POST GAME - Ole Miss Rebels 55 : Fresno State Bulldogs 38

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Sep 27, 2010 9:20 AM EDT

ED: I wrote this in two sittings. I began on Sunday afternoon because there is no way in Hell I was gonna start this on Saturday - nor would any of y'all had expected such. After being distracted long enough by the NFL, I fel asleep. I'm getting old. It's Monday morning now, two days after which is borderline unacceptable on the tardiness scale. Forgive me.

So I sit here, exhausted, somewhat ill-feeling, and relieved. The Rebels won on Saturday. It wasn't a great victory, but it was convincing, and despite the perceived inferiority of our opponent, there is a lot we can take away from such a win over the Fresno State Bulldogs. I wasn't there, nor was I 100% attentive or sober - I watched it alongside a few dozen other good Rebels at a local watering hole - so my observations are likely to be spotty and, frankly, inaccurate at times, but that's what the comments thread is for, right?

I'm going to go through this with simple bullet points. That's the best way for me to do this right now because, frankly, I'm tired and cannot glean much in the way of detail out of my meager mental bank of Saturday's memories. That's a good thing, though, because Saturday was a helluva time, underwhelming performance from the Rebel defense aside, and I won't need to endlessly bicker about where I think the coaches went wrong and the general state of dissaray that is Ole Miss Atletics.

But I probably will anyway.

Hey, RockyTopTalk, do you do something super cool for the rest of the blogosphere? Something like animated flash drive charts? You DO?!

FULL SCREEN VERSION

Fresno and Ole Miss are both red... We're on the left, for the slow.

If the offensive success from Saturday didn't excite you, then I dunno what to do with you. The Rebels had 578 yards and 9.8 yards per play (!). The fact that we averaged nearly a first down for every snap says as much about this team's improvement from last week to this week as it does about Fresno State.
Defensively, the Bulldogs weren't slouches coming into this game. They literally led the nation in sacks up until Saturday - our offensive line, impressively, didn't give one up - and were coming off of two good defensive performances (really, one great one and another alright one) which saw them limit their opponents to a mere 19 points a game. In their season opener against the Cincinnati Bearcats, Fresno held Brian Kelly's former squad to a paltry 15 yards rushing. Our Rebels had nearly triple the offensive output of Fresno's two previous opponents and if you're saying "well, those were weaker teams, this is how it should be," I would reply with "no shit, but would you have expected such after last week's debacle?" So my point is that we, unlike every other game we've played so far, moved the ball well against an opponent whose defense, also unlike every other game we've played except for perhaps Vanderbilt, wasn't bad.
This bump in offensive output can be attributed to two main factors: Brandon Bolden and smarter playcalling. The former is obvious, and something which we at the Cup have been clamoring for - in conjunction with our firm anti-Inricky stance - for a few weeks now, so I think we should better focus on the latter. We already knew that Bolden is the better back and we all should, frankly, be quite upset that it took an Enrique Davis injury (get well, Inricky) to get Bolden on the field more.
The X's and O's, though, were pretty fantastic offensively. Masoli wasn't asked to throw very much which, if the running game is dominating as well as it is, that's fine. But when he was asked to throw, he was efficient, hitting 8 of his 12 attempts for 152 yards, tossing two touchdowns and one interception (Which was a pretty terrible play, actually. I suppose, though, that you're allowed a couple of poor plays when you score 55 points anyway). That doesn't mean Masoli's role was downplayed offensively, however. The Wild Samoan reeled was 3rd on the team in rushing with 59 yards, bringing his offensive output to 211 yards.
The rushing attack outside of Masoli was, simply, excellent. The offensive line did enough of the dirty work but the real key to our success lies in the almost ideal abilities of Brandon Bolden - who should have been getting these touches all season long, but we all know that anyway - and the speed of Jeff Scott. But not only is it that, but a lot of Saturday's success had to do with great play calling. Jeff Scott was bumped to the outside where he is dangerous in space. Bolden was sent off tackle and out of read option on plays where as much relied on the OL as Bolden. The running game against Fresno contrasted starkly against the gameplan against Vanderbilt. Against Vandy, we were playing into our own weaknesses, giving Inricky the ball up the gut behind our - let me be diplomatic here - underachieving offensive line. Against Fresno, we put our speedy, agile guys in space and let them just burn ass down the field.
Jeff Scott... He's fast. Like way fast.
Brandon Bolden. Again, Coach Nutt and anyone else who thinks Inricky should be getting the ball, stop thinking that way. Kthx. He had 243 total yards and three touchdowns. Case closed.
Naturally, the defense give me great cause for concern. Typically, if you give up 38 points, you're going to lose. I know that the coaches took off the gas after the 41-10 lead and I know a lot of true freshmen and sophomores got tossed in there late to play mop-up, but if we cannot last defensively for four full quarters, then we're going to lose to every SEC team we play. Against the rush, the team was quite good, as there were lots of goofy fin gestures to go about after tackles behind the line of scrimmage. After only allowing 30 yards rushing, though, our defense has little to brag about. The fumble recovery by Charles Sawyer was pretty fantastic, but we still have nary an interception (the only team in the conference for which that applies, and it's not even close) and have the worst pass effeciency defense in the conference - after playing Jacksonville State, Tulane, Vanderbilt, and Fresno State. If something doesn't change right away, we're going to have the absolute shit beaten out of us by anybody fielding a marginal passing attack. Our zones have gigantic gaps in them, our pressure on the quarterback is wildly inconsistent, and our linebackers and defensive backs take far too long to adjust, react, and make decisions.
The crowd was apparently rowdy. If so, well done. I wouldn't expect the same this weekend with another bullshit 11:20 kickoff, but if y'all can put even a modicum of further effort into your cheerin' on Saturday, I'm sure the players would appreciate it.

