9/29: @UNT Game

[ChipDog]

I just read this entire thread, and I was very surprised to not see any posts about J'Mar not seeing so many of our open receivers against UNT. Maybe you guys couldn't see the field on the Bien telecast?

Suffice it to say, J'Mar had WIDE OPEN receivers ALL NIGHT LONG, and just flat didn't see 'em. He repreatedly thru to the wrong receiver. The reason J'Mar holds the ball so long is because he locks in on only one receiver, and then he waits and waits and waits, until that receiver gets open, or he takes a sack.

Folks, this is a real problem.

Someone sitting near me last night said that J’Mar hadn’t thrown to the open receiver. The guy next him responded with, I told you he was throwing to the right side, to which the first guy responded, yes you’ve called it right every time - how do you know? The first guy said, when we’re spread to both sides J’Mar has looked before the snap to one side - then the other way - and then back to the first side he looked towards, and then he’s throw to where he looked twice.

[glm47]

Moronic statement

What do you think our regular season record should be? What would satisfy you.

I say no worse than 10-2. And quite honestly, MS State is not that good, especially if they keep
Fitzgerald at QB.

[techman05]

Someone sitting near me last night said that J’Mar hadn’t thrown to the open receiver. The guy next him responded with, I told you he was throwing to the right side, to which the first guy responded, yes you’ve called it right every time - how do you know? The first guy said, when we’re spread to both sides J’Mar has looked to one side - then the other way - and then back to the first side he looked towards, and then he’s throw to where he looked twice.

That is sad.

[Blue Dawg]

What do you think our regular season record should be? What would satisfy you.

I say no worse than 10-2. And quite honestly, MS State is not that good, especially if they keep
Fitzgerald at QB.

Unfortunately it's irrelevant how good or bad State is. Holtz will be our coach when we travel to Starkville and that's all she wrote.

[ChuckK3]

So how many Tech fans were at Apogee last night? Looked like our folks showed up big time!

[Amos Moses]

I told my wife that it looked like UNT became the Bulldogs that we all know (except for Fine). Two crucial fumbles lost, bad penalties, giving up 5 sacks, having a critical FG hit the upright and then another blocked, and ultimately losing a game they should have won. When I heard the name Ken Antee (AKA Huckleberry Hound), I thought we were toast. Miraculously though, we only had one penalty from Huckleberry Hound's crew. It was a great win, but UNT got none of the breaks. It's about time we were on the good side of luck.

[johnnylightnin]

It’s a game of inches. Young teams lose close ones and more mature teams find a way.

Our coaches need to let our O loosen up. Sad that we looked a lot better against LSU than we did against UNT.

[ChipDog]

[Last night in the stands at Apogee]

Father - “Now that’s running the ball J’Mar, keep fighting for more yards - way to go!”

Teenage daughter - “Well dad, you got what you wanted, no slide down, and fighting for extra yards.”

Father - “Yea, but towards the sideline. I wish he would have been running up-field against the grain.”

Teenage daughter - “Baby steps dad, baby steps.”

[sportdawg]

Highlights https://watchstadium.com/videos/147066/

[HogDawg]

I’m glad we won. This win puts us in the drivers seat now in the West. Defense again made adjustments that worked to perfection. Having said that, there’s a LOT of things to be fixed. When you have an Oline as good as we have right now,you should be rolling on offense. Smith could literally stand in the pocket and knit a blanket with all of the time he had, and he either throws it away or for an incomplete pass on a lot of those plays. There has to be a check down route somewhere. If not, tuck the friggin ball and RUN!! It doesn’t make sense to me how we can have a Oline that is so dominating, but yet we are so anemic on offense.
There were a lot of great individual efforts tonight worthy of praise, but I think #1 has to go out to Bailey Hale. He hasn’t been great this year, but last night he made all 5 FGs. He misses any of the 5, we lose the game. Even though none of them were much over 40 yards, that was a clutch performance. Hats off to you sir. #2 was Ferguson. He completely mauled them last night. Even when he was double teamed, he was getting in the backfield.

"HALE" yes!!!

Your point is well taken. Congrats to Bailey Hale, who really stepped up and did his job extremely well last night against UNT.

