Great game this week and we are seemingly living up to the hype thus far. It's obvious that there is room for improvement though. And before everyone starts frantically banging the downvote button like DJ Byrnes' Jeopardy buzzer when Marion Ohio comes up as a category, I should say right off the bat that nothing is "broken". This isnt #FireFickell 2.0, the sky isn't falling, nothing needs to be "fixed", this is the most excited and confident I've ever been for a season, and I truly feel we could walk into any stadium in the country and with the same gameplan and execution and walk out with a dub. There's no such thing as a perfect team, but it's UFM's job to get as close to it as possible and it is our right as fans to discuss it.
The big one for me is the kicking game. Because our offense has tended to be straight fire as of late, the FG's haven't played as much of a factor at tOSU as they do at a lot of the other big programs. Urban's also got a thing for going for it on 4th down so that plays into it as well. But facts is facts. We're still leaving serious points on the table. A lot of Sweater Vest Mafia will be quick to drop #hottakes about Nugent's freshman year stats, but at 7-5, preseason #24, we weren't getting words like elite, undisputed, and legendary thrown at us. And this team as a whole is elite, but I don't think anyone would describe our kicking game as elite. I love Sean, but he missed some layups last year. I wasn't really sweating it because I figured he'd improve. Him losing the job to a new guy seems pretty telling, but that's for Urban to know, and for me to scour the blogs to find out. It wasn't thrilling to see his replacement come in and brick one from a reasonable distance. Time will tell.
Next one: Cardale's decision making. Cardale is my guy. He's who I want in there. He plays with savant-like reckless abandon dropping 30 yard airballs off his back foot into double coverage that somehow find their way into the receiver's hands. He's got an "it" factor that just wins the game. I do feel however, at some point in time, someone is gonna make us pay for those mistakes. Missing wide open pitch men, chaotic ball delivery, and the aforementioned rainbow tosses will at no doubt come back to bite us. Also, I really want him to be a star in the NFL and this shit will definitely not fly on Sundays.
So my question to you, is how do this team improve?
