Super disappointing game obviously. We looked out of sync and lethargic.
O line is definitely the biggest culprit in this loss. Barely any push, and pretty pedestrian at doing anything remotely well. They are a massive work in progress. I thought last years o-line was fairly overrated, but boy after this game if we were even half as good as last year's o-line we'd walk away from this one with a comfortable W.
Secondary was a let down, they did not play with any confidence or pressure or swagger. They just kinda let it happen in front of them.
Defense got lucky to be bailed out by their equally bad kicker (sorry Lynch, but barf what a bad day for him) or miscues by their offense that had nothing to do with the defense.
Skylar was disappointing, but I am not that upset with him. He had to scramble too much due to the o-line, and sure, he had some pretty errant down the field throws, but even when he didn't, the WRs didn't help him out much (save Knowles awesome one handed catch). He's never going to be an amazing QB, but he's also not garbage. IMO plenty of other things went wrong besides him that kept us from winning, and in fact, I think his experience definitely saved us in a few instances.
Deuce is going to fun to watch, and despite some pretty bad drops, the WR core is fun too. Moore is a great addition, and I don't care about the Skylar-Moore story, but they clearly work well and he had a good day.
Play calling needed to improve, not counting that two play drive to start the game for the TD, Messingham botched IMO the game plan early and went vertical too much as he tends to do, instead of doing the sweeps, bubble screen, slants, and other "dink and donk" crap that while boring (and after the crap show our o-line proved to be, was the only thing working) at least gets the offense into some sort of rhythm and settles everyone down, especially after such a disjointed offseason.
Finally the penalties, too many unforced ones. I don't think the game was at all poorly officiated, quite the contrary well done, we just simply made too many mistakes, and often on big plays that cost us. The only time we got bailed out was that roughing the passer on like 2nd an 33 or we the hell that was, and that was also a legit penalty. We played rough.
I guess this will be a write off year. The kids wanted to play, but they sure didn't act like it at times. They'll win some games, they'll probably settle at 5-5 or 4-6. At least we weren't as embarrassing as ISU (which truly lolz, but not as lolz if we had won)