and I actually feel a lot better about the 2nd half then when I first watched it...

Firstly, we absolutely dominated that first half... Near perfection. Aside from the fumble from Matthews, which ended up leading to the TD, it was a flawless first half (minus special teams).

That is part of the reason the 2nd half felt so bad... Even watching the second half, we still moved the ball very well, aside from a couple drives, which I believe was a result of fatigue, and low energy bc of the score...But takeaway another fumble, a couple pass drops/missed PI calls, you have 2 more TDs in that 2nd half... All those things are very correctable.

DEFENSE
Defensively, wow pretty impressed the entire game... The only TD was a result from a good starting field position turnover, and even that, they had to fight for it... The depth on this defense is pretty crazy... Sure they are no Ansah's or KVNs this year, but every position is deep... My first game standouts were:

Stout (this kid had the strongest defensive game.. was everywhere)..

Davis & Preador... wow, the way Davis breaks on the ball is a thing of beauty... He had at least 4-5 1st down/touchdown saving run downs, and probably at least 5 pass break ups. Preador, great coverage...

Bronson... He is pressuring the qb just about every play... Pass dropping needs some work, but he had no problem blowing past the line...

Alisa... Great game, good pressure, quick off the line

I felt our run defense / front line got a bit sloppy the 2nd half... Hoping that changes w/ Marques back in the line up and some tweaks... but we were also blitzing a ton more, which is bound to give up some more run yardage... Either way, defense had a great game...Take away some adrenaline celebrations, and we would have had even more chances to score

OFFENSE
Taysom, bravo... I know its UCONN, but you can tell, he's much better. I counted only a couple passes that really were just bad throws, and one of them could have been tipped... As bad as UCONN was, they were only rushing 3 most of the time, and their secondary had pretty decent coverage... Hill still put it in tight... Reads much quicker, and took advice from Steve Young and continues to look for the pass... A couple big plays were made because he did NOT commit to the run.

RBs... We missed Jamaal.. There is some work to do with the Oline in rush blocking, but I still think w/ Jamaal in there, he has a 100 yd rush game... Hine had some good looks, he just didn't have much holes... Brown looked great at times, but needs to hold onto the ball... Lasike looked a bit slower out there...

Receivers.. Love the depth here.. and we are still without 2 of our top ones... Leslie had a quiet game on the stat pad, but his presence was felt...fantastic blocking.. Matthews looked great, as did the new little man out there (Greightor??). Taysom has a lot of options out there. Disappointing to see the lack of Apo once again... Saw him out there a couple times and just seems to stand around once the ball doesn't come his way... He's going to have a tough time seeing reps, especially w/ Devon and Kurtz back.

Oline.. Great pass blocking, Taysom had all day all game... Sure they only sent 3 most of the time, but they are looking much better than last year.. Next week will be the real test.

Overall, Feeling great about the away win. Definitely need to tighten up the sloppy/careless playing.

Last note, Bronco really needs to do something with this special teams unit... he now has no play calling duties, he really should take it upon himself to figure this problem out... Its one that continues to be a problem with his teams... but there is no reason we cannot have a reliable Kick off kicker as well as a good FG kicker... Definitely "needs improvement" of the team....

Go Cougs. I'll be in Austin next weekend