I haven't seen Toledo much this year but I've seen Marshall quite a few times, including Saturday's bludgeoning of a "packed it in" Ball State team. Leftwich could barely move. You would have thought Ball State would of continued to blitz and get to him sooner or later but Marshall reduced their lineman splits to decrease on penetration up the middle, and let Leftwich constantly throw to his check off people and short routes, and those guys made plays (kind of like Oakland). Hill is a capable backup but I have never seen him get pressured. Capable or not, he's no Byron Leftwich.
I think it will come down to this. Toledo has got to tackle. Byron will continue to get used to the pain but his shin is screwed up. They'll have to get to him from the outside, which will put a lot of pressure on Toledo's linebackers. Knowing Toledo as you do Hellah, you should have a pretty good gauge if the Rockets' strenghth on D matches up to what needs to be done to contain Marshall's O. Another tidbit, is I think Watts is hurt more than everyone is saying. He went down in the Miami game, came back and did the same this weekend. One thing for sure, he's a gamer and has equal the heart of Leftwich. He's their definite go to guy on in the red zone. However, if he's banged up, it will affect his perfomance.
Marshall did fairly well against Merriweather who I believe is a much bigger, power sized back than Toledo's backs. I also know that Toledo's quarterback is much better than what Ball State has. Especially, when it comes to making mistakes. That will be very important as I do think Toledo will have to throw the ball to prevent drives from bogging down. Toledo will move the ball, that's a given.
That said, the only intangible is how "up" Toledo will be for Marshall. I know, I know...it's the MAC Championship. However, Toledo has been balls to the wall now for a few weeks and last weeks game meant so much. If they come out flat, Marshall will have 21 on them before they know what hit them.
Of course, that didn't seem to matter last year.
I'm like you, I hope the number goes up to 7. If Toledo comes to play, it should be a tight game throughout, maybe OT.
:drinky:
