Post Game Albany thoughts

[KentStGuin15]

Boy from the sound of this board you would think we lost 59-0.  We have some of the worst most unrealistic fans on this board by far. the D isnt going to play perfect every week, especially vs a team who made the playoffs last year.

-the 2nd Half D was very very good outside of the garbage time FG, Shutout Albany

-the Offense was very good in the second half, but terrible game planning hurt our chances to win, the game should not have been as close as the score shows, you cant keep running the ball when they are shutting it down, Cook went from 110 3 TD first half yards to 51 0 TDs second half in almost the same amount of carries (18 in first half, 15 in second half), 52 Rushing attempts to 22 Passing attempts is why we only scored 10 points in the 2nd half after scoring 21 in the first half

-there were 2 plays in this game that could have changed the game around big time
-Shaws Fumble at the 32, the way our offense moved the ball in the first half, we probably have 28 or at the very least 24 points by halftime insted of 21 and Albany might not have the momentum to score a TD so we could have been looking at a 28-14 Ball game at half
-the blocked punt, we probably just run down the clock or at least try to after the punt, but if we dont block that punt we could have seen OT and maybe lost, or only won by 3.

-YSU dominated this game in the 2nd half on D, and in the 1st half on Offense

-I really think YSU looked ahead to UNI, Confrence game, a team we dont history play very well, which could be why the D played so bad in the 1st half, then dominated the 2nd half. QBs just dont go from 14/15 to 9/21 in a 15-20 minute span (Halftime)

-I really dont care how bad people want us to be Tressels power running-defensive teams, as long as this staff is in place it will NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER come back. Understood? stop crying about the way we play, with the staff in place its never going to change, get over it, deal with it and move on. its 2012 not 1950

-Now looking ahead to UNI, They are not the UNI of years past, they are struggling on D giving up over 800 Yards to Iowa and Wisconsin, who are both very bad teams (yes both are 2-1 but Wisky could very well be 0-3 right now and Iowa. They dont score alot but they dont give up alot either, i really couldnt care less what they did to DII Central State, thats worse then Valpo. UNI needs this game in the worse way, if they dont beat us, they need to win out to make the playoffs, so they will be ready and have their A+ game

-UNI really struggled to run the ball on Wisky, only 34 rushing yards by their RBs and only 94 Yards vs Iowa they also struggle to stop the run giving up 362 Rushing yards combined vs Iowa and Wisky, so the game plan should be clear, Run, Pass about 6-8 more times to open up the run and keep 7 out of the box like Albany started to play in the 2nd half, and stop the pass

[penguinpower]

You are a retard.  I have never seen a person spin a terrible performance  like you do.  You should run for a political  office and blow smoke up someone elses ass because you are not going to do it to me.  I warned you last week about the concernd on the secondary and unfortunately my concerns were realized  you should admit it.  I should have known that someone that has Kant state in their username has absolutely no credibility when it comes to football IQ or maybe its the liberal arts training you received there that helps you rationalize reality.

[KentStGuin15]

You are a retard.  I have never seen a person spin a terrible performance  like you do.  You should run for a political  office and blow smoke up someone elses ass because you are not going to do it to me.  I warned you last week about the concernd on the secondary and unfortunately my concerns were realized  you should admit it.  I should have known that someone that has Kant state in their username has absolutely no credibility when it comes to football IQ or maybe its the liberal arts training you received there that helps you rationalize reality.

LOL you know absolutley nothing about football, trust me. nothing. but keep trolling

but what an OUTSTANDING 2nd half the QB had, whoo i sure wish our QB could go 9/21 with 0 TDs ! Give him the Heisman NOAW!

