Rants & Raves: Drake
Rants & Raves
Rave: The Jackrabbit secondary bounced back from a poor performance against Montana State and had a really strong game against Drake. They were out to set the tone early with Jordan Brown having a pass breakup on 1st down, Anthony Washington making a strong tackle for minimal gain on 2nd down, and Marshon Harris having a pass breakup on 3rd down. Drake quarterback Grant Kraemer finished with 201 yards passing, but 62 of that came on a single play where the safety ran into Harris knocking him out of the play. Also playing well was Zy Mosley who made strong open field tackles a couple of times in the game. Additionally, the group held the leading receiver for Drake, Mitch McFarlane to 1 catch for 3 yards after he had a huge game last week.
Rave: In recent seasons, special teams has been a solid but not spectacular unit. However, through three games in 2017, special teams has been outstanding. Great kicking, great punting, great coverage units. Against Duquesne, it was the coverage units. Against Montana State, it was the clutch kicking and punting (along with a fake field goal), and against Drake it was a returned kickoff, blocked punt, and 51 yard field goal. The Jacks work hard on special teams in practice so their success isn't shocking.
Rant: The referees had two first half calls reversed because of replay. Both seemed fairly obvious and it seemed like replays weren't entirely necessary. Get it right on the field and keep the game moving along.
Rave: The Jacks put a lot of different formations on tape that defenses will now have to prepare for. They opened the game with two tight ends, then ran on Louscher a few plays later, on the 34 yard pass to Isaac Wallace the Jacks lined up bunched receivers both to the left and right near the sidelines. This drew the safties wide and allowed Wallace to gain a 1-on-1 mismatch on a linebacker. All these alignments have to be frustrating for opposing defensive coordinators. Even if the Jacks only run a formation once or twice in a game, the defense still needs to be ready for it or they will find themselves out of position that results in a big touchdown.
Rant: It is hard to be too critical, but Jake Wieneke had two big drops. The biggest one to me is the slant. For whatever reason, Taryn and Jake have struggled to connect on that route in live game action. The passes have either been too far ahead or too far behind for Jake to catch. However, this time Jake had a flat out drop, something Jack fans aren't used to seeing. This is an important route for them to connect on as it keeps the defensive backs honest from just sitting back on the fly route that Jake and Taryn are so good connecting on.
Rave: Even without Kellen Soulek in the middle the Jackrabbit defensive line still provided a consistent pass rush. Thomas Stacker and Nick Farina combined for the first sack, Austin Smenda added a strip sack, Smenda was back again along with Daniel Callender for another, Tristen Leiseth got home in the 4th quarter, and finally Zach Dorgan and Andrew Mueller combined for the 5th Jackrabbit sack of the game. For most of these players, it was their first sack as a Jackrabbit.
Rant: Although the pass rush was good, the run defense still left a little to be desired. The two leading rushers for Drake averaged over 4.3 yards per carry. That is too many yards to yield against a team that had struggled to run the ball in its previous games. I'm curious to see what the yardage total was like in the first half versus the second half. The Bulldogs seemed to move the ball easier in the second half.
Rave: It was great to see so many of the young offensive linemen get game reps in. The last offensive line in the game was Eagan Lickiss (FR), Caleb Lang (SR), Jack Domandle (FR), Eddie Miller (FR), and Mike Dobrenski(R-FR). The future is bright for the Jackrabbit offensive line. Wes Genant and Evan Greeneway are just sophomores and there is a deep and talented group of freshmen linemen who are redshirting this year. Matt Clark will be back from suspension in 3 games. Tyler Weir will return soon from injury. Grant Schmidt is sitting out because of transfer and will have two years of eligibility left. They lose Harmon and Ohnesorge to graduation so the battle for offensive line playing time in fall camp 2018 will be fierce. I'm excited about the quality it will produce.
Notes:
The wind made for a pretty chilly afternoon and evening but Jack fans showed up with 15,806 in attendance. Kellen Soulek appeared to not be too injured as he celebrated with Thomas Stacker pretty exuberantly on Stacker's first sack. The Beef Bowl is always such a fun game with lots of alumni coming back to help celebrate agriculture. I hope the producers who made it back for the game can find a way to make it back for another game this fall. The Jacks have a bye week before entering conference play on September 30th at Youngstown State.
Game Balls:
Offense: Mikey Daniel (8 attempts, 50 yards, 1 touchdown). Can we all agree that Mikey needs more carries? He fights for yards, he falls forward, he see the hole and makes the right cuts. Mikey continues to impress with the limited opportunities he gets.
Defense: This is tough. I could choose Austin Smenda, Logan Backhaus, or Christian Rozeboom. But this week, the award goes to Jordan Brown. After hearing all week about the struggles against Montana State, Brown rebounded with a huge game registering a few pass break ups, strong tackles in run support, and holding McFarlane to no catches in the first half. Very impressive game for the Jacks number one cornerback.
Next week: Bye (Improvement Week as Coach Stig called it)
Go Jacks!
-Matt
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