...My thoughts....

[Bigdog13]

Total Team Loss. Offense, Defense, Special Teams, Coaches. (Refs)

Special Teams, yeah we ran back a kick but we also had a FG Blocked and Fumbled a Kickoff that led to a score.

Offense, Rolled up a lot of yards and if you score over 40 you should automatically win BUT you drive into the redzone and throw 2 picks in the endzone?? 1 into triple coverage and I am still deciding if the other can be considered quadruple coverage. 3 defenders for sure, 1 came in late. Those weren't great plays by USU. Colby wasn't under heavy pressure. Those were garbage picks. (Oh and no ones fault, and I LOVE Dixon, Holley and Lee, no doubt King is heavily missed. He is a home run hitter everytime he touches the ball. He would have mattered today.)

Defense, Finally came up with some big stops but overall another pathetic performance. Gave up over 300 yards rushing and over 630 yards overall. That is an inexcusable embarrassment. Sadly I think our fans are so used to poor defense they will actually try to pin this on the offense. Sorry, that's a no go. We failed on all levels today. That TD in OT was WAY too easy.

Coaches, We still can't figure out a way to have even a medicore defense??? Really?? Terrible play call on that last play in OT. No options, way too easy to snuff out. Again fool me once, shame on Spangler. Fool me all season, shame on Dykes. If he stays, my opinion of Dykes as a coach will be determined by what he does about our defense in the off season.

I could go on re: offense, defense and special teams but I will keep it brief.

OH, one more thing!

Refs, Sorry but anyone that didn't see that Patton was completely mugged at the end of the first half on what would have been a TD is BLIND. WR's mugged all game, their OL holding all game.

All that said, we wouldn't even be in this position if it were not for the hard work of the players and this coaching staff. I still love all of them. Since I have followed Tech we haven't won 10 games. We can do that this season. We win the bowl we finish with 11 wins. That is a hell of an accomplishment. 11 wins and back to back bowls is nothing to sneeze at. Let's make it happen Dawgs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aubunique]

Good analysis and honest evaluation and great advice. Thanks, Big DOG!
Gotta go beat San Jose and share the title.
Still could get get best bowl game ever!

[Bigdog13]

Good analysis and honest evaluation and great advice. Thanks, Big DOG!
Gotta go beat San Jose and share the title.
Still could get get best bowl game ever!

I agree Aub. Finish 10-2 and I still think we go to a better bowl than Utah St. does!

[Beaver-Dog]

Their defense was as good as advertised:bigcry:................and so was ours.

I'm not qualified to tell Dykes what to do about the defense, but something has to be done.

[LookingForResults]

We'll be a decided, and possibly deserved, underdog at SJSU.

[techman05]

The only ones who didn't fail tonight were the fans. We showed up and, for the most part, stayed to the end. I am convinced that our team will give 100% no matter how the game is going. However, you cannot make up for the fact that our defense obviously lacks in several areas, effort not being one. I am still up in the air as to whether it was ineffective recruiting(by the coaches) or ineffective coaches(also, believe it or not, by the coaches). Proud of our guys and I won't bail on them, but I will doubt this coaching staff until some major changes are made.

[Bigdog13]

We'll be a decided, and possibly deserved, underdog at SJSU.

I am worried where we will be mentally for this game. It could go two ways. Dykes will need to earn his money this week that's for sure. Again though, if we go 10-2, that is a hell of an accomplishment and a big step towards where we need to be. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

[RealityCheck]

If you had said before the game that Tech would be -3 in turnover margin I would have guessed a 2-3 TD loss.

That said, the three turnovers cost Tech 6-9 points...3 that Utah State did score and up to 6 that Tech could have scored on FGs. That was the difference in Tech not winning in regulation.

But there is no excuse for Tech to have been down 24 with 1:00 left in the 3rd quarter. Good teams can come back from that as Tech did. Great teams don't put themselves in that position in the first place.

If you don't appreciate what Tech has done this year, turn over to CBSSN real quick and look at all the fans disguised as empty seats in Hattiesburg.

[StrayDawg]

Great post, BD13. The defense needs to improve, but it can't all be blamed on defense. If we could take back the two picks in the endzone or the fumbled KO, it might have been a different ending. Defense tightened up in the 4th quarter, but we don't start games well on defense. Other offenses eat us up in the first quarter, probably because of something they have seen on film, but I don't know what it is. I think we have the same athletes as almost every team we play, so our troubles on defense could be attitude, scheme, or something else.

I think today's loss will end the talk of a BCS bowl and our guys will be able to focus on SJSU. I will be there next weekend if anyone else is going.

[Bigdog13]

If you had said before the game that Tech would be -3 in turnover margin I would have guessed a 2-3 TD loss.

That said, the three turnovers cost Tech 6-9 points...3 that Utah State did score and up to 6 that Tech could have scored on FGs. That was the difference in Tech not winning in regulation.

But there is no excuse for Tech to have been down 24 with 1:00 left in the 3rd quarter. Good teams can come back from that as Tech did. Great teams don't put themselves in that position in the first place.

If you don't appreciate what Tech has done this year, turn over to CBSSN real quick and look at all the fans disguised as empty seats in Hattiesburg.

Very true. And yes, 9-2 still tastes a HELL of a lot better than what the USM fans are drinking right now.

[PawDawg]

If you had said before the game that Tech would be -3 in turnover margin I would have guessed a 2-3 TD loss.

That said, the three turnovers cost Tech 6-9 points...3 that Utah State did score and up to 6 that Tech could have scored on FGs. That was the difference in Tech not winning in regulation.

But there is no excuse for Tech to have been down 24 with 1:00 left in the 3rd quarter. Good teams can come back from that as Tech did. Great teams don't put themselves in that position in the first place.

If you don't appreciate what Tech has done this year, turn over to CBSSN real quick and look at all the fans disguised as empty seats in Hattiesburg.

Good post.

We know our defense is bad. We've known it for a long time. If you had told me before the game that our defense would hold them to 34 in regulation, I'd had bet big money that we would win.

[LookingForResults]

I am worried where we will be mentally for this game. It could go two ways. Dykes will need to earn his money this week that's for sure. Again though, if we go 10-2, that is a hell of an accomplishment and a big step towards where we need to be. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

You will disagree, but my honest feeling is that if we lose to SJSU and end the season at 9-3 with no wins over a team with a winning record and being ranked dead last in the nation on defense, I will not take pride in this season. The national ranking, while brief, will have been undeserved and our ability to beat ANY team with a winning record will, for me, remain in doubt. I take no solace that things could be much worse. That's just me.

[Bigdog13]

You will disagree, but my honest feeling is that if we lose to SJSU and end the season at 9-3 with no wins over a team with a winning record and being ranked dead last in the nation on defense, I will not take pride in this season. The national ranking, while brief, will have been undeserved and our ability to beat ANY team with a winning record will, for me, remain in doubt.

Not sure where I stand on that comment. On one hand it is very valid when looking at the season by itself. But again IMO, our trip to where we need to be is a marathon and it's gonna take a lot of steps. This can still be a big one towards where we need to go. But standing by itself, yeah, a loss to SJSU kills this season unless we beat a good team in our bowl.

[techman05]

coworker of mine predicted we would finish 9-4. looking about right now. i hope not.

[Snapdawg]

Good defenses make good offenses make mistakes. Being behind a lot, needing to score a lot and often cause QBs to make mistakes, such as trying to squeeze some in because the thought is FGs won't get it done. This game is on the DS shoulders, period!