The Bobcat Nation

I was really close to giving our defense my game ball for this weekend, but...

/gameball Tremaine Murray.

What a coming out party!

Who does your game ball go out to?

Murray did awesome, but.....

I'm going with Austin and Fuller. What a difference a year makes.

Hunter was great as well.

The team psychologist. It appears he has the kids believing in themselves and they're not beating themselves over the head if and when they screw up. They just go out and run the next play, which is something they wouldn't do under Cliff or a couple of years ago.

2 game balls. 1 for the offense and 1 for defense.

1) Travis Lulay - Had 2 INT's on toss up type plays, but also had 4 TD passes (should have had 5) and many LASER strikes out there. He looked very good on most of his throws and is in regular season form already.


2) Defense (Too many players stepped up in that game that I just can't award just 1). Our DL was off a little in that first drive but once they got rolling they STOPPED the running game totally. Think about it, if SFA hadn't of had that 50-60 yard busted run play up the middle that we ran down we could have held this team to like 130 total yards in that game. It all starts up front on D and I was very pleased with what I saw from our DL. Papich had a GREAT game. If there is anyone on defense that I think has made the MOST improvement from last year it is Pappy (secondary guys have improved a lot too). However from just change in size/body from last year ... Pappich has really put the work in the weight room/gotten bigger this year from last year. The LB's and Secondary were great as well. We pretty much only rushed 4 guys the first 3 quarters so to have our DL shut down the run doing that and then shutting down their passing plays in our 3-4 zone defense that makes me really think we have a VERY solid and rugged defense in our main sets. When we had the lead and started blitzing in the 4th quarter, we just ate their OL and offense alive. I definately like what I see out there. We will not see a BIGGER OL all year in the Big Sky.

I like to award several as well:

#14. He IS going to be our offense. As long as he's on the field, we will score points.


Defensive secondary. Grenfell, Force, Fuller, Hunter, and Austin all played excellent games. I was especially pleased to see Austin get his pick; no one was more critical of this kid than I was a year ago and I hope he continues to learn and improve and make me regret my criticism.



My biggest game ball, however, goes to Mike Kramer. How many times in years past did we roll into a game on an emotional high only to lay an egg against an inferior team? Not so Saturday & I suspect not so at all this season. The only thing this team is going to need is focus week in & week out and we saw what the results will be 2 days ago.

CelticCats gameballs

I base mine on previous games. I determine if it was a big game from a kid who it wasn't expected from, etc.

Offense - I have to give it to #17 Murray. 7 receptions, 141 yards and 2 TDs, for a 20.1 average per catch! We got a huge find with this kid. Gatewood/Murray/Guinn/Miller, wow!

Defense - This is a really hard one to pick. I have to call this one a tie - #9 Fuller and #13 Austin. Both registering their first career picks, hats off to these guys! They took SO much criticism last year, from everyone, and to come out this year and play so well right off the bat, gets my praise!

Special Teams - #20 Force. He can catch punts.

Guy on the rise (I hope) #46 Hastings. He was 3-4 (missed a... 50 yarder was it? I can't remember) for FGs, but he did miss 2 extra points. The first one was a horrible snap, so I don't really blame him for that one, but the second one appeared to be his own fault. He doesn't have the strongest leg, but for the most part it is accurate and I think we'll see him improve as the year progresses. Cross your fingers.

Game balls to the defensive backfield, really good to see these guys after last year. All 5 dbacks had good games

They say a game is won up front. I think in this game it was very true. Our fronts dominated SFA's fronts across the board.
The OL and the front 7 on Defense. So often after a game they are forgotten on a great game and only brought up on a loss.

There were no sacks of Lulay and we ran the ball through huge holes. Lulay had plenty of time to look around.
The SFA running game was limited to say the least (especially if you remove that one run of 40+ yards).

The SFA coach said MSU had a attitude on both sides of the ball. An attitude is brought to the game by the lines, not typically by the big play guys that get all the press. That is two games in a row where they said MSU played with an attitude.

Possibly a game ball for the big guys is in order.

BobcatLionFan wrote:They say a game is won up front. I think in this game it was very true. Our fronts dominated SFA's fronts across the board.
The OL and the front 7 on Defense. So often after a game they are forgotten on a great game and only brought up on a loss.

There were no sacks of Lulay and we ran the ball through huge holes. Lulay had plenty of time to look around.
The SFA running game was limited to say the least (especially if you remove that one run of 40+ yards).

The SFA coach said MSU had a attitude on both sides of the ball. An attitude is brought to the game by the lines, not typically by the big play guys that get all the press. That is two games in a row where they said MSU played with an attitude.

Possibly a game ball for the big guys is in order.

I disagree with our lines performance. Our OL may have had the upper hand on the DL, but SFA was a blitz-happy team and they got to Lulay plenty of times. I felt Lulay had no time, and often times Bass was hit in the backfield. Their defensive push was pretty good, but it left their secondary pretty vulnerable.

We did have some nice holes and some nice protection, but overall I think we could improve on this.

