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2023 Playoffs - 2nd Round: Sac State at South Dakota

All that to say. Fresques needs to give the Taylor’s playbook back. This resembles nothing of that elite Folsom offense. Pretty damn traditional (predictable and at times, over complicated offense)

Andy Thompson’s defense hasn’t been that much better.


Kris Rich O-line has committed SO many false starts penalty this year.


All of these guys were exceptional in their previous role. But this year, taking that step up was obviously too much
 
Even the 5 minute drill is PATHETIC. Lack of urgency. Lack of heart. Accepted defeat before the game was over. Bobby Fresques, you’ve disappointed us all.
 
I know every team is dealing with injuries at this point in the season but I doubt anyone is missing 10 of their top 11 DBs....Not saying it would have changed the outcome but it sure wouldnt have hurt to have a few of them healthy...
 
What was up with some of the substitutions? I didn't get to see the game, but I did see in the box score that Bennett didn't play much, and McGough only had one punt. Did they get hurt? I thought we were done with Camp this year.
 
24-34 Hornet loss. Tough game, Hornets battled but ultimately the Hornets just didn’t execute at the level needed to advance in the postseason. USD is a solid team, but they don’t have any players that jump off the screen at you and I felt this game was for the taking if the Hornets hung in there. The Coyotes did what they needed to do and ground out a win.

On defense, I believe the Hornets did enough to put this team in a position to win. The Hornet front handled USD’s physicality fairly well and while I didn’t expect the Hornets to shut down USD’s ground and pound offense, the defense hung in there. The Hornets forced a fumble that was cashed in for points that negated one of the Hornet turnovers, forced a couple of field goals when USD was in scoring position, and forced 4 punts. The Hornets did have a blown coverage for a touchdown and gave up some chunk yardage plays, but USD could have ran away with this game and the Hornet defense didn’t let that happen.

The otherside of the ball was a mess. Coach Fresques’ play calling was questionable at times and it didn’t seem like the play calls allowed the offense to get in a rhythm. Fulcher (14 car, 63 yds, 2 TD, 2 rec, 15 yds) was a total beast today. Kaiden Bennett (3/7 34 yds, 1 INT) left the game early with a shoulder injury but Carson Camp (14/23, 168 yds, 1 TD) came in and provided a spark. The most disappointing aspect of this game (beside play calling) was the performance by the receivers. Marshel Martin (3 car 41 yds, 2 rec, 6 yds) finished his disappointing season with a disappointing performance. An early drop on a tough play on the opening drive resulted in a punt but he had a crucial drop late in the game with the Hornets driving down 2 possessions. Carlos Hill (3 rec, 39 yds) dropped/tipped a ball early in the game that gifted USD with excellent field position that they cashed in for a touchdown. Offensive line could have been better, but they functioned well enough to allow the Hornet offense to move the ball. The execution just wasn’t there in this game on this side of the ball.

Special teams were fine. A couple of bad returns put the Hornets in bad field position but Elijah Tau-Tolliver had a nice kick off return on a fake reverse that set up the Hornets with good field position. Zach Schreiner (1/1 FG, 3/3 PAT) made a late field goal to keep the Hornets within 2 possessions.

Here are my takeaways from the game:

  • Coach Fresques needs to do away with all the cutesy play calls (reverse passes, end arounds). They rarely work and fool no one. There were also too many slow developing run plays that the Hornet offensive line just couldn’t get set up on against such a strong defensive front. Freques should know better by now. Every time it seemed like this offense was getting in a rhythm, Freques went away from what was working. This team was moving the ball just fine with the base plays, no need to get cute.
  • KB looked ready to ball. He was throwing darts prior to his injury, it’s a shame he had to leave the game.
  • Camp was impressive with both his arm and legs. He needed to connect on that pass to Grover late in the game as that would have cut it to one possession. Camp did take some bad sacks and needed to throw the ball away on a couple of busted plays.
  • Hornet receivers were the biggest disappointment of the game. There were plays there for the making and this group didn’t make them. In addition to Marshel’s drops, he got blown up on that KB run play that resulted in the fumble and scoop and score. That scoop and score was essentially the ball game and it wouldn’t have happened if Marshel wouldn’t have gotten punked on that play.
  • An exception to the above is Anderson Grover (3 rec, 79 yds). He had a hell of a postseason...if only he could have made that tough catch on that ball late in the game...
  • Fulch was a total beast out there today. That juke he made in the readzone that broke some ankles was something else. Fresques should have played the hot hand and gotten him more touches.
  • Offensive line was meh. Good on some plays, terrible on others. A handful of procedure penalties that put the offense behind the sticks.
  • Defense played well up front. Aside from a couple of chunk yardage plays, I thought they played the run well and kept things mostly contained. Hard to expect more from them than what we saw today.
  • Secondary has had issues with blown coverage all season so it was no surprise to see it happen with the 2nd/3rd string. The coaches need to get that rectified this offseason.

I know we were all hoping for a win today but a 8-5 season with a road playoff win is a great season. This program was written off by the pundits (and doomers on this board) when Taylor bailed so the fact that this program made the postseason and was one of the last 16 teams standing for the 4th straight season shows that this program is here to stay. There are some things to work on and positions to fill following graduation (and the portal) but this program has a strong foundation that should allow them to be successful into the foreseeable future.

Stingers Up!
 
It’s frustrating to lose but I do feel excited that we’ve been in the playoffs again. We’ve gone decades without playoffs. I was on that 1988 team that went to the semi-finals against NDSU. I’ll be happy if we can continue to produce a playoff caliber team each year. Of course I want us to win the national championship but I also want to acknowledge that Hornet football has been more exciting than ever the past few years. Stingers up!
 
Good write up SD. Yeah, I’ve been impressed with Grover, wish he would have made that catch. I think he would make a good tight end to replace to replace Martin, he’s got that good size.

I really didn’t expect us to win with all the backfield players we were missing, that’s pretty hard to overcome.
 
Very fair assessment SD...I appreciate the time you spend working on this site. As others have mentioned, it's extremely unlikely that were going to beat a team of that caliber with a backup quarterback who hasn't played all year and a secondary that has been absolutely decimated. As far as the idiot that thinks he needs to constantly berate Bobby and blame him for any lack of success of the offense, his play calling would have been much better if we wouldn't have turned the ball over and dropped multiple catchable balls.
Even though it was frustrating to watch at times it was a valiant effort topping off an 8 win season and I'm looking forward to next season.
 
Thanks for the kind words OSH.


I created a new thread for the offseason/ program future discussions here.


Highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qi_g0oeLX8
 
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