Now that we've had a few days to digest it....

[betty white]

My question is, what happened with our offense?? All summer I read every thread on here, every duck blog, Ted Miller, Daschel, Buster Sports, podcast, twitter, and message board I could get my hands on. All of them talked non-stop at how good Masoli looked. How the game has 'slowed down' for him. How the 'tazers' were so unstoppable. How 'its Dickson's year'. How the line had questios, but also a lot of answers. How Blount was going to 'run down hill' into the weak BSU line, and etc, etc.

I would like to know how we didn't get a first down until the third quarter. Can someone help me out?

[spinseeker]

Boise has a very good defense and our young O line did not open up any holes for our running game. They couldn't even really keep any one occupied enough to get to the outside either. BSU was playing up close to the line because they knew Masoli wouldn't have enough time in the pocket to get a man deep (only happened twice the whole game).

5 minutes of offense in the first half was not enough to get in any rhythm. Also vanilla play calling at the beginning.

As for the safety - While that play call in the end zone was a very bad call , there was a major breakdown in the offensive line that allowed the Broncos to get to blount for the safety. I rewatched the first half of the game so far. That play #54 for us stood out to me. On the snap he immediately backed up a step and turned left, allowing the first Bronco to pass him on his right. (Most likely not his assigned block, but he went right next to him) Then he ran left apparently spying one of the linebackers that were five yards back and coming in. While looking at that guy he let another guy get past him and than fell over to the left as the guy he was watching blew past him. Result= multiple BSU players in the end zone to bring down blount.

[dthomas=ddixon]

A few things IMO.

#1. The O-line. They played really bad. The RBs had no room to run. The read option was blown up every time. The pass blocking wasn't much better. Plus almost all new WRs that JM needs to develop more chemistry with.

#2. I really think Masoli bought into the revenge factor WAAAY too much. He wasn't focused on just playing football, he was trying to get back at boise. He looked really out of sorts to me. You don't just lose your ability, especially after, like you said, looking really good in spring/summer/fall.

#3. This hasn't been confirmed but it looked like Helfrich was calling the plays not Kelly. Kelly didn't have a play card that every play caller has. And on top of that our Offensive play calling was very questionable. Not even close to the unstoppable machine that it was last year.

[EncinitasDuck]

On the safety, Masoli never should have given the ball to Blount, he should have kept and gone straight up the field. That was a really bad read on his part.

[spinseeker]

I don't know if that was a bad read, but obviously it is more beneficial to run north/ south rather than east/ west. There were definitely blown assignments on the o line. with that one.

[wheaton4prez]

My question is, what happened with our offense?? All summer I read every thread on here, every duck blog, Ted Miller, Daschel, Buster Sports, podcast, twitter, and message board I could get my hands on. All of them talked non-stop at how good Masoli looked. How the game has 'slowed down' for him. How the 'tazers' were so unstoppable. How 'its Dickson's year'. How the line had questios, but also a lot of answers. How Blount was going to 'run down hill' into the weak BSU line, and etc, etc.

I would like to know how we didn't get a first down until the third quarter. Can someone help me out?

Good question. Offensive production was the one thing I just assumed. The defense did exactly what I thought they would and should do, forcing BSU to run more plays (not get the big plays) and eventually make mistakes. Even if the offense did mediocre, we could have won that game.

At this point, I think the offensive line is the biggest hole in the dam. I owe Steele an apology. He was right and it was more of a factor than I thought it would be.

[Greydrake]

Was it me or did the run play we did use seem slow in development; perhaps using a quicker back smaller back might be one start of a corrective move. Even the passes seem slow in development, Masoli standing in the pocket was hardly a threat, works best if he is scrambling to the side forcing accountability on the dbs part, for his scrambling ability.

[gofightingducks]

Was it me or did the run play we did use seem slow in development; perhaps using a quicker back smaller back might be one start of a corrective move. Even the passes seem slow in development, Masoli standing in the pocket was hardly a threat, works best if he is scrambling to the side forcing accountability on the dbs part, for his scrambling ability.

Blount didn't hit the line he moved sideways and allowed the defenders to swarm on him. I would have liked to have seen more of LMJ and Barner and see what their speed would have done. Boise State has a good defense but not necessarily fast, so I am wondering where all of this team speed we have been hearing about was? Where were these super secret plays designed for the speed of the "tazer" position?

[spinseeker]

'Blount didn't hit the line he moved sideways and allowed the defenders to swarm on him. I would have liked to have seen more of LMJ and Barner and see what their speed would have done.'

Agreed.

[rcook]

On the safety, Masoli never should have given the ball to Blount, he should have kept and gone straight up the field. That was a really bad read on his part.

I disagree

[chapelhillduck]

As for the offense, I think it was equal parts crappy play and luck. If Maehl makes either one of those catches for first downs we stay on the field. If we got one first down everyone would have settled down a bit, as is, I think we started pushing too hard once two or so series went on without a first down.

Also, we started to move the ball with iittle hitches over the middle. We kept trying to throw to the outside when we didn't really have speed advantages out there.

[EncinitasDuck]

DUMB-ASS....... No clue gives you a mild excuse....... Just no more talk about any should have or should haven't, your head is in the sand, deep.

Oh,OK GOD of everything football.

[spinseeker]

Sad thing is, Maehl did make one of those catches. The first one. He got his right foot down in bounds. That play should have been reviewed. not even a replay on tv, but I was there. Saw it first hand

[ducksrock]

On the safety, Masoli never should have given the ball to Blount, he should have kept and gone straight up the field. That was a really bad read on his part.

DUMB-ASS....... No clue gives you a mild excuse....... Just no more talk about any should have or should haven't, your head is in the sand, deep.

Only a DUMB-ASS calls someone a DUMB-ASS......Grow the F up and Grow a pair...Its comments like that that destroy a chat forum.....and makes everyone that reads such a comment think about who the DUMB-ASS might really be..

[liberalduck]

1. They were playing against our D all summer.

2. They thought they were going to play like they did in their last game.

3. They had to play on butt-ugly blue turf.

4. They (and we) were fed a bunch of crap.

Furthermore,

The O and D lines looked horrible. As a unit, our D line is undersized and got pushed around. The O line couldn't block anyone and create any lanes for Blount.

The coaching stunk - specifically the play calling and overall management of the team and game.

Masoli looked like he had never played QB before. I could have sworn it was Chris Harper all over again.

But other than those things everything looked grand.