The View From Scott: Winning! Edition

One can't start off a View From Scott article on this particular week without giving a shout out to the folks who attended the tailgate on Saturday. You braved the heat and the fireball shots and most of you walked away with no broken bones. That's more than you can say for Michael Strauss, I do believe. Props especially to the Curry folks, who turned out in force. Makes me happy to know the educators of the future know how to have a good time (and win at cornhole).

While the turnout at the tailgate was solid, and many wings were devoured, the turnout in Scott Stadium was, to put it kindly, atrocious. Yes, smaller crowds are to be expected against Richmond. Yes, smaller crowds are to be expected for a team who hadn't won in a year. The attendance was 34,533. And we all know that the official attendance is almost always high because season ticket sales count whether or not the person shows up (unless that's changed). In other words, the stadium was, in reality, less than half full. Seriously? What the heck are you people doing on a Saturday in September that is more important than supporting your beloved Wahoos? I promise you, I'll never get over bitching about the attendance. So you might as well just start showing up.

Alright, now that I've got those things out of my system...

Our defense is seriously fun to watch. At any given moment they might break the opposing quarterback. It wasn't exactly fun watching Michael Strauss struggle to get off the ground. He's a former Wahoo, so he's family. But it was fun watching what our defense could do. We somehow managed to get fewer sacks against the Spiders than we did against the Bruins... but I think we held their running game to negative total yardage for more than half of the game.

Since the game was never really in doubt, I don't have as much to comment on. But as always... some random musings:

• It was great seeing Eli Harold get the scoop and score. I can't believe he's a junior. Has it really been that long since he committed?
• It was also nice to get a little defensive scoring after watching someone else do it to us the previous week.
• Quin Blanding gets the first of what is likely to be many many interceptions. All is well in the world.
• Speaking of which, how ridiculous is our defensive backfield when you just look at names? Our senior cornerback is benched with an injury and we still have the aforementioned Blanding, All-American Anthony Harris, Maurice Canady, Brandon Phelps, Drequan Hoskey and Tim Harris. I realize not everyone listed there is performing at 100% of their potential. But its still a very solid list of players.
• Three rushing touchdowns by three different running backs. Two passing touchdowns, each thrown by a different quarterback and caught by a different receiver. Have to figure you won't see that kind of box score very often.
• In this week's box score weather update, the weather was listed as hot and muggy. Accurate, but not nearly as funny as it could be. Apparently.
• Completely unrelated to the game. The Maryland uniforms shown off earlier this week may actually be my favorite of all of their terrible uniforms. Probably because the Maryland flag is not as gaudily prominently displayed on them as usual.
• Personally, I thought Johns looked a LOT more comfortable than Lambert. Not that Lambert looked uncomfortable really. Just that Johns looked quite smooth.
• Watford on the other hand... really have to wonder what his role will be on the team come October/November. He's still a solid athlete. Maybe he can be holder so that Johns doesn't have to remember not to celebrate his TDs for too long when he's supposed to be holding the PAT? And also so that he can take off running as needed.
• Over two games, we're 7 for 8 on scoring points when we get in the red zone. Only 4 for 8 on scoring TDs when we get in the red zone. I'm not sure what those numbers are supposed to be (I'm sure Tiki will chime in) but the former number seems alright and the latter number seems a tad low.
• Do we have a fullback? Connor Wingo-Reeves and Vincent Croce are the two listed at that position on our roster. Neither has even a single carry, though they both appear on the performance report. Have I mentioned I like a bruising running game?
• Oh it feels so good to win a football game. Next two goals: Win against FBS competition and win against an ACC opponent. Which will happen first?