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Post by The Cats on Sept 2, 2018 11:51:38 GMT -5
Team Statistics (Final)
Team Totals | NEW | WCU | FIRST DOWNS | 22 | 26 | Rushing | 13 | 13 | Passing | 9 | 11 | Penalty | 0 | 2 | NET YARDS RUSHING | 206 | 212 | Rushing Attempts | 41 | 45 | Average Per Rush | 5.0 | 4.7 | Rushing Touchdowns | 0 | 3 | Yards Gained Rushing | 235 | 231 | Yards Lost Rushing | 29 | 19 | NET YARDS PASSING | 245 | 286 | Completions-Attempts-Int | 19-29-0 | 20-31-0 | Average Per Attempt | 8.4 | 9.2 | Average Per Completion | 12.9 | 14.3 | Passing Touchdowns | 3 | 1 | TOTAL OFFENSE YARDS | 451 | 498 | Total offense plays | 70 | 76 | Average Gain Per Play | 6.4 | 6.6 | Fumbles: Number-Lost | 0-0 | 0-0 | Penalties: Number-Yards | 7-55 | 5-46 | PUNTS-YARDS | 5-208 | 4-149 | Average Yards Per Punt | 41.6 | 37.2 | Net Yards Per Punt | 34.8 | 27.2 | Inside 20 | 4 | 1 | 50+ Yards | 0 | 0 | Touchbacks | 0 | 1 | Fair catch | 3 | 2 | KICKOFFS-YARDS | 6-384 | 7-418 | Average Yards Per Kickoff | 64.0 | 59.7 | Net Yards Per Kickoff | 40.3 | 41.3 | Touchbacks | 5 | 0 | Punt returns: Number-Yards-TD | 1-20-0 | 2-34-0 | Average Per Return | 20.0 | 17.0 | Kickoff returns: Number-Yds-TD | 6-129-0 | 1-17-0 | Average Per Return | 21.5 | 17.0 | Interceptions: Number-Yds-TD | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0 | Fumble Returns: Number-Yds-TD | 0-0-0 | 0-0-0 | Miscellaneous Yards | 0 | 0 | Possession Time | 33:08 | 26:52 | 1st Quarter | 8:43 | 6:17 | 2nd Quarter | 7:20 | 7:40 | 3rd Quarter | 9:30 | 5:30 | 4th Quarter | 7:35 | 7:25 | Third-Down Conversions | 7 of 15 | 5 of 12 | Fourth-Down Conversions | 0 of 1 | 1 of 1 | Red-Zone Scores-Chances | 2-2 | 5-5 | Touchdowns | 0-2 | 4-5 | Field goals | 2-2 | 1-5 | Sacks By: Number-Yards | 1-3 | 4-22 | PAT Kicks | 2-3 | 3-4 | Field Goals | 2-2 | 2-2 | Points off turnovers | 0 | 0 |
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Post by catamountalum04 on Sept 2, 2018 12:10:06 GMT -5
BC I agree 100%. We were missing several players as well and a coach. What coach?
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Post by catamountalum04 on Sept 2, 2018 12:11:59 GMT -5
Smack, did your son say what the coaches message was to the team at the half and at the end of the game? I assume the coaches were not happy with a 7 point win and the way the D played? They are practicing today lol. No one on the OL was happy last night. I will sound like a Dad of a player but our play calling gives me headaches. Run the ball down folks throat. We did bow our necks on both sides of the ball in the 4th qtr. I didn’t think I would have to say that in my pre game thoughts of how the game was going to shake out.
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Post by catamountalum04 on Sept 2, 2018 12:14:08 GMT -5
As a whole do the players know they need to be better prepared? Were the players upset about the game? We had at least 2 starters hurt on D. Both should be back vs GW. We run the read option, the QB has to read the D-End, they crashed hard almost every play. We can’t coach Tyrie and tell him not to run. That’s what makes him special. Sooooooo if teams know we are going to have him held back they will crash the ends. Will Jones had to come in and ran for a 10+yard play because he kept the ball. Tyrie has to be a run threat or we need to lineup in the I-Formation and just pound folks. Tyrie could’ve had 150 yards rushing if he kept the ball. That opens up the pass also. I loved what Newberry did with there QB, tough kid, he would keep and roll to a side with a run pass option. Jordan M and #2 were impressive, #6 got a stinger on a punt return and was held out in the 4th. We marched down the field our last 2 drives and scored TD’s. Quick passes and Connel gashed them. Most of his yards were in the 4th. Yesterday’s game doesn’t lead us to a bad year folks, unless the players let it.
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Post by wcugrad95 on Sept 2, 2018 13:05:50 GMT -5
Not trying to come off the wrong way, but some of the posts and questions about if the players are upset or if they understand they need to be better I hope are the proverbial rhetorical questions. As Smack stated, he was with the entire O-line and they were all upset. The team is practicing today on a long holiday weekend with next week being a bye. So I'd say the performance has everybody's full attention.
If we are upset and feel letdown, my guess is the players feel it ten-fold.
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Post by upstatecat88 on Sept 2, 2018 14:29:48 GMT -5
Now that the smoke has settled a little, did anyone else happen to stream the Newberry radio feed? Does their announcer guy not sound like he's doing a Vin Scully impersonation the whole time? ( not kidding, really sounds like a younger, slightly sped up Vin Scully!) But here's what I really wanted to address - at least twice they referred to some bad mouthing of Newberry out of our camp that had made the rounds and had really miffed their players. They never said whether it was message board stuff, player quotes, coach comments or what; nor did they offer a specific quote. Anyone have any insight on this?
