SJSU game: Some good, some bad

[Pony Up]

Observations from Saturday's game.

POSITIVE:
- John Hampton appears to be on the team after all. What did he have, 3 catches? Not enough, but at least they looked his way.
- Keylon Kincade and Kris Briggs ran really hard, and they kept going hard until the final whistle, even after each guy fumbled. Hats off to them.
- Allan Adami was awesome. Again. Surprise player of the year, by far.
- Ryan Mentzel had some huge bombs. I don't know his average, but they sure looked good.
- Jonas Rutledge looked like Coach Bennett got his attention by starting Rolando Humphrey. Jonas had his best game of the year, on defense and on special teams. If he makes that interception in the last minute of the first half, we're all spending our Sunday recovering from last night's victory celebration. I'm not blaming the loss on Jonas, because he made some great plays. But one more sure would have been nice.
- In the first half, our offensive line blew the San Jose defense off the line. That goofy-looking mascot could have run through those holes.
- Trent Stephenson went 3-for-3 on field goals. When's the last time an SMU kicker did that?
- For all the comments on this board (including by me) about how great Adami and Lute Croy have been this year, it's only fair to point out that the defensive ends looked a whole lot better Saturday. Melvin Williams and Khalid Beard got some real push upfield from the right end spot, and Eric Peterson was in on a lot of plays, if not actually making the tackle. Best game of the year by the defensive ends.

NEGATIVE:
- I'm a huge fan of Tate Wallis, but it's time to make a change. Coach Bennett has talked all year about Tate's mechanics, and if he threw the ball over the top, that last interception-touchdown doesn't get picked off. That's just inexcusable. Bartel is taller and has better mechanics, including a much higher release point.
- Play calling: I support Coach Bennett as much as I support Tate, but some of those calls were questionable. Fourth-and-21, and you go for it with 7 (or so) minutes left? I realize Trent Stephenson doesn't have a super-strong leg (hint: McMurtray does), but if you kick the field goal, you might make it, pulling within 1 point. If you miss, you give them the ball in the same place as you do when Cody Cardwell comes up short on that catch. And you don't burn the timeout, which we could have used later.
- Substitutions: Bartel has a big arm, but throwing a kid in the game for his first college snap when it's third-and-17 with the team needing a miracle is a really tough spot to put him in.
- Brad Keischnick got called for a personal foul when he clobbered a guy after we had a 20-yard run (by Briggs, I think). We still had a first down, but he cost us yards with nothing more than a mental mistake. Coach Bennett ripped him on the sideline, and rightly so.
- Tackling was better, but still not good enough.
- Killer instinct, obviously, wasn't there. It was hard to tell if the Ponies were so excited that they stopped concentrating or if they were unsure how to put their boot across the opponent's throat and end it quickly. Either way, the team still needs to learn how to win.

And they will.

GO MUSTANGS!

[DTown]

GO 'Stangs....kick some BullDog [deleted]!!
-yah that's all

[ProudPonyPa]

It looks to me that putting Bartel in for that one play was a signal to Wallis after throwing that sidearmed interception. I never bought into that "changed his mechanics". As soon as I heard that, I told Donnie and my wife that when Wallis is put into the fire, he will revert back to his old mechanics. He hasn't had enough time to internalize new mechanics. It took him a lifetime of throwing to get where he is at.

I like Tate. Good kid. But the same mistake two weeks in a row. When you are a redshirt freshman, your learning curve has to be obvious from week to week.

[PonyPower]

I hear that Donnie Gilray is coming back after all. Is that true?
Hope so!

[ProudPonyPa]

I actually don't know the status of Donnie coming back. I am keeping in touch with Coach Bennet as far as informing him of Donnie's situation. I do not have "need to know" as far as when he wants to allow Donnie to practice with the team.

Let me tell you, though, that when Donnie throws to fellow players outside of practices, they get excited about the offense.

[Otto]

Good to hear. When he signed, Donnie seemed really excited about SMU, so I hope he still gets a chance to play for the Ponies. His passion for the school is what we need.
Good luck to you and your family.

[HorsePower]

That decision to burn a timeout on fourth down instead of putting 3 points on the board came right out of the Dave Campo book of coaching.

[PerunaPunch]

Again, that's easy to say in retrospect.

At that point in the game, we were too close to punt, but too far to kick a field goal reliably. If we turned the ball over (either with a punt or FG attempt) and SJSU made a single first down, they SHOULD have been able to run the clock out.

Therefore, I think you could make an equally strong case that the end result of missing that 4th down attempt would essentially be the same as attempting the FG or punting. At least Bennett's way, our destiny was in our own hands.

I seriously doubt that anyone, anyone at all, would ever have predicted that SJSU would mismanage the clock so badly that we'd get the ball back with that much time left. IMHO anyway.

And I know there are those of you out there who secretly thought it was pretty cool that we had the balls to go for it on 4 and a bunch!

[PK]

That was one of those plays where if it works you're a hero....if you don't you're a terrible game coach. I like the fact he had enough confidence in the offense to think they had a chance.