Wow, UB has not played a game that poorly in at least four years. Everything you worry about with a new Quarterback and new coach came to pass against Baylor. Somehow the Bulls put up 350 yards and scored only six points.
I was ready to fail everyone and give the game ball to Joe the bus driver for getting us the hell out of Waco but sleeping on it softened my view of that bloodbath..
While Baylor beat us up badly it was stupid mistakes, and very poor play that kept us out of the end zone. I'm too sick to go into the game itself any more, so Ill go right to the grades.
Quarterback (D)
Davis was Terrible, clearly not ready. Now he did face quite a bit more pressure than the Rhode Island game but even on plays when the pocket held up and he had a wide open guy is was a crap shoot as to weather or not he would be able to deliver the ball.
I will say this for him, I saw very few stupid decisions, just some bad throws. That's the lone silver lining I see here. a handful of bonehead throws out of 46 is not terrible when you're under the pressures (both pass rush and situational) that he was under.
But not making bad decisions is not enough to make up for the poor execution of the good decisions.
| C/ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | INT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. Davis | 18/46 | 163 | 3.5 | 0 | 1 |
| T. Jackson | 0/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Running Backs (F)
- Upon Further Review (C-) <-- Not going to let the Threm Fumble crap all over the effort of Oliver and even Gill. Thanks to CT at Ubfan for setting me straight..
I had said that starting Thermilus was the way to go because we might need his size in pass protection, I won't be saying that again all season. It's obvious that Quinn does not thin Nduka is in a position to carry the running game so minuscule or not Oliver needs to be doing everything.
| CAR | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B. Oliver | 17 | 71 | 4.2 | 0 | 19 |
| J. Gill | 3 | 57 | 19 | 0 | 40 |
| J. Davis | 12 | 22 | 1.8 | 0 | 7 |
| B. Thermilus | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| A. Dennison | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| T. Jackson | 1 | -2 | -2 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | 35 | 162 | 4.6 | 0 | 40 |
Don't let gills numbers fool you too much, most of his 57 yards came in garbage time after Baylor had put in their second string on defense. (55 of his 57 yards came on one late fourth quarter drive).
Receivers: (F)
Look whats back! Right up until that dropped touchdown pass I think they were pulling a D+. There were a lot of drops but most of them were not on target passes, catchable, but not on target. But that dropped TD made me realize that the receivers were just as suspect as the Davis.
But it was not just the hands that bothered me, it was the routs which were not sharp and it was the lack of presence to get back to Davis on plays when he was scrambling.
| REC | YDS | AVG | TD | LG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T. Jackson | 6 | 60 | 10 | 0 | 18 |
| M. Rivers | 6 | 53 | 8.8 | 0 | 13 |
| E. Young | 2 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 14 |
| B. Oliver | 1 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 13 |
| A. Connacher | 1 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| M. Marr | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| F. Lee | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Not a great showing at all. If the receivers make a few tough catches in the first half this may be a different game.
Offensive Line (C-)
Ok maybe I am nuts here but a C- seems appropriate. Yes the running game was bad early but I fault most of that on play calling (see below) and blocking by the wide outs. Davis often had a good deal of time on most of his throws, he just threw off target.
So given the fact that we put up more than one hundred yards rushing before the 4th quarter (more than I expected for the entire game) and that Davis had time about 70% of the time I don't want to ding the line too much.
Offensive Play calling (C)
Too many runs up the gut when everyone watching, listening to, or even aware of the existence of the game knew that there would be little to nothing available in the middle of the line. Throughout the game the majority of the pass routes were curls, which became pretty predictable.
All Defensive Units are getting a half grade point bump because they had to be on the field for most of the first 25 minutes of the game, in very hot weather...
Defensive Line (C-)
The got more pressure on Griffin then I expected but they did next to nothing to stop the running game. The 'star' of the unit this week was Means with one solo tackle and two assisted tackles. Numbers aside he did flush Griffin out a few times, not that having Griffin on the move helped at all.
Linebackers (C+)
They did not contain Griffin well on the occasions he was flushed, nor did they do an exceptional job covering any running backs coming out on a pass pattern. While they did nothing exceptional they were adequate. On Griffins first rushing touchdown they were completely missing in action.
The Star of the unit was probably Khali Mack with two tackles for loss and four total tackles.
Defensive Backs (D+)
Davonte Shannon salvages the unit as a whole with ten tackles. But I cant grade higher than a D for a unit that had so many coverage breakdowns. Even when Griffin was flushed and contained (which was rarely) there was one or more Baylor receivers that were wide open.
Defensive Coaching (C)
Not a lot you can do to contain Griffin, and quite honestly the defense did everything they could do to keep the bears within shooting distance, short of actually shooting them. They made Baylor punt twice on the first three drives and held them to three points and 63 yards. But every time the stopped them they got less than two minutes to catch their breath.
The result was the three consecutive series where Baylor put the game away.
Special Teams (B-)
Returns were solid, not spectacular but very good and coverage teams mostly held Baylor in check. The Bears managed a few long, but not exceptionally long returns which is about what the Bulls did.
AJ Missed a 40 yard field goal when the game was out of reach. *shocker* but the punting was pretty solid. Shum averaged 37 yards per punt and dropped three inside the Baylor 20 yard line.