NAU and Weber are putting in work to make our prior schedule seem more respectable going into Causeway week.

At least Weber is going to (likely) finish above .500. I'm still thinking/hoping that next Sat is essentially a playoff audition.

Even with allowing 23 it felt like the most complete game this season

SF needs to pick that guy up sooner rather than later

Thought LL did a very good job with the head fake to at least introduce the tiniest bit of doubt. Then when he sees the hole nothing can stop him

Special teams race to the bottom

Non homecoming, non marquee, non rivalry game when the team hasn’t been doing so hot, I figure attendance was a lost cause. Just gotta figure things out on the field, come into the sac game with a decent record, and attendance will work out for Causeway

Did they change the arrangement for the National anthem? I thought there used to be a high trumpet part and now there’s countermelody from the low brass that I don’t remember from before.

Maybe this arrangement has been in place for a while, I usually don’t get to the games early anymore

maybe someone has posted this question already but how much of Hastings’ insane stats from last season were either against very bad teams or were YAC by Tompkins and the listed RBs?

He’s not untalented and sure winning the games you’re supposed to win and getting the ball to playmakers in space are part of being a good QB, but it feels like he hasn’t really developed since a mediocre first season and is only as good as the talent around him

Accounting for the narrow Weber victory, Massey currently has the Aggies favored in 3/4 of the remaining games (by a TD each for Portland State and NAU and 2 TDs for Idaho State) and actually just slightly an underdog hosting Sac.

https://masseyratings.com/539277/8200

Absolutely nothing on that schedule is a gimme and we know all three of NAU, PSU, and ISU can win. But the point is as much as we're not impressed with the eye test, playoff hopes are very much alive and a 7-win season would not be a particularly surprising outcome or an overperformance. All that especially true if we come out of the bye with a healthy RB corps.

Cody beating EWU with Idaho State before UCD getting its first win ever against the Eags wasn't exactly on my bingo card or possibly anyone's

I believe Fisher has one more game he can play before redshirting under the current rules. In retrospect probably not a good thing for the season prospects that he got carries in the OSU blowout, but hindsight is 2020 and at the time I'm sure it seemed like a low-risk way to give a freshman some reps against talented defenders

Totally agree now that I know more about our RB corps from these past weeks' injuries and media coverage, I wrongly assumed starting the season that there was a room of 4+ guys behind Larison and Perez ready to go back there. It seems like we have talent at receiver, but the ball just isn't being spread around that much compared to the squad Maier was throwing to, which I admit is more of a gut feeling than keeping track of the stats

I seem to remember Plough's offense still running a lot of halfback dives up the middle, but with the difference that there was 1) a lot of talent available at 1st and 2nd string RB and wildcat QB and 2) really solid short passing options to very good receivers and TEs. Maier -> Doss bailed us out of a LOT of 3rd and longs.

So I'd argue it's partly a rushing threat recruiting problem, but also a receiver shortage as well. Except for maybe Hutton I would say there isn't a downfield guy as reliable as even Harrell or Crawford on the roster this year, let alone an all-star like Doss available to bail us out.

Part of my optimism comes from thinking that these games aren't going to be independent events. I'm thinking that if the Ags figure stuff out on offense / get the personnel back in order to beat Weber on the road, then I feel much more confident against NAU. If the Ags beat both Weber and NAU, then barring another injury I think it's looking very achievable to go 2 for 3 against PSU, ISU, and Sac.

If the Ags show some improvement before losing to Weber but then solidly beat NAU with a semi-healthy offense, then I feel somewhat better about building momentum and picking up PSU/ISU wins then everything comes down to the Causeway, and anything can happen there.

Flip side of course is that I'll be much more pessimistic if we get blown out at Weber and there's still no sign of at least one of Larison, Tompkins, or Perez returning to form.

That's a good point, I was really frustrated by the third and long failures. I felt like the D was trying or hoping to force them into some risky situation to make a big play but that only really happened once by forcing the fumble on the long QB run early. I'll admit I don't have a very good eye in a live game for things like missed coverages or getting fooled on QB draws so I don't know where the individual errors were on those plays though

OK, had time to catch up on the forum to digest.

1. I thought defense was relatively skillfull this game/this year as opposed to previously, in terms of (most) tackling quality, finding the ball, contesting a lot of catches, etc. They're still being burned by just faster and stronger athletes making plays but hey, that's going to happen against Montana. And of course they're just on the field too much.

2. Arguably penalties kept the Ags in the game but hey, that's an area we DO expect to significantly outperform the Big Sky on. (I checked FCS stats today, UCD is the second-least-penalized team in the nation). Penalty differential actually matters in matchups with similar offensive stats.

3. I felt the playcalling wasn't putting our guys in a position to succeed, frankly. From my untrained eye it looked like there was a lot of (relatively) slow-to-develop runs or screen passes behind the line of scrimmage on early downs, leading to minimal yardage and frequent 3rd-and-8+. Miles being his old self doesn't fully compensate for him not having the same squad of athletes to dump the ball off to in key situations and not being a running threat himself.

4. Still possible to get to 7 wins and therefore an at-large bid (I think a Big Sky team with no bad losses gets the nod at 7, like Idaho last year). The window of opportunity is getting smaller, but if we win 4 out of 5, we're in. Two of those wins would by necessity be out of Weber, NAU, and Sac. At least we have Sac at home and the magic of a rivalry game introducing some wrinkles there. We absolutely need Tompkins and Perez back to get to that record I would think, and obviously hoping for Larison.

Loving this music of South Korea halftime Band-Uh! show. It's really interesting.

Last year I got to see one of the groups they covered; the Korean artists put on fantastic, catchy shows. Glad the band is still being creative in finding source material to appeal to newer students

I think we win this game if Lan is still in the full game, that said, coughing up the ball three times against a team that can score as fast as EWU isn't something we can expect to happen in a win.

Positives were a close, competitive game, good turnout, and good halftime show (I've felt for a while that the band should try a k-pop show to appeal to the undergrads). I also quite liked some of the food options; I had a good (by stadium quality tri-tip plate).

I heard some (presumably freshmen) walking behind me on the way back through campus talking after the game about how they were pretty satisfied with the team's performance and didn't feel it was a bad loss, so I hope that's a common sentiment. I also saw some older students filling up the bars downtown after the game so hopefully gameday becomes an "event" once again now that we have more outgoing post-virtual students on campus looking to have fun on weekends.

Montana losses to NAU 28-14

“We’ve got to keep Montana in the top 15 because they just had a quality loss to an NAU team that’s good enough to beat Montana” — the STATS poll voters, probably

NAU up 21-6 after a forced fumble and nice double pass

Depending on whether you count him as a Big Sky player, Joshua Kelley is arguably a bigger contributor to his team than some of the players on this list. He had tied for the most carries, 91 yds, and a TD for the Chargers in their loss to Miami