Terrific game to watch, love how they battled back and kept fighting. Showed a ton of toughness and Tommy deserves a ton of credit for fighting through cramps, gutting it out, and taking care of the ball (with the exception of that screen pass).
We played a lot better, it was great to be on the other side of one after last year, but it still seemed wayyyy too close with regard to the penalties Oregon was getting called for. They were giving up yards and giving us second chances by the bundle but we still didn't seem to fully take advantage (i.e. 3rd and 26).
I agree that the play calling was 95% better, but there are still moments that just seem so unnecessary. At the end of the first half, Oregon has two penalties that give us the ball at the 2 yard line and we run like 5 plays inside the 5. We've had success up the middle, and yet we line up in the shotgun and throw the ball 4 or 5 times. Why?
Ozigbo is an absolute workhorse. He really grinded for us. And I like how we kept feeding him late, but again; he rushed 21 times for 95 yards, but we only gave him the ball 3 times in the first half. Hopefully we can learn and keep the second half game plan going. For the first drive of the second half Ozigbo ran for 9,5,12,3, and 6 with one 18 run by Tommy in there before Reimers caught a 22 yard TD pass. We need to keep that going!
If we are gashing them up the middle and wearing them down, AND our quarterback is taken out of the game with cramps and we don't know if he can move or plant his feet, why, on the first play he comes back in, do we call a designed run for him? And then throw twice? And never give Ozigbo the ball?
95% of it was a huge improvement, very fun game to watch and I was elated we won. Hopefully we can continue learning and improving! GBR!
