I wouldnt have minded a run but the formation was that of a 3rd and 1.
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Finally a realistic sound opinion! NW was in the top half of the Big Ten last year, They beat a very strong program in Utah in their Bowl Game. They were 8-5 last year. They seem to have upgraded at QB this year. The only defense we will play this season who will be as good or better is Notre Dame.
Gabbert was unable to get away from pressure to create more time. Aveon would have given us a better chance to win in this game. To beat a good team Brett is going to have to be able to create time and he needs to be able to run effectively. Our Offensive line was not as good in this game as we expected to be with 4 returners who started every game another veteran taking over the 5th spot and a 6th year Sr at TE. Yet we did not open holes or protect our QB. Maybe NW defense was just that good.
The other thing is that Chuck’s teams never play well in the first game but always keep getting better as the year progresses. Still a lot of great things possible. Even with our struggles, playing on the road against a Big Ten team who was 8-5 last year we still had a chance to win the game in the last minute as we were driving.
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Yeah the views of the lake were beautiful but I though the gameday experience was bad all around. But Northwestern has had probably the worst gameday experience of any P4 team for decades, so nothing new.
At least alcohol was permitted in the seats which was an improvement over 2022
Dick–Sorry, but no. If the line couldn’t protect Brett and we could not run block, how would Aveon running the ball lead to anything but negative yardage? Brett threw for 227 yds. Aveon could not throw against that pass rush. Or almost any pass rush.They would know he was going to try to run and would have ended with little passing yards and even fewer rushing yards. He did not/could not get on the field for Alabama State. With Aveon, we had no chance.
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I will not make the argument that we would have had a better chance with Aveon under center.
I will absolutely say he would have bolstered our rushing game. If you recall we really struggled to run consistently last year prior to Brett’s injury. Aveon’s personal rushing yards and, more importantly, the threat of his rushing opened up holes for our backs that weren’t there with Brett.
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Aveon was a winner here. That’s not even a debate. He’s the last MU QB to beat a Big 10 team and the last MU QB to win the MAC. Knocking him is silly. So, why did he not start for his new school? My theory is that he has been injured for about 8 months and may not yet be 100%. I have long believed he played injured the last half of 2023 but was an absolute warrior and didn’t make it an issue. He just kept showing up to help us win. Originally, I thought he sat out our bowl game for other reasons, but lately, I’m more than certain he was not well. You can say I’m crazy (take a number) or wrong but I have a strange feeling I’m closer to right. Thoughts?
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We definitely would have won that bowl game with AV
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Aveon is a winner for sure. We never know what was said to AV during recruiting. We don’t know if he had lots of offers are very few. Maybe the offense doesn’t suit his skill set ? I will tell you it’s very hard to get on the field as a QB. There is only one playing on the team at a time. You may be surprised to know that very few teams have an open QB competition. The coach has his guy and that guy gets all of the reps with the ones. The 2,3 may get 4 reps a week with the other 2’s and 3’s. Past that they are scout QBs and will not see the field unless injuries deplete the QB room. Some time your best skill set doesn’t show up at practice. AV is a gamer. I hope he gets a shot.
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I would just say that he could have scrambled away from their rush and created some time, plus our running game would have been much better. The read option that we ran so many times might have broken some runs. We only scored 6, I think it would have been more with Smith. We would have thrown some bombs downfield and maybe hit one or two. but that would have made them cover a lot more territory. We never stretched the field and we always stretched the field when Aveon was playing.
I would not have brought Aveon up, but comments knocking Smith earlier in the thread pissed me off.
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I agree. 100000%.
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I think it might have looked more like last year’s Ohio game. But he wouldn’t have played if Brett was ready to go.
Did Mr. Holskey return to the game after his injury?
Aveon is a baller and I’ll respect him to the end of time for what he did last season, but I don’t agree. Last season he was effective at QB because we had Amos as a feature back, a much better receiver room, and with Nicholson it was a near-automatic field goal if we got inside the opposing 35. Based on what I saw Saturday that all has changed, any theoretical gains in the rush offense would be wiped out by Northwestern stacking the box knowing that Smith’s arm and pocket presence are not great.
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Yes, I know I saw him in during the next Miami possession. Not sure if he was in for the rest of the game.
