to read one fans view of how the Bison have performed at this point in the season, so save yourself frustration and press on the football link above.
No, this thread is for fans who want to have a serious discussion for how the Bison can move forward, from a FAN perspective. And I am a fan. Few of us can actually say we saw Pete Lana play football for the Bison during a tough transition period after Erhardt left and Kjelbertson took over. (Although as I recall PL was not a huge Erhardt fan) So can the sarcasm about being negative. What follows are my observations, good, bad and the ugly.
A qualifier, these observations do not include play of the Bison against the inferior competition of AP and CCSU. This is the grade of the football team after the last two games of tough competition only, including 6 quarters of less than stellar play. After all, the next four games will define the season for the Bison when they play S. Ill, W. Ill, N. Iowa and Illinois St.
The Season: The Bison are basically where I thought they would be at this point, 2-2. I was not as confident as most and predicted the Bison would be 8-3 for the season, possibly 7-4. I predicted losses to WY, YSU, N Iowa and possibly one to the group of S. Ill, SDSU or W. Ill. So, since WY and YSU were expected losses obviously I was thinking we could be 2-2 at this point, largely because I thought the offense would take some time to jell under a rookie QB. I felt there would be some tough days at this point in the season because of the losses. However, what I did NOT expect is how poorly the Bison would play for 6 quarters and how poor the defense would play. Since I expected to be 2-2 at this point, my grade for the season thus far: C
The Defense: The Bison have played dismal D for 6 quarters, something that is completely foriegn to my thinking. I said in many threads that I expected this D to be more like 2005 and 2006 rather than 2007. Right now I would take 2007 in a heart beat. I thought that our D would keep us in games until the O matured. I firmly believe that D wins championships and at this point there will be none of those, conference or otherwise, if the D doesn't perform better. The rushing D is pathetic and the team as a unit tackles poorly. Lardinois and Crompton get sealed off inside and the OLB have to make every play, from behind the play usually. I could not believe how many times YSU ran right at Lardinois. Humber is getting it done but too much is expected of him. Maresh is abysmal and our MLB position has been largely absent. But perhaps the worst is the lack of controlling the line of scrimmage by the entire DL. The DBs have played fairly well but SS has been victimized. He is, however, a third stringer so that should not be unexpected.
I looked up who the poster was last week expressed concern about the third stringers at several positions, and that was OldBison, who most of you jeered as being negative and much worse. Well OldBison, you were right. Third stringers at MLB and SS are not getting it done, but the problems are much deeper than that. Crompton, Lardinois, Humber and Maresh are seniors and I see very little leadership from that group, Humber's play is the exception but even he struggled to get off blocks and many of his tackles were well down field.
DL- D-
LB- D
DB- B
Overall Defense grade: D+
The Offense: Many of you have rationalized the play of Mertens, but here is one glaring statistic, in the last two games he has thrown for 2 TDs and 7 INTs, and that isn't going to cut it. Talented? Maybe, athletic yes, but over all talent isn't just the physical nature of the game. I am not sure he has the mental portion down yet.
My biggest concern about the QB situation? Two things, the lack of a coach who has played the position (Vigen was a TE in college) and the lack of anybody pushing him. In other words, Bohl and his coaching staff have made their bed and now they have to sleep in it, plain and simple. Bohl says the QB position is the most important position on the team yet he has recruited a QB once every three years or so. Yes, I know I have been critical of that but that fact is haunting this team offensively in my opinion. The talent pool simply isn't there and there is no one else to go to. I have heard several pundits on TV this year talk about college coaching staffs and they have pointed to one thing, you need guys who have played the position to coach the position. So ask yourselves this; who is going to coach up Mertens? I don't know. All I know is this, before the season started when we had no QBs behind Mertens and the coaches went out and got some QBs I said a number of times the Bison's season rested on Mertens and that we needed him to be healthy for 15 games. Right now, losing him doesn't scare me, and that is one of the saddest things I have ever said about Bison football, even in the Babich years.