[IAA Fan]

Okay let's settle down KSU15 ...you take everything too seriously. Power has been on the board for a long time & I trust his opinions ...as does everyone else. You should read what he says & ask him for more details. Your enthusiasm and support for the team is great; keep it up but maybe tone it down. Against UA, we witnessed the same defense that we have had for 3-years now ...so people are upset. Just like the comment on our stadium ...let it go. The visitors side is like a 3k HS stadium ...that where their fans sat, so that is their perspective and it is all we need. We have a stadium that has max capacity around 23k, 4-stories, 26-loges, night-club/restaurant, best pres box in all D1. It is as good as OSU, but sitting in the visitors-side, they saw our radio-shack. It is all perspective. Listen to he announcers during the JMU play-off game ...they could not believe our facilities ...they were taken care of by some fine-looking Ytown ladies & great food. For God's sake, we have an indoor facility like no other in I-AA/FCS ...with a regulation field. Next time people make those type of comments take them for a walk & be proud. While you are on the home side, let them see what championship trophies look like. They can build the best stadium in the nation, but to earn those trophies, you have to build the best team in the nation ...which is a standard for many of us, and why we are so upset. This board is where we vent.

Power, don't let him get to you & attack him. We all know what you said, in fact, I commented right away during the game.

[KentStGuin15]

Okay let's settle down KSU15 ...you take everything too seriously. Power has been on the board for a long time & I trust his opinions ...as does everyone else. You should read what he says & ask him for more details. Your enthusiasm and support for the team is great; keep it up but maybe tone it down. Against UA, we witnessed the same defense that we have had for 3-years now ...so people are upset. Just like the comment on our stadium ...let it go. The visitors side is like a 3k HS stadium ...that where their fans sat, so that is their perspective and it is all we need. We have a stadium that has max capacity around 23k, 4-stories, 26-loges, night-club/restaurant, best pres box in all D1. It is as good as OSU, but sitting in the visitors-side, they saw our radio-shack. It is all perspective. Listen to he announcers during the JMU play-off game ...they could not believe our facilities ...they were taken care of by some fine-looking Ytown ladies & great food. For God's sake, we have an indoor facility like no other in I-AA/FCS ...with a regulation field. Next time people make those type of comments take them for a walk & be proud. While you are on the home side, let them see what championship trophies look like. They can build the best stadium in the nation, but to earn those trophies, you have to build the best team in the nation ...which is a standard for many of us, and why we are so upset. This board is where we vent.

Power, don't let him get to you & attack him. We all know what you said, in fact, I commented right away during the game.

No im not going to deal with Personal attacks over my opinion therefore im not going to settle down, i couldnt care less how long he's been here, in the end he's still wrong. This is not the Same Defense as last year, have you watched any games at all? we have allowed 10 Total second half points this year, TEN. How in the Hell is that even close to being anything like the last 3 years? what do you expect them to shut out every body every game?  This fan base on the board is pathetic, and people wonder why no one goes to games. Fans on this board will never be happy unless the score is 1 Million - 0 and we rush for 100 Gazillion yards per game.

[dwj]

Give Albany some credit.  They came to play and have a good coach who apparently studied alot of film and exposed our weaknesses.  We need to learn from this game & fix the weaknesses of we will be in troulble when we face the better teams in our league who are more talented than Albany..

[DavedS]

Give Albany some credit.  They came to play and have a good coach who apparently studied alot of film and exposed our weaknesses.  We need to learn from this game & fix the weaknesses of we will be in troulble when we face the better teams in our league who are more talented than Albany..

Ditto!

[YSUGO]

I agree that Albany came to play.  They came very prepared.  We weren't going to show our hand before Northern Iowa . One thing we have forgotten we were a bad 4 quarter team we have shown otherwise so far this year by closing out the game with good possessions for td's. 

[ysufan0505]

Albany is a very good team. Well coached. They came out and knew exactly how to attack us and did it. Our secondary has improved, but it's still our big weakness. If anybody doesn't see that, you haven't been watching the games. Down the seams were getting killed. Safeties are slow to make their reads. It's been happening all season. Pitt missed a couple deep chances where we gt burned, even Valpo missed a couple chances. First play of the 4th qtr yesterday is more proof. Right down the seam and the kid dropped it. That needs to be fixed

[YSUGO]

Albany is a very good team. Well coached. They came out and knew exactly how to attack us and did it. Our secondary has improved, but it's still our big weakness. If anybody doesn't see that, you haven't been watching the games. Down the seams were getting killed. Safeties are slow to make their reads. It's been happening all season. Pitt missed a couple deep chances where we gt burned, even Valpo missed a couple chances. First play of the 4th qtr yesterday is more proof. Right down the seam and the kid dropped it. That needs to be fixed

Agreed!

