The journey to Texas has 11 pre-scheduled stops with only one break between now & late November. There will be twists, turns & trouble along the route but through it all the Herd will progress. Following each game that progress will be analyzed. As great as the destination is, enjoy the weekly pit stops along the way!
This week the journey kept us awake well into the night as we witnessed the full force of the Human Rhino! Getting rolling with anything other than Hunter Luepke would be a miscarriage of fandom. That man wanted to beat the Cats by himself! The only time he's put together a higher total yardage game was in last Winter's semi-final against JMU but this time he one-upped himself with a third score. Beyond the numbers, he made guys from a major conference look silly, which was not expected if I'm being honest! It was another prime time performance that could get him well inside the top 100 players selected come April!
Tamerik Williams & Kobe Johnson also had highlight runs but the rest of the offense proved to be lacking. Cam Miller was an efficient 10/12 passing but for a meager 124 yards and just one score, to the Rhino. It showed that in a tight contest against an equal opponent they may be too one-dimensional to recover. Granted, there are very few equals on the 1AA level but it could be a recipe that Montana & South Dakota State have already begun preparing to exploit should they meet in the second season.
It was also telling that in the fourth quarter, from just beyond the 20 yard line, Entz didn't even bother to let a field goal attempt happen. At that point they were still ahead four and the defense had been good so it was reasonable to trust them to hold the lead. But the run play by Cole Payton was clearly a questionable decision and proved to be the difference in the game.
Just to go down the rabbit-hole a bit further, perhaps AZ would have gone for two to take the lead back, rendering it moot. That play succeeding is no given though, considering how well the Code had been operating. It means that effectively the team doesn't have a kicker right now and that should also be concerning.
As far as the big picture goes, nothing has changed this morning. The team will still be #1. All the goals are still very much attainable. The game just revealed that the coaches have more things to work on than were evident during the throttlings of the first two weeks.
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