Monday positive vibes thread...

[Xenomorph]

1. The tailgate situation is legit. Regardless of the crowd size Saturday folks showed up and showed out with their setups. The walk from the Cotton District through campus and into the Junction is impressive.

2. Shoutout to AT&T. Not many seasons ago your phone would be dead weight in the stadium. Now service is not only available, it's fast.

3. We've improved our atmosphere in the stadium regarding how we use sound and the video screens. Replays, announcements, recognitions and music returning from timeouts are all done well. It makes for a compelling reason to get off the couch.

4. Lines getting into the stadium were quick and easy. I saw some AD staff whose job descriptions have nothing to do with gameday management working hard to get folks quickly through the gates.

5. This is the best group of WR's in my lifetime as an MSU fan. Maybe we've had guys who were better than anybody currently on the team but as a unit these are the best pass catchers we've had.

6. Our defense is capable of playing at a high level and I have as much confidence in our DC as any we've ever had on staff.

7. Will Rogers doesn't have to play much better for us to have an outstanding year. If he's in rhythm on 4 or 5 more throws that game is a blowout.

8. The first thing Mike Leach and his staff had to do when they got here was put out the dumpster fire. We were a rudderless ship under Moorehead. It's hard to imagine this group being down 28-0 after the first quarter and looking like they DGAF.

 

[aTotal360]

1a. Improved the pretzels.

 

[anon1787432961]

1a. Improved the pretzels.

The only reason I'm going to any home games this year again Lord have mercy I have a pretzel addiction

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Wait I thought Leeshouldhaveflanked said the Gameday experience sucked.

 

[mcdawg22]

9. Not that I want a lot of kick returns, but I haven’t looked forward to them this much since we had Tony James.

 

[Shmuley]

On #6, I'm gonna miss that guy.

 

[Chesusdog]

Tulu Griffin needs the ball. I don't care how the hell we make it happen it just needs to happen.

 

[Drebin]

Tulu Griffin needs the ball. I don't care how the hell we make it happen it just needs to happen.

I think they need to figure out how to get him 15 touches a game. He's a home run threat every time he touches the ball.

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

Just watched a replay of the game last night, and it confirmed everything I saw from my seat. I roll my eyes every time someone says “this scheme is awful and can’t work here.”

Because I just watched us go against a P5 defense easily the caliber of Arkansas, OM, and Kentucky, and we had guys wide *** open all night long. We easily left 20 points on the field just by making routine throws. The offensive system is getting guys free, waving to the QB in the end zone. This is not a scheme issue, no matter how much people whine about it. We just aren’t getting the ball to the open man right now.

 

[Faustdog]

Good post. Agree on all. We've got some serious talent at the skill positions. QB is serviceable. He left some points on the board, and we still dominated the game against a pretty good P5 opponent.

 

[Seinfeld]

I’d love to hear a special teams expert break down Tulu’s mechanics. I’m sure he’s plenty fast, but it doesn’t ever seem to be his speed that breaks things open for him. He has uncanny vision when it comes to knowing where the gaps are going to be

 

[57stratdawg]

I thought everything about the GameDay experience was solid on Saturday. Traffic wasn’t awful leaving campus after the game either.

I had dinner at Taste on Friday and it was good. Their bar program is the best in Starkville outside of maybe the Guestroom.

University from Downtown through the Cotton District is solid these days. It’s a great bar crawl if you’re looking for alternatives to tailgating. You can start at the CampHouse / The Grille and end up going through Humble Taco / Two Brothers / Bin612 / Uno Mas and suddenly you’re standing (or wobbling?) at the stadium.

 

[BlueRidgeMtns]

Just watched a replay of the game last night, and it confirmed everything I saw from my seat. I roll my eyes every time someone says “this scheme is awful and can’t work here.”

Because I just watched us go against a P5 defense easily the caliber of Arkansas, OM, and Kentucky, and we had guys wide *** open all night long. We easily left 20 points on the field just by making routine throws. The offensive system is getting guys free, waving to the QB in the end zone. This is not a scheme issue, no matter how much people whine about it. We just aren’t getting the ball to the open man right now.

Exactly. The explosive plays are there if we can just get the ball to our guys.

