Werts at Home

We all saw redshirt freshman quarterback Shai Werts’ first game as a starter Saturday night in Auburn. While it didn’t go ideal, it was somewhat expected going against the number 12 team in the nation.

It was also good that the coaching staff left him in for the duration of the blowout. Werts went 4 for 8 throwing for just 8 yards and rushed for 16 yards on 25 carries. Those numbers are obviously less than ideal, but Coach Summers has made it very apparent that “whatever is behind them whether positive or negative is behind them.”

Saturday will be Werts’, among others, first game as a starter in a “home game.” It will definitely be a much more hospitable environment than Auburn for the whole team even though Irma has forced the game to move to Birmingham. Werts has a ton of potential and should have more competitive games the rest of the season when not facing SEC defenses.

Defense continues to swarm

The best thing to come out of Saturday’s game was the explosive defensive front. Senior Chris DeLaRosa and sophomore Todd Bradley were quick and proved to be a threat to the backfield combining for 3 and a half tackles for a loss and 2 sacks.

Not to mention DeLaRosa hitting quarterback Stidham and junior Tomarcio Reese picking the ball up and taking it to the house. If the defensive line can do that against an SEC o-line that was bigger than them across the board, they should have no trouble lining up against this FCS offensive front who only averaged 182 yards rushing last season.

The secondary seems like it will be back to being good again. They only allowed 185 passing yards from a team that usually has strong passing games. It will be interesting to see if the secondary keeps up its’ strength after losing junior safety Josh Moon to a calf/ankle contusion.

Change of Venue

The GS athletics department on Wednesday night announced the game would be moved to UAB’s Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama and move to 3 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.

This move was obviously made in anticipation of Hurricane Irma to try to salvage some fans that they would lose to early evacuation. Regardless, the crowd (however small) should still be Eagle-friendly in comparison to the UNH turnout.