San Marcos —
Texas State head coach Brad Wright stated during Tuesday’s media luncheon that everyone within the program was looking to forge ahead after the Bobcats’ 40-point loss last Saturday at Houston.
“We’re all kind of ready to stop talking about last week and want to move on to this week,” Wright said.
Wright must have not taken defensive coordinator Fred Bleil into account.
Bleil, in his third year with the Bobcats, watched his defense get shredded by Heisman-hopeful quarterback Case Keenum and the Cougars’ offense.
Texas State allowed 68 points (54 in the first half) and 497 yards of total offense (346 through the air of which 274 belonged to Keenum). The Bobcats did force two turnovers (a pair of interceptions), but Houston completed 76 percent of its pass attempts.
“We knew they were going to score,” Bleil said. “At the same time, we should have slowed them down.”
While Texas State didn’t help itself with poor tackling and several critical breakdowns, Bleil took the defense’s struggles a bit further.
Bleil admitted fault in his own play calling.
“I started out the game and take most of the accountability for it, in the fact that five of first 12 plays were zone blitzes and we had minus-negative big gainers for them and minus-negatives for us” Bleil said. “We felt we needed to hit (Keenum) early to get a win and they ended up turning those plays, not only into yardage, but touchdowns.”
Bleil dialed up a blitz on the Cougars’ first play from scrimmage which resulted in a five-yard gain by James Cleveland on a screen pass from Keenum. On the ensuing play Keenum dumped off another short pass to third-string running back Michael Hayes who slashed through the Bobcats’ defense on his way to a 40-yard touchdown.
Of Houston’s first 12 plays, it scored twice and racked up 150 yards of total offense. The Cougars had a 56-yard gain on a pass from Keenum to Patrick Edwards negated by a holding call.
“We settled down and got a little bit more conservative but should have got into a rhythm at that game speed earlier,” Bleil said. “We should have let our kids get used to that because that was a step up in speed and we tried to match them speed for speed early with zone blitzes and they had points on the board immediately.”
Bobcat Notes — Don't forget the third Bobcat Live Chat of the 2010 season tonight at 7:30 p.m. Be sure to check www.sanmarcosrecord.com later for a link.
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