- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 8,440
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- 16,363
Definitely not jumping off any bridges after last night. My disappointment in our approach to this season was already baked in after Navy, and the level of competition was extremely high mainly due to 1 exceptional player. And it looked to me like there had been a change of heart towards attacking the D and mixing things up to give our guys a chance to make plays.
Is it any surprise that asking guys to do new things or things in a different way on a different level might result in frequent failure? Of course not and that's what we saw last night. And to top it off we were attempting this shift in approach against one of the top attacking defenses in the country! So my disappointment isn't in the failure to execute right away as much as it is in the fact that we should have been doing this against Maine, Navy, Virginia in order to get our timing down. You have to practice this in the Fall and in game situations before shifting midstream and praying it will work against Orlando's guys.
Would we have beaten Houston if this had been implemented sooner? No way - but at least we could have shown some competence and given other teams more to prepare against and less incentive to pack it in from here on out. Our running game needs the passing game to be better. So despite the missed connections and the dropped passes we need to build on what was overall a good strategy. Whether it was a show of confidence in the players or desperation I don't know or care but we need to build on it instead of throwing it out after this game against this opponent.
Now to the flip side. Amazingly we dropped Ward early and had him taking a parts inventory. Houston did that and didn't let up all game. We did the opposite. Why anyone would think a containment strategy was going to work after last week's loss to Syracuse is beyond comprehension. We cannot contain Ward with our personnel and given time he will pick you apart. So he comes back and kills us in every way possible and there's no follow up on the early hit. Could we have shut him down? No. Could we have slowed him down? Who knows because we didn't get any athletes in their backfield to find out. I've never seen our linemen so gassed and the lack of pressure and the lack of rotating guys on the line was as disappointing as any aspect of the game. Again our secondary trying to hold down the fort but we all knew the outcome.
Coaches of course made some poor decisions again - afraid to take advantage of or create momentum by not going for first downs on 4th in Houston territory, and by my impression (didn't count) put us in 3rd and long because of being conservative on 2nd and long. IMO our 3rd down issues are largely second down issues.
So last night the coaches tried to let the guys make plays on offense and it largely failed. But the state of the program and the inability to make those plays work was determined well before practice this week. It was a mindset going on year 3 that believed we could squeak by with a mildly complementary passing game to our robust 1-2 punch running game. They were wrong and this is where we're at going into Cincy. And if the slide continues and we go back into RRPP mode we admit to a no progress year and lower expectations even further. Then you're in a cycle of fan apathy and recruiting drying up with a coach that had top recruits to work with when he was considered successful. That can't be an acceptable outcome for our new AD who had reason to expect better.
Is it any surprise that asking guys to do new things or things in a different way on a different level might result in frequent failure? Of course not and that's what we saw last night. And to top it off we were attempting this shift in approach against one of the top attacking defenses in the country! So my disappointment isn't in the failure to execute right away as much as it is in the fact that we should have been doing this against Maine, Navy, Virginia in order to get our timing down. You have to practice this in the Fall and in game situations before shifting midstream and praying it will work against Orlando's guys.
Would we have beaten Houston if this had been implemented sooner? No way - but at least we could have shown some competence and given other teams more to prepare against and less incentive to pack it in from here on out. Our running game needs the passing game to be better. So despite the missed connections and the dropped passes we need to build on what was overall a good strategy. Whether it was a show of confidence in the players or desperation I don't know or care but we need to build on it instead of throwing it out after this game against this opponent.
Now to the flip side. Amazingly we dropped Ward early and had him taking a parts inventory. Houston did that and didn't let up all game. We did the opposite. Why anyone would think a containment strategy was going to work after last week's loss to Syracuse is beyond comprehension. We cannot contain Ward with our personnel and given time he will pick you apart. So he comes back and kills us in every way possible and there's no follow up on the early hit. Could we have shut him down? No. Could we have slowed him down? Who knows because we didn't get any athletes in their backfield to find out. I've never seen our linemen so gassed and the lack of pressure and the lack of rotating guys on the line was as disappointing as any aspect of the game. Again our secondary trying to hold down the fort but we all knew the outcome.
Coaches of course made some poor decisions again - afraid to take advantage of or create momentum by not going for first downs on 4th in Houston territory, and by my impression (didn't count) put us in 3rd and long because of being conservative on 2nd and long. IMO our 3rd down issues are largely second down issues.
So last night the coaches tried to let the guys make plays on offense and it largely failed. But the state of the program and the inability to make those plays work was determined well before practice this week. It was a mindset going on year 3 that believed we could squeak by with a mildly complementary passing game to our robust 1-2 punch running game. They were wrong and this is where we're at going into Cincy. And if the slide continues and we go back into RRPP mode we admit to a no progress year and lower expectations even further. Then you're in a cycle of fan apathy and recruiting drying up with a coach that had top recruits to work with when he was considered successful. That can't be an acceptable outcome for our new AD who had reason to expect better.