Defensive MVP

UC Davis athletics: "[Bryce] Rodgers posted a strip sack of Weber quarterback Kylan Weisser on a 4th-and-6 play midway through the first quarter, then Rodgers pressured Weisser into an interception in the second. ..."

Had a hand in 2 of 3 turnovers.

Odd game because Weber seemed ro push us around but in the end we seemed to wear them down. And that’s with the altitude factor.

Crawford's difficult catch on 4th and 6 on the final drive kept us alive. Incredible grab with the game on the line on a pass thrown way inside to him.

This was a great game to watch. HR was off. LL wasn’t on his game that much. But the team won. i was very impressed with MH at QB coming in cold. That is a very hard thing for an athlete to do. He won the game. You give the ball to TT inside the 5 and its a TD!. It’s a. Very good time to be an Aggie now. I think this team has a bit of a destiny about it.

Hunter was really off today. McCastles dropped a pass that was right in his gut. Our receivers can’t seem to get open and they don’t seem to know where the first down marker is. Play calling still off. We have to be able to score more often when on the red zone. But all that said, this is a big win. Weber was one fumble away from maybe beating JMU. We are 4-0 with a couple really nice wins and the good news is that we have a lot of room to improve.

The box participation does not show that Teddye Buchanan played. I thought he only had to sit out a half.

Agreed. Gutsy win. Play calling odd. Repetitive short runs, then 4 HR passes of 20 yards or more late in the game? (3 high) They finally called 2 screen passes. Why no medium throws?

Miles Hastings pass attempts

San Diego - 12
Dixie State* - 1
Weber St - 9

* I don't get that one. We need reps for Hastings for obvious reasons.

My final thoughts

- HR had something going on even before he was pulled from the game. His passing looked off against Dixie State and regressed even further today.

- We didn't utilize TT enough in the offense today. Good things happen pretty much every time he touches the ball. He ran in the winning touchdown, but when the offense was stagnant all game get him some more touches and see what happens.

- Offensive line had a good day against a really good defense. We really did a good job of limiting the amount of pressure the QBs got.

- Defense did everything they could to keep us in that game especially considering how long they were on the field especially in the first half. Turnovers are the name of the game and they seem to be coming in bundles for blue force.

- I want nothing more than for the kid to succeed... but as of right now Gomez's kicking concerns me a little bit. I hope he can get another game in like Tulsa to build the confidence.

- Agreed with 88 on the play calling. Just very weird and sometimes going the insanity route of trying the same thing over and over and over again despite it not working, but thinking... it might just be different THIS time. Not sure if that falls completely on Cody or if Dan takes some responsibility too.

- I usually am frustrated with Dan's time management, but that final drive was handled masterfully. Burned almost 5 whole minutes and 3 of those were in the red zone. We benefitted from Weber burning 2 time outs in the 3rd quarter.

- Shaheed is a dangerous returner, but I would have rather seen us boot the last kick out of the back of the end zone than give it to them on the 40. They only needed a FG to tie and giving them a massive field position advantage to get in that range seems silly when they had no time outs.

- All in all, I will take the win. I hope the team gets healthy and is ready to go versus a rested Idaho team that is hungry for their first win of the season.

Time of possession: Aggies 30:57 Weber 29:03

FWIW, our younger, bigger DBs coming into their own, early. It seems like this year DBs are leading the team in tackles, not LB s.

Calvin Mouisset SO 7 tackles, 7 solo
Jaylin White Jr - 6 / 6
Chris Venable SO 6 / 6
Jordan Perryman Jr 6 / 6
Jamie Budgett RFrosh 5 / 5

Breakout game for Mouisset & Budgett.

It seems like this year DBs are leading the team in tackles, not LB s. — movielover

I think this is an area of concern since it means that teams are having success with mid and deep passes and RB's are getting deep into our secondary often.

BGA--I had the same thought: when DBs are leading in tackles, that makes me wonder if opposing teams are making it through the 2nd level too much.

I'm curious to see our turnover margin is now when compared to other FCS teams. I think we were in a three way tie for first before the game at plus eight. I think we're now at plus eleven. Someone please confirm this.

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fcs/current/team/29

For sure the running backs are making it through the second level. I don’t think I’ve seen many games with guys sliding and trying to grab someone’s ankles as this one. But also our DBs are not contesting or breaking up passes but just allowing the catch and making a tackle. Broadcasters commented on how far back our safeties were which leads to a lot of catches in front of them and tackles.
But let’s give the linebackers some credit, Scharetg made that great stop on Davis on 4th and 1.

So what's the strategy of having our safeties so far back other than the "bend don't break" strategy?

That has to be it.We’ve played two first game starters the last two weeks, don’t let a single play beat you make them do multiple plays without screwing up.

I think the main thing was they were worried about Shaheed getting behind the cornerbacks. Adds a secondary level of protection against the deep ball to a very fast receiver. Like you said, this leads to a bend don't break philosophy as you give more room for the intermediate passes.

Hard to argue with wins but I think they need to take a little more risk to get some stops. Part of the reason the offense didn’t get untracked was Weber had the ball so long between our possessions

Buchanan played in second half

Great. I didn't see him in the participation stats.

if you look at the start of the play at the far sideline, you’ll see me in the golf pullover. Great finish. Weber folk were none too happy with the refs, but that last PI was so obvious

When you're a program that runs the ball and plays defense, you have no idea what and what isn't PI. Here at QBU however....

Here's another big play from the 1st half, what a hit:

As scary as Shaheed is, I thought that one of the unsung heros of the game was Daniel Whelan. His hang time is so huge that Shaheed only returned 2 punts for a total of 8 yards and had to fair catch 5 more. The guy averages 12.5 yards per punt return for his career and I wouldn't be surprised to see him returning punts and kickoffs in the NFL, maybe even a few punts by Whelan.

That’s a great point. I sometimes get hung up on distance with punters, but the hang time was the big thing with Whelan this game.

How did Rodgers beat his guy so badly when the QB is standing at the back of the end zone? They say ill advised pass, but the QB didn’t have an option. Couldn’t get anything in the ball because he didn’t have room to complete the motion. Best rush of the year! I can only imagine their team watching that play on film!

that was a puzzling play call. Their QB wasn’t accurate with long balls, so seemed way risky. Same head puzzling with the 2 passes prior to us stuffing them on 4th and 1 at the 20.

What puzzled me on offense is that HR never seemed to have a easy play with to a open receiver. Several, what looked like, longer one-man patterns with tight coverage. After the injury (his head hit hard), we called several shorter passes (pass and run to Gilliam on 3rd and long was a beaut) and e got in a rhythm. Weber guy had short passes in the holes of the zone all night. Maybe it’s our heavy use of two tight-ends?

Even with Hastings our receivers had to catch contested balls, and made great catches. In contrast theirs were rarely contested. We can’t play against Eastern like that.