TJ Ward day-to-day, and other notes from Kelly

They held BSU to 4 yards per play. While BSU had some errors, that’s really good, considering to them last year we gave up 6 yards per play. There were definitely issues, but it was a better than expected performance overall, especially considering that almost no big plays were given up, which was obviously the goal of the defense.

Even had Boise made their field goals, they still only put up 25 points. If, before the season started and I still had pipe dreams about how good our o-line might be, you told me that our defense would hold good offenses to 25 points a game, I would kiss you on the mouth and tell you we’ll win at least 10 games.

Yes, BSU made miscues. It was their first game. It was the defense’s first game too, so those factors largely cancel out. But that is a good offense with a great QB playing at home with WAC officials calling ticky-tack PI’s. Our d-line definitely took a half to get going, or maybe it took Aliotti a half to figure out what schemes were working. But the pressure was there fairly consistently in the third and fourth quarters, they shut down the run most of the game, and other than our LB’s looking lost, I think the individuals looked solid to good. And of all the defensive players, I have the most confidence in the LB’s.

The tackling was a little disappointing, and that’s really the only thing that worries me going forward. Otherwise, I think this will be what it always is – a defense that plays bend-but-don’t-break and can hold teams back just enough to let the offense do its business. I’m fine with that, as scary as it can be.

it was a first game and sloppy. Our defense played two games worth of snaps and kept us in there.