St. John's Game Wrap
St. John's 27, RF 24

First of all we had an absolutely perfect day for this game. The atmosphere with all of our loyal fans and of course the Johnnies was what you like to see at a college game. It was one of the largest crowds in our history and the players on both sides put on a heck of a show. Jim Baier having his jersey retired simply added to that great atmosphere. Our Touchdown Club had their tent up and I hear new members were added by the minute. Let's keep this going!

Special Teams
Let's look at the kicking game first. I was very concerned about all of our new young kickers and punters. Going on the field for the first time as a collegian is difficult for anyone in any position. Chad Blair converted every PAT opportunity and hit 1 of 2 field goal attempts. His miss had plenty of distance; we just have to straighten out his aiming process. Drake Klatt averaged 40 yards on two punt attempts which is an outstanding start to his career. He also kicked off for an average of 63 yards which is a dramatic improvement for our team. Kyle Stelter did another outstanding job as our long snapper.

I'm excited about our kicking game and the young talent we have executing it.

Defense
There were an awful lot of good signs vs. St. John's. We stopped their option game, their inside trap game and their outside sweep plays. All of these have given us difficulty over the years. I also saw more knocked down passes than I've seen in a long time.

Our defensive line sacked their QB four times which is a very good statistic. Cole Lowell forced one fumble which we like to see. I think we'd all feel a lot better if we could have kept St. John's out of the end zone on their last drive. We pretty much knew what they wanted to do on the final play and just couldn't make the play. Our defensive ends, Derek Nette and Dan Wolf, played well along with tackles Justin Parsons and Mike Larson in the middle. Cole Lowell led us in tackles from his OLB position.

We need to FORCE more turnovers! We had a few chances and only got one of them.

Offense
We only punted twice which is a pretty good indicator that we moved the ball reasonably well. I think our QB, Ryan Luessenheide, played very well and came up with some big plays both throwing and running for first downs. Ryan seems to be a “gamer!” We set a goal to rush for 200 yards. The final stats show that we hit 200 right on the button however, lost yards on sacks are subtracted from the total so we ended up with 185 rushing yards.

Taylor Edwards has been a great addition t our backfield. He rushed for 83 yards on 14 carries. When he got hurt on a long outside zone play it hurt us some. However, with Ahmad Palmer, Greg Klingelhutz, and John Shimenz ready to jump in we feel good about the depth at that position.

Our receiving corps had a nice day. Six different receivers caught the ball. Ryan Hansen led them all with six catches. He is a real threat from his tight end position and we sure hope he can stay healthy. Mike Woodward is a big target to throw to. He had four catches for 103 yards. We are excited about our receiving corps

We MUST eliminate the fumbling! I hope that it was a result of first game pressure. However, we will address this in practice this week.

Look at these different statistics:
TOTAL OFFENSIVE YARDS
St. John's 391---------RF 390

TOTAL OFFENSIVE PLAYS
St. John's 68---------RF 67

AVERAGE GAIN PER PLAY
St. John's 5.8 Yards-------RF 5.8 Yards

FUMBLES
St. John's 4 (Lost 1)------RF 4 (Lost 1)

PENALTIES
St. John's 5 for 35 yards------RF 5 for 45 yards

These statistics back up the obvious--------these two teams are very equal!

I am excited about our future. If we can improve as much in the next week as we did in the week leading up to the St. John's game anything can happen.

SJU-RF Game Statistics

Go Falcons!

John O

John O'Grady

2009 Falcon Schedule