My thoughts:
I think the main objective (aside from don't lose), was to make sure we didn't get hurt, and to just focus on seeing knowledge of the system, and just performing well.
Overall, it looks like everyone stayed healthy. Cooper turned out to be okay, which is a big relief.
Milton is going to really kick himself when he watches the film. He definitely had some wide open receivers he just flat out missed. I do think that he has the mobility that we need. He isn't Lamar Jackson, but he was able to see the holes and get some yards when needed. I felt like he was too apt to run though.
Milton is going to have a tough time against SEC defenses though if he doesn't improve his accuracy down the field. However, was glad he didn't throw any INTs. The fumble sucked.
Receivers didn't help either. Plenty of dropped passes, some of which would have been big. Wasn't impressed with them overall. Tillman's 4th quarter TD was awesome though.
Offensive line, the thing I'm most impressed with, is I don't remember any false start penalties. In a offense that goes that quickly, I would expect to see more dysfunction with timing, and see false starts. They did have some holding penalties, but I was impressed with the overall discipline that I saw from them.
Defensively, I think they didn't try to be super aggressive. The defensive line was very disruptive, and you could tell that BGs gameplan was to get the ball out quick to try to neutralize the DL. They did great at stopping the run. It was a good game plan to try to make the QB (who only threw one TD last year) beat them. And they definitely gave up some plays, but overall, I thought the job they did containing the run was excellent.
We are going to struggle with depth. But these guys did great at staying in it and after it, even though BG definitely had the ball for a long time offensively. They didn't seem to wear down.
Btw, I thought it was really telling.....once we sat down Small and Evans, we played...Marcus Pierce at RB? Where is Whitehead and Beckwith? I have a hard time believing Beckwith doesn't have a place in this offense.
There's gonna be a lot to improve upon, for sure. And we're going to have to do it quickly if we want to beat Pittsburgh. That's going to be a big challenge. Thankfully, playing on Thursday gives us a couple of extra days to look at the film and clean things up.
But, I'm not disappointed. Would have loved to see an absolute blowout, but honestly glad to see most everyone healthy, and to just see a win. Huge blowouts overinflate our confidence and aren't a great indicator of where we are as a team. I think we saw tonight some of our weakness, and some of our potential, for sure. I just hope that we can continue to fine tune and get clicking even better.