Alright, there's a lot more I could write. But I worry that I'm just droning on and repeating myself. Comments thread. Go!

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Oh, and one more thing.

Kentrell, seeing you on crutches and hearing of your ACL tear made my heart sink into my gut. There have been far too few Ole Miss Rebel footballers with the personality and charm you’ve got and, because of that, you’ve got fans all across the country. Know that we’re pulling for you to get well and get back to doing everything that you do.

On a more personal level, I’ve had two knee injuries myself. They suck. They hurt and the surgery isn’t fun to recover from (pain meds aside… whoops, I didn’t say that), but you can definitely do it. Just keep your eyes on the prize, whatever that may be for you.

Oh, and you’re also a helluva football player, to boot, so please get well. If this is it for you at Ole Miss, we sincerely wish you the best in everything you do. If this brings you back to Oxford for just one more season, then you know we, and Twitter, would enthusuastically welcome that.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the Culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Take a picture, trick.

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Sep 27, 2010 9:43 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Your thoughts sum up how I feel perfectly

The win was great, and Fresno might be the best team we have played thus far. It was nice to see us live up to our potential on offense. I still have lots of questions about why the staff stubbornly thought Enrique was better than Bolden and gave him the majority of the carries. Reminds me a lot of last year, when it took them about four games to figure out Dex was our stud and needed to have the ball in his hands all the time. I try to not dump on coaches all the time, because it is not an easy gig, but it ain’t rocket science either. Build your offense to suit your team’s abilities and give your best players the ball. It was also nice to see us run some read option plays as well. As for the defense, they obviously have major problems. Hopefully they will be able to pull it together long enough for us to steal a couple of SEC wins.

by bball1984 on Sep 27, 2010 10:11 AM EDT reply actions

My only two negative thoughts

1. Our pass defense is weak. I’d rather just bring a shitload of heat on the opposing QB. He’s going to complete the pass anyway. Our only chance will be to hit him all day and hope he makes some mistakes.

2. The crowd was good and loud; until we went up 45-10. Then the fans quit and you’ll notice that is when Fresno gets back in it. If we stayed loud and rowdy is it possible that the team would have stayed up as well? Maybe; let’s go hard for 4 quarters and see if the team does the same along with us.

by Rebel Chuck on Sep 27, 2010 10:32 AM EDT reply actions

+1 on our "pass defense"

I think the only way we’ll ever mount an effective pass defense is through pressure on the quarterback. We’ll give up big plays, but hopefully it will be at the expense of the physical and mental destruction of the opposing passer.

