Swamped!

Is this the "Boston Crab" or the "Sharp Shooter"?

The preceding headline not only describes the Wednesday night beating that the Broncos delivered on ESPN, but also the reason that I did not post on the game yesterday...just swamped.

Kellen Moore is mortal...he threw an ugly pick on the opening series midway through what looked to be a long scoring drive. Whether Kellen misread the play or his receiver was in the wrong place...it was ugly. In typical fashion, however, Kellen was unfazed on the next drive and led the Broncos on a 80+ yard scoring march. Truthfully, Kellen didn't really make another error in the game finishing 20 of 28 for 325 yards and 2 TDs. If you want a tiny bit of perspective on the freshman signal caller, consider this: through 4 games last season, 5th year senior Taylor Tharp (who had a very solid year) had 5 TDs and 4 INTs and had completed 63% of his passes for 958 yards. The kid, Kellen Moore, through 4 games this year has 7 TDs and 2 INTs, while completing 72% of his passes for 1165 yards. Mull that over for a while...and savor the flavor.

The running game is going nowhere...but fast! The run game really never took off on Wednesday, but it didn't get much of a chance...IJ and DJ only ran the ball 9 times apiece. Harper scored two rushing TDs (both in the redzone) and Titus Young scored on a 15-yard scamper. The ballgame was really put out of reach for the Bulldogs, however, when Kellen Moore decided to use our largely ineffective running backs as receivers. Now, I don't know if this was a direct reaction to Louisiana Tech's defensive adjustments or if Kellen Moore decided to improvise—either way—it blew the game open and notched Ian Johnson a ridiculous 106 receiving yards on only 3 receptions.

The trickeration made a special guest appearance on Wednesday under ESPN's bright lights as Chris O'neill scored on a 44 yard pass from Kellen Moore, Vinny Perretta and Kellen Moore. Personally, I would've preferred to see a couple of more laterals on that play...something along the lines of: pitch to Perretta who hands off to Titus Young on a reverse...Young then flips the ball over his shoulder to Kellen Moore (who was lying prone on the field, feigning a twisted ankle)...Moore then gives the ball to Ian Johnson, who punts the ball to Perretta...back to Moore...THEN to O'Neill. These guys just don't "get" real theatrics.

Once again, the "D" was solid...allowing La Tech to flirt with the endzone, but never score. A few blemishes on the night for the D (big plays)...but they didn't break and, unlike last year, didn't allow big plays to kill them or their momentum. The defense and butterfingers allowed Bulldog QB Taylor Bennett to only complete 33% of his passes. If the defense continues their stellar play, the offense will have time to find their rhythm (they stalled on several drives) and learn to run-block (how can Kellen have 3 minutes to throw, but Ian has to try to squeeze through a 6-inch hole?)

38-3 ain't half bad. Kansas "only" beat La Tech by 29.

Another excruciating half bye week lies ahead and then on to Hattiesburg to play the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss.

Want highlights?


A much timelier review of the action over at Statueleft's blog.

Kevan divvies up game balls.

Photo by Greg Kreller/IPT