Much easier to see the field from this tape.
1. Barrett missed at least 3 streaking open WRs in the first half. Each time, he elected to throw the shorter route on the same side of the field. His awareness for anticipating WRs breaking open was pretty poor.
2. Dobbins is special. Duh.
3. Bowen struggled early and mightily before settling in. RG spot still concerns me. I know it takes time for a line to gel, but it seems the RG battle was the result of a lack of exceptional play from any of the contenders.
4. When the DBs actually looked back for the ball, they were solid. This whole "playing the hands" nonsense has been my biggest and only gripe about Coombs' coaching. Watching Bama made this even more frustrating as their DBs basically stare down the QB and they made many plays as a result.
5. The DL seems legitimately 12-deep. Cornell was making plays out there and he's been an after-thought in the rotation.
6. Worley is going to be a solid MLB for us and will lead the team in tackles. Had a great 4th down stop straight up the gut.
7. The WRs were getting more separation than Herbstreit was giving them credit for. Barrett doesn't throw the ball until he sees the WR is open, which is often too late.
8. The halftime adjustments were great, but waiting until halftime to adjust will be too long of a wait against elite teams.
9. Cobbs was the only Indiana offensive player that impressed me. We will see him on Sundays. The QB made a ton of awful throws and somehow only got picked twice. There's a reason he had 17 INTs last season. He's a streaky QB that wants to get rid of the ball no matter what.
10. LOVE Arnette's style of play. I always welcome the nasty confident type who will let you hear it when he got you. Brings confidence and energy to everyone around them. And the crowd will feed off of it. We all know our crowd can use all the energy it can get.
11. Parris Campbell... SMH. I have a feeling he'll be up and down all season. Long/intermediate ball = down. Short ball = up.
Overall Thoughts: not worried about the defense, they'll be good with potential to be great pending DB play. Barrett's continued bad habits from the last two seasons have me concerned about the offense against elite teams. I think the OL will continue to get better and will be better than last year, same with the WRs. There's only so much coaching you can do around Barrett's tendencies, though. Some fans will continue to point to the stat sheet and pretend there aren't major issues there. And this is coming from the guy who picked Barrett to win the Heisman. He will take us far and he will make us proud, but he will be our downfall if he doesn't change his ways. And no, I'm not convinced Haskins or anyone else is a better option at this point. I'm just stating what I see.
