Different staff, same result. Went away from effective running game - check. Clock management - check. Personal foul at the worst possible time - check. False start at worse possible time check. Letting up with lead check. Crowd taken out of the game early check. Porous pass defense - check. Losing turnover margin in a big way - check. Special teams gaffs - check. Losing to a marginal team who wanted it more - check.
Not that all the above can't change, I'm hoping it will. But I didn't see much new today.
I have a very different opinion. There was a LOT that was different today than from last year. Coaches, schemes and many of the players. Just a couple of things.
On offense, the running game was back in spades for over 300 yards. Didn't see that kind of rushing much of the time last year. The OL actually had some push to it, they didn't look at all like last years keystone cops. There were some big plays which we didn't see much of last year. Overall, racking up just under 600 yards of offense was pretty different IMO.
On defense, the sack game was back big time. We had half as many sacks in the first game as we had all of last year. That seems pretty different to me. The DL was pretty good. Colorado had a few big rushing plays but their rushing offense overall suffered. The attacking mentality shown by the defense was night and day different than Diaco's defense.
I guess if you want to be a pessimist, you can always find something to rationalize your feelings. For me, this first game was a good indication of what's to come in future years. While I wanted to win of course, I'm still very optimistic about what we saw. In fact, I'm actually amazed that a true freshman QB could actually have a first game like that. One can only think that his potential is off the charts - just imagine when he actually is a seasoned veteran and everyone has had a decent time with the playbook.
