WR stats to come, I've got a 3 week backlog of spreadsheets to update and a new stat category.  So here are the random comments first.  These are mostly chronological

• Ezeh looked bad on Cousin's first long scramble
• In the first half, we were slow to adjust to the bubble screen, especially with white lined up in the slot.
• We were bad on third downs in the first half, both ways.  maybe due to it being our first road game.
• Kelvin had an awful drop early on, I think the coaches went away from him a little after that
• I liked the call with Tate at WR, but why run a sweep to that side, meaning you are depending on getting a good block from your QB?
• Koger with a drop too, could it be nerves?  I hate the first road game. 
• Unfortunate timing for a bad snap, 3rd down in the redzone
• Bad tackling, partially due to the rain?
• MSU killed our zones with corner routes.  Cousins has a good arm and was much more accurate this week.
• Coulda called timeout with about 30 seconds left in the half.  I can understand not doing it, but with stonum having a pretty good year on returns, we might have left 3 points on the field there, but it woulda been unlikely.
• Talk about a fast first half!
• I'm loving how I can actually see the team making good adjustments at halftime.  In the first half we were burnt on some bubble screens, and then gave up some big yardage on the fake bubble screen counter pitch or handoff.  but on MSU's first drive of the second half we had both parts of that play locked down. (nevermind we just gave up a big TD on this same play at the start of the 4th, they caught us on a blitz and mouton completely ignored the fact that his lineman was pulling.  grrrrrrrr bad, very bad.)
• But one adjustment I'd like to have seen sooner, was to only rush 3 and have a 4th guy spy cousins or nichol on 3rd and long.
• I also like seeing Minor and Brown in the backfield at the same time, but Minor didn't hold a block after donovan's INT that would have sprung Carlos to the races. We had caught MSU in a run blitz.
• Actually I like it more with Grady (24) in there because he's a better blocker (I think) and still a decent threat to run.
• At the time, I really thought we should have QB sneaked it on 4th and an inch from our 17, because we had been giving up waaaay too much T.o.P.  But while watching the replay I could agree more with the punt.  The defense was playing much better than I had thought, despite giving up the long drives.  Of course, zoltan must have been thinking we should have gone for it too. OOPS.
• Brandon Graham = teh awesome!
• Our right guard got owned a few times.
• I'm impressed by Roh's pass coverage
• Dear all Defensive lineman, when the man across from you pulls FRICKEN FOLLOW HIM! He'll take you right to the play.
• Denard is just not confident enough in his arm yet.  He hesitated on both 2nd and 3rd down called passes.
• I thought the game was almost over when Stonum fumbled. The defense really stepped up in the 4th quarter.
• 3 for 11 on 3rd down until Tate's heroics.  Not good enough.
• Stevie Brown was playing with anger, just throwing people down. I like, but he coulda been flagged once, lucky it was still during the play, but it was close.
• Mouton took a terrible angle on Cousins long scramble.  He looked like he was jogging.  He should run sprints for that effort.  A complete lack of effort.  Just disgusting. I understand that you're coming up from dropping in coverage and the QB just made you drop your jockstrap, but FRICKEN run after the play in case he fumbles it or something.  Don't just give up!
• Right after Stonum made the long TD, you can see a glimpse of GERG grabbing RR, I imagine he's making the case for his defense and asking RichRod to kick it deep.  I like that.  Shows confidence.  Of course it's easier to like it since the D delivered. 

Pic? Pic.

• Then GERG had the balls to blitz Kovacs twice on short yardage.  Nice.
• Can't argue with going for OT, with the rain and Forcier being completely exhausted after that drive.
• I don't know what the hell Mouton was thinking on Caper's final TD.  He put his head down and lept at a man who was engaged with another defender..  Ok, so Troy went high on a guy he shouldn't have, but Mouton is a linebacker who needs to clean up that tackle. Keep your legs and run through it.  Someone needs to get him to workout with the wrestling team in the offseason and learn a doubleleg takedown
• MSU pulled out a lot of misdirection plays.  It's like night and day compared to their Wisconsin game. I wonder if that was because they were saving the plays, or because of the type of defense WISC was playing.  Probably a little of both.
• Our YAC was really down this game.  I think two things contributed to this, obviously MSU had pretty good coverage, but many of Tate's throws were low, maybe due to his sore shoulder taking off just a tiny bit of his precision.

Well, so we lost.  I like the prediction of the guy who saw all the high score predictions and realized that meant the score would be much lower.  That's someone who's seen a lot of football.   I can't say this was totally unexpected. 

But it's strange, I actually feel pretty good about the team after this game.  I think a lot of questions got answered on defense.  I think JT Floyd is an upgrade at corner over an injured Booboo, and Ezeh had a "better" game, even if he did look bad a couple of times.  I'm still worried about Mouton.  Van Bergen looked like a man possesed and Roh continues to impress.

I think we're going to have a lot of nail biters in conference play.  But this team looks so much better than what we were thinking before the season started.   If we finish 7-5 it might be a slight dissapointement after starting 4-0, but a bowl game would be nice.  If we go 6-6 and miss a bowl, that'll be a huge dissapointment based on the progress I've seen so far.  I'm gonna guess we only lose two more times this year, and finish 9-3.  I think we've got a good shot at beating Iowa.

Anyway,  GO BLUE!