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Post by wcugrad95 on Sept 2, 2018 14:46:27 GMT -5
Not sure. I actually posed the question on here about if anybody really knew anything about Newberry, and there were few responses and the point was that we should expect them to be better than Davidson and about like GWU - but nobody knew much. My guess is that Newberry was playing the typical "we are the small school" card and saying that nobody gave them a chance. I don't think a school like WCU gets enough coverage for our players to have much of a chance to talk smack about Newberry - at least not in a setting that it would be quoted or carried to a degree that Newberry would see it.
And as mentioned in this thread already, our coaching staff did the typical coach-speak and talked about how many good players Newberry had. I would certainly think our players were just as surprised as our fans (me included) about how athletic and good Newberry looked - that team would wipe the floor with Davidson and probably compete with a number of other FCS teams. I am not trying to rationalize the come-from-behind win, but don't you think that team could compete with some other schools in the SoCon that are predicted to be at the bottom of the league? Or be competitive in a conference like the OVC? Or did we really just play that poorly/overlook them and simply think we are way better than we are?
I posted this before, but which is worse - a win over Newberry like we had or a bad loss to Toledo (VMI) or Memphis (Mercer) like some of the other schools had?
It is kind of funny that we are going to find out a whole lot about this team in the next 3 weeks, but probably still not have that much of an idea how good or bad we are until weeks 5 and 6.
I also hope that Newberry wins all the rest of their games including the D2 Natty!!!
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Post by smack1212 on Sept 2, 2018 15:07:30 GMT -5
I’m betting Newberry won’t be the worst team we beat this year. The blame can go all around for us being flat or whatever. A win is always better then a 60 point loss. I know the players weren’t happy with their play. See y’all in 2 weeks. My son will be home this next weekend for the first time since April. Can’t wait. I’ll be in Boiling Springs in 2 weeks.
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Post by Sam on Sept 2, 2018 19:46:33 GMT -5
The negatives are being covered well, and lord knows there are plenty of them to point to. I am terrified to think if our D doesn't find something that Furman is going to simply run that big FB about 60 times right up the gut and gain 350-400 yards rushing, and the breakdowns in coverage means that Hodges and Samford will throw for at least 500. And I am typically all-in with smack's posts, but I saw a whole bunch of times with the O that we tried to run the ball up the middle and simply couldn't (especially early on). If Newberry's undersized D-line can blow up some of our running plays, SoCon defenses will do the same. Our strength is obviously on offense, but if Newberry takes our D to the woodshed like that and keeps the ball out of Tyrie's hands, I can see teams like Wofford and Citadel only giving us a handful of posessions for the entire game. Now for at least a couple of positives. - We won - even though it was against D2 and some of the others played FBS games, I have to think being 1-0 this morning is better than what Mercer and VMI are feeling.
- Patten in particular, but also Mullen proved that along with Mathis we are going to be fine at WR.
- We still can't kick the dang ball into the endzone on a kickoff (did you guys pay attention to Newberry's kicker???), but we did make 2 FGs (negative - we also shanked a PAT).
- We had no turnovers.
- I think Holloway will be a difference-maker on those 2nd and 3rd down short yardage situations.
Originally I hated the start to our season schedule, but now I am pretty happy that we have the BYE, GWU, and VMI to try and figure this thing out.
You are exactly right! We couldn't have asked for a better schedule based on our performance. BYE week, GWU, then VMI giving us a chance to get straightened out. We couldn't run the ball up the middle. Got stuffed many times. Concerning against a D- II to say the least. Running backs? Uh-oh. Adams won't make it another 2-3 games if he continues running the ball like he did. He'll get injured. This looks to be a repeat of Adam's first starting year when we didn't have the depth at skill positions. Our defensive backs in particular looked not so good. BIG TROUBLE if our secondary doesn't shape up. Our defensive line got good penetration but too slow and angles were off. This could've been bc their quarterback(s) were exceptional or we just need to relearn tackling....too early to tell.
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Post by wcuecu2010 on Sept 2, 2018 20:20:06 GMT -5
Yeah, the Cats won 7 games last year, but I'd say most of you have forgotten that Western Carolina only beat one team last season that had a winning record. We also lost most of the defense from what was a pretty weak defense anyway. I'd say, those of you expecting 7 wins or more this season, probably should re-think that. Any of you can say anything you want about this team, BUT they were not ready or prepared to play football on Saturday evening at 6 pm, and for that, you can look at only one person. I still am thinking we can win 7 games this year but I am confident on 6 and that was my thinking prior to the beginning of the season, I am not rethinking that. Regardless, of how poor we played we still won. We have an off weak this week and 2 teams who I think are worse than Newberry (Gardner-Webb and VMI) so I expect to still be 3-0 before we are "truly challenged" so I expect we get better by the time we play Furman. Furman will be our true test. Honestly, in my 7 win preseason "persona" prediction, I assumed we would lose to Furman and Samford, so even if we lose those I am still keeping with 7 wins. GWU and VMI are in my opinion worse than Newberry (yes I believe Newberry would have beaten both schools if they played them).
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