On the other hand, our DL rarely got through to their QB and he had all day to throw. I only recall one sack, and it was because Force blitzed from the weak side. We had great coverage, but also their WRs dropped a few that would have been first downs. We rarely stopped them for a loss on run plays it seemed, but we only let them get one or two yards. They had a monstrous OL though, possibly the biggest we will see all season.

CelticCat wrote:

BobcatLionFan wrote:They say a game is won up front. I think in this game it was very true. Our fronts dominated SFA's fronts across the board.
The OL and the front 7 on Defense. So often after a game they are forgotten on a great game and only brought up on a loss.

There were no sacks of Lulay and we ran the ball through huge holes. Lulay had plenty of time to look around.
The SFA running game was limited to say the least (especially if you remove that one run of 40+ yards).

The SFA coach said MSU had a attitude on both sides of the ball. An attitude is brought to the game by the lines, not typically by the big play guys that get all the press. That is two games in a row where they said MSU played with an attitude.

Possibly a game ball for the big guys is in order.

I disagree with our lines performance. Our OL may have had the upper hand on the DL, but SFA was a blitz-happy team and they got to Lulay plenty of times. I felt Lulay had no time, and often times Bass was hit in the backfield. Their defensive push was pretty good, but it left their secondary pretty vulnerable.

We did have some nice holes and some nice protection, but overall I think we could improve on this.

On the other hand, our DL rarely got through to their QB and he had all day to throw. I only recall one sack, and it was because Force blitzed from the weak side. We had great coverage, but also their WRs dropped a few that would have been first downs. We rarely stopped them for a loss on run plays it seemed, but we only let them get one or two yards. They had a monstrous OL though, possibly the biggest we will see all season.

I also agree Celtic. I feel that our line is very athletic and can pass block and pick up blitzes well, but it is not very physical (except for Bolton) which means they cannot sustain a running game when they have to. (e.g blow people off the ball, See JMU running game against the Griz last year)

in a 3-4 D, the line is not meant to have major run loses. The LBs play back off the DL and react. in that D, you try to limit the run (2 yards is great) and then bring people on blitzs on 2nd and 3rd longs. The DL will not make a lot of plays by design and because of who they are. They are there to keep people off the LBs and take up 2 OL each (which is what they did effectively). The pressure of the QB will be from the LB and safety blitzs (you see that in the NFL 3-4 Defenses also).

On SFA having a huge line, big deal. If they had used a scale, SFA would have won the game. A scale wasn't used. Their OL could not move and had very little effect outside of 1 yard from where the line of scrimage in the box. The pictures show their line never was down field or off the line. They were doing just what they could. From what I saw, I hope we play against a huge line like that every game. They had very little effect on the game other than killing the grass by the ball.

SFA played a pressure D where they played their corners up and the LBs and one CB came most of the time filling gaps and trying to pressure (that was their game plan as Kramer had indicated before the game). That is why Lulay could just pop thru the line and run for ever. Once he got past the first line of defense there was not much. We ran against a Stacked Defense against the run. A defense like that will stop the run at times, but other times you pop thru which we did with Bass.

I don't agree that the OL didn't do well. It appeared the 1Q there was a problem with pressure off the right side (number 11 came in a couple of times), then it stopped and there wasn't really pressure the rest of the game. Lulay didn't run because he was pressured with no time, he ran by design in some cases and because no one opened up in others. He was touched very seldom. "Pressured" means that he was rushed to throw the ball and made bad throws. Not the case in this game. People may have been around him, but he wasn't knocked down while in the pocket. When he ran, there was no one close, just a hole in front of him.

Our lines dominated the SFA lines.

On the Griz game, forget about the past. The Griz were a better team last year (not this year) and they got ahead early. Playing catch-up is not an easy thing. We are also finding out the JD is not the fastest guy to the hole. He can pass block and receive, but hasn't yet hit the hole hard and quick. Possibly that is why we didn't have a great running game last year? I think Bass (and possibly Groves) will let us see if the OL can run block or not.

All 6 of our OL are back from last year (Jensen didn't play that game), bigger, better, and stronger. You have three that have been All league (Bolton All american, Fig 1st team, Hirst year before last). Birkeland and Jensen are very good and will be here one and two more years. Most of the yardage runs were off Jensen/Bolton side this past week.

Finally, if we have to go with a line built for the run or pass, the answer is Lulay. Lulay is the man and you need a line that will protect the MAN. If he goes down, the season is in trouble. If a lineman is a positively GREAT run blocker, but can't pick up the speed rush and/or blitz ALL the time, he will be riding the pines. They need to protect that guys on his passing and running. Especially from the back side.

Austin and Fuller did have great games. But their play was setup by Hunter. Hunter shut down the primary receiver (that got 100+ yards the week before). Without the primary receiver, Dixon checked off to 2ndary receivers and made bad throws. Also Autin and Fuller were just better than the 2nd and 3rd receivers of SFA. But possibly not better than their best receiver.

my gameball goes to the kicker who didnt miss a f.g. for the first time in who knows when