Big News from Little Rhody
Blake Wayne looked good or Fordham, but where was his defense?
Reports from my Brown sources at the Bears-Lions scrimmage at Brown yesterday had the Bears dominating... much as they did to us last year two weeks before the Lions beat Fordham in the opener and eventually beat Brown in the season finale.
Speaking of Fordham, the Rams were shocked in their season opener for the second year in a row. This time they fell to FCS newcomer Bryant in a wild 44-30 game.
What we really surprising about this game was that the Rams were sporting a very veteran defense and figured to be a lowing point-yielding team this season.
We also learned that sophomore Blake Wayne won the starting QB job, (we'll see if he keeps it). He was 20 of 34 for 223 yards, one TD and one INT. He also ran for 98 yards on 16 carries.
Overall, Fordham's rushing attack was strong as expected. The Rams netted 279 yards on the ground, but no one rusher stood out. Lion-killer Xavier Martin had 66 yards on 14 carries and Darryl Whiting had 67 yards on 15 carries.
For some reason, the senior Martin has never been given a shot to show what he can do with 25 carries per game. Perhaps the Ram coaches don't want to risk it with Martin's small frame.
We'll learn more about Fordham next week when they take on the U. Rhode Island Rams at home in the Bronx.
In case you missed it, the best game yesterday had to be Jacksonville State's stunning OT won over Ole Miss in Oxford.
posted by Jake @ 4:47:00 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Jake, how di dwe get so badly outplayed in the Brown scrimmage?
I attended the scrimmage and am a former college football player. Read is this: Their first deep did handle our first deep. They ran and peppered us with short passes. They caused us to go 3 and out for a number of possessions in a row with no sustained drives, and we threw two interceptions. Our special teams play was good and we started with decent field position on the KO, and our punt team did well.
The disparity can be attributed to two things. First, we held out several of our starters including important ones on O and D. They did not. Secondly, they schemed and prepared for us like a game, blitzing linebackers + corners in certain situations and in response to certain formations. We did not. They beat us last year in the scrimmage and didn't get much better throughout the year. We lost scrimmage and did. Go figure, its a new year.
The two things I took from scrimmage is the need for us to control line of scrimmage on D against rush, and on O while rushing. And, our overall team speed and athleticism is better, though their length and height, esp. in WRs, hurt us.
Thanks for the report.
I think the Brown team was "loaded for Lions" to say the least. They got pounded pretty good last November. Attendee says that Brown went into the contest the same way as they did last year. Perhaps, CU did not want to show it's hand and also to test some players. Pre-season is meaningless.
Very helpful report. Many Thanks. Can you give us some more detail regarding our passing game? It's difficult to believe we couldn't make some big plays given the speed and agility of our receivers. Did any of the freshmen running backs play, and, if so, how did they look?
Perhaps Phil is going overboard and we should stop scrimmaging Brown in the future.
Phil is going overboard? Whadya want, we should go beat up on some D3 so some of you guys can feel good? Scrimmages don't mean much unless your ones and twos look like crap and your plan is to win. I'll still believe our offense will not go without Brackett and he did not play, as many others sat out also. My main concern is the depth in the d-line. If we can't get push up front our linebackers aren't really that big and they will take a beating over the course of the year. Brackett stays healthy and the O should be good enough. I don't expect any easy games, we are gonna have to battle our asses off. If you think you're gonna have an easy Sat. remember what happened in Hanover.
Virginia Tech and Boise State ran some cool stuff last night on ESPN with two totally different style quarterbacks. I loved both team's shotgun formation plays. Taylor, VT's quarterback reminded me of our guy, Sean Brackett. If Brackett was watching the game, I suspect he picked up a trick or two.
Smart to hold out Brackett. He absolutely destroyed Brown last year, and I wouldn't have wanted anybody to take a shot at him. As far as depth on the DL, I assume Fraser and Groth are the ones at the tackles. Who is playing DE?
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