[JXC]

Originally Posted by shetuck

I would have said the exact same thing about Evridge's performance against us after having watched him absolutely fall apart against TSUN the week before and State Penn the week after, but, instead, he held it together relatively well against us.

A big part of the answering the question about whether Hoyer will be able to deliver a game-changing performance has to focus on the opposing team's offensive front vs our ability to actually execute our defensive scheme on every down in a series; i.e. bring pressure, punch through the protection, and inflict some real damage against less mobile passers like Evridge and Hoyer. We weren't terribly successful at doing that against Evridge - not consistently, anyway. Maybe that has to do with Beckum being his safety valve, but don't forget that Hoyer has Gantt and Celek to that end. Granted, they're no Beckums, but they haven't done too poorly lately (when they've played).

So... Hoyer's performance against us has everything to do with how well we do against Sparty's offensive front. Given the fact that Ringer appears to be on a tear this year, I can't say that Sparty's offensive front is all that bad in creating mismatches and pushing guys around (in comparison to ours). So I'm not as comfortable saying that Hoyer can't be a threat. I agree that he can't single-handedly beat us (he's no Darryl Clark), but if his line performs and Ringer is able to rip a few off, we're going to quickly find ourselves back on our heels and scratching our heads trying to figure out how to shut them down.

Well...other teams haven't had a problem with Hoyer this year...so I find it hard to believe our defense will. As far as Evridge...he threw the game ending INT and Wisky lost the game. Again...don't overrated MSU...they are Ringer U. and that's it.