OL has been solid in pass protection but far from dominant in run blocking, so there is room for improvement. I got shot down for also saying this earlier in the year, but I remain concerned about Foster and nothing to date has changed that. He makes bone head plays that cost TDs and big plays. I have concerns about any OL that has to have a player that predictably and reliably makes bone head mistakes. Can the OL really be that good if you have a guy like Foster as a starter? A simple question that I do not have the answer for. Some have said we need Ebel back, I would agree but only for depth purposes. Arndt has played well, especially in pass blocking. I think Ebel is a better run blocker, however. What troubles me is that the OL went up against a DL of YSU depleted by injuries and still struggled getting running lanes. Does that bother anybody else? Roehl got some space, so then the argument has to be that DJ and Voit simply weren't getting it done, which brings us to:
RB rests solely with the health of Roehl and Paschall. We all thought we had depth here but I am beginning to question it. DJ is either very tentative or he has pedestrian speed and quickness. The bottom line I like YSU's Fr RB much better than either of ours. Kolpack said he figured our OL would make an average runner look very good against a depleted YSU DL. Since our RBs other than Roehl looked below average, what does this mean? Is it the OL or the RB situation? I don't know.
WR are okay, they hung onto the ball this week. Heck is still Heck but he is one player and we need more of him. Where are the rest?
QB- D-
OL- C+
RB- C (due to health and lack of depth)
WR- B
Overall Offense grade: C-
Special Teams: I have defended them because I think there are aspects of this unit that have performed fairly well. Yes, kick coverage has been more exciting then I would like, but punting, punt coverage, FG, etc have been decent. But, no complete game has been played yet and the blocked chip shot FG was disturbing against YSU.
Overall Special Teams Grade: C+
My take on the biggest problem? Over confidence, perhaps. It is one thing to be confident, another to be over confident. I think this team became over confident when they took the second half kickoff at WY down the field and scored a FG. They lost focus at that point and played poorly thereafter. The Bison have lots of potential but are not so good they can simply show up and win, YSU clearly showed that. The Bison were flat coming out of the gate and my gut tells me that was due to overconfidence.
The key to the future, I think, will be senior leadership. Either the Bison have it or they don't, only time will tell. The next four games will tell we fans exactly what kind of team the Bison are. As of now, they are severely underperforming. Someone said they are still very good. I don't think so, I think they are overall quite average and much worse than their hype.
The Bison can make the playoffs with an 8-3 record. If they lose two games and go 7-4 we will be on the outside looking in.
No, this thread is for fans who want to have a serious discussion for how the Bison can move forward, from a FAN perspective. And I am a fan. Few of us can actually say we saw Pete Lana play football for the Bison during a tough transition period after Erhardt left and Kjelbertson took over. (Although as I recall PL was not a huge Erhardt fan) So can the sarcasm about being negative. What follows are my observations, good, bad and the ugly.
A qualifier, these observations do not include play of the Bison against the inferior competition of AP and CCSU. This is the grade of the football team after the last two games of tough competition only, including 6 quarters of less than stellar play. After all, the next four games will define the season for the Bison when they play S. Ill, W. Ill, N. Iowa and Illinois St.
The Season: The Bison are basically where I thought they would be at this point, 2-2. I was not as confident as most and predicted the Bison would be 8-3 for the season, possibly 7-4. I predicted losses to WY, YSU, N Iowa and possibly one to the group of S. Ill, SDSU or W. Ill. So, since WY and YSU were expected losses obviously I was thinking we could be 2-2 at this point, largely because I thought the offense would take some time to jell under a rookie QB. I felt there would be some tough days at this point in the season because of the losses. However, what I did NOT expect is how poorly the Bison would play for 6 quarters and how poor the defense would play. Since I expected to be 2-2 at this point, my grade for the season thus far: C
The Defense: The Bison have played dismal D for 6 quarters, something that is completely foriegn to my thinking. I said in many threads that I expected this D to be more like 2005 and 2006 rather than 2007. Right now I would take 2007 in a heart beat. I thought that our D would keep us in games until the O matured. I firmly believe that D wins championships and at this point there will be none of those, conference or otherwise, if the D doesn't perform better. The rushing D is pathetic and the team as a unit tackles poorly. Lardinois and Crompton get sealed off inside and the OLB have to make every play, from behind the play usually. I could not believe how many times YSU ran right at Lardinois. Humber is getting it done but too much is expected of him. Maresh is abysmal and our MLB position has been largely absent. But perhaps the worst is the lack of controlling the line of scrimmage by the entire DL. The DBs have played fairly well but SS has been victimized. He is, however, a third stringer so that should not be unexpected.
