Thoughts on the Spring Game

4/19/2008

This won t be one of my longer blog entries, simply because there s not a whole lot to discuss from a 7-3 game (Brown won on a 4-yard pass from Anthony Turner to Freddie Barnes with 40 seconds remaining.).

The defense ended the spring the same way it started the spring --- by beating up the offense. To me it s somewhat unexplainable. On one hand you have an offense seemingly capable of dropping 40 points on anyone. On the other hand you have a defense that was abysmal against the run last year. and the year before and the year before. And that s not to say the pass defense was great during those seasons. Perhaps times are a changing at BGSU.

So what s wrong with the offense?

For starters, the line is not blocking well. Anyone who thinks you can replace Lichtensteiger, Nystrom and Huelsman without any problems is delusional. It s going to take some time, and I wouldn t be surprised if a couple of the New Blocks find their way onto the two-deep in the fall. Here s what Gregg Brandon said about the line after today s game.

I think the continuity that we re trying to establish with the offensive line, you didn t see that today because we split the squad. Those guys have a lot of time to get bigger, faster and stronger in the offseason.

Again, the defense was very strong today. The line got all kinds of pressure on the quarterback, the linebackers didn t miss many tackles, and the secondary didn t give the receivers much room to operate. Diyral Briggs (five sacks) and Michael Ream (three sacks) were outstanding.

- Sinisa Vrvilo missed field goals of 41 and 30 yards, and this is after he struggled in a scrimmage a couple weeks ago. This guy was almost automatic last year. Let s not jump to conclusions, but let s also store this in the back of our minds.

- Angelo Magnone pulled a hamstring earlier this week on the last play of practice. Brandon seemed pretty disappointed that Magnone wasn t able to go today.

- Nathan Brown was on the sidelines wearing his jersey and shorts --- although they could have qualified as pants. Had Brown not been around we d have to start asking questions.