https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBuxPHmvthg

The Spartans lined up with a slot and a big H (#87) to the strong side, single set back. Hawaii lined up with a 3 man front, 3 LB’s, 2 deep (17 yards off the ball) with Davis lined tight on the weak side WR. The play was a weak side run off the left tackle’s outside “crease”. The right guard and the H back pulled off the snap (real quick). The LT sealed Tavai and drove him back about 3 yards. The pulling RG kicked Tufaga “in” away from the hole (Tufaga attacked the inside shoulder of the blocker, why?) and took him out of the play.

The RB followed the H through the crease as they approached the 2nd level. The weak side safety (Lockridge) attacked the crease (too aggressive?) but was blocked by the weak side WR who quickly took him out of the play. The H kicked Davis “out” and opened the crease to the 3rd level.

Muasau’s pursuit angle was jammed by the LT/Tavai standoff so he had to push off the LT to get to the RB about 7 yards up field right in the middle of the crease. Muasau missed his wrap tackle (was a difficult but makeable tackle) and the RB (Nevens) outran Frazier and Kaneshiro (who took a “lolo” route to his offside pursuit) for the TD. Kaneshiro looked way faster than Nevens but the angle was bad. Long story short, TD should not have happened.

And talk about the O and D lines getting dominated, there was one play where SJ’s DT pushed our center back 5 yards. I don’t recall ever seeing that before.

I just hope they play, as a team, better against UNLV.

Right now, this is beginning to feel like a NC re-run.

The first was a 3rd and 20 on the San Jose 20. Hawaii’s offense had a nice TD scoring drive to open second half and cut the lead to 21-17. San Jose was stopped for no gain on 1st and 10 on their 30. A holding penalty gave them 2nd and 20 from their 20. Ta’ala, in isolation vs the center, quick bull rushed forcing an incompletion. With San Jose on their heels in 3rd and 20 the UH defensive call was a 3 man rush with loose coverage, heels on the sticks. The very conservative defensive call gave up a straight 19 yard slant route pass (no YAC) . With the success San Jose had rushing anywhere, the 4th and 1 decision was a no brainer. A lot of better defensive call options was had in my opinion. Miss opportunity.

The second play was a 3rd and 8 from the Hawaii 21. A pressure package with Bethley from the edge and LB (Muasau? IDK) from the middle was the call. The pressure forced a quick pass. The coverage however was 10 yard loose which I thought was odd because of the short field. Another quick slant was an easy completion that yielded (horizontal) YAC all the way across the field for 12 yards. The coverage wasn’t synched up with the pressure on 3rd and long. Missed opportunity.

BTW in the 4th quarter the opposite happened. The defensive call was a “soft” (not real aggressive) blitz from edge with tight man 2 deep coverage. Another quick slant (the DB looked like he anticipated an outside route so he missed his “jam”) over the intermediate middle resulted in 50 yard TD mostly YAC. Too bad………..I think it’s fixable for sure though.