Yes, all in all if was about as ugly as blowout win can be, but some of these were correctable mistakes. I'm sure there are some swings in mentality coming off of two road trip, one of which was FBS, to a FBS school, to then come back home and play a team you know you will beat in Drake. Not sure if we looked past this or weren't prepared, but hopefully they refocus, including Otis making sure he is doing what he needs to do to get back on the field AND be a leader.
Re-watched the game and had a few thoughts:
Pros
Zavalney looks good
Defense played great overall. Tons of pressure. Just need to watch those deep shots; that could hurt us in two weeks.
Coley played well
Cons
Schuster was off. Underthrew a bunch of receivers. Threw behind a bunch of receivers. Interception in the redzone to start the 4th was on Tommy.
Vaughn needs to hold on to, and protect, the ball. I believe he said this power run QB thing was new for him, but still have to secure the ball. Any other game and this could have cost us big time. That being said, he won't be playing as much in other games, so hopefully he will figure this out before he is in a position to run and hold the ball more. Otis has had his share of this, I'll assume they will take care of this.
Canady should have had tighter coverage on that deep ball in the 2nd, but backed it up with a nice interception, BUT what was he thinking when he ran it back and cut toward the defender rather than walking it in by the pylon? If he doesn't do that, we score, and the 2nd QV fumble doesn't happen.
I'll take this for what it is; a win. We dominated almost every aspect of the game, despite some BAD turnovers. Even with several bad passes by Tommy he still filled the stat sheet with more good than bad. With a bye week and a chance to heal, clean up some mistakes and refocus, we should be pretty excited about NDSU coming to town. I'm sure the crowd will be far more into it as well. Should be a great time!
