Friday, September 4, 2009

Indiana 19, Eastern Kentucky 13--Mediocrity All Around

While the festivities taking place at Memorial Stadium were above and beyond anything seen in recent past--thanks to new AD Fred Glass--the play on the field failed to be anything more than below average. Only a small part of the team played well.

The offensive line failed to open running lanes for our already mediocre running backs and were penalized for unnecessary holding and false start penalties that only displayed their inexperience. The running game failed to get going without any reasonable holes to run through, but did find space outside on occasion but the backs were unable to do anything with it. Ben Chapell was touted as the quarterback for the team, and the unequivocal leader of the team. While I certainly can't speak on his leadership ability, it is apparent that he does not have the ability to play quarterback in the Big 10. Open receivers were missed, leading to incompletions and two very bad interceptions.

However, Chapell's lack of quarterbacking ability was masked by the ability of the wide-outs, who were the only positive part of the offense. Doss and Belcher both had above average games, and it seems apparent that they will be the strongest part of the offense throughout the season.

The defense failed to show any signs of dominance over a team in which they should have with relative ease. The run defense was only benefited by the fact that EKU just did not run that much. On the passing front, neither of the most important aspects of coverage--pressure on the QB and secondary coverage--did much of anything. The defensive line failed to put consistent pressure on the EKU QBs. The defensive line was said to be a strength of the team going into the season, but failed to show why. To put it bluntly, our secondary was terrible. The cornerbacks were often a step behind, and the EKU receivers were often thrown to while not having anyone within 10 steps of them.

If this team wants to be competitive in the Big 10 (but I would be content with being competitive with our OOC opponents) then they will need to step up and play better. It is really as simple as that.

But this is a blog dedicating to exposing Bill lynch for a bum and hopefully leading to his firing. The offensive line was not ready for this game...at home, vs Eastern Kentucky. How are they going to be ready for Big 10 opponents? That's for Bill Lynch to figure out, and honestly, I have no faith in the man. The secondary needs a lot of help. You can't teach talent, but you can certainly prepare these players better for a game and work on their defensive awareness.

This team is going to need a lot of work if they do not want to finish at the bottom of the Big 10 again, and it should be obvious that we here at "Fire Bill Lynch" do not think our current coach is the man for the job.