Grading the Bucks: Week 4--UNLV

Sorry for the late post.  This will be a short one.  Not a ton of insightful takeaways here.

Offense: A-
JT looked fine but I don't take a lot out of the game given the level of competition.  Honestly, what did you expect him to do? I'll talk about the playcalling later but there was little to nitpick offensively other than the turnovers at the goalline.  Obviously, ball security is of paramount importance, but that was really the only negative.  Buckeye Nation got a dose of reality regarding Dwayne Haskins.  Yes, he did look really good, but there are certainly some inconsistencies (the pick six and a few misses).  Yes, JT has those misses periodically and I don't know if he could have made that throw to CJ Saunders, but Haskins is much more of a gunslinger and plays his game that way.  JT is simply more risk averse (and maybe that's a better strategy with the talent disparity--but no definite answer).  I would like to see Saunders get some time with the 1s as he seems to be a nice little wide receiver with actual hands and route-running ability.

Defense: A-
Again, what can you say.  The starters (for the most part) did what they should have done with a few exceptions (the first half score probably shouldn't have happened).  The D-line is still ridiculously good and the secondary still has holes but that's to be expected when the entire last 2 years secondary is playing on Sundays.  I don't really care much about the second half (offensively or defensively) because that just provided time for the backups to see the field.  Good experience, but not a measure of the team going forward.

Special Teams: A-
Man, I really want to give an A with the nice return by Parris, but you know where I'm going.  Coverage was better this week against an inferior opponent, but I will lose all my hair with these kickoffs out of bounds.  There is simply not reason.

Coaching: A-
I was interested to see the coaching staff go completely into practice mode for this game.  There was a clear agenda to work on the passing game and I really did like the approach.  The running game is fine and we don't need a lot of tuning up in game situations so why bother with it.  JT went play action on almost every "obvious" running down because that's what needs work (and it seemed to show good results).  I absolutely LOVE the fact that the playcalling started utilizing the middle of the field in the intermediate passing game which I feel is JT's strength.  If we can keep working there and add in some of those nice fades in the red zone, we might have something.  Obviously, this wasn't a perfect game, but the playcalling and execution took a step up (yes, I know it was UNLV, but be happy when something positive occurs).

Overall: A-
Nice win.  Didn't learn anything new but got to practice some new concepts as well as get the backups some live action.  Concerning Haskins, don't get me wrong: he has some incredible tools that could lead to fantastic quarterback play, but I feel he showed a few chinks (not to say JT doesn't have them) that leads me to trust the coaches.  I literally heard on radio personalities in Columbus who should know better say (in back to back sentences) that we can't take anything from JT's nice showing and 5 TD- 0 int- 0 punt performance because of the weak opponent, but Haskins 2 TD- 1 int- multiple punt performance against the same team shows he has the skills and it's time to consider a change.  You can't have it both ways.  Either the opponent sucked and we need to take these stats with a grain of salt (my personal opinion) or we have incredibly meaningful data.  Haskins has shown so great high spots but is inconsistent.  JT's ceiling may be a bit lower (definitely in the passing game) but his mental grasp of the game and consistency will keep him in the driver's seat for the foreseeable future.  On to Buttgers.