Final grades and thoughts after rewatch

by Mike (bart), Monday, September 01, 2025, 13:44 (239 days ago) @ Mike (bart)
edited by Mike (bart), Monday, September 01, 2025, 13:51

I would grade out the position groups thusly:

QB - B+. Two critical misses on run/pass reads but otherwise a nice game

RB - C+. Hard running but Love missed a big hole and Price fumbled inside the 5

WR - B-. Fields and Faison made a handful of plays. Everyone else was invisible

TE - C+. Drops, a penalty, and some missed blocks, but good move blocking and almost 100 yards receiving.

OL - B. Way better than I'd assumed. This is closer to a B+ than a B-. No idea what the hell happened to Wagner on the last drive.

DL - B+. These guys were really pretty good.

LB - D-. Sneed was effective rushing the passer and KVA did some nice things but otherwise by far the worst game from Bowen and Ausberry was bad as well. I would start KVA and Sneed against Texas A&M

CB - B+. Pretty game effort and defended well, no missed tackles leading to big plays

S - C-. Stroman cleaned up some junk but in general the fieldsmanship was poor from this positon.

Denbrock - D+. He found some stuff that worked but refused to lean into it. Came into the game tight and stayed that way until deep into the first half.

Ash - C-. The base defense was pretty ok, and no big busts, but a few truly shit episodes of malcoordination

All in all I think there's more to like than I thought from last night. The OL is not a flim flam shop and the DL was a lot closer to "as advertised" than I'd guessed on first watch. Whatever they've tried to have the linebackers do they should undo with great haste. They also need to get someone in charge of communication and lining up on the back end.