(Written by kencraw)

Well, I managed to find some sucka with an open WiFi access point up here in vacation land to work from. So it looks like I’m still in business. For those who were concerned, the vacation was explicitely planned around home games… but I was sabotoged by a location without explicit internet access and by it just happening to be the lone week that the game was caried on a TV network no one caries. The vacation organizer has been duly notified of these conditions for future trips.

Jason did a great live-blog of the game and even managed to play through what is usually a game ending injury of a kid peeing on the couch. Well done!

I’ll give a more detailed review of the game on Tuesday night after I’ve had a chance to review the TV footage. I’ll post my podcast then as well. But here are my thoughts based on the radio broadcast:

First of all, it’s clear that the defense didn’t come ready to play. They’re going to have to step it up a notch if they’re going to be competitive. On the other hand, when push came to shove, in the 2nd half, the defense stiffened… until the game was in the bag and they blew the lead on a couple of ridiculous long pass plays. They say that the only thing the prevent defense prevents is winning but I think in this case it would be safer to say tha the prevent prevents you from giving up 14 points in 53 seconds.

This is clearly a defensive unit that needs motivation to play well. They’re going to need to find a way to find that motivation irrelevant of their opponent or they’re going to get beat by someone like Arizona when we least expect it. On the upside, they look like they have the potential to keep just about any team in check and shut down the weaker teams when they put their mind to it.

As for the offense, I’m not as disappointed as I think some are. Tedford seems to have called another VERY conservative game as he is known to do when he’s got the superior team. While this too has the potential to burn us, I’m not going to question Tedford’s overall style as a coach. He’s got a very good thing going and part of that is beating the opposition in the safest way possible. If that’s called conservative, so be it.

Honestly, I called for a 38-13 game and minus the defensive breakdown in desperation times I got it right. Yeah the ordering of the scoring was a little different than I predicted but in general I think the game played out similarly to my expectations. The only thing that concerns me is the lack of consistency of the defense.

Bob Gregory… the film office would like to see you.