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- Aug 24, 2011
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Shorter and slightly different format this week because there is only so much that can be said.
1. This season sucks. Second straight week that I've had to call off my tailgate and go to the game by myself because you can't expect normal people to cook and eat in heavy rain. As if there isn't enough wrong with this season.
2. The few bright spots first. Roberson looked more competent than he had. Not great, by any means, but more competent. Mora says he will get better with time. Maybe he's right. And hats off to Cam Edwards, in his first serious roll, showing that he was more than up to it. Obviously without Houston's or Brewton's speed, but a really nice job. Nice to see Cam Ross look like the Cam Ross from 7 seasons ago before all the injuries. And nice to see the OL start dominating in the running attack like last year.
3. If you ever wanted proof that we can't have nice things, not counting the year we didn't play football that's twice in 3 or 4 seasons that we've marched down the field to score a TD to tie a game in the last minute, and not convert an extra point to actually tie it. Do normal people have to see their team do that once in a lifetime?
4. I don't understand how it is possible for a defense to give up 22 yards in 28 minutes, make one unbelievably hair-brained play (more on that in a minute) and then totally fall apart beyond possible levels of sucking and give up 34 points and almost 400 yards in just 32 minutes. How does one blown play change you from world beaters to brittle losers? I don't get it. This defense returned 9 starters (all 4 on the DL, Mitchell, both Safeties, Bell and Shearin) on Defense, and have a number of starters who play less than they did last year because folks are pushing them for playing time. This is not a talent problem. Effort? Mental? Coaching? Someone smarter than me will have to determine that, and obviously our defense couldn't compete in the SEC, but the reason we can't shut down mediocre teams at home is not that our talent level is down from last year when we totally throttled BC and Fresno at home and did a more than credible job against Liberty.
5. I don't like to spend a lot of time criticizing play calling when others do, because plays are called based on so much information we don't have, and I had no problem with Mora going for 1 and the tie at the end of the game, but this is a poorly coached team. It just is. The great play by Cam Ross for 35 yards to get our drive started was a great play because two WRs ran the same pattern to the same spot. How can that happen coming off a change of possession? The blocked extra point was blocked by someone who blocked 3 kicks last year and 1 this year, and he blocked it not with a great athletic play around the edge but by running through untouched while the man outside of him was blocked. How can the coaches not be ready for that specifically, or ever have the wide blocker think that if you have two men to block you block the outside guy and let the inside guy run by you? How many times did we try to return kickoffs and lose yardage from what we get for free at the 25? Athletes make mistakes (I see you Aaron Bagsby), and sometimes you're in position and a player or two fails, but even if someone was blown by for the long score at the end of the half, how in the world with Utah State only having 1 TO left can there possibly not be anyone deep to stop a 30 yard play from being a 70 yard TD? And, on the play before we scored, how in the world do you spend your last time out before seeing if the refs are going to stop the game anyone for minutes to see if Rosa got into the endzone? We not only used up our last TO, but left too much time on the clock for after we scored for Utah State to come down and kick a FG to win. That's what I assumed was going to happen, not being smart enough to anticipate that we'd let an inside defender run untouched to the kicker. This is a poorly coached team. And it's hard to imagine how we thought it was well coached last year (not counting the people who wanted a more wide open offense even though we didn't have the personnel to run one).
6. I see no reason to think we will be competitive with Rice on Saturday. Maybe someone will prove me wrong but I'm not holding my breath.
7. Did I say that this season sucks?
1. This season sucks. Second straight week that I've had to call off my tailgate and go to the game by myself because you can't expect normal people to cook and eat in heavy rain. As if there isn't enough wrong with this season.
2. The few bright spots first. Roberson looked more competent than he had. Not great, by any means, but more competent. Mora says he will get better with time. Maybe he's right. And hats off to Cam Edwards, in his first serious roll, showing that he was more than up to it. Obviously without Houston's or Brewton's speed, but a really nice job. Nice to see Cam Ross look like the Cam Ross from 7 seasons ago before all the injuries. And nice to see the OL start dominating in the running attack like last year.
3. If you ever wanted proof that we can't have nice things, not counting the year we didn't play football that's twice in 3 or 4 seasons that we've marched down the field to score a TD to tie a game in the last minute, and not convert an extra point to actually tie it. Do normal people have to see their team do that once in a lifetime?
4. I don't understand how it is possible for a defense to give up 22 yards in 28 minutes, make one unbelievably hair-brained play (more on that in a minute) and then totally fall apart beyond possible levels of sucking and give up 34 points and almost 400 yards in just 32 minutes. How does one blown play change you from world beaters to brittle losers? I don't get it. This defense returned 9 starters (all 4 on the DL, Mitchell, both Safeties, Bell and Shearin) on Defense, and have a number of starters who play less than they did last year because folks are pushing them for playing time. This is not a talent problem. Effort? Mental? Coaching? Someone smarter than me will have to determine that, and obviously our defense couldn't compete in the SEC, but the reason we can't shut down mediocre teams at home is not that our talent level is down from last year when we totally throttled BC and Fresno at home and did a more than credible job against Liberty.
5. I don't like to spend a lot of time criticizing play calling when others do, because plays are called based on so much information we don't have, and I had no problem with Mora going for 1 and the tie at the end of the game, but this is a poorly coached team. It just is. The great play by Cam Ross for 35 yards to get our drive started was a great play because two WRs ran the same pattern to the same spot. How can that happen coming off a change of possession? The blocked extra point was blocked by someone who blocked 3 kicks last year and 1 this year, and he blocked it not with a great athletic play around the edge but by running through untouched while the man outside of him was blocked. How can the coaches not be ready for that specifically, or ever have the wide blocker think that if you have two men to block you block the outside guy and let the inside guy run by you? How many times did we try to return kickoffs and lose yardage from what we get for free at the 25? Athletes make mistakes (I see you Aaron Bagsby), and sometimes you're in position and a player or two fails, but even if someone was blown by for the long score at the end of the half, how in the world with Utah State only having 1 TO left can there possibly not be anyone deep to stop a 30 yard play from being a 70 yard TD? And, on the play before we scored, how in the world do you spend your last time out before seeing if the refs are going to stop the game anyone for minutes to see if Rosa got into the endzone? We not only used up our last TO, but left too much time on the clock for after we scored for Utah State to come down and kick a FG to win. That's what I assumed was going to happen, not being smart enough to anticipate that we'd let an inside defender run untouched to the kicker. This is a poorly coached team. And it's hard to imagine how we thought it was well coached last year (not counting the people who wanted a more wide open offense even though we didn't have the personnel to run one).
6. I see no reason to think we will be competitive with Rice on Saturday. Maybe someone will prove me wrong but I'm not holding my breath.
7. Did I say that this season sucks?
