Week 1 Live Thread

[CUlater]

Just got back from Duquesne. What a total mess. Everything about that experience was terrible.

Edinboro came out flat, quiet, and seemingly unmotivated. In spite of a quite impressive Edinboro crowd on hand. 85 degrees in the air, no shade, lanternflies everywhere, no wind, and playing poorly took the wind out of their sails early on. Boro OL is hobbled with 2 starters out and it showed. Just couldn't get the offense moving.

Duquesne is the chippiest, chirpiest team I've ever witnessed. They make the most trash talking IUP and Gannon teams look normal. And because the stadium isn't a stadium, you hear all of it. I'm pretty sure I saw and heard an Edinboro player showing people the bite mark on his leg from a Duquesne player.

Speaking of, Duquesne's stadium sucks so bad. On the visitor side there is a terraced concrete wall to sit on, but you're right on the field and the bottom 2 rows can't see above the players. If you get up to leave youre right on the sideline. The players are right there and several times coaches were yelling at fans (mostly player parents) who they felt were too close to the sideline. Duquesne cut their marching band so you're treated to clips of all the top 40 pop songs of the last 15 years every stop in play. Last annoying part, no tickets. You had to go online, create a profile, buy tickets, wait for them to be emailed, then scan the email. Even worse is $12 a person regardless of age. They made me pay $12 for my 6 year old son. WTF

Boro made Duquesne look way better than they actually are. The O line had its struggles for sure but it was the QB play that was atrocious and let things get out of hand early. His first 6 throws were right into coverage and he had happy feet before ever taking a hit in the game. Two of those were picks with one being a pick six. And I believe he had a fumble that lead to a turnover in those first 2-4 drives.

the defense played pretty tough for most of the first half. The Dukes made a few big plays when things broke down on QB scrambles but other than that nothing more worthy from Duquesne’s offense. Got a little out of hand late once the r defense had been on the field all day

[IUPNation]

Edinboro was just looking ahead to IUP knowing they are going to be blocking a few punts.

:-)

[Fightingscot82]

Boro made Duquesne look way better than they actually are. The O line had its struggles for sure but it was the QB play that was atrocious and let things get out of hand early. His first 6 throws were right into coverage and he had happy feet before ever taking a hit in the game. Two of those were picks with one being a pick six. And I believe he had a fumble that lead to a turnover in those first 2-4 drives.

the defense played pretty tough for most of the first half. The Dukes made a few big plays when things broke down on QB scrambles but other than that nothing more worthy from Duquesne’s offense. Got a little out of hand late once the r defense had been on the field all day

Yeah the QB who was relatively reliable last year was all out of sorts. I think he had 3 INT and 2 fumbles. Just a miserable first half for every person on that side of the field. OL is banged up. Ruppert kid from NA was walking around in a knee brace and street clothes. Best lineman Hulslander left with what looked like a knee injury. Really exposed what was already an inexperienced group.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Edinboro was just looking ahead to IUP knowing they are going to be blocking a few punts.

:-)

Tort says it's all easy to fix stuff.

Must not be that easy. He hasn't been able to stop personal fouls on his kick teams in 7 years.

I can't even watch them punt. I close my eyes.

[CUlater]

Yeah the QB who was relatively reliable last year was all out of sorts. I think he had 3 INT and 2 fumbles. Just a miserable first half for every person on that side of the field. OL is banged up. Ruppert kid from NA was walking around in a knee brace and street clothes. Best lineman Hulslander left with what looked like a knee injury. Really exposed what was already an inexperienced group.

Things got much worse when your LT went down. Hopefully it’s nothing serious and he’s able to get back on the field in a week or two. The QB didn’t look like the starter from last year to me? Actually I think saw him come on late in the second half. Must have got beaten out in camp but from what we saw yesterday I’m not sure how. I thought he played well last year with glimpses of really good.

[CUlater]

Just worry about that WR from Greensburg. Nobody in the PSAC can stop him (so I hear). His act must not work as well in Wild and Wonderful.

Side note, I caught the biggest small mouth bass of my life this morning in the Clarion River (around 650am). I was in waist-high water when it hit, and, of course the Clarion is all rocks. I about took a swim.

