Rewatched most of the game tonight and I'm cautiously optimistic that the first game was not a reflection of how poorly the team played.
First, the Nevada QB played very well putting almost eery ball on the money. Now, you can argue that coverage was soft most of the time and the DL didn't get any pressure, but part of that was probably scheme to account for the pistol.
Our OLBs seemed to bite inside alot on the fake, but part of me wonders whether that could have also been scheme in some formations that relied on the CB to pick up the QB on the option.
Both AB and ZM played relatively well. AB was 1 for 8 mostly because the coverage was very tight and balls were knocked away. Hard to say whether he made mistakes or not trying to watch comcasts coverage that doesn't usually show the whole field. Either way, he had three series and couldn't get anything going.
ZM was slightly inconsistent missing a few balls, but he also had 3-4 bounce off receivers hands. Also, while throwing into quadruple coverage was bad, KA seemed to be the only guy on the field that had any separation on that play, and one of the 4 peeled off their coverage responsibility after the ball was thrown and wasn't in position to make a play. KA also made some mistakes, the offside and his long catch called back because he lined up covering the TE (might also be the TEs fault). Letting the late punt go was the right play, seeing a's how he let it go over his head at the 10, but he also slipped like 4-5 times when he could have gotten more yards.
Basically every bounce seemed to go Nevadas way with recovered fumbles, and that last fumble was clearly not a catch but wasn't overturned. Two crappy play calls on the 3rd and long draws in the 3rd and 4th quarter, but they easily could have won with a couple of plays going the other way, this after spotting them a 14-0 lead by keeping ZM out for the first quarter...
If the coaches can fix their coaching mistakes, the talent is there.
