Baldwin Debut

[Lobodawg92]

Boy, that sure looked like smash mouth football, but we couldn't get it in the endzone. I am baffled. Seems like we had pretty good protection most of the night, Rodney was awesome, but ran out of gas, two great receives, and we can't score a single touchdown? Not a passing grade for the debut, imo. Hopefully things will get better.

DP not throwing the ball away was almost inexcusable. Even my wife was screaming. This one hurts. :-(

Still I'll be in my seat next weekend. I hope the offense gets something going!

Go Lobos!

[ricoLobo]

I'm pretty disgusted. Why are Rocky Long teams consistently brain dead? Two consecutive holding calls in the fourth quarter -- and enough penalties to give the Oakland Raiders a run for their money. Then an idiotic decision by Porterie to run with :07 left and no timeouts? What the hell did he think he saw? Daylight and 6 on the scoreboard???

And Baldwin's play calling -- stink-o on the delayed handoff to Ferguson -- after what, the 12th time, I think UTEP was ready for it. How bout mixing it up a bit and maybe letting Porterie keep it to keep the defense honest.

Finally, ROCK -- feel free to waste a schollie on a friggin' placekicker. This is embarrassing.

[LoboMike]

Baldwin, Toledo, Dan Dodd, Fenwick...what's the difference? I see the same boring, conservative play-calling every year. These guys are just figureheads. The playbook doesn't change.

We're never going to win a conference championship or a bowl game with the good old "three yards and a cloud of dust" offense. Never.

[LoBo LoCo]

Finally, ROCK -- feel free to waste a schollie on a friggin' placekicker. This is embarrassing.

I agree he's gotta stop with taking a chance on walk on kicker...go out recruit a kid who can kick a field goal within 35 yards CONSISTENTLY!

[Lobodawg92]

Although kicking was a problem last night, in general we have had good luck with our kickers. I am hoping that it gets better again this year.

I am not going to hammer Rocky and the guys for 1 game. It is a long season. However, I must agree with Mike, 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense is getting old. It has proven to be unsuccessful for the most part over the last several years. I am still puzzled. We have some very good talent on offense, but it sure didn't work last night, nor the fan day scrimmage I went to. We need to put something together, or this could be another underachieving team like Hank's senior year.

That loss still leaves a horrid taste in my mouth this morning! Blah!

Go Lobos!

[Hoser]

Although kicking was a problem last night, in general we have had good luck with our kickers. I am hoping that it gets better again this year.

I am not going to hammer Rocky and the guys for 1 game. It is a long season. However, I must agree with Mike, 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense is getting old. It has proven to be unsuccessful for the most part over the last several years. I am still puzzled. We have some very good talent on offense, but it sure didn't work last night, nor the fan day scrimmage I went to. We need to put something together, or this could be another underachieving team like Hank's senior year.

That loss still leaves a horrid taste in my mouth this morning! Blah!

Go Lobos!

Don't look at one game look at the last 8 seasons.

[Lobodawg92]

Don't look at one game look at the last 8 seasons.

True, but I was refering to our offense this season. Rocky had said they were going to open it up, and this was Baldwin's first game with us. I think it is too early to say he (or this offense) is going to be just like it has been for the last 8 years. Last nights game was so much like past years I could toss my cookies. However, I think it was still only 1 game, and Baldwin's debut. Hopefully, the playbook can open up and we can get creative in some successful manner. :)

We seem to always start in the hole and have to crawl back out somehow! :confused:

Go Lobos!

[loborick]

I kept expecting the delayed handoff to set up the defense for a play action pass downfield, but it never happened. But the way Porterie was playing last night, he wouldn't have made the throw anyway.

What has constantly disturbed me is the undisciplined way we play, despite Rocky's reputation for being a disciplinarian. Holding calls, false starts and personal fouls are inexcusable penalties. Yet we seem to do that more than any other team.

[zoom]

don't worry...we should have our complete offense put in by game 10 just like most years.

[LoBo LoCo]

I kept expecting the delayed handoff to set up the defense for a play action pass downfield, but it never happened. But the way Porterie was playing last night, he wouldn't have made the throw anyway.



Rick...you and I agreement on that...I posted in an earlier post that with our running attack...play action would be unstoppable and if DP would learn to look away the corners and add in a few pump fakes we'd be unstoppable on the offensive side of the ball. The O-Line is giving him plenty of time to do that...although I think they are a little better on protection when it comes to running the ball rather than in passing situations.

[txlobo95]

Finally, ROCK -- feel free to waste a schollie on a friggin' placekicker. This is embarrassing


The kicking was atrocious. If you have a kicker that tore his acl back in the spring, wouldn't a prudent coach immediately (back in the spring) start working at least 1 or two other guys out that could kick in case Sullivan really messed up his acl in the game and could no longer kick? Hell, even put an ad in the daily Lobo for tryouts for walk-on kickers.

To me, that was a huge diff in the ballgame. Their knucklehead was kicking a 51 yard FG and we're missing chipshots from 32 yards! :eek:

Realistically, we can't expect our kicker to make every kick. However, inside 40 yards, he should be able to make at least 3 of 4 if not 4-4. If he had done that, we are only down by 1 or up by 2 with 2 minutes to go and only needing a FG not a TD. Huge diff there.

As far as 3 yards in a cloud of dust, I think the coaches in this case are a bit hampered by their QB's lack of accuracy. I can't understand what has happened between last year and this year. He had a number of games with over 300 yards passing last year, and last night he was more accurate to the UTEP db's than his own receivers. Did any of our receivers catch a pass in which they didn't not have to make a ridiculous dive to catch? If any of those passes hit the receiver in stride, it would have opened up the game bigtime.

[Lobo_for_life]

surprised by the way the offense performed?

Damn, it's brand new (again), and with a sophomore QB directing it to boot. Also, it's the friggin' West Coast offense. It's not going to be a wide-open juggernaught. There will be lots of dinks and dunks. However, it will get better in that we should throw and complete more downfield balls as the season progresses and we feel more comfortablw with it.

That having been said, I agree that some of the play-calling was real predictable. However if a couple of makeable FG's by a nervous, new kicker are converted we win. Or if one of two poorly thrown deep balls to open receivers find their mark we win.

Bottom line, it was a crappy game, but not necessarily unexpected.

[ldlbfn]

Yep. Another OC, terminology, soph qb in what ?-6th or 7th game. What I did not like on playcalling was so many WR screens an sooo many draws from the shotgun. Was nice to see the TE more involved-and Mark made some nice catches. Would have liked to see more play-action when the running game started moving. Donavan did not throw real well last night-but I still think he can become a very good QB. And with Demps and a couple other seniors, UTEP's secondary is not bad.