Samurai Snippets, Week 3: Lousiana-Monroe

The Good

Michael Campanaro Status: Still A Good Football Player. 16 catches, 177 yards. Not only that, he nearly had the game tying 2-point conversion. I'm sure Camp will be beating himself up for missing the tying catch, but he was an absolute hoss, and without him it wouldn't have even been close. I seriously think Camp is an elite receiver, and oh Lordy, if Chris Givens hadn't left to make his money, teams would have nightmares about our receiving corps. Alas.

Defense Buckled Down. Again, they gave up a lot of yardage, and at times it seemed like ULM was able to march down the field at will, but yet there were a number of key defensive stops that left us in the game until the very end.

Offense Good Under Pressure. At the end of both halves, the offense was able to make moves and put points on the board. The thing that I'm unsure of is whether it was good offense, more conservative defense by the opponents, or perhaps both. I'm more inclined to believe it's a mixture, which says to me that if I had my druthers we would run a little bit more of a fast-paced offense.

The Bad

Gifting ULM Opportunities. There was a penalty on a punt and a muffed punt recovered by ULM that directly led to 14 points for the Warhawks. Louisiana-Monroe is a good offensive football team, and giving them more opportunities to score is obviously asking for trouble.

15 Yards Rushing. 15 YARDS RUSHING. SERIOUSLY. I AM ONLY WRITING THIS IN CAPS BECAUSE I CANNOT FATHOM IT. HOW?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Tanner Panicked. I'm putting this in there because yes, Tanner Price had some brutal series in this game. I will say that unlike some people in the stadium who were near me, I think Tanner is taking too much of the blame for himself. He got frazzled because of shoddy protection, and was also hurt by some brutal drops by his receivers. Bottom line is there's plenty of blame to go around, and putting it all on any one player is garbage.

Defense Couldn't Get Off The Field. As good as the defense was at times, they were also infuriating at other times. ULM converted 15-28 on third downs, which is not good. The D also whiffed on some potential major plays, including several sacks, and more than one run that should have been stopped in the backfield but ended in a huge gain because guys utterly whiffed on tackles.

The Funny

ULM's kicker doinked a field goal off the upright. That is always good for a laugh. Always.

The Bottom Line

I don't think there's any bowl in the cards for us this year. Absolutely brutal game. That said, for those people who are looking for literally any bright sides, ULM is not a BAD team per se, we almost came back in the end, and hey, maybe this will be the opposite of last season. Maybe we'll be terrible to start the year and end on a huge winning streak! That's always possible! Oh, and there weren't that many option looks. Hooray.

On to the next one. Go Deacs.