Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

[MDRussell]

So this is a game of two programs desperately in need of a win. WSU can revive their season and conference title hopes, and show the drubbing in Indy was just a bad day, while AU, coming into a hostile Detroit crowd, can't afford to go 0-3 and keep any hopes of a playoff run. Haven't seen Ashland this year, but the Warriors have a lot to work on, namely QB play (passing) and run defense. I think the last time we beat the AU squad was all the way back to 2013... let's see if we can pull out a much needed "W" on Saturday night.

[sandman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

In defense of Winters, Wayne State University has the sixth highest winning record of any teams in D1 or D2 in Michigan over the last ten years. I believe that his success has been due to basically good running teams with featured running backs and a good O Line. The passing game has been our biggest problem, keeping the defense on the field too long and allowing opponents to stack the box on the run game and slowing down what should be a devastating run game. Backs like Bell, Renal, Brown etc could overcome the added pressure. The passing game has been ineffective. Even during the national championship run our qb threw 80 percent of his completions to one player, Troy Burrell,that year. The kid could catch anything thrown near him and teams feared him.


Back to the present. If the passing game does not improve. Wayne State could go 1-10. This would be so disappointing to our fans.

[NewEraWarrior]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

Well put it this way....we will find A LOT out about this team after Saturday night. I see three possible scenarios playing out: 1) Wayne pulls out the victory in a closely contested game w/ an effective balanced attack. Only way Wayne wins is by hitting a couple big plays in the passing game or at least a nickel & dime strategy w/ the occasional 20+ yd pass completion. A win for Wayne would give them a speck of hope to upset GV and Ferris down the road. 2) Wayne loses a close game by a 3-10 points after putting up a fight but Ashland's battle tested and angry team prevails. In this scenario, I think Wayne would at least prove they can compete w/ the top dogs but are still not able to get back over the hump leading to another 6-7 win season. 3) Wayne gets embarrassed again and loses in a similar fashion they did last week where they got outplayed in every facet. This scenario is a 3+ TD lost and would lead many to speculate they only finish w/ 4-5 wins on the season. Really hope scenario #3 doesn't play out.

[WayneStatesman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

The passing game has been ineffective. Even during the national championship run our qb threw 80 percent of his completions to one player, Troy Burrell,that year. The kid could catch anything thrown near him and teams feared him.

Wayne historically has not had a lot of good QBs. The last really good one was Ed Skowneski and he was primarily a running QB. Mohner was OK and as you said had a top quality receiver and a great O line. I've been disappointed so far in Zezula. I thought he'd be pretty solid in his senior year after being a starter for 3 years. I know he got injured last season. Maybe he's still affected by the injury?

Ashland has more talent than Wayne State and it remains to be seen whether the Warriors will be up for the challenge and how much the home field advantage will come into play. I fear the better talent and desperation to salvage their season will prevail for AU but we'll see what our team is made of for sure. It'll be tough to win without a passing game though.

[Bos715]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

Wayne historically has not had a lot of good QBs. The last really good one was Ed Skowneski and he was primarily a running QB. Mohner was OK and as you said had a top quality receiver and a great O line. I've been disappointed so far in Zezula. I thought he'd be pretty solid in his senior year after being a starter for 3 years. I know he got injured last season. Maybe he's still affected by the injury?

Ashland has more talent than Wayne State and it remains to be seen whether the Warriors will be up for the challenge and how much the home field advantage will come into play. I fear the better talent and desperation to salvage their season will prevail for AU but we'll see what our team is made of for sure. It'll be tough to win without a passing game though.

How have Wayne States DBs been this year

[IH8SVSU]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

Easy win for Wayne State. Asshat U will choke again.

[sandman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

How have Wayne States DBs been this year

First game they looked great. Covered everything and tackled well. Of course it was against Walsh. Did not see the second game. Tall safeties with the number 3 safety being a true freshman. Maybe someone that saw the Indianapolis game can add something to your answer.