It’s a high-risk Joe Lee Dunn-style defensive scheme, and history has shown that it usually works for a little while (never more than a season), but actually winning will depend on the offense scoring in bunches. But then, I don’t know what else we can do.

Don't try and lay no boogie woogie on the king of rock 'n roll.

by RobRob9 on Sep 27, 2010 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions

by charlymc on Sep 27, 2010 10:50 AM EDT reply actions

nary an interception

it’s hard to intercept a pass when you’re 15 – 20 yards away.

by stev8522 on Sep 27, 2010 11:04 AM EDT reply actions

Obviously as a whole our defense has a long ways to go

(We crushed them on the run though)

I did like some signs coming out of there – we seemed to have some swagger which we hadn’t showed so far this season – landsharks. The DEs seemed to play better at times – which we’ll need with oleforty out. Hadn’t seen much out of them this year.

Johnathon Cornell is all over the place – he’s the only one who has played every game this year imo.

And has mentioned our secondary is atrocious. But that hit that Damien Jackson at the end of the game was lethal. (and is that just an NFL rule about defenseless players, was waiting on a flag…)

Now a bloggeur - http://www.msbeernut.com/

by Thile on Sep 27, 2010 11:24 AM EDT reply actions

gerald rivers

and wayne dorsey to a certain extent, played a lot better this week. hopefully they keep trending up. because our Pass D is really really awful.

by charlymc on Sep 27, 2010 11:51 AM EDT up reply actions

A game summary and now 7 comments in,

and nary a mention of Patrick Junen, who stepped into a starting role as a WALK ON FRESHMAN and pwned it.

If you want to know the difference between Vandy and this week, aside from smarter playcalling, it was Junen and Logan Clair. We figured Clair was going to be an upgrade. Junen, on the other hand, was expected to fail.

I watched the CSS replay yesterday afternoon and he looked like a seasoned pro out there. A lot of those long runs we busted were right over his gap. He was taking DTs and moving them wherever he wanted them to go. He also picked up a couple of blitzes on his own in pass protection.

Seriously, I’m going to be dissapointed if he’s not at least on the ROTW ballot. At 4 games into the season, we may have finally found an answer to our biggest problem, which is OL.

one foot in the grave, one foot on the pedal...

by Bill Fremp on Sep 27, 2010 11:36 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs

It almost looked like a scene from the Naked Gun series.

I was expecting the guy’s body to break into pieces or for his head to have flown off with his helmet. That was a nasty hit!

by Nerd the Rebel on Sep 27, 2010 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions

Rec'd

Now a bloggeur - http://www.msbeernut.com/

by Thile on Sep 27, 2010 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions

He should be on the ROTW ballot for, at the very least,

not at all appearing intimidated out there.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the Culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Take a picture, trick.

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Sep 27, 2010 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Rivals' comments

The only thing worth cheering for in Oxford, MS is getting rid of the athletic director who went out of his way to get rid of Colonel Reb the mascot to be able to sign a thief and drug user who should not have been playing for at least a year.

Masoli is the reason Col. Reb is dead.

by Nerd the Rebel on Sep 27, 2010 11:47 AM EDT reply actions

Link?

Where are you seeing this stupidity.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the Culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Take a picture, trick.

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Sep 27, 2010 12:31 PM EDT up reply actions

here

by Nerd the Rebel on Sep 27, 2010 1:11 PM EDT reply actions

That was suppose to be a reply for you, Ghost.

by Nerd the Rebel on Sep 27, 2010 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you.

Gots me some MBI fodder now.

Red Cup Rebellion - Changing the Culture of Ole Miss Athletics
Take a picture, trick.

by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Sep 27, 2010 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions

I was most impressed

with (other than BB) our young safeties D. Jackson and B. Mathews. That Jackson hit near the end of the game was sick. I’m surprised the guy got up to be honest. They’re head hunters through and through.

by RebSawTheLight on Sep 27, 2010 1:13 PM EDT reply actions

I'm surprised at the lack of love for Melvin Harris...

that Touchdown was a great play no matter who we’re playing, he’s caught almost everything thrown his way this year, and physically being as big and fast as he is, he’s gonna keep defenses honest this year; he’s a HUGE asset for our offense this year and for the next 2 years;

by EtOHReb on Sep 27, 2010 3:19 PM EDT reply actions