I also agree about Ferguson. THIS was the Jaylon Ferguson I've been waiting to see for the last 2 years. He was an absolute BEAST last night. It's not an exaggeration to say Ferguson was the difference maker in the game last night.

[HogDawg]

Bonnette had his guy beat. The ball was badly underthrown.

^^^THIS!!!

[HogDawg]

At times, but he is adequate. He is not Tim Rattay (or Mason Fine even)... he needs help from the RB's to keep the chains moving and take some pressure off him to make almost every play. The good thing is he has about 3 or 4 stud receivers and a line that is good at pass protection. We probably won't light the scoreboard up, but are an above average offense. Dancy is crucial, imo.

After watching last nights game in person, my confidence in our receivers is SKY HIGH! We have some damn good receivers on this team. Much better than I realized. The problem offensively is J'Mar just isn't getting the ball OUT OF THE HOLE to 'em.

All the "J'Mar defenders" need to go back and watch this game on film, and see all the open receivers that J'Mar ignored. It was WILD last night. At one point last night, on 3rd down, we had a receiver WIDE OPEN on a 20-yd (or so) post route near the back of the far end zone to the right of where most Tech fans were sitting. No defender within 8 yds of him. But J'Mar threw the ball to another Tech receiver in the same "sight line", who was well covered, 10 yds shorter near the goal line. The pass fell incomplete of course, and we had to kick one of our 5 FG's.

LA Tech should have had 7 points there instead of 3.

That's what happened all year last year. If J'Mar's "chosen guy" gets open, everything typically works out fine. But if his "chosen guy" is covered, and he has to look to another receiver, we're toast.

[Houston Techsan]

"HALE" yes!!!

Your point is well taken. Congrats to Bailey Hale, who really stepped up and did his job extremely well last night against UNT.

I also agree about Ferguson. THIS was the Jaylon Ferguson I've been waiting to see for the last 2 years. He was an absolute BEAST last night. It's not an exaggeration to say Ferguson was the difference maker in the game last night.

Hale should be Special Teams Player of the week.

[HogDawg]

Not having Dancy certainly didn't help the running game. But Tucker stepped up and did a good job.

I think we have a good-enough OL to develop a solid running attack. It's the scheme, and the fact opposing defenses know Smith is no running threat. They don't have to account for our QB, they don't have to assign a spy to watch him and that is HUGE! Means they can scheme to defend with 11, not just 10.

Our running plays are all too vanilla and easy to defend. Actually, so is our passing attack. I know I could destroy Tech's offense if I were a DC. Crush it. The Dawgs would be hard-pressed to even cross midfield on a drive. So, you may ask, then why don't we see that from other DCs? It's because they don't have the luxury of knowing Tech's offense like I do. They have to scheme/plan for 12 opponents each year, in rapid succession week to week, and can't really study Tech's offense in that much detail. Then, of course, sometimes the defense does everything right and an offense can still make plays.

Anyway, what is clear is this. If Tech were to magically trot out a good QB, I mean an actual GOOD QB, this team would take off like a Saturn rocket...well, with one caveat, we still have a weak WR corps. But, I think that can be overcome with a very good QB.

I agree with most of what you say here. But I take serious issue with your comments about our receivers. After watching our receivers last night, I'm very impressed. The Bonnette catch over the back of the UNT defender was one of the best I've ever seen in person. Wow! And the rest of our receivers played well too. I don't recall any drops. But I do recall AT LEAST a half dozen badly underthrown balls (including the pass to Bonnette). And our receivers did a good job of playing "defender" when they had to.

[HogDawg]

This is our biggest problem in the run game. We run the same play from the same formation back to back. Sure it works for 5-6 yds on second down but we always get stuffed on 3rd and 2 because they know it is coming! We do this ALL the time.

True. LA Tech failed to convert on 3rd down and very short last night because --just like at LSU-- Skip Holtz failed to spread the UNT defense out with WR's on each side, and instead foolishly chose to just run against UNT's "9 in the box" defensive formation. That's just too stupid for words. Spread the defense out, and Tech picks up 5 yds on that play every time.

I think it's time for everybody to just realize that Skip Holtz is as horrible play caller. He TRULY doesn't get it.