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Before the season started, I wrote that I didn't know what to make of this team. During the season, it was often hard to decide what to make of this team. So, I should not be at all surprised that, yesterday, with the season on the line, I don't know what to make of that game and our effort. Were we totally outmanned, outschemed, out desired and generally outclassed by a team we shouldn't have thought we could beat? So I should view the second half as meaningless garbage time after the result had been decided? Or did we see two individual horrific mistakes by one player dig us a 14 point hole, send the team into an emotional tailspin, and when we climbed out of it we got within one score but it was too little too late because players didn't make plays that were available to them? While I imagine it's some of both, the analysis is really different depending on which way you saw the game.
If you saw it the former way -- that we sucked -- you ignore the entire second half and just focus on what you saw in the first. Which was a QB unable to play on this level. An OL that looked like it didn't give a crap. A defense that was often uninterested and uninspired. Coaches who didn't have their team ready to play emotionally, hadn't been able to eliminate mistakes through a three month season and couldn't recognize quickly enough (not for the first time) that when a team sells out to stop McCombs you can beat them with play action, and that it would be o.k. to give up some rushing yards now and then to stop a team from carving us up through the air like a gourmet chef carving up a Holiday turkey. We were awful. We were down 28-6, it wasn't 28-3 only because we ended the half with a gift FG on a ridiculous rushing the passer call and you would never see how we went 8-4 last year with largely the same players, and competed in most of our games this year against opponents not greatly inferior to yesterday's Bearcats.
On the other hand, you could just as easily see the game as we didn't know how well the team was prepared or schemed in the first half because when JM singlehandedly handed the other team 14 points (and it was very close to singlehandedly -- neither of those playes required us to be in any trouble whatsoever) we saw a hole too deep for the way we play (especially having lost McCummings as well) and what we saw was a team with no focus, intensity or emotion get beat upon. Then, to their credit, the coaches got everyone focused at half time and we saw a team able to crawl back into the game, but not do what it had to do (which was to take advantage of every opportunity you had to make a play) to actually let us win. That includes Ryan Griffin making another huge fumble. That inclued Tebucky Jones not completing the TD catch (and he didn't). It includes Geremy Davis not slowing down when he broke open on a playaction route (I actually think that ball was thrown perfectly, but Davis didn't run the play at full speed). It includes Trevardo Williams, having been frustrated most of the game, not just whiffing on a sack where he came in clean (because that can happen) but, inexcusably, letting the QB avoid him by going to the outside, rather than the inside, turning a huge loss into Cincy's final TD. It includes, as I'm used to, burning time outs earlier than you need to. And it includes, on the final drive, not having 9 in the box and determining that if Cincy was going to run the clock out they were going to have to put it in the air to do it. I could go on and on. The second half was a solid effort, but not one where we took advantage of every opportunity. And, when you're 22 down, you are only coming back if you take advantage of every opportunity.
So, which of those two was it? Don't know and, with the season over and me worn down, largely don't care. I know this -- we lost both the LV game and the Cincy game without giving up huge amounts of total yardage because, as much as any other factor, we didn't force a FG attempt in either game. From a bend but don't break defense we went to one that, the moment you bent it, you were getting into the end zone. I'll look up our redzone TD allowed percentage when I review the year in a week or so, but without having done it feel free to compare those two numbers and explain the difference to me. I know this board loves "either or" conclusions, but I'm able to give the staff a pass for our offensive issues, as they inherited an offense without playmakers and tried to install what they believe will be better systems for the future. I have a lot less sympathy for our coaching on the defensive side of the ball. We had too many players have issues with the schemes, and not play as well individually as they had in the past. Might it be better next year? Sure. I understand what happened at Maryland. But you will never, never convince me that this team didn't go bowling this year if Brown had said to Hughes "I recognize you're returning nine starters from a unit that might be outstanding this year. Let's see how your way works and we'll talk about how to modify it after the season." Having said that, to be clear, while I thought we were outcoached on Saturday, that is not why we lost. We lost because their players played better, much better, than our players. Although we'll never know if it would have looked that way if JM just threw the ball away on both plays we turned it over and we were down 3-0 instead of 14-0 early.
I'm not doing offense, defense and specials because I've said most of what I have to. But let me add a few notes. Great way to cap a career for Dave Teggart. Four for four for the game, and his fourth 50 yard plus FG without a miss from that distance. It would have been nice, however, if the Chad Christen or Cole Wagner who kicked last week, or our KO coverage unit, bothered to show up. The D did not play poorly overall, but, as we've done repeatedly, 320 yards allowed can't turn into 21 pure offensive points. We have to learn to make stops in the red zone, which we just sucked at this year. On O, Greene and Masters just seemed to get obliterated by Cincy's DTs, but it seemed like instead of letting Petrus help them he spent most of the game looking for LBs to block.
