OSU 56, Grambling State 6: Thoughts and observations
by Brandon Chatmon
bchatmon@opubco.com
–The Cowboys offense did exactly what I expected them to do… for the first time this season. True enough it was Grambling State, but that’s how the offense should perform when they have more talent than the opposition.
–The offensive line seems to be coming around but it’s tough to tell when going against an overmatched Tiger front.
–Keith Toston had a good game but that’s what should have been expected of him.
–I wasn’t surprised to see Jeremy Smith’s redshirt pulled. I had been hearing too many good things about him during the preseason, I felt he would play his way out of the redshirt and he did.
–Smith had a great debut– but I wouldn’t get too carried away with it. The large majority of his 160 yards came after the game had been decided with Zac Robinson and other key starters already on the bench.
–I wouldn’t read too much into Smith’s redshirt being pulled in relation to Kendall Hunter’s injury. I think it has as much to do with the fact the Cowboys understand Smith could end up being the man next year if Hunter leaves. And even if he doesn’t Smith had shown enough in preseason and September practices to convince the Cowboys staff that he’s going to be counted on to make plays next year. So why not get him some game experience this season and know that you can count on him next year? He appears to have passed Travis Miller on the depth chart and Kye Staley will be coming off his season-ending knee injury so Smith could easily end up being THE GUY in 2010 and at the very least, see the amount of carries Toston will see this season.
–Dameron Fooks looked really good. He’s a big, smooth receiver and the body control he showed on his touchdown catch was outstanding. The more he gets involved in the offense and the more comfortable he becomes, the better for OSU.
–The defense was solid, but again, and I know I sound like a broken record with this but… the Cowboys have no problem getting into opponents’ backfield. The problem comes when they have to tackle the quarterback. Again, the other team’s QB scrambled and made plays. So when Colt McCoy, Blaine Gabbert come to town in October, OSU needs to have found a answer for that.
–It was good to see the Cowboys keep Dez, Perrish and Kendall out. They had no reason to play and OSU really needs those guys to be successful in the Big 12 and reach their goal of a Big 12 south title.
–Turnovers may be the downfall of this squad. If OSU’s offense didn’t turn it over or even just turned it over once per game up to this point, they might still be undefeated and the offense definitely wouldn’t be getting as many questions about why it has struggled to get going.
–Overall it was about what you’d expect from the Cowboys and they should be happy with how they played, especially putting the game away by halftime and not even having to use their first-team offense.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Good stuff.