Ya that WR forgot one very important detail, it doesn’t matter how good you are if you don’t have a QB that can get you the ball.

lol I’ve almost done the same on that rock bed many times. Great fishing though, unfortunately I haven’t been able to get out there for a couple years now

[Ship69]

Tort says it's all easy to fix stuff.

Must not be that easy. He hasn't been able to stop personal fouls on his kick teams in 7 years.

I can't even watch them punt. I close my eyes.

Today's young players just don't seem to be able to keep their mouths shut. Ship had Newberry stopped at midfield in the first half of Saturday's game when one of the secondary kids picked up a completely stupid taunting foul on fourth down, giving Newberry a fresh set of downs and leading to their first TD, which turned out to be pretty doggone important in a 14-10 game. Newberry, in turn, helped keep Ship in the game with a bunch of personal fouls. I saw Coach Mac literally pull one of the Ship kids off the field later in the game so he wouldn't pick up another 15-yarder.

[WarriorVoice]

Really? This from the guy who has accused IUP of something several times.

The next nice thing you say about IUP will be your first.

It would be nice if IUP lost This Saturday.

[Ram Tough]

I've had a day to reflect on Shepherd's win yesterday. There's a lot to work on, but it isn't all doom and gloom.

First of all, Shepherd did have some defenders out of the game. I hope they get them back quickly. Even then, the defense wasn't horrible, but they got tired due to the many 3-and-outs by the offense.

Shepherd's special teams played well. Myles Greer needs to handle as many of the return duties as possible going forward.

Now to the offense. Oh, how you have changed. Shepherd has had a tremendous run of QBs from Jeff Ziemba to Connor Jessop to Tyson Bagent. I don't want to write off Seth Morgan after one game, because he did show a few good things. He has a good arm and can throw the deep ball. However, being a good QB isn't just about chucking it deep. Morgan needs to work the underneath much better. Sometimes, check downs turn into first downs. I also won't lie. I am not a football coach, and I can tell when Shepherd is running certain plays, especially a WR screen. If I can tell, I am sure that opposing coaches can tell. Maybe a few new looks are needed? Or maybe I been watching Shepherd play for so long in McCook's offense that I just recognize a lot of it.

Anyway, I was impressed with the final drive. I had no faith in Shepherd's offense before that drive. And it started poorly with an initial lack of urgency. Then, Morgan stepped up and made some throws. As much as I have criticized him, he balled out with the game on the line.

Hopefully things will look better next week. Shepherd may be more of a work in progress than I initially thought.

[Ship69]

I've had a day to reflect on Shepherd's win yesterday. There's a lot to work on, but it isn't all doom and gloom.

First of all, Shepherd did have some defenders out of the game. I hope they get them back quickly. Even then, the defense wasn't horrible, but they got tired due to the many 3-and-outs by the offense.

Shepherd's special teams played well. Myles Greer needs to handle as many of the return duties as possible going forward.

Now to the offense. Oh, how you have changed. Shepherd has had a tremendous run of QBs from Jeff Ziemba to Connor Jessop to Tyson Bagent. I don't want to write off Seth Morgan after one game, because he did show a few good things. He has a good arm and can throw the deep ball. However, being a good QB isn't just about chucking it deep. Morgan needs to work the underneath much better. Sometimes, check downs turn into first downs. I also won't lie. I am not a football coach, and I can tell when Shepherd is running certain plays, especially a WR screen. If I can tell, I am sure that opposing coaches can tell. Maybe a few new looks are needed? Or maybe I been watching Shepherd play for so long in McCook's offense that I just recognize a lot of it.

Anyway, I was impressed with the final drive. I had no faith in Shepherd's offense before that drive. And it started poorly with an initial lack of urgency. Then, Morgan stepped up and made some throws. As much as I have criticized him, he balled out with the game on the line.

Hopefully things will look better next week. Shepherd may be more of a work in progress than I initially thought.

I assure you that your offense undoubtedly looked a lot better than Ship's did on Saturday. After a down season last year we still have six freshmen and sophomores in the two-deep on our o-line, and that's a problem against a defense as experienced as Newberry's. With much of the East having a shaky start on Saturday, the division looks as wide open as it's been in quite a while, but I don't know if Ship will be able to score enough to make any headway.