[guinpen]

  We weren't going to show our hand before Northern Iowa .

Interesting point, hope there is something to this.

[pioneer9]

All good comments.  Very true about the late reads in the secondary, particularly at the safety position.  They have some athletic kids back there but there were times in each of these first three games where you saw safeties looking to the sidelines or entering 'panic mode' right at the snap. Never a good thing!

But, I would like to point out that, while I definitely agree that YSU "underachieved" in this game, Albany is NOT a bad football team.  And you see this sort of thing happen to championship caliber teams each and every year... there is that middle-of-the-road team that comes in with a lot of fight and nothing to lose and gives you a game.  Heck, there are people who could make the argument that YSU (unranked at the time) was that team to NDSU (eventual FCS Champion) last season.  This goes without mentioning that Albany was 8-4 and made it to the playoffs last season (and played fairly respectably) and they seem every bit of that same-caliber team.  Wouldn't be surprised to see the Great Danes back in the postseason in December.

Here's why I liked (believe it or not) this game:

(1) High-Caliber Teams Find a Way to Win Games - Granted, YSU was expected to take this team to task. What happened? Albany showed up to play and gave them a great game. In fact, Albany played well enough to win. But they didn't. And it was because, when the game was on the line, the Penguins answered the call. Makes me think of a 2002 OSU Buckeyes team that had a close call early in the season to a 7-7 Bearcats team. Remember the final result of their season?!

(2) This Was a Wake Up Call - This game was probably the best thing to happen to YSU as they prepare for a strong UNI team next week. The Pitt game showed us we were top-tier. The Valpo game reminded us that we have an offense capable of putting 50+ on the board. Albany showed us that we are human... and we can't just put on the uniform and show up. We need to come ready to play. Here's hoping (and believing) the Penguins have learned their lesson.

Final verdict: There are some concerns on D (particulary in the secondary) that need to be addressed between now and Saturday, and YSU needs to come back to earth and realize this season is going to be a fight (A win over Pitt wasn't going to magically make it a stroll in the park).  I look to see our coaching staff make some good adjustments and see a much more focused and driven Penguin football team on the field this Saturday.

[Wick250]

Pioneer, good observations.  I will not make excuses for our lackluster performance, but anybody who has played a team sport knows that it is nearly impossible to operate at the highest level for every game.  Playing flat and still winning is an important step in the maturation of this team.  Consider two other games that took place in Ohio on Saturday.  California is to Ohio State what Albany is to YSU.  Same kind of flat performance but still a positive result.  I'm sure that OSU fans (of which I am clearly not one) are more paranoid than ours have been over the past day.  Or how about Cincinnati.  They followed up their win over Pittsburgh with a lackluster performance against a bad Delaware State team.  Just learn from the mistakes in this game and move on.

[IAA Fan]

all good points, but OSU is to Cal ...do not think so. Cal is in the PAC-10. That is like the MVFC as compared to Big Sky. YSU to Albany is more like OSU to UMass. UMASS just moving moving up to FBS.

[ysubigred]

This is a well coached hardnosed veteran team coming off a playoff year. They came to Youngstown all business and played well.  We'll see them again if YSU makes the playoffs.

I was pleased that the Defense could make adjustments at half. This was something that couldn't be accomplished last year. The special teams was better and the blocked punt (2nd in two week) was a life saver since our offense went into hibernation and gave YSU a short field to score.

Overall this should have served as a wakeup call. Just because you beat Pitt the FCS world isn't rolling over for you. This Albany team is probably one of the better teams we'll play all year until playoff time.