Some positives

[balds]

1) We played a team with legit national title aspirations even up for 52+ minutes, showing some grit after the early train wreck and being down 14-0.

2) Our defense held one of the nations better offenses scoreless for 23 minutes in the second half (without a vital starting CB).

3) Decker is a superstar.

4) I think at DT and linebacker, we are as good as anyone in the Big Ten.

I'm not a huge moral victory guy, but come on! They were hands down a far better team than us and we made it really uncomfortable for them. Credit to them for making that 3rd and 15 play, as well as the deep corner route, and the TE down the seam. If we get that damn stop, we get the ball back at our own 30ish with about 9 to go. That would have been fun.

 

[Mulligan]

Agree, and our special teams have been mostly solid. We've come very close on some kickoff returns with Stoudemire, and Carpenter could have gone a lot further yesterday if he hadn't run into his own blocker. The coverage on both punts and kickoffs has been good. I'm not as worried about our field goal kicking as I was at the beginning of the year.

Also, the coaching seems more solid this year after three games. The defense has played a lot better in the second half of each game. You could argue that they weren't ready in the first half, but I really like how we were much more aggressive after the half. We attacked a lot more and could easily have had a couple of turnovers. The offense is probably going to struggle all year long because of the line, but we had a plan to move the ball. There were plays to take advantage of our strengths.

A game like yesterday was tough to lose, but it gives me a lot more confidence than a win over some minor program.

 

[jovs]

What happens if Dandridge picks off that pass in the fourth quarter and they start out 1st and ten on the 40-45 rather than the 3 after the punt. Outcome may have been different. Without a running game they had no chance of getting away from the goal line.

 

[Bayfieldgopher]

Brewster will build on the positives and there were plenty of those to move forward. They guys have shown a ton of grit and determination and Coach Brewster has them believing in themselves. This was a very winnable game "IF", like he and the players said, they would have made the plays. I think that is all we can ask of our team is to be in a position to win going into the fourth quarter.

Brewster knows the strength of the team and the OC's are doing their best to compensate for our weaknesses (OL, RB's & DB's).