Suggestions for beating Fresno

[Vitale]

Throw Bartel in there. He might not be getting the job done in practice, but there are some players who play better in games than in practice. And the fans deserve to know if Bartel is one of those players. Wallis would be an ideal backup player, someone who might not win a game for you, but is smart enough that he won't lose a game for you, either.

Use McMurtray when you have a field goal over 40 (or maybe 35) yards. His accuracu might not be quite as sharp as Stephenson's, but at least he has the leg strength to get the ball there from 45, 50, maybe even 55 if he really hits one good. Let's don't be afraid to use him.

Bench people. Bennett benched Rutledge from the starting lineup and he responded off the bench with his best game of the year. Maybe not starting shook him up. Whatever the reason, he played really well. Rattle some egos by demoting a few folks.

Use more linebacker blitzes. This can be done without ignoring coverage responsibilities. Simply send Jarrian James or some other fast linebacker off the edge, and drop the two small, quickest defensive ends (Melvin Williams and Khalid Beard) into coverage. You don't pick up a lot of quickness, but you have the linemen wondering what direction we're coming from and hopefully scramble the QB a few times. If nothing else, we're sure to induce a few false start penalties on their o-line.

Challenge the offensive linemen. Turn the line of scrimmage into a testosterone-fest. Make the linemen look at every play as a test of wills. We have some young guys on the line, but we also have some experience (Davis, Chandler, Reindl, Harris) and some big bodies. When we're not facing a team with the biggest defensive lines in the world (like every game from here on out), our o-linemen should be gettiung their center of gravity low, getting under guys and just shoving them back off the line. We should be able to tell the defense what play we're going to run and still be able to execute it. It might not be pretty, but getting the offensive line worked into a lather of sweat and machismo is a great way to build a team's confidence.

Spread the ball around more! Even if we stick with Wallis, throw little quick-hitters to more receivers. Defenses know we're running the ball 99% of the time, and then we're throwing to Cardwell or Freeman or maybe Hampton. That's about it. How many balls have been thrown this year to Jay Taylor? Billy Ford? Trey Griffin? Cedric Vinson? Even if they don't catch them, just throwing in their direction will keep teams from holding their defensive meetings at the line of scrimmage.

Play Marcus Walker. Warrie Birdwell's decision to quit the team really hurt, because we're really thin on the interior of the defensive line. And the fact that Lute Croy and Allan Adami play almost every snap makes their performance even more impressive. They've been sensational. But imagine how much better they'd be if we gave them a little rest every now and then. Walker might not yet be ready for the Outland Trophy, but we'll never know what we have until he gets in there. He's taller than the other two, and pretty strong. An extra set of legs always helps, and if something happens to the Croy or Adami, we're in trouble.

[sam]

I'm going to agree with everything we don't know if we have depth if we don't play these kids.