Mercer

[mudrat43]

31-21 WOF, I'll take it, could have been more. Seemed a little disconnected at times during the game (maybe just me), like the flow was a bit off somehow. Got to get the collective minds right for the always dangerous Furples next week..........go Terriers!

[youngterrier]

Credit to Mercer, they stopped our option better than any FCS team thus far this season. With that said, Zo still got his yards (and earned every single one of them).

Officiating in this game was terrible, and some times we benefited from it and sometimes they did (RJ's catch on third and 12 for instance, came off of us clearly holding, while earlier on that drive we got a phantom ineligble player down field). With that said, I think Mercer benefited from the officiating more than we did (they called kick catch interference, for instance, and there was nothing there)

Our stats are probably going to take a hit, but overall I'm not displeased because Mercer is a solid team. We passed the ball efficiently (the difference between offense this year and in years past). Defense played solid.

Nice win, gotta beat Furman.

[lawdog]

I was not able to see or attend, but it sounds like not a very pretty affair where we showed guts when it counted.

[boulder3m]

That was probably the most uninspired game I have seen at Gibbs. After the great atmosphere last week I guess it was to be expected. There was a lot of good defense played, but the whole game was disjointed. That may be because the zebras decided to take it over. LOTS of 15 yard penalties on both teams. There were some phantom calls and some total misses-the kick catch was big. Both teams got two 15 yard penalties against their defense on a drive. It just seemed very screwy. It was a trap game for us and we survived. Next week is big if we can win and set up the week after. As for the coaching, I still am frustrated in some aspects. Goodson is NOT fast and NOT quick, yet we put him in positions he must be one or both to be effective. Mercer watched last week's film and really didn't pay any attention to Goodson on the outside. We used that effectively twice to throw back across to Gouger. Goodson has a very good to great arm. We need to use it more to open up the defenses against us. Loved the halfback pass. Truthfully, our O line seemed tired or lazy on the critical third and fourth downs. Mercer may well have caused that. Once again, by the end of the game our inside runs were gashing them.
The Mercer possession after we scored giving us the 31-14 lead with 6:39 to play was pathetic. We let them score using the whole field in about :26. Our PREVENT defense prevented us from playing defense. I can't understand why we can't run some stunts and get more pressure on the QB. He was very vulnerable and easy to rattle, yet we ran FEW if ANY blitz schemes. For some reason our coaches seemed content to let their QB play pitch and catch-especially with the tall receiver against our smaller DB's. That just looked very weak.
Oh, well. A W is a W!

[youngterrier]

My opinion on Goodson is that he's a good QB and easily much faster than Butler...

The problem is that, because of that, he's more inclined to run it than pitch it so he's slower on his read on the perimeter. So Butler would either pitch it really early or eat it, whereas there's indeciveness on Goodson's part.

With that said, we really have to give credit where it's due...Mercer just played a good defensive game against us (worth noting they played Citadel's offense pretty well too).

Again, I have to reiterate that we shouldn't be chicken little when it comes to our offense, because it's easily the best it's been since 2011. We're almost assured to score 20 points a game or more (knock on wood), to the tune of 7 of 8 games this year. That's already more than last year, the most since 2012 (a playoff team), but we're on pace to be more on par with 2011.

Perhaps "scoring 20 points" isn't a sufficient indicator, but again, look at how we don't turn the ball over (usually), we're doing much better than in prior years.

Goodson is doing just fine, as is the team offensively. We played so-so today, but we had a solid win against a solid team (they will probably go 6-5 or so, which in the Socon isn't terrible this year). Defense played about what I expected, and I wasn't really concerned for this one, though given how we blew it last week I was a little more concerned than normal.

[woffordgrad94]

Forget the analysis and statistics and all that jazz, the scoreboard is all that matters in the end and we won a game we absolutely had to have. Great come back after the heartbreak of last week. On to Furman...

