Okay, so the Eagles dropped a tough one, falling 41-23 to South Dakota, but let’s be real, a few guys absolutely showed up and gave us some serious reasons to cheer. After two weeks of special teams miscues, this unit finally woke the heck up, and our defense got a massive spark from sophomore safety Bryce Smith. These kinds of individual performances in a loss tell you a lot about the guys who are really grinding.
Special Teams Is Finally Cooking
This is where we saw the squad turn a corner. Freshman Morgan Dodson pulled off a perfectly executed onside kick, and redshirt senior Wesley Garrett was right there to recover it. Then you got senior Soren McKee absolutely drilling a 40-yard field goal. But man, Jaxon Bell? What a dude! Taking over return duties, this freshman instantly gave the offense way shorter fields to work with. Grad senior running back Malik Dotson said it best, “He’s a dog!” He ain’t wrong. Bell racked up 95 yards on four kickoffs and another 31 yards on a punt return. He even had two runs for 16 yards. Yeah, he had a 5-yard loss on a reception and a tough fumble, but his impact on special teams was just electric.
Bryce Smith’s Defensive Masterclass
While special teams got a boost, the real showstopper was sophomore safety Bryce Smith. This dude is a straight-up playmaker, leading the defense with 13 tackles, TEN of ’em solo! But his moment? It came with four minutes left in the second quarter, Coyotes up 10-0. South Dakota’s redshirt freshman QB Austyn Modrzewski tries a play-action pass at the goal line, lobs it to Jackson Accuardi, and Smith just REACHES out, gets one hand on it, tips it to himself, and hauls in his FIRST career interception! Seriously, redshirt senior defensive tackle Isaiah Perez wasn’t exaggerating when he called Smith “amazing. A great athlete. A great everything.” That pick was Modrzewski’s first in three career starts and his biggest miscue of the game. Through three games, Smith’s already got 30 tackles, just three shy of the team leader, and he’s leading the squad with three pass breakups. Talk about a lockdown safety!
Tackling Troubles and The Injury Bug Bites Hard
Look, the individual brilliance can’t hide everything. Head coach Aaron Best was blunt about the tackling issues on Saturday. He said, “It just seemed like every time we were in position, we didn’t make tackles, the standard-operation basic tackles, and they got behind us (on passing plays) a couple too many times.” That’s the stuff that kills you. And then there’s the injury nightmare at wide receiver. We were already thin, and then two more guys went down. Sophomore Sean Embree Jr. made his first college catch, a 12-yard first down, but came down wrong and had his arm in a sling after the game. One play before Wesley Garrett’s touchdown, sophomore David Cabrera got hammered trying to catch a pass. He tried to get up, then sat back down, and a cart had to come out. Man, you just hate to see it.
This team showed some grit, even in a tough loss. They gotta tighten up those tackles, no doubt about it. But with Jaxon Bell sparking the special teams and Bryce Smith being an absolute highlight reel on defense, there’s definitely something to build on. We need to heal up those receivers and get ready for the next one, because the heart is there, we just gotta execute.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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