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Week 9: Vs. Sam Houston State
Saturday, October 26th
6:00pm
Estes Stadium
TV: ESPN+, Radio: 94.1, 91.3

Sam Houston State this season: 5-3(4-1)
SHSU 31
@
New Mexico 39

SHSU 77
Vs
OK Panhandle St 0

SHSU 23
&
North Dakota 27

SHSU 45
Vs
UIW 6

SHSU 28
@
McNeese 17

SHSU 31
@ (NRG Stadium, Houston, TX)
SFA 20

SHSU 17
Vs
Lamar 20

SHSU 17
Vs
Nicholls 0

Offensive leaders:
Ty Brock: 8TD, 8INT 1107 yds
Donovan Williams: 126 att, 536 yds rushing, 7TD
Nathan Stewart: 38 rec, 641 yds, 6TD

Bipolar with those losses and wins.

Don't know what to expect. Glad we are at home. Might help. Might not.

They appear to have a decent defense and a good enough offense to seperate by a few scores on opponents.

Big test for the bears, but at home for homecoming should fire them up a little more.

i'm nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs

This will probably be the best defense we've faced this year (yes, including WKU and Hawaii). Our D is Jekyll and Hyde, and they have some explosive playmakers.

SHSU - 31
UCA - 17

As much as I hate to say it, this prediction is pretty accurate.

Series since joining SLC is Bears 6 and Kats 7....

Last three are...

2018: 31-34, OT @SHS
2017: 41-30 at Home
2016: 23-59 @SHS

Series Bears avg 28.5 and Kats avg 31.7....the difference is due to the 59 barrage in 2016...

None of that means anything for this season but this has been a close series....although 6 games have been a 10+ margin.....

Guess I would have assistants watch all he game film but the Nicholls game seems most relevant...we each scored about the same on the Colonels but somehow the Kats shut them down....pretty impressive....every possession will be crucial....

What we know about Sammy:

Good defense.
Lackluster offense.
Their backs are against the wall for playoff hopes.

This is coming from their own fans.

If there is ever a game we need everything to click from the opening whistle, this is it.

One thing we definitely need: We need Estes to become a hostile environment. We need it loud. We need to be disruptive. We need fans and students to stay for all four quarters. When it is 3rd and 4th down and SHSU is on offense, we need to be near deafening.

I’ll take the Bears by a field goal 31-28.

If you remember last year with Sammy, we were 3 touchdowns down in the 4th quarter, with the help of Jackie Harvell on defense who made some power plays interception and recovering a fumble we came back, UCa capitalized on those mistakes with a touchdown pass from Breylin. We drove to the 5 yd line, Breylin went out with injury, Kirk came in, Kirk goes out with injury, Luke came in to tie the game, and took us in an overtime! We lost by a field goal. Coming back from a three score deficit in the 4th quarter, I believe UCA got this game! Being reminded of King David, he was not victorious because he fought well, but because he believed well! In spite of the penalties we recieved in the 4th quarter against us, I think it was atleast 3 in which we lost yardage, UCA never stop believing! Go Bears beat Sam Houston!!!! We will win by 3 scores!!!!

I'll say this: Last year's offensive line was actually worse than this years as far as pass blocking goes. Wife and I were watching the game and she said they (the line) was going to get Breylin hurt due to how well SHSU was pass rushing. Sure enough, they got to him one to many times. Granted, the injury was kind of a freak accident, but still.

If #3 is still in the game, I believe we win.

This year, their D is a lot better. We're going to have to be good with the quick slants and check down passes. We have to get Carlos involved more in the run game. The last couple of games he's been really good. His numbers are high, but we're using him more in "pass as run plays" than strict run plays. We need some holes to open up and get those 4, 5, 6 yards at a time plays.

I've been thinking about this a lot: We make great adjustments at halftime. The only team that has dominated us the second half was Nicholls. Everyone else we have handled well.

But the one thing that sticks out about this team over the last 2-3 years is this: Do you know how many crucial third and fourth down stops we have made via a sack? It is a lot. That is what we need this week: Defense to come up big in those critical downs, force the QB to have to check down, and give the pass rush a chance to get to the passer. I think we'll get pressure on this one regularly Saturday night.

Defense is very good
Offense is not as dynamic as the 2017 team
They will play press man coverage and load the box
They will blitz early and often.


Bears will win 27-21

BPSG
___________________-
GO BEARS

Take a look at the Kats in 2019....

@New Mexico, 31-39
Oklahoma Panhandle, 77-0
@North Dakota, 23-27...."good" road loss
Incarnate Word, 45-6...…...terrific win
@McNeese State, 28-17...good defense
SFA, 31-20
Lamar, 17-20, 3OTs.....
@Nicholls State, 17-0.....another terrific win...attendance only 3900

4-1 in SLC and 4-3 in D1

Kats vs Colonels....

Rush 104 v 55
Pass 191 v 216
TO 295 v 271
Sacks 3/19 v 1/1
3rd downs 15% v 25%

Nicholls lost two fumbles and one INT....Kats had none

Kats were 1/3 FGs with a miss at 39 and 47...scored on 10/81 drive (first possession) and a 47yd Pick 6...

Sam sued two QBs....one 6/13/116 passing and the other 5/6/75.....Woody Brandom led receivers with 5/90 and Ife Adeyi had 2/50

Nicholls did little on offense, had three TOs (one for a TD)...longest drive was 71 that ended with a missed FG....only got to Sam territory 3x (once to redzone) ....possessions ended with 7 punts, 2 fumbles, one INT, a missed FG and 2x on downs....pretty humbling for a normally solid offense...

Keys for Bears.....be + on TOs, win special teams, stop big plays and play offense from the very start...

Bears 20-17

Not off to a good start! We need to win this game because Nicholls just lost and UIW close with NW St!

Of course. A nice long sustained drive and turnover...