I did think about it. Its incomparable. Beating a P5 is always nice, but 2-10 is a trash team that likely just beat their FCS team and a last-mid placed CUSA team.Originally Posted by HogDawg
|
|
|
|
|
I did think about it. Its incomparable. Beating a P5 is always nice, but 2-10 is a trash team that likely just beat their FCS team and a last-mid placed CUSA team.
.....so you're happier with the one-point loss? Yes or no?
(I told you to think about it.)
That is not the point, nobody is "happy" with a loss. Some can just see past it just being the P5 label though, and notice our overall competitiveness vs P5 is under Holtz becoming better each year. The wins mentioned are 2-11 Illinois, 2-10 Ole Miss, ans 4-8 MSU at home. Holtz has a 6-6 Illinois win. 3/4 against bad teams, teams that couldnt even get a bowl through academic standing. The worst (record-wise) P5 team weve played since 2014 when we got our stuff together is 5-7 Texas Tech last season. Should we have won the one point losses the last two years? Hell yes. Hopefully chips fall to allow one more shot at it this year in a bowl game, if not we'll just have to give it a shot next year with LSU and MSU.
I think we got robbed. On that last drive, if we get the first down, the game is over. We kick with 3 seconds left. At the same time, J'Mar did throw a pic the prior drive. If anything, Skip should have done something other than a straight dive on 3rd down, but a run is an okay call.
But I think Skips conservatism is hurting us beyond the last drive. This was a weird game. We shut out a SEC team through three quarters but lost. Offense must have stunk it up right? We punted twice, had 1 turnover (in scoring position). We moved the ball well all night. Where did the points go? We didn't have very many possessions! Let J'Mar and our playmakers play (Craft/Scott are good but aren't our playmakers). Throw it more. Go a little faster. 1 int hurts a lot more in a 7 possession game as opposed to a 12 possession game.
I'm not talking last year output, but damn, there is a happy medium between 20 points a game and 50 points a game. How many games have we ever won scoring under 20 points? Go for 30. If we only get 7 possessions, we have to score 5/7 times to get 30 points. Ain't gonna win many that way! Especially with a young offense. I hope the "ball control" theme goes away as we get into the weaker part of the schedule. From what I've seen, every team so far as had trouble covering Veal and Bonnette except MSU maybe. Running it and milking the clock takes them out of the game and is stupid IMO.
Milking the clock is not a smart move for us at this time, that's just not how we roll. The slowdown gets out of rhythm and does not help Jmar a bit, you can see it in his expressions and body language.
Just play lights out at our normal speed as if we have nothing to lose!
We need to keep our foot on the gas the whole game. Defense and offense. Clock burning and prevent D had gotten us beat more times than I care to recall.
I somewhat agree with you on this, just hope we don't make too many mistakes doing so to cause injuries or turnovers
I would argue the failure to run clock has gotten us beat more than that -
That was a circus catch that fails 9 out of 10 times, same thing with Ferguson making the sack
It's sports - things happen
I thought the last 2 games we've had excellent clock management - fact is make the first down and we run the clock to 0:03 to kick the FG or make the FG we miss or fall on one of the 3 other fumbles
Or if the make one of their two missed chip-shots, or don't drop the pick 6's they had in their hands or get away from the run and go pass for 3 quarters
They made TWO plays to win the ballgame after we had made four or five plays to win it
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
You call the pick when we were going for the TD conservative? If we had done a conservative call (run the ball) and hit the FG we would have the W, instead went for the TD and our QB rolls out and throws a pick... C'est La Vie. Easy to armchair QB/Coach, hard to win an away game at SEC, as long as the Defense that showed up the first 3 quarters (and 4th quarter WKU) plays the rest of the year and our Offense can be somewhat productive with a few one or two big plays we will be CUSA Champs at the end of the year.
I absolutely disagree about this game was meaningless for Skip. He wanted to win this game. There was no doubt who the better team was. USC got lucky and we were unlucky.
That being said, if we were offered an 8 or 9 win seasons + a bowl win consistently 10 years ago would have said YES? I am the first to criticize Skip, but I think our consistency is a testament to where we are now. Skip is bringing in recruits every single week, and not just one or two. I sit near the field and there are dozens of recruits every week at our home games. He is building a program, not a season.
Interestingly enough many of us thought this was a rebuilding year for Tech football. New QB, new WR, no Trent Taylor, no Carlos Henderson. Arguably our best defensive player is a TRUE Freshman! We lost a lot of our major firepower. Everyone here knows Trent Taylor was our goto 3rd down conversion machine. We still don't have a decent replacement for this production.
Before the season I wondered if we were in for another 2013 ride. It is definitely interesting to compare 2017 to 2013 and see the difference of how these two young teams are progressing through the season. I think that the 2017 young team is actually getting better each game!
It's the difference between:
Do you want an 8-9 win season?
or
Do you want an 8-9 win season, but you should have had 10-11 wins that you gave away?
They're objectively the same, but one tastes worse in my mouth (labg).
Just looking back at past coaches. We are justified in wanting Holtz to win more of these P5 games. Even Crowton and Bicknell had P5 wins with teams that couldn't stay in the building with the teams we have fielded in the last couple of years. JMHO.
I'm positive 99% of us want to win these Money 5 games (1% for pocket SEC fans and/or alumni); however, most of us are ready to run Holtz out because he's struggled to finish close games and yet has maintained good results overall
I would argue that Bick's team that went 7-5 in 2005 would of probably beat the last 3 bowl teams - the competition they faced and won against was that far superior to now
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
No way we should've lost the game. The last drive we had on offense was a double-edged sword. We were not running the ball well enough to move it and work the clock. Once we got into FG range Holtz had to decide if running clock was better than trying to score through the air, knowing the incomplete passes stop the clock leaving an additional 35-40 seconds for USC. If he throws the ball and we score he looks brilliant and no one complains but if not the complaints would come for leaving too much time on the clock. The bigger issue is our running game. There are times when you just gotta be able to run the ball and in that situation running the ball successfully either results in a TD or another first down which would've allowed us to run out the clock. Also we were 1/6 TDs in red zone. 2/6 we win and 3/6 we pull away. Our inability to run the ball (80 yds for game) hurt us in the red zone all day especially the last drive. Holtz's offense post Dixon has not been good on the ground but we have been able to throw for 400+ yds and score a bunch of points. Not so far this year - and we really need to be able to gain 150 yds or more per game on the ground. Just think how good we could be if JMar throws for 300 and we run for 150+.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
