Gleaton Grumbles about the Boise State game

If I had a dollar for every yard Tyler Horton ran on a fumble recovery Saturday night, I could go pre-order the newest NBA Live video game. Granted, I wouldn’t have anything to play it on, but then I’d have something to look forward to when I drop all my life savings on an Xbox One. All I have is a 360 right now, so the game would be useless, but hey, I’ve got this flashy new, albeit untested, game.

The game could be ridden with bugs, or it could be the greatest thing since Super Mario Brothers 2 (not likely BAYBEE!) but the point is I have no idea, because I’m still playing on the same system from four years ago.

(If I had a giant neon arrow, it would be pointing to a binder labeled “Troy University Football Offensive Gameplan.”)

Bubble screens! Jet sweeps! Quarterback under pressure? Roll that bad boy out and let him figure it out on his own!

“But Thomas, Kaleb was 20-for-29 with 211 yards—”

Cool but we ran for 124 yards and only put up 20 points. That works against last year’s Idaho or Akron squads, but one of the best teams in the country just steamrolled us. A solid quarterback is great, but when you don’t utilise him correctly, call the right plays, use the right system, it’s pointless. Like NBA Live 19 on an Xbox 360.

I swear, I don’t think Boise’s second safety ever dropped back. For one play, we had two corners on three receivers and they came away with a sack for a loss. On a similar play, Deondre Douglas burned their corner for a touchdown.

Actually, that play is also good for my next piece of evidence, your honor: Boise blitzed a lot. On the last touchdown catch, they put eight guys in the box, rushed five, and by the time Kaleb threw it only two were still being blocked.

I get that the O-Line was tired. Boise is great and completely blasted them for four quarters. But, this means one of two things:

1. The quarterback can’t read the defense yet or
2. The quarterback isn’t allowed to make changes

If the problem is 1, and Coach Brown kept Kaleb in to instill confidence, I can almost get behind it. However, Sawyer looked better from the little time he got (of course it helps when you aren’t sacked 5 times). He should have been the starter in the second half.

Again, hindsight is 20/20. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.

If the problem is 2, that’s just more proof of systemic issues. Like, as in, the scheme is wrong. Not, like Ohi—oh, well, I mean, you get it.

Troy had what, five months to prepare for this defense? With no Kenny Edenfield, I figured this offense would come out of the gate just like it did against North Texas, guns blazing. The gameplan we saw in the second half of last year was back, with more aggressive playcalling and better exploitation of defense’s weaknesses.

Nope. We played it safe, and Boise’s defense got a glorified practice session.

I will say that the hurryupnohuddlegogogo was working pretty well, as it caught them off guard. It’s basically the only reason we scored. They couldn’t adjust packages and swap out players.

Speaking of reading safeties, Brett “Over Them Mountains” Rypien torched us for 305 yards, and 71 percent of his throws were caught. There were two identical plays where both the corner and the safety were well behind the receiver. The first time, Marcus Jones made the tackle at the spot of the catch, but the other time, Blace was well… blazed… for a touchdown.

The point is neither team really guarded against the deep ball, to varying results.

Hey look, it’s time for the “if you take away” game!

• if you take away the two fumble recovery touchdowns, the score is only 42-20.
• if you take away all turnovers the score is 35-13.
• if you take away turnovers and wideout Sean Modster, the score is 21-13. Rypien only throws 21 times for 138 yards.

Yay, we covered! All we had to do was not give the ball away or let Sean Modster catch the ball. We still lost, but it’s so much closer.

I mean, games like this make my grumbling occupation that much easier. I much prefer when we’re winning, so I don’t have to sound (read: read) like I just gobbled down an anchovy-based sushi bowl before sitting through a third-grade recorder recital.

Coach Brown has brought us a bunch of these moments, so I’m happy to have lived through the incredible seasons we’ve just experienced. The problem is that sustaining this success is paramount. Otherwise we get another 2014 Blakeney.

Brown is in his fourth year, almost all of the players are his, and we still have a difficult schedule ahead of us. All our big games are on the road now. As it is, I remember saying things similar to this last year.

“We may be lucky to get to a bowl game.”

We can’t let our week 2 game be a repeat of last year. We hosted an FCS opponent after a letdown against Boise. We didn’t change anything, and 20-7 was somehow embarrassing at halftime.

It’s Labor Day, not Groundhog Day.

So to recap, NBA Live 19, Xbox 360, Uncle Rico, anchovy sushi, Bill Murray.

Tune in next week to hear Thomas say “Man, am I whelmed.”