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For the second straight game, I found that a strange game to sit through. Competitive, and coming down to the end, but strange. Let’s start with the obvious. Yes, that was pass interference by the book, and yes, if the flag comes down there I gave us far better than even odds to force OT. BUT, it’s asking a lot for refs to make a judgment call like that with the game on the line at the end, and while the PI was obvious it didn’t help that I’m not sure the wideout could have gotten to the pass anyway. So, while I know this doesn’t make sense, while it was a penalty I don’t blame the refs that much for swallowing the whistle. The strangeness, however, is that we had every chance to win that game inside the final 2 minutes, but it felt (at least to me) that they outplayed us by a great deal over the course of the game, such that I really don’t understand how we had that good a chance to win at the end. Which, to me, just made it a strange game. But I was clear before — this was the game of the season, and we didn’t get it done (and didn’t show that we were the better team). So the season is tempered, at least until a bowl game gives us an opportunity. But play the hand you’re dealt — win out against 4 poor teams (excluding Syracuse on both counts), take your improvement from last year and see what the postseason brings. And it has to start against Rice, where a loss would be devastating on a different level than yesterday’s.
Offense, defense and specials starting with the offense this week. Bottom line is, just like last game, it got much better as the game ended (because the other team’s D played looser? Got tired? Or did we play better?) but it was nowhere near good enough for most of the game, The total inability to run even a lick is hard to fathom. I don’t understand it so I won’t even bother to try to explain it. Nice to see a third WR, and a TE, step up, but Bell didn’t look like Bell (not sure whether it was ankle, an outstanding corner on the other team or being doubled) and the QB …. I’m not going to weigh in on the controversy about which QB gives us a better chance to win anymore because until either JF plays against Syracuse or Evers plays against a crappy opponent we have nothing but instincts with which to make a fair comparison and that ground has been plowed multiple times. But I will say this — if Evers can’t run, the whole thing changes. Now, maybe he couldn’t run yesterday because we couldn’t run at a team, and it has nothing to do with the concussions, but that isn’t my instinct. We’ll have to see.
Saying how the D did is hard, because the weirdness of their offense was such that it looked like we were way too passive throughout. But, if you look at total yardage allowed (against a P-4 team that is far better offensively than defensively), points allowed (especially considering how many 3 and outs our offense had, and how many times Wake started at or over the 50), the end result was not dominant but, frankly, pretty good. Even though it didn’t seem that way. And even though they had a QB who made at least 3 plays where the rush got to him and he made a good play out of it anyway. I’m not sure I understand the strategy of being that passive against a TB standing behind the line holding the ball and not going anywhere, but the results were not bad.
Nice KO return by Mel Brown when he got a chance after the unsportsmanlike penalty, another good game by Freeman, including one over 50 (any second guessing there is long past its shelf like — sorry for my part coach), but in addition to the shanked punt the lack of hang time led to too much return time. We lost a lot of yardage between their unit and ours.
That’s it for now, because I’m out of time. The remaining two home games don’t give us a chance for a big win, but we need to get them, get bowl eligible and set us up to win in Birmingham and Syracuse. Have a good week all.
Offense, defense and specials starting with the offense this week. Bottom line is, just like last game, it got much better as the game ended (because the other team’s D played looser? Got tired? Or did we play better?) but it was nowhere near good enough for most of the game, The total inability to run even a lick is hard to fathom. I don’t understand it so I won’t even bother to try to explain it. Nice to see a third WR, and a TE, step up, but Bell didn’t look like Bell (not sure whether it was ankle, an outstanding corner on the other team or being doubled) and the QB …. I’m not going to weigh in on the controversy about which QB gives us a better chance to win anymore because until either JF plays against Syracuse or Evers plays against a crappy opponent we have nothing but instincts with which to make a fair comparison and that ground has been plowed multiple times. But I will say this — if Evers can’t run, the whole thing changes. Now, maybe he couldn’t run yesterday because we couldn’t run at a team, and it has nothing to do with the concussions, but that isn’t my instinct. We’ll have to see.
Saying how the D did is hard, because the weirdness of their offense was such that it looked like we were way too passive throughout. But, if you look at total yardage allowed (against a P-4 team that is far better offensively than defensively), points allowed (especially considering how many 3 and outs our offense had, and how many times Wake started at or over the 50), the end result was not dominant but, frankly, pretty good. Even though it didn’t seem that way. And even though they had a QB who made at least 3 plays where the rush got to him and he made a good play out of it anyway. I’m not sure I understand the strategy of being that passive against a TB standing behind the line holding the ball and not going anywhere, but the results were not bad.
Nice KO return by Mel Brown when he got a chance after the unsportsmanlike penalty, another good game by Freeman, including one over 50 (any second guessing there is long past its shelf like — sorry for my part coach), but in addition to the shanked punt the lack of hang time led to too much return time. We lost a lot of yardage between their unit and ours.
That’s it for now, because I’m out of time. The remaining two home games don’t give us a chance for a big win, but we need to get them, get bowl eligible and set us up to win in Birmingham and Syracuse. Have a good week all.
