So far with one quarter down, cool new uniforms , but same old playbook. I wish at least they would give 10-15 carries to the other guys to save Jones some wear and tear. If this workload continues, I don't imagine Jones making it to conference play.
UTEP v. NMSU Game Thread
- Thread starter minermx07
- Start date
I don't know. Maybe the special teams assignment tonight was part of his penance? But he probably shouldn't be covering punts from here on out.
I'm also not sure why he was in that last series and definitely not sure why he got that last carry at all. Whatley putting the ball on the ground didn't help.
I'm also not sure why he was in that last series and definitely not sure why he got that last carry at all. Whatley putting the ball on the ground didn't help.
Dam. Is Kugler trying to get Jones hurt cause it sure seemed like it tonight. It looks like Jones is going to be 90 percent of our offense again this year so he had no business being out on special teams. All we need is for a player to be running full speed and lay a blindside block on Jones during a punt and he sustains a serious injury.
The defense played good and aggressive in the first half but they were gassed in the 2nd half. But I think the defense has been improved from last season.
We got a new OC but our offense is still the same and we will go as far as Jones will take us. Nmsu 's DB's were lining up like 5 yards away from our WR's and we should have shredded them passing the ball. Play calling was still a little predictable. But it's barely the first game of the year and I am sure we will implement more and more of our new OC's offense as the season progresses. Well I hope so.
The defense played good and aggressive in the first half but they were gassed in the 2nd half. But I think the defense has been improved from last season.
We got a new OC but our offense is still the same and we will go as far as Jones will take us. Nmsu 's DB's were lining up like 5 yards away from our WR's and we should have shredded them passing the ball. Play calling was still a little predictable. But it's barely the first game of the year and I am sure we will implement more and more of our new OC's offense as the season progresses. Well I hope so.
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I agree. I did not see any difference in our offense from last year.
The only explanation could be that they knew they could beat NMSU with a Vanilla playbook, and that they did not want Texas to see what they are truly capable of? I hope that is more than wishful thinking.
The only explanation could be that they knew they could beat NMSU with a Vanilla playbook, and that they did not want Texas to see what they are truly capable of? I hope that is more than wishful thinking.
I thought the offense looked good especially in the first half. NMSU was stacking the box. They opened up the offense greenlee threw for 145 yds two tds. At halftime we had thrown for 145 yds and rushed for 117, very balanced offense. Aaron jones had 82 yds rushing.
In the second half. Kugler like he does when he plays and inferior opponent wanted to grind it out and run clock. I have no problem with how Kugler used Jones in the second half. Wadley would have gotten alot of carries in the second half, but he was being punished for that fumble.
Does Kugler take his foot off the gas to soon? You can definitely make that argument. Next week we will see how far this team has come along. There is no excuse to not be competitive.
In the second half. Kugler like he does when he plays and inferior opponent wanted to grind it out and run clock. I have no problem with how Kugler used Jones in the second half. Wadley would have gotten alot of carries in the second half, but he was being punished for that fumble.
Does Kugler take his foot off the gas to soon? You can definitely make that argument. Next week we will see how far this team has come along. There is no excuse to not be competitive.
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We had more passing Touchdown's tonight than rushing Touchdowns. UTEP also had an impressive 518 yards of Offense and it was the most points that UTEP has scored in a season opening game against a D1 opponent since 1965, and UTEP did all of this despite spending the entire 4th quarter just running the clock out. I thought the offense, game management, and overall results were just fine tonight.
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I agree we can not afford to run Jones into the ground. They gave him too much of a workload, especially when NMSU was sticking the box and selling out to stop the run. I thought the passing game was good but I wonder if Kugler will ever trust his passing game.
Trust his passing game? Didn't we throw for almost 250 yards? And have 3 tds through the air? I thought outside of the 1st qtr our offense looked a lot better.... Curious how we do against Texas!
I saw differences on our offense last night, as compared to last season. The route running and catching ability of our WR crew has improved immensely. While a small sample size against NMSU is all we have to go by, it appears we finally have an added passing game to the offensive scheme. Greenlee appeared poised and confident while in the pocket, and I think he actually has a fairly decent core of targets in which to throw. I like Freytag, and of course Plinke. As the season progresses, I think they will too, meaning opposing defenses won't be able to key solely on Aaron Jones and the running game.
What I was disappointed in, was how quickly fatigued our defense became early in the second half. Plus, I still saw little to no pass rush, which, as we all know, leaves your DB's vulnerable as the game moves forward. How many sacks did we record last night? I don't recall any. That has to improve, or better QB's we face will torch our secondary. Still, the D stepped up in crunch time and came up with key stops late.
It was a solid outing overall and a good opening game win.
What I was disappointed in, was how quickly fatigued our defense became early in the second half. Plus, I still saw little to no pass rush, which, as we all know, leaves your DB's vulnerable as the game moves forward. How many sacks did we record last night? I don't recall any. That has to improve, or better QB's we face will torch our secondary. Still, the D stepped up in crunch time and came up with key stops late.