So that's it. Frustrating game, frustrating season and not even sure whether to scream about the loss or just blame it on a funk created by JM's screwups. D returns 9 starters again. O loses 5, but is much better off at the skill positions going into next year than this one (every QB is back and more experienced and, if no one emerges to help McCombs, we still know we have a quality, if not star, BE TB in the fold). We'll see if the players and coaches can meld together better, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
As I said, I'll try to analyze the season in a week or so. After the hurt and frustration is gone.
If you saw it the former way -- that we sucked -- you ignore the entire second half and just focus on what you saw in the first. Which was a QB unable to play on this level. An OL that looked like it didn't give a crap. A defense that was often uninterested and uninspired. Coaches who didn't have their team ready to play emotionally, hadn't been able to eliminate mistakes through a three month season and couldn't recognize quickly enough (not for the first time) that when a team sells out to stop McCombs you can beat them with play action, and that it would be o.k. to give up some rushing yards now and then to stop a team from carving us up through the air like a gourmet chef carving up a Holiday turkey. We were awful. We were down 28-6, it wasn't 28-3 only because we ended the half with a gift FG on a ridiculous rushing the passer call and you would never see how we went 8-4 last year with largely the same players, and competed in most of our games this year against opponents not greatly inferior to yesterday's Bearcats.
On the other hand, you could just as easily see the game as we didn't know how well the team was prepared or schemed in the first half because when JM singlehandedly handed the other team 14 points (and it was very close to singlehandedly -- neither of those playes required us to be in any trouble whatsoever) we saw a hole too deep for the way we play (especially having lost McCummings as well) and what we saw was a team with no focus, intensity or emotion get beat upon. Then, to their credit, the coaches got everyone focused at half time and we saw a team able to crawl back into the game, but not do what it had to do (which was to take advantage of every opportunity you had to make a play) to actually let us win. That includes Ryan Griffin making another huge fumble. That inclued Tebucky Jones not completing the TD catch (and he didn't). It includes Geremy Davis not slowing down when he broke open on a playaction route (I actually think that ball was thrown perfectly, but Davis didn't run the play at full speed). It includes Trevardo Williams, having been frustrated most of the game, not just whiffing on a sack where he came in clean (because that can happen) but, inexcusably, letting the QB avoid him by going to the outside, rather than the inside, turning a huge loss into Cincy's final TD. It includes, as I'm used to, burning time outs earlier than you need to. And it includes, on the final drive, not having 9 in the box and determining that if Cincy was going to run the clock out they were going to have to put it in the air to do it. I could go on and on. The second half was a solid effort, but not one where we took advantage of every opportunity. And, when you're 22 down, you are only coming back if you take advantage of every opportunity.
So, which of those two was it? Don't know and, with the season over and me worn down, largely don't care. I know this -- we lost both the LV game and the Cincy game without giving up huge amounts of total yardage because, as much as any other factor, we didn't force a FG attempt in either game. From a bend but don't break defense we went to one that, the moment you bent it, you were getting into the end zone. I'll look up our redzone TD allowed percentage when I review the year in a week or so, but without having done it feel free to compare those two numbers and explain the difference to me. I know this board loves "either or" conclusions, but I'm able to give the staff a pass for our offensive issues, as they inherited an offense without playmakers and tried to install what they believe will be better systems for the future. I have a lot less sympathy for our coaching on the defensive side of the ball. We had too many players have issues with the schemes, and not play as well individually as they had in the past. Might it be better next year? Sure. I understand what happened at Maryland. But you will never, never convince me that this team didn't go bowling this year if Brown had said to Hughes "I recognize you're returning nine starters from a unit that might be outstanding this year. Let's see how your way works and we'll talk about how to modify it after the season." Having said that, to be clear, while I thought we were outcoached on Saturday, that is not why we lost. We lost because their players played better, much better, than our players. Although we'll never know if it would have looked that way if JM just threw the ball away on both plays we turned it over and we were down 3-0 instead of 14-0 early.
I'm not doing offense, defense and specials because I've said most of what I have to. But let me add a few notes. Great way to cap a career for Dave Teggart. Four for four for the game, and his fourth 50 yard plus FG without a miss from that distance. It would have been nice, however, if the Chad Christen or Cole Wagner who kicked last week, or our KO coverage unit, bothered to show up. The D did not play poorly overall, but, as we've done repeatedly, 320 yards allowed can't turn into 21 pure offensive points. We have to learn to make stops in the red zone, which we just sucked at this year. On O, Greene and Masters just seemed to get obliterated by Cincy's DTs, but it seemed like instead of letting Petrus help them he spent most of the game looking for LBs to block.
So that's it. Frustrating game, frustrating season and not even sure whether to scream about the loss or just blame it on a funk created by JM's screwups. D returns 9 starters again. O loses 5, but is much better off at the skill positions going into next year than this one (every QB is back and more experienced and, if no one emerges to help McCombs, we still know we have a quality, if not star, BE TB in the fold). We'll see if the players and coaches can meld together better, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
As I said, I'll try to analyze the season in a week or so. After the hurt and frustration is gone.