 

[Smoked Toag]

I thought Saturday was great. Forgot how awesome it is to tailgate for night games. It's been too long.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

Go fast. Avoid opposite colored jersey. Find End Zone.*

 

[The Peeper]

Quarterback is serviceable

That's not saying much against 2 early season non conference opponents. I'm afraid "serviceable" won't work once we start SEC play against quality teams

 

[DawgsOnTheWing]

Two throws that Rogers was just a little off on.....our first series when Walley is dragging across the field in the flat, and the diving catch that Dillon Johnson made down the sideline. Both had lots of green in front of them. If the throw to Walley connects, we are probably in scoring position right then with a chance to go up two scores quickly.

 

[patdog]

Funny. I watched us go up against a mid-level P5 defense and put up 17 points and not break double digits in yards gained until the middle of the 2nd quarter.

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

That's not saying much against 2 early season non conference opponents. I'm afraid "serviceable" won't work once we start SEC play against quality teams

Rogers has to get better, no doubt. But let’s not act like NC State is Alcorn. They are a quality team. They are picked to finish behind only Clemson in their division and were almost top 25. I’m not sure why our fans have this mindset that every non-SEC team we play is garbage, but every team that has an SEC patch on their chest is the 85 Bears. Bill Conley had the SEC as only the third best defensive conference at the end of 2020.

[Tweet] 1349113309723848704[/Tweet]

NC State is easily better defensively than Vandy. NC State is no worse defensively than Kentucky, Arkansas, or OM- all of whom we play every year. LSU is more talented on defense, but I have yet to see anything from them since 2019 that says they actually have a better defense than NC State. We don’t play Mizzou, South Carolina, or Tennessee this year, but all of them are definitely worse defensively than NCSU.

Yeah UGA, Bama, and A&M are all significantly better than NCSU, but we have always struggled against top 5 national defenses. Auburn is better than them too, but let’s not act like there is an unbelievably massive difference in the two if we’re being honest.

All that to say this… If the plays are there to be made to hang 35-40 on NC State, they should be there against 70% of our SEC schedule on a yearly basis.

 

[Xenomorph]

The Walley drag, the D. Johnson sideline dive and the Polk endzone decapitation. If Rogers is just slightly better on all three of those it's a shellacking.

Positive vibes.

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

Funny. I watched us go up against a mid-level P5 defense and put up 17 points and not break double digits in yards gained until the middle of the 2nd quarter.

Yeah, because we didn’t execute the routine plays.

Nobody is saying we don’t have to play better. Clearly our offensive production isn’t good enough or near where we want it to be. My whole point is you can’t simultaneously complain about us missing wide open chunk plays, and then turn around and say the scheme is garbage. The scheme is getting us big play opportunities- we just aren’t taking advantage. It’s an execution issue.

It actually gives me some optimism that we can comfortably beat a solid P5 team, while leaving tons of yards/points on the field. What happens if we actually start consistently finding the open receiver and making the routine throws?

 

[patdog]

You can find missed execution plays by every team in every game of football ever played. One being the missed 91-yard TD pass by NC State Saturday (see, that goes both ways). Get back to me when we're scoring points consistently.

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

You can find missed execution plays by every team in every game of football ever played. One being the missed 91-yard TD pass by NC State Saturday (see, that goes both ways). Get back to me when we're scoring points consistently.

Of course you can. But who has more right to gripe about offense- NCSU fans at the start of year 9 of Doran for only scoring one garbage TD, or State fans for scoring 17 at the start of year 2 for Leach?

Again, nobody says we are scoring points on a consistent enough basis. My contention is that the reason we are not consistent isn’t because the scheme doesn’t work.

 

[patdog]

Based on what I saw, if I'm an NC State fan, I'm ready to move on from Dorian. You're right, their offense looked worse than ours did (even though it did gain more yards). He made a couple of boneheaded coaching decisions too with the jump pass interception and not taking the holding penalty just before our 1st touchdown. I was not impressed with him at all.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

I have said it before, I hope Arnett is our next head coach. It seems these days OC's are falling out of the trees like acorns. Not so with top DC's. I fear someone will snag him at a top 5 -10 program soon as a DC. He will do well for a couple of years and then get a low power 5 high group of 5 job... By then we are probably 5-7 years in with Leach. I would love to see Leach hand the baton to Arnett.

Our fans love a boomerang. He will have some ties and I think Mississippi State's best chance of sustained success is having a defense full of assassins year in and year out.

 

[Drebin]

Based on what I saw, if I'm an NC State fan, I'm ready to move on from Dorian. You're right, their offense looked worse than ours did (even though it did gain more yards). He made a couple of boneheaded coaching decisions too with the