It was a solid outing overall and a good opening game win.
I agree. If you listened to Kugler presser on Monday he said he was going to counter their fast tempo by playing ball control. Plinke scored, Reddix scored, Freytag, Jones, and Wadley almost busted for one on 3 and 22! 518 total yards! For Kugler ball, that is unreal. NMSU has a damn good qb though. Good poise, knew when to run or bootleg when pocket collapsed. Gags have two good receivers and they made our db's look like freshman. UT can and will go for the deep ball and will put Miners away quickly if the secondary looks like they did yesterday.
I thought Greenlee was a bit inconsistent. He did have some nice throws. He also had a few that were fairly off target. I can remember at least a couple of them to Kavika (the one where he had to sky to catch it and one on a swing that was set up for big yardage but ended up really behind him). I'm also a little worried about his arm strength. Hopefully first game jitters. Maybe some me not seeing a football game for 8 months and my perception being off.
Last year against NMSU we put up 273 yards passing 3 td's, 271 yards rushing, and 544 total yards of offense. So it is pretty much the same offense as last years, and NMSU's defense will be the worst we face all year. As of now, nothing has really changed and it looks like Jones is still going to get around 30 carries a game. Jones is not built to carry the ball 30 times a game. But it is barely the first game of the year and there is still time to change things up on offense and its still to early to panic. But the offense we saw last night was the exact same offense we have seen the past few years with Kugler.
Greenlee's accuracy is an issue. He won the starting job twice at Fresno only to lose it due to his abysmal completion percentage. He only completed 40% of his passes at Fresno. Hopefully he get more comfortable and improves his completion. Im worried about it yet. All in all good first game especially considering we were breaking in two new coordinators.
Greenlee was throwing directly into a pretty strong wind during the 2nd and 3rd quarter. The flags were pointed directly at him. I definitely feel that had an impact on what you saw.
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Those are 2 completely different games, although you bringing this up actually proves my point. Last year, UTEP got 180 of those passing yards on the final 2 drives of the game when they were forced into throwing it. This year, UTEP barely a threw a pass in the entire 4th quarter, yet still produced the same number of passing yards. Which means that things were done much differently this year, as we threw it much more earlier than last year.
But I do agree that we don't need to be giving Jones 30 carries a game, especially when we are just running the clock out.
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I liked Greenlee's play considering he's working with receivers new to him and they are all working with a system new to them. No matter how hard you try, you can't replicate game speed in practice. He's earned the next start, in my opinion.
Yeah great AJ goes for 249, we all know he is capable of that. Its just we heard so much bout opening up the offense and especially how deep we are at RB, but yet again the offense is overly dependent on Aaron Jones. All of Miner nation is worried bout running him into the ground.
And the sad thing is I'm sure this type of workload will only hurt his draft stock. Scouts are going to say that he has too many miles, especially if he stays all 4 years.
Yes, too any carries for Jones. I'd like to see between 15 and 20. Greenlee looked good I thought. Aggies didn't play badly. They were physical. Both teams looked like d-1 teams. considering it was the first game with new qb and new coordinators, I thought we looked good. when they get to know their systems better, they may be pretty impressive.
Don't think anybody is complaining about the production. The concern, which is absolutely legitimate imo, is overuse...running him into the ground...too much opportunity for injury when it wasn't necessary.
Like someone else mentioned in another thread, I think Kugs and staff kept it vanilla rather than showing UT what we have. There are too many weapons to play the "system" we saw against nmsu.
Truly not sure why Kugs didn't run anybody else though. That one baffles me.
Well, had Wadley not put the ball on the turf, resulting in a NMSU recovery and return for a TD early in the 4th quarter, Aaron Jones' night probably would have been done sooner. Unfortunately, because that turnover/score occurred, the game was actually still in the balance and Kugler's need for Jones to close it out remained.
I understand. Still, yet, there was a lack of balance. We are very one dimensional and while it "ensured" the win to keep AJ running, it didn't do much in terms of building offensive identity, or momentum. We have more than just AJ on that side of the ball. Gotta use em all, imo.
Where is TK Powell? NO carries for Darrin Laufasa, who owns NMSU. Hell how bout more of Kavika at RB or wildcat.
On AJ's last carry he got popped pretty good. All I could think was what the hell is he doing out there....kneel the ball and call it a day....why were they trying to get AJ another TD?!
On AJ's last carry he got popped pretty good. All I could think was what the hell is he doing out there....kneel the ball and call it a day....why were they trying to get AJ another TD?!
Lafussa missed a block on the play wadley fumbled. His man blew up wadley, both wadley and Lafussa were benched after the play.
I thought the same thing as well, I cringed when he got hit and he got hit good. Wasn't it the last play before taking the knee, unbelievable, you'd think we had learned a lesson. <smh>
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