1. ODU was prepared, and came in here giving us their best shot, and taking advantage of our weak rush defense. Expect other teams to follow suit after this week.
2. Coaching - pathetic. Made absolutely 0 adjustments to stop those gashing runs. Even after 300 yards on the ground, we still had 2 LB the majority of the time. We went stupid conservative late with the ball as well, giving ODU a chance theys shouldn't have gotten.
3. Fancher - even with several turnovers, he played the best game in a marshall uniform to date. Biggest improvement was his running game. That is an area he can excel. Air game was ok this week. Overall, fancher did a good job overall. If you told me ODU scores 35, I'd imagine we lose that game 9 out of 10 times, but not today. First time i can say that objectively, Fancher played a good, solid game.
4. Defense - we've been super weak against the rush this season all year. ODU exposed that. Still, they came back, even scored a TD and gave us some short fields and got stops when we needed too. We need to play less nickel against teams that are gonna run it down our throats.
5. Crowd was solid, was glad to see that.
6. Overall, ODU was the best team we've played to date. This could gave gotten out of hand and we overcame it with offense this time. Mind you, ODU is not a good defensive team, but we have shown absolutely zero ability to score points in bulk, until today. Even though our defense was exposed, our offense picked it up. This was a good game for us going into NC State. Our offense has some momentum and confidence, they sorely needed. Can't wait to see us in raleigh next week.
Look ahead -
NC State - They are not a Juggernaut or nearly as good as NC State was last time we played. They are probably still the best team we have played since coastal last season. That's not saying much, as none of those teams have a winning record. We have a real shot to beat them IF, our defense makes some adjustments and plays well, and our offense does what it did today, minus the INTs and Lateral fumble. We need a clean game to win.
NC State is solid against the run (28th) and average against the pass (68). Scoring D is 54th. By far the best defense we have faced.
On the flip side, unfortunately, their strength is the running game in the top 50, vs (ODU at over 100, and ripped us today). While their passing game is among the bottom echelon in football.
I'd guess NC State will be favored by 7-9 points.
Can we do it? We'll see.