I looked up who the poster was last week expressed concern about the third stringers at several positions, and that was OldBison, who most of you jeered as being negative and much worse. Well OldBison, you were right. Third stringers at MLB and SS are not getting it done, but the problems are much deeper than that. Crompton, Lardinois, Humber and Maresh are seniors and I see very little leadership from that group, Humber's play is the exception but even he struggled to get off blocks and many of his tackles were well down field.
DL- D-
LB- D
DB- B
Overall Defense grade: D+
The Offense: Many of you have rationalized the play of Mertens, but here is one glaring statistic, in the last two games he has thrown for 2 TDs and 7 INTs, and that isn't going to cut it. Talented? Maybe, athletic yes, but over all talent isn't just the physical nature of the game. I am not sure he has the mental portion down yet.
My biggest concern about the QB situation? Two things, the lack of a coach who has played the position (Vigen was a TE in college) and the lack of anybody pushing him. In other words, Bohl and his coaching staff have made their bed and now they have to sleep in it, plain and simple. Bohl says the QB position is the most important position on the team yet he has recruited a QB once every three years or so. Yes, I know I have been critical of that but that fact is haunting this team offensively in my opinion. The talent pool simply isn't there and there is no one else to go to. I have heard several pundits on TV this year talk about college coaching staffs and they have pointed to one thing, you need guys who have played the position to coach the position. So ask yourselves this; who is going to coach up Mertens? I don't know. All I know is this, before the season started when we had no QBs behind Mertens and the coaches went out and got some QBs I said a number of times the Bison's season rested on Mertens and that we needed him to be healthy for 15 games. Right now, losing him doesn't scare me, and that is one of the saddest things I have ever said about Bison football, even in the Babich years.
OL has been solid in pass protection but far from dominant in run blocking, so there is room for improvement. I got shot down for also saying this earlier in the year, but I remain concerned about Foster and nothing to date has changed that. He makes bone head plays that cost TDs and big plays. I have concerns about any OL that has to have a player that predictably and reliably makes bone head mistakes. Can the OL really be that good if you have a guy like Foster as a starter? A simple question that I do not have the answer for. Some have said we need Ebel back, I would agree but only for depth purposes. Arndt has played well, especially in pass blocking. I think Ebel is a better run blocker, however. What troubles me is that the OL went up against a DL of YSU depleted by injuries and still struggled getting running lanes. Does that bother anybody else? Roehl got some space, so then the argument has to be that DJ and Voit simply weren't getting it done, which brings us to:
RB rests solely with the health of Roehl and Paschall. We all thought we had depth here but I am beginning to question it. DJ is either very tentative or he has pedestrian speed and quickness. The bottom line I like YSU's Fr RB much better than either of ours. Kolpack said he figured our OL would make an average runner look very good against a depleted YSU DL. Since our RBs other than Roehl looked below average, what does this mean? Is it the OL or the RB situation? I don't know.
WR are okay, they hung onto the ball this week. Heck is still Heck but he is one player and we need more of him. Where are the rest?
QB- D-
OL- C+
RB- C (due to health and lack of depth)
WR- B
Overall Offense grade: C-
Special Teams: I have defended them because I think there are aspects of this unit that have performed fairly well. Yes, kick coverage has been more exciting then I would like, but punting, punt coverage, FG, etc have been decent. But, no complete game has been played yet and the blocked chip shot FG was disturbing against YSU.
Overall Special Teams Grade: C+
My take on the biggest problem? Over confidence, perhaps. It is one thing to be confident, another to be over confident. I think this team became over confident when they took the second half kickoff at WY down the field and scored a FG. They lost focus at that point and played poorly thereafter. The Bison have lots of potential but are not so good they can simply show up and win, YSU clearly showed that. The Bison were flat coming out of the gate and my gut tells me that was due to overconfidence.
The key to the future, I think, will be senior leadership. Either the Bison have it or they don't, only time will tell. The next four games will tell we fans exactly what kind of team the Bison are. As of now, they are severely underperforming. Someone said they are still very good. I don't think so, I think they are overall quite average and much worse than their hype.
The Bison can make the playoffs with an 8-3 record. If they lose two games and go 7-4 we will be on the outside looking in.