Billings - 70, Omaha - 37

The score sums things up about as well as I possibly can, but I'll give it a try anyway. I'm a huge college basketball fan, and I think the game really followed a lot of the same broad bounderies of an in-conference road game. The Beef very much held their own early on, even grabbing a pair of early leads in the first half and making Dixon uncomfortable in the pocket with pressure on just about every drop back. But if there is one major thing you have to avoid if you want to beat a good football team on the road, it's extended runs. Billings saw their first late in the 2nd quarter when they turned a 1 point deficite into a 13 point lead. But even so, Lebeda buried his second fieldgoal of the half and despite trailing by 10 points at the half, it was hard to find too much to be upset with with the pace of the first half.

Halftime came and went and Billings never looked back. Omaha got the ball first to start the 3rd quarter and saw about as nightmare a start as anybody could have imagined. A quick safety on an intentional grounding (the second safety of the game) was parlayed into a quick Billings score to turn the Outlaws second extended run of the game. And unlike the first one, which Lebada thrwarted with the end of half fieldgoal, Omaha began to fall apart and couldn't pick up the pieces. They were stopped at the one inch line twice (although you wont convince me that McNear wasn't in atleast once) and a couple penalties pushed the Beef far enough back that they ended the drive with 0 points, which for all intents and purposes ended the game. All in all, it's impossible to feel too good about yourselves on the heels of a 70-37 loss, but here's some of the good and bad I saw from Saturday's game:

Good:
-McNear was rusty (to be expected) but he's in great shape and as he picks up the new offense, will continue to revert back to his late 2007 form. Mark my words, by years end, he will in in the conversation with Dixon and Bryant.

-The front three (led by Head and Colin) were getting a ton of pressure on Dixon early in the game. I'm not sure if the line tired out late (long bus trip, different time zone) or if Billings just made the necessary adjustments (3 step drops instead of 5), but if they can continue the trend of getting pressure with just the three, guys like Jones and Whitehurst are going to benefit greatly.

-The WR corp is going to be as good as advertised. Horton was his usual productive self (5+ catches and a score), Nizzi absolutely looked 100% (something I'm not sure he was for much of last season), and Bell was very unselfish blocking downfield (he sprung an early touchdown with a great block). As McNear gets more comfortable within the offense, the numbers of these guys are going to do nothing but improve. Mix in Day (I still think he needs to get more touches, maybe on kickoffs) and Rollins/Horne, and the offense wont be a problem in 2008.


Bad:
-Special Teams, Special Teams, Special Teams. LeBeda flashed a really good leg and even got a 3rd fieldgoal blatantly taken away from him from the officials, but the Special Teams unit as a whole just has to improve. Some of it was penalties, and some of it was Anthony from Billings (he's an explosive talent), but Omaha was constantly behind the 8 ball on offense (starting most drives inside their own 10) while Billings was working with short fields all day long. The offense can be as efficient as ever, the defense can get pressure galore, but if they can't shore up the Special Teams, it's going to be a long year.

-Time of possession. I don't have the boxscore in front of me, not that it would really help since the numbers are really flawed with the late game mean nothing scores from both teams, but the running game has to get going so the defense can catch their breaths on the sidelines. Much of it had to do with the fact that they were down for most of the game, but if Day and Rollins can break some runs and move the chains consistantly, I think it will do a lot for the defense as a whole.


All in all, certainly a discouraging start to the 2008 season. But that's a damn good Billings team and the crowd made life awfully difficult for the opposition throughout. I have no doubt that Tommie, James, Tony, and Coach Warren will disect that gamefilm to threads to help this team down the road.

There is a lot of football to be played, and just remember, the Outlaws have to come to Omaha late in the season. This Chapter isn't closed by any stretch of the imagination.

Until next time...
Matt