re: Game one thoughts

Biggest takeaways

-Knight knocked off the cobwebs and now has some more confidence. Work out some things on offense next week before Auburn.

-Think we found some backs in Ford and Williams.

- D. Ratley had 0 receptions. Glad we get Speedy Noil back next week. Should be a boost on both offense and the kick return game.

- Kicker got me nervous.

My takeaway from yesterday is the SEC as a whole sans Bama is down this year meaning we can make some noise with a good not great team.

Every game but one feels winnable. We will see what Ole Miss looks like and if that makes it two soon enough.

The run defense looked pretty good, and we still were able to apply great pressure to the QB. I know there's been turnover in their OL since last year, but this was a team that I believe only surrendered 14 sacks in 2015. UCLA came in wanting to establish the run behind two RBs with a career 6.0 ypc average. They were held to 4.4 ypc. Feeling pretty good about the LB play, which, as everyone knows, was the biggest question on D.

DBs had some blown coverages, but also had some nice passes defensed to go along with 3 picks. Outside OM and Bama, no other QB we face will be anywhere near Rosen's quality.

I think we have two effective backs in Ford and Trayveon.

Was impressed with how the OL held up despite so many new faces, and especially despite losing the only experienced veteran (Gennessy) for nearly the entire 2nd half. Very positive early returns on Turner's return.

End of half clock management... is still a problem. Just one of Sumlin's weaknesses.

Mazzone called a good game, with good run/pass balance, for the most part. 4th quarter plays, when we needed to run the clock, were concerning. Still a marked improvement over Spavital.

My prediction of 10-3 looks safer today than it did before yesterday.

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Was coming to post something similar. Outside of Bama & maybe OM every game is realistically winnable.

We're at 1, throw in the 3 more ooc, usce, msu, and we're at 6 minimum. Going 3-2 vs aub, ark, ut, lsu, om would seem almost disappointing at this point even though I predicted only 8 wins. Things sure change fast.

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My feeling was that with the talent assembled, and even though I had seen much more worrisome things out of Sumlin the past two seasons than positives, this was his year to shine. Some people pointed at the schedule as a reason that shouldn't be the expectation, but I didn't care, and now I really don't care.

We didn't look incompetent yesterday. We didn't come out flat. We came out sharp and with an edge. Which Sumlin had paid lip service to in the past, and I had heard allusions to him addressing, but it's actually happened. Yes we made mistakes. Yes we let them back in it. Yes we dropped some passes and the QB not stepping up in the pocket is a crazy concern and I can already tell TK8 is going to make my blood boil at some point, but we ran the ball with different types of backs(Trayveon is bad arse), we passed down field(our receivers are going to have to bail out Trevor and I can't wait to get Speedy back for jump balls because we are going to need it), we spread it around, and we were the better team. We were simply better. The defense is one of the best that will be in College Station for a very long time, and they have the potential to play a LOT better. Which is a positive.

I have gotten flak, especially on TexAgs, for insinuating that the past couple seasons that some of our wins happened as the lesser team. The Arkansas games especially. I don't think that was the case yesterday. This game we were the better team. UCLA took advantage of lapses, and you can't take away anything from that because that's what gamers do and Rosen balled out in the 4th, but you can say moving forward, I'm much happier moving forward than I was after the Arkansas wins each of the last two seasons. And I think for good reason. We have the ability to really shut down opposing offenses and build comfortable and sustainable leads. We have to establish the run early and keep the defense honest. Trevor Knight is going to be frustrating, and his interceptions and missed throws might lead to us losing a game we shouldn't, but his mobile threat in the redzone is something we absolutely HAVE to keep. We have been so abysmal in the red zone the past couple seasons, and Trevor Knight gives us a threat and an ability to score that in the aggregate, we are absolutely going to need. The defense just needs to be sharper, and even then they were great. Playmakers everywhere.

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Punting game ain't quite as good with perineal heirs man candidate kaserbeam, but it wasn't bad at all.

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I was wondering if anyone would mention Tripucka. I think he was every bit as good as Kaser. One game and all but...

He averaged 47 yards per punt and dropped a couple of dimes inside the 10. Good hang time too and while he netted out to 42, it could have been better if Harvey hadn't missed a tackle.

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we were the better team. We were simply better.

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Great post, but this was my most positive takeaway overall, as well. I wanted the win to show we were better than advertised, and to pull the "upset" (even though Vegas favored us, it's still an unranked team vs. a top-20 opponent).

But even though we let them back in it, it felt that ucla was constantly on the verge of hoping the game wouldn't get out of hand. THEY were the ones having to come up with clutch drives/plays....just to stay alive. I'll take that performance any day.

We had more positives than negatives or else we wouldn't have come out with the win at the end. Just made one more play than them in OT.

I think the OL will improve as the season goes on as the youth there gets more experienced. I hope Gennessey is okay for Auburn. Having him in there might have helped us out some in the 4th when the offense stalled.

Knight. Man, he needs to step up in the pocket more and just get rid of it rather than bailing out when the DEs get up field. It can result in him trying to do too much and making questionable throws. I'd rather him just throw it out of bounds more than try to make a highlight throw while sprinting to the sideline away from the DE.

We have a pretty good punter, but our kicker still makes me nervous.

Hola stranger