Utah St. Game Thread

[DFWDawg]

I hate to say it, but I think all the senior day overhead really hurt us. Utah State was in the locker room putting all their focus on us. Our best seniors were on the field with mom and fam. If I was coach I would have postponed senior love to after the game. We were a whisker from an Orange bowl but no, we needed pagentry and distraction and a moved game time. When we got the ball, the sun was in our eyes, nice. This is one time I think we could have done away with tradition. It was the biggest game in the history of Tech. I knew when I walked in the stadium... There was no way the team could be focused. Just this once, I wish we would have focused on the GAME. I'll end it there.

[glm47]

Spangler can't teach instinct. Our guys take horrible angles. That coupled with our apparent lack of speed makes us the worst D in the country.
But with that said, our scheme is crap and our blitzes are pointless. Time for a change at DC.

Good observation, that has been happening all year.

[taeemwar]

The problem with the defense is we are slow! We need better athletes on D. 2 int's in the red zone and a blocked fg attempt are the difference. We had oppurtunities, but didn't capitalize. Still a great year for the Dawgs.

I agree. We need better athletes on defense. Our LBs are really bad. I keep hearing how great Fitte is but he not very good.

[DFWDawg]

I agree. We need better athletes on defense. Our LBs are really bad. I keep hearing how great Fitte is but he not very good.

No, we needed the offense to own the game. They did not and we lost. We knew we were not great on defense, but the D did pretty good. We lost on O. Sure we can wish what we had, but we knew what we were working with.

[Bigdog13]

No, we needed the offense to own the game. They did not and we lost. We knew we were not great on defense, but the D did pretty good. We lost on O. Sure we can wish what we had, but we knew what we were working with.

Giving up over 300 yards rushing and over 630 yards of total offense is not "pretty good" on any level. Don't pre-condition yourself to have incredibly high standards for the offense and amazingly low standards for the defense.

Now I too have low expectations for the defense and high expectations for the offense. But standards and expectations are not the same thing. I don't believe in "Relativism." Good is Good and Bad is Bad. 630 yards of offense given up is just plain UGLY. There is no getting around that.

[Brian96]

We have beaten 1 team with a winning record and that was UTSA, Utah State is better than us, they made the plays and we didn't. I don't fault Cameron, when your defense is as bad as ours the pressure is on to make plays.

<br><br>If you take away UTSA's wins over FCS and D-II schools, they have only won 3 games against FBS schools.<br><br>So, we are 9-0 against schools at .500 or lower, and 0-2 against schools with winning records.<br><br>"Defense wins championships," and we ain't got a defense, so it was a long shot to come up with a championship. (Not that I'm pinning this entirely on the defense; we definitely lost as a team. But our defense consistently keeps making average teams look like Oregon.)<br><br>Hate for the seniors to go out like this for their last home game. So many could have beens.

[Brian96]

Giving up over 300 yards rushing and over 630 yards of total offense is not "pretty good" on any level. Don't pre-condition yourself to have incredibly high standards for the offense and amazingly low standards for the defense.

Now I too have low expectations for the defense and high expectations for the offense. But standards and expectations are not the same thing. I don't believe in "Relativism." Good is Good and Bad is Bad. 630 yards of offense given up is just plain UGLY. There is no getting around that.

Agreed. Even if the D could have mustered holding USU to a still-way-too-high 500 yards, we'd have won this game. USU is no slouch; they rank 6th in the nation in fewest points allowed, and we hung 41 on them, 38 in one half. We scored more than 3 times the average they allow, and 2 touchdowns more than the second-highest scoring team they've played (SJSU).