[WayneStatesman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

First game they looked great. Covered everything and tackled well. Of course it was against Walsh. Did not see the second game. Tall safeties with the number 3 safety being a true freshman. Maybe someone that saw the Indianapolis game can add something to your answer.

I watched about 3/4 of the game on streaming video. Saw a lot of missed tackles by the DB's but the conditions were pretty sloppy.

[sandman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

I watched about 3/4 of the game on streaming video. Saw a lot of missed tackles by the DB's but the conditions were pretty sloppy.

That would definitely be an advantage to the ball carrier.

[NewEraWarrior]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

How have Wayne States DBs been this year

Truthfully, Wayne's DBs are virtually untested....Walsh barely threw the ball in the first game, quite literally 90% of all Walsh's passes were within 5 yard of the LOS (Ton of screens and quick slants). Walsh MAYBE threw it 5+ yards downfield only a couple times all game, not to mention Walsh's starting QB was pretty rough, in fact majority of his 5 step drops resulted in scrambling because the OL was just not good. THEN vs. UIndy, the conditions altered the pass game dramatically. With that said, UIndy threw the ball 6 times and completed all 6 passes, 2 of them for TDs. The coverage downfield was not encouraging even in sloppy conditions. I think the DBs are relatively average IMO, not a knock on those players but didn't see many difference makers in the relatively small sample size. They can change my mind this Saturday if they come up w/ some big plays.

[Eagles73]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

Nice win Eagles!

[NewEraWarrior]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

Well put it this way....we will find A LOT out about this team after Saturday night. I see three possible scenarios playing out: 1) Wayne pulls out the victory in a closely contested game w/ an effective balanced attack. Only way Wayne wins is by hitting a couple big plays in the passing game or at least a nickel & dime strategy w/ the occasional 20+ yd pass completion. A win for Wayne would give them a speck of hope to upset GV and Ferris down the road. 2) Wayne loses a close game by a 3-10 points after putting up a fight but Ashland's battle tested and angry team prevails. In this scenario, I think Wayne would at least prove they can compete w/ the top dogs but are still not able to get back over the hump leading to another 6-7 win season. 3) Wayne gets embarrassed again and loses in a similar fashion they did last week where they got outplayed in every facet. This scenario is a 3+ TD lost and would lead many to speculate they only finish w/ 4-5 wins on the season. Really hope scenario #3 doesn't play out.

Looks like scenario #2 played out. For whatever reason this team and program as of late cannot get over the hump or beat a quality opponent. I don't know if I'd consider SVSU next week a quality opponent either as they have played some BAD out of conference competition (Combined 0-8 opponent record). Wayne is on the road however and it won't be easy but at least Wayne has played some tougher competition

[MDRussell]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

So what's going on with this QB situation? Not sure what direction we're going in there; third game in and we've already had 3 different play-callers under center. And another big glaring problem is the defensive line; they were moved around all day. Ashland ran for 218 yards on Saturday. And while running is supposed to be our strong suit, we garnered only 71 yards on the ground. I'm going to Saginaw this weekend, but I'm not sure what to expect anymore. :disapointed:

[WayneStatesman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

Looks like scenario #2 played out. For whatever reason this team and program as of late cannot get over the hump or beat a quality opponent. I don't know if I'd consider SVSU next week a quality opponent either as they have played some BAD out of conference competition (Combined 0-8 opponent record). Wayne is on the road however and it won't be easy but at least Wayne has played some tougher competition

We basically gotta win 5 out of 8 games to finish above .500 but 2 of those games are against Ferris and Grand Valley on the road so most likely are losses. That means in reality we gotta win 5 outta 6 games. As you pointed out it's no easy game ahead at SVSU and they also have to play MTU in the UP and they traditionally play bad up there. Looks like it'll be touch and go for the rest of the season.

[WayneStatesman]

Re: Ashland Eagles at Wayne State Warriors

So what's going on with this QB situation? Not sure what direction we're going in there; third game in and we've already had 3 different play-callers under center.

Winters is real high on Amrhein so I suspect he'll be the starter for the near future anyway.