My comments on the Football game on Saturday

[JasonB]

I attended my second game of the year on Saturday (the first was against NC State), driving up from Austin to catch the Mustangs. Here are my thoughts:

- Half the reason I went was to see if SD is the real deal. Holy cow. SMU has itself a hell of a football player. He is small, but really has a push. He hits the hole incredibly fast. The offensive line now can create an opening and hold it for a lot less time, and that in itself helps. He is incredibly fast. No, the right word is quick. Freeman may be fast, but he doesnt turn the corner on a reverse with speed. SD gets his speed going from the start! I was very, very impressed. The best thing is that even on runs that look like they will only gain a yard or two, he hits the hole so hard and has so much momentum that he NEVER loses yards and every time you think he will only get two yards, he somehow gets 4 or 5. The revalation of the season is that in addition to a lot of decent players, SMU has two great players to help them to the next level - Jonas and SD.

- Page is limited at QB. He can roll out and hit guys in the flat, but he cant put a good touch on the ball and hit someone deep in a zone. I haven't seen him be able to "drop a ball in" between a couple of defenders yet. However, what he does give us is mobility. There were several times he ducked under defenders, where I think Luker would have been sacked.

- 2nd dumbest thing about the game: That said about page, he got the bonehead award in the second quarter. He rolled out right, and instead of just throwing the ball out of bounce to set up a 25 yard field goal, he tries to make something happen, takes a twenty yard loss, and ends up forcing us into a 43 yarder, which thank goodness, we made.

- oh, before I forget, great job by the defense! Lee made several mistakes on the opening two drives, but played very well for the rest of the game! The coverage in the secondary was outstanding. Mays made one great play, and besides that we shut their offense down the rest of the game. Remember, their second td was all about that fake punt....

- Dumbest thing in about the game yesterday: not running the ball at the start of the game. We should have been up 21-14 at halftime, but decided to pass the ball. way too much. FYI, I was the guy in section 207 yelling to run the damn ball. Sorry if I was too loud or too into it. But SD makes something happen every single time he touches the ball. Several times I turned to the people around me and said, "Please, for the love of God, can we just run the ball every single play". All I wanted was for them to give it a try, because I just didnt think UTEP would stop us on the ground. Each of our initial drives was stopped by an incompletion or bad play in the passing game. Sure enough, the first TD in the second half was SD running the ball 9 straight times and bullying his way into the endzone. When you have something going for ya, make the other team stop it!!!! That was the major complaint I had with the coaching.

- Also, FYI, the holding call on SD's TD screen pass (great effort) in the first Quarter was BS. OUr guy tripped over their guy and they called us for holding. The refs made some awful calls against us (9 in the first half), but we pulled through it and won anyway!

Way to go mustangs!!!!!

[PerunaPunch]

Actually, the dumbest thing in the game were the four (sometimes growing to a group of 6) bimbos who sat in front of me (Sec 106, row 22) and had a social hour for the entire game. Not once, literally not once, did any of them actually turn around and look at the game.

Also, Mays' great play was a pushoff that simply wasn't called. Bad officiating in several cases this week.

But hey, who can compain? Great effort by all. You know what's even better than winning?

DOMINATING!!