[Terrier NH Dude]

From GoUpstate:

http://www.goupstate.com/sports/2016102 ... er?start=2

http://www.goupstate.com/sports/2016102 ... h-big-play


KEY punt block by Howerton...game changer! ZERO turnovers.


Beat Furples!

[Ruckus]

What 94 said, +1.

I could argue against most of these points: BG has a decent arm but not great, is not faster or quicker than Butler and reads/runs the option slowly. The OL got beat most of the day and the D did in fact stunt once or twice on the Mercer scoring drive.
Mercer did what I have been expecting most teams to do against us: stack the box and dare us to throw it.
This was a trap game and we survived due to a great defensive effort and special teams play (Howerton and Marvin).

[19TERRIER19]

Actually...Goodson's arm is extremely good. He has a very "Live" arm. His issue is not arm strength at all....its been not being able to get the throws "down", leaving them high. That throw he made to RJ on the sideline was a frozen rope and on the button......ON THE RUN.......Aaron Rodgers made that same throw last night against my Falcons.......a laser.

[19TERRIER19]

And in regards to Butler....before he went down he was executing the Triple Option as well as we have seen around here in some time. He was playing at a high level. The irony is, all that griping over the years of playing multiple QB's....you can actually see some of the quandary having all 3 of these guys has been. They are all very good QB's adding in Evan......and by playing all 3...we were not left to struggle through the season with some 3rd string forgotten man.....It really has played out well for us in retrospect...

[Ruckus]

That was a great pass (BGood and Rodgers), but he also threw 2 others that were wounded ducks. If he hits Gouger in the seam with any zip at all, he scores easily.
But compared to Mercer's QB (Russ) who has a cannon, his arm is average. Just my opinion.

[walliver]

The offense looked very plain vanilla with a few trick plays thrown in for good measure. Goodson is a fine runner and decent passer, but doesn't seem to have the "feel" for the option.

I have always felt that running the option is like playing a musical instrument. To some it comes naturally, others have to work hard and it still takes effort. That being said, the offense still put up 24 against a team that lost to the Citadel by only 1 point.

Hopefully, Wade Lang can come up with a few wrinkles in the offense that play to Brandon's strengths for the next two games.

[19TERRIER19]

The kid from Tennessee Tech had the livest arm we have seen this year IMO.....That kid had a bazooka.

[youngterrier]

I'm of the unpopular opinion that Ben Widmyer was our best QB in the past 15 years or so because he had the most efficient arm and consistent running ability (fight me).

With Goodson or Butler it's all relative. We never get the guy who has an absolute laser, and I agree had the throw been more accurate/on the run to Gouger it would have been 6. We haven't thrown (or at least completed) that many bombs down field this year, am I the only one who hasn't noticed?

As for the question of Goodson and Butler, it's half dozen one way, 6 another. They're about the same, and we'll be in good shape next year with both under center. I agree that Butler reads the option better and so he was more decisive, but I also think people saying Goodson is slow on the run is just, well, wrong. I think Mercer in general did well slowing down our option (until we wore them down) and that + Goodson not being as great on the reads on the perimeter is what slowed us. If anything, the perimeter is where teams are going to start keying on us, trying to force a turnover because it's clearly the weakest part of Goodson's game (and the Citadel showed that).

Goodson has improved steadily with passing the ball, and so long as he's doesn't take to many risks throwing the ball (he's better than Jacks in that regard), he'll be in good shape.

[youngterrier]

I think if anything 2012 and this year proves that we can be a winning team so long as our QB doesn't make mistakes. We don't need flashy, we just need steady as she goes. Our offense is probably the most boring its been in years but we've held onto the ball, not turned it over, and average about 30 points a game. And that, overall, is why I'm not as hard on Goodson or our offense this season as other people are. This season, regardless of how our record ends up, is a case study to how turnovers influence the efficiency of an offense (and thus our ability to win).

You get that with Goodson...unfortunately when we had Evan Jacks at QB we had flashy but not consistent. (who knows though, maybe EJ would have surprised us this year)