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After finally getting to watch the game, I am not discouraged by the performance. I’m bummed we didn’t win a very winnable game, but we were in the game against a bigger version of us. Fits and starts, we showed that in fits and starts we’re very capable, and we did it against a good BIG team that returned quite a bit. I thought our QB play would put us over the top going into the game but their QB made a couple of more plays than ours. Gabbert will be better and recognize that he should look at other options and not force the deep ball like he did in the 1st half. I wouldn’t say he’s more immobile yet, the rush just came so quickly on him he didn’t have time to get out of the pocket. The offensive line needs to be better all the way around or we won’t be a good MAC team.
Also disappointing was special teams, specifically losing the hidden yardage game that we’ve been so good at in recent years. In the last couple of years, the plays we made on offense would’ve been enough to get us in scoring range because we’d be starting at a better place on the field.
I know it’s no consolation, but this is the best we’ve done in an opener considering the opponent and the venue. I have confidence we’ll improve and play well on Sept. 14th.
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Aveon is a big boy and an athlete. He knows that not every call is going to go his way. I’m sorry if I pissed you off, but I think I am entitled to an opinion. You expressed yours and I disagreed. I respect what Aveon did for us. Busted his ass. Was a good teammate. Waited for his time to play. If he cried over every criticism of his play, he would never have made it anywhere. We gave him an opportunity to play. He took if, for better or for worse. Do you think there are those who criticized Brett’s play Saturday? I know some did, as I was sitting outside the “stadium” and several Miami fans, seeing us in Red and White, were very critical and blamed Brett for the loss.
I cheered like a kid when he made the big run late in the MACC game last year. He was a Miami guy, so I applauded his efforts. I respect him for his hard work and dedication. However, he didn’t get in the game at Alabama St last week. Did he show up Sunday for meetings? Is he practicing this week? Sure. But he was benched. I hoped he would play there. But, simply, he wasn’t good enough in the eyes of his coaches. Do you really think that Chuck would have started him, or inserted him later in the game, over Brett? Seriously?
If you can’t stand the heat–well, you know the rest of the line. And it appears that several agreed with my comment.
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Once again it amazes me that you think your opinion means anything. AS has been torn down by this shitty fan board time and time again. He has played through injuries to name a few, bruised shin bones,sprain rotator cuff, bruised ribs but showed up for his team without complaining. Here’s the thing Brett may look better on paper but he has 50% for completion just like AS. In addition if he was so great every time he steps foot on the field Miami should win unfortunately just like AS he could not do it without Jack Sorensen or Gage, not an opinion history speaks for itself. Not to knock Gabbert, I think he’s a great player but you assholes hide behind the keyboard criticizing these young men that sacrifice their bodies each week to satisfy a bunch of old grumpy men. In 2022, when Brett got hurt Kholer was so upset about the injury he refused to coach Aveon. When he played in 2022 he played with is heart in 2023 he just gave it enough to get the hell out of Oxford. He was had death threats and some has actually showed up to his apartment. As for Saturday’s game he made the decision to sit out,
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Did not know that. If true…A damn shame.
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Death threats seems entirely possible - all it takes is one idiot losing money on a sports bet to go harass players (not to excuse it since it’s unacceptable, just acknowledging it happens). Saying that people showed up to the apartment of a MAC backup QB with death threats is a pretty wild claim that I simply don’t believe.
As for the rest of your post, Aveon has gotten a lot of criticism on this board, some warranted, some not. I tend to be more on the pro-Aveon side of things, but clearly you have some sort of personal connection to Aveon and are coming from that point of bias.
Brett may look better on paper but he has 50% for completion just like AS.
Brett’s career completion percentage is 59%, not 50% like Aveon.
he could not do it without Jack Sorensen or Gage, not an opinion history speaks for itself
I don’t really know what this means. Yes, those were two of the top WRs for most of Brett’s career but Gage went from averaging 95 yards a game in the six games with Gabbert to 24 yards per game in 3 games with Aveon. So maybe Brett needed Gage, but it wasn’t like any QB could rack up yards with him. To be fair to Aveon, the same discrepancy wasn’t true with Hippenhammer in '22, so maybe we can just chalk that up to Aveon apparently being checked out in '23 like you claim?
If true, that seems like a strange decision. Hopefully if he’s injured it’s nothing too serious and he does get to play this season.
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