UCAFANS.COM | GO UCA BEARS!

Wow.....we escaped. No other way to say it. AP may be better than what we thought, but still.

Observations:

Defense deserves the game ball. They were on the field way too much but still made play after play. Yes, our tackling needs to be better. We hit these guys within a few yards of LOS all day. But, they kept making plays. Only got burned bad twice.

Offense -

Our O-line needs help. They're young, which bodes well. They are not blocking well. They are not getting enough push. Maybe AP's line was good. But this is two weeks in a row that we have not had a running game. Our best plays with our RB's is when we'd to short tosses to them and let them run.

QB/WR's looked off. Breylin looked nervous to start the game. WR's had some drops. Nothing looked in synch. Much better play in the second half. We all know Breylin is good, but our WR's are a super athletic bunch. They're fun to watch. I'm glad they are young, too.

Special Teams - Unfortunate break on the punt return. The fake by AP was executed well, but we should have been watching for it.

Other observation:

Not sure what it was today, but too many times it was like our players did not know what the play was, where to line up, etc. This was both sides of the ball. One drive, back to back plays, we had D-line and LB's holding their hands up wondering what the call was going to be from the sideline.

It just seemed like everything was off.

Also, I'm not impressed with Ken Collums as our OC. Heck, my wife is not impressed, and that says something. Too conservative as a whole, makes weird play calls like the fade route with 1:43 left (when we needed to run the clock). Sure, I know they were not expecting it, but all we needed was one first down there. It was second and 4. Too many run plays being called when the running game is not working. Swing passes, screens, wheel routes, anything other than another run off guard/tackle.

I think back to Campbell's last year when Nathan was OC. We were explosive. Creative. We moved the ball. Sure, we had obvious run situations. But, we're too predictable, and keep trying things that simply do not work with the personnel we have.

Final thoughts: We had better get a lot better quick, or else conference play will be brutal.

Run plays are so slow to develop. You can see the play coming before the ball is snapped. Something has to change there

Offensive calling is horrendous, Oline coach needs to get in the olines ass or they get onto each other’s, idk if they were still on that high from last week or if AP is a very good contender even without their starting qb and cb..happy for the win but man they’ve got to address these things NOW meaning today versus later..

With Conque we had a run play called and if they saw the cb drop back the qb and wrs would audible to a quick screen we don’t see none of that! Doing that will make the defense adjust to coming to the line of scrimmage then we either pick on the dbs or run it...we have nothing to open up the defense and they know what’s coming every time...something has to change cause it only gets tougher from here..

SLC will be brutal even if we do get run game going. I suspect coaches will work on play calling and o-line blocking a lot this week. Maybe we have some tunnel screens on the playboard for Crossley that we have not shown. ...and, of course, get the TE more involved......defense improvement was notable this past week.....

First time being 2-0 since 2010 season. I think all of us would have took 2-0 to start the season out with this schedule. Doesn’t get any easier moving forward. Love the fight that coach brown and company breeds into the team.

Congrats on the win Saturday. Spoke to a few of your fans on Saturday, good group of people so looking forward to the return game next year (if that still happens which I don't see why it wouldn't).

From an Austin Peay perspective, I was pleased with the outcome after losing Jeremiah on the first series and thought Craig did an outstanding job coming off the bench. I thought our defense helped out tremendously also and played good enough to win the game. Obviously I would've loved to have gotten the W but I think we (Govs fans) realized Saturday that we can compete with the good teams like UCA.

Also, if I was a Bears fan, I would've questioned some of the playing calling also and I'd be complaining about the officiating. The fumble on one of our punts, I think in the first quarter, the guy receiving the ball definitely got tripped by one of our players that caused the fumble. At least that's what it looked like from my seat. There was also some other questionable calls that went against UCA that I thought were pretty bad. I know we got a very bad spot that would've kept our second drive going. Kentell ran out of bounds and they placed the ball 3 yards back from where he ran out of bounds. That essentially killed the drive. First two games we've had the officiating has been awful. Long reviews, too many conferences about plays, very questionable calls, just awful.

Have two tough ones on the road the next two weekends @ Mercer and @ ETSU. Will definitely be keeping up with the Bears remainder of this season and wish y'all nothing but the best the rest of the season.

Good luck to you guys as well LetsGoPeay!

Look forward to game on The Stripes next year...……..you will be equally impressed with Southland officials....good luck in the OVC.....might be an opening for APU very near the top....

Josh do you work for UCA Sports Info? I know a lot what you are posting comes from that side or the UCA Football media side.

Nope, just a fan.

Cool, looks like you have been a fan for a good will and probably a charter member to this board.