Well that didn't play out the way many of us had hoped it would but did play out the way many of us feared it might. Key notes from the game:
Newton didn't exactly play like the Newton we've heard about all season
I think one of the most obvious notes from the game is the play of Morgan Newton. All summer we have heard about how much Newton had improved. "Night and day" difference between this season and last in terms of his play. Andre Woodson even worked with him a lot this summer to help him improve. Unfortunately, his play was more like a "evening-night" difference for much of the game. Early on it was clear Newton was nervous which is understandable but the only connection he had until the 2nd quarter was an interception. He had trouble connecting for much of the night. Granted some blame lies on the WRs who couldn't pull in the ball when Newton placed it well but other times Newton over or under threw the ball and also mismanaged the clock at times which caused several delay of game penalties.
On a positive note, he DID show some signs of improvements. One clear thing from tonight's game is that Newton likes to throw deep. Most of his deep passes were placed well and when they didn't connect the blame often went to the WRs. A couple highlight passes though came at the end of the third quarter and his TD pass to King in the 4th. He also showed his running ability in the 4th quarter when he ran for 58 yards to set us up in great position after having our backs to the wall right before that play.
The rushing game has a long way to go
It was clear our running game is badly suffering from the loss of Locke. Our number one RB on the depth chart (Sanders) had some decent plays but the freshman Clemons was the one that seemed to play the best tonight and I think he will be needed a lot this season to play bigger than a freshman and make some big plays.
The defense looks good
While the offense had trouble really ever getting into this game, outside of a little adjustment at the start of the game our defense played well. It's clear that Minter's defense is not the one we're used to and I think their ability to get stops will be a huge factor in our ability to win games. If our offense stays off like tonight then it's clear our defense is going to have to win games for us. They had several interceptions for us tonight and I think that is something we will see often from this new defense. We did still have a little trouble stopping the run game like we have had in the past but Western has a great RB in Rainey and I think Minter will work out the wrinkles over time.
Ryan Tydlacka can really kick the ball
Tydlacka did an excellent job in tonight's game of getting the ball far away when needed and keeping it close when the distance was shorter. He is going to be a nightmare in terms of field position for opposing teams.
The major penalties seemed to go our way
In the interest of being a fair writer, I think I have to mention that several of the big calls in the game seemed to go our way when the evidence didn't seem to really support it going our way. Don't get me wrong, we did receive many calls against us that we clearly earned but the iffy calls seemed to go our way more often then not.
This certainly was not the prettiest game by any means but it's a win nonetheless. It's clear our offense has a long way to go but hopefully Newton can leave a lot of his nerves on the field tonight and come out more confident on the 10th when we have our first home game. It did seem that as the game went on that Newton did become more comfortable and made better decisions for the most part than earlier in the game.
The play tonight certainly concerns a fan but it's still too early to jump ship yet and I think (hope) that we will look different come our opener next Saturday.
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