[jrshooter]

Today's young players just don't seem to be able to keep their mouths shut. Ship had Newberry stopped at midfield in the first half of Saturday's game when one of the secondary kids picked up a completely stupid taunting foul on fourth down, giving Newberry a fresh set of downs and leading to their first TD, which turned out to be pretty doggone important in a 14-10 game. Newberry, in turn, helped keep Ship in the game with a bunch of personal fouls. I saw Coach Mac literally pull one of the Ship kids off the field later in the game so he wouldn't pick up another 15-yarder.

Mark Maciejewski had a weekend worth of cringing. Friday night, his son, sophomore QB Brady, spent all night running away from Big Spring as Shippensburg High lost the Little Brown Jug for the first time since 2010. And 18 hours later, his own quarterback was under siege. Not that McCracken looked at all good ... but he didn't have many chances to get his feet under him and throw.

[Ship69]

Mark Maciejewski had a weekend worth of cringing. Friday night, his son, sophomore QB Brady, spent all night running away from Big Spring as Shippensburg High lost the Little Brown Jug for the first time since 2010. And 18 hours later, his own quarterback was under siege. Not that McCracken looked at all good ... but he didn't have many chances to get his feet under him and throw.

Can't disagree with you on any of those counts. It's a shame when it looks as if Ship has some decent young talent developing on defense. This freshman kid Diawara from Philly who wasn't even on my radar had a couple of nice sacks in the second half, and the front seven in general looked pretty solid. Holding Newberry to under 300 yards of offense when they were out on the field as long as they were was quite an accomplishment, but of course that is negated when your side only gets 141 yards. I thought the couple of series where they were having trouble snapping the ball really threw the offense out of kilter, and they never really got it back. Newberry's experienced defense had a lot to do with that. They desperately need to recruit some wideouts for next season — not a guy over 6 feet starting and not especially speedy with the exception of Douglas. I was very surprised Neely touched the ball as little as he did. If they're going to use a one-back set, I'm not sure why they moved DeLuccia from tight end. When I saw that originally, I figured they might use more two-back sets and have him block. I'm not a fan of this one back air attack set where the back stands parallel to the QB. I don't think it's conducive to a great running game. I'd much rather the back had a running start when he gets the ball.

[jrshooter]

It's deflating when your defense plays its asses off, and just runs out of gas down the stretch because the offense can't give them enough down time. And no, at no time have I thought of DeLucia as a back you would want as a regular ball-carrier.

[Rambaseball]

I've had a day to reflect on Shepherd's win yesterday. There's a lot to work on, but it isn't all doom and gloom.

First of all, Shepherd did have some defenders out of the game. I hope they get them back quickly. Even then, the defense wasn't horrible, but they got tired due to the many 3-and-outs by the offense.

Shepherd's special teams played well. Myles Greer needs to handle as many of the return duties as possible going forward.

Now to the offense. Oh, how you have changed. Shepherd has had a tremendous run of QBs from Jeff Ziemba to Connor Jessop to Tyson Bagent. I don't want to write off Seth Morgan after one game, because he did show a few good things. He has a good arm and can throw the deep ball. However, being a good QB isn't just about chucking it deep. Morgan needs to work the underneath much better. Sometimes, check downs turn into first downs. I also won't lie. I am not a football coach, and I can tell when Shepherd is running certain plays, especially a WR screen. If I can tell, I am sure that opposing coaches can tell. Maybe a few new looks are needed? Or maybe I been watching Shepherd play for so long in McCook's offense that I just recognize a lot of it.

Anyway, I was impressed with the final drive. I had no faith in Shepherd's offense before that drive. And it started poorly with an initial lack of urgency. Then, Morgan stepped up and made some throws. As much as I have criticized him, he balled out with the game on the line.

Hopefully things will look better next week. Shepherd may be more of a work in progress than I initially thought.

I agree that play calling seemed kind of generic at times and bland. I liked running the ball, but even that seemed obvious. Should have punted after the 4th down penalty too. Was it so that 8 starters were out due to NCAA issues? And what might they have been?

[Ram Tough]

I agree that play calling seemed kind of generic at times and bland. I liked running the ball, but even that seemed obvious. Should have punted after the 4th down penalty too. Was it so that 8 starters were out due to NCAA issues? And what might they have been?

Shepherd did have 8 people out due to some NCAA issues from what I have seen. I'm unclear what those issues are.