New Mexico....the good. The bad. The ugly

[catatac]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

[AFCAT]

I think there was more pressure in the game against the Lobos QB than people think. No sacks, but watch some of their quarterbacks throws. His feet aren't set and his is definitely hurrying a lot of them due to the pocket squeezing around him.

[The Butcher]

I think there was more pressure in the game against the Lobos QB than people think. No sacks, but watch some of their quarterbacks throws. His feet aren't set and his is definitely hurrying a lot of them due to the pocket squeezing around him.

I thought the same. He had good pocket awareness and got the ball out quick.

[tdub]

I think there was more pressure in the game against the Lobos QB than people think. No sacks, but watch some of their quarterbacks throws. His feet aren't set and his is definitely hurrying a lot of them due to the pocket squeezing around him.

I thought the same. He had good pocket awareness and got the ball out quick.

And the D-line played very disciplined, gap sound defense when getting a push towards the QB. It was quite clear the game plan was to keep the QB from making big plays with his legs and not opening up lanes by over pursuing on the pass rush.

[Lord Vigo]

I'm late to this conversation, but I just finally watched the second half again last night.

I think the key to this thing was how hard the defense continued to play late into the game when it seemed like it was all over. They were playing with their hair on fire when a lot of teams would have just packed it in, which led them to create negative plays that either impacted FG attempts or forced punts.

The score also belies what a performance it was from the Cats' defenders. 14 points were allowed by the offense and another 7 came on what basically amounted to a trick play. The Cats certainly need to account for the QB on that long run, but it was more trickery than outperformance. Granted, UNM also missed two field goal attempts.

Overall, the Lobos had 9 true drives (excluding the end of half possessions) and the Cats forced them to either punt or attempt a FG on 7 of them. For a team playing up a level, on the road, in week 0, against a system and personnel that they had no tape for... I'm pretty happy with that.

[VimSince03]

I think there was more pressure in the game against the Lobos QB than people think. No sacks, but watch some of their quarterbacks throws. His feet aren't set and his is definitely hurrying a lot of them due to the pocket squeezing around him.

He took some shots too. We were not afraid to make him feel it despite not getting to him for a sack.

[luckyirishguy25]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

I thought that oline did really well. They picked up almost every blitz and the pass pro was good. However, not a very good push in the run game, but they definitely weren't scrubs as Vegas would had us believe.

[catatac]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

I thought that oline did really well. They picked up almost every blitz and the pass pro was good. However, not a very good push in the run game, but they definitely weren't scrubs as Vegas would had us believe.

Well Vegas actually had it about exactly right. Set the line at 4.5 and when that came out I looked at it and thought it was about right. (Ended up being 4 points). Meaning, I wasn't going to bet either way on that. Then for some strange reason a bunch of people started putting huge money on the Cats to cover that, which ended up moving it all the way to 13.5.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Lord Vigo]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

I thought that oline did really well. They picked up almost every blitz and the pass pro was good. However, not a very good push in the run game, but they definitely weren't scrubs as Vegas would had us believe.

Well Vegas actually had it about exactly right. Set the line at 4.5 and when that came out I looked at it and thought it was about right. (Ended up being 4 points). Meaning, I wasn't going to bet either way on that. Then for some strange reason a bunch of people started putting huge money on the Cats to cover that, which ended up moving it all the way to 13.5.

The people betting the Cats to cover have an argument though. Two fumbles returned for TD's is pretty fluky.

[TomCat88]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

I thought that oline did really well. They picked up almost every blitz and the pass pro was good. However, not a very good push in the run game, but they definitely weren't scrubs as Vegas would had us believe.

Well Vegas actually had it about exactly right. Set the line at 4.5 and when that came out I looked at it and thought it was about right. (Ended up being 4 points). Meaning, I wasn't going to bet either way on that. Then for some strange reason a bunch of people started putting huge money on the Cats to cover that, which ended up moving it all the way to 13.5.

The people betting the Cats to cover have an argument though. Two fumbles returned for TD's is pretty fluky.

This game was the reverse of a game where the losing team makes the game closer than the score indicates. If you make the fourth quarter the first quarter and the other three quarters out one quarter, then you have a game where the losing team makes it look closer than it was.

MSU - 21 — 0 — 14 — 0 - 35
UNM - 0 — 17 — 7 — 7 - 31

MSU gets up 35-17, then allows a naked boot late in third and strip6 in the fourth.

[ilovethecats]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

I thought that oline did really well. They picked up almost every blitz and the pass pro was good. However, not a very good push in the run game, but they definitely weren't scrubs as Vegas would had us believe.

Well Vegas actually had it about exactly right. Set the line at 4.5 and when that came out I looked at it and thought it was about right. (Ended up being 4 points). Meaning, I wasn't going to bet either way on that. Then for some strange reason a bunch of people started putting huge money on the Cats to cover that, which ended up moving it all the way to 13.5.

The people betting the Cats to cover have an argument though. Two fumbles returned for TD's is pretty fluky.

This game was the reverse of a game where the losing team makes the game closer than the score indicates. If you make the fourth quarter the first quarter and the other three quarters out one quarter, then you have a game where the losing team makes it look closer than it was.

MSU - 21 — 0 — 14 — 0 - 35
UNM - 0 — 17 — 7 — 7 - 31

MSU gets up 35-17, then allows a naked boot late in third and strip6 in the fourth.

Sports are awesome! Love looking at it from that perspective. Was a weird game.

[Lord Vigo]

Good: O-Line in the run game. Kicking game. Mellot bouncing back from two bad turnovers to engineer his "Redemption Drive" with under two minutes.

Bad: Lack of pressure on UNM"s QB. Too much room for UNM receivers in the passing game. Desert winds in the afternoon. UNM kicking. UNM receivers on third down.

Ugly: The referees spot on The Cats 4th down try. The two defensive scores. Unsportsmanlike penalty following horrible coverage. As they say in Albuquerque, "No bueno"!

That was a massive OL, and they were actually fairly athletic and pretty good. I'm not saying it's the best OL the Cats will see all season but it is definitely the biggest. I guarantee you'll be seeing us get to the QB a lot more in most of our remaining games.

I thought that oline did really well. They picked up almost every blitz and the pass pro was good. However, not a very good push in the run game, but they definitely weren't scrubs as Vegas would had us believe.

Well Vegas actually had it about exactly right. Set the line at 4.5 and when that came out I looked at it and thought it was about right. (Ended up being 4 points). Meaning, I wasn't going to bet either way on that. Then for some strange reason a bunch of people started putting huge money on the Cats to cover that, which ended up moving it all the way to 13.5.

The people betting the Cats to cover have an argument though. Two fumbles returned for TD's is pretty fluky.

This game was the reverse of a game where the losing team makes the game closer than the score indicates. If you make the fourth quarter the first quarter and the other three quarters out one quarter, then you have a game where the losing team makes it look closer than it was.

MSU - 21 — 0 — 14 — 0 - 35
UNM - 0 — 17 — 7 — 7 - 31

MSU gets up 35-17, then allows a naked boot late in third and strip6 in the fourth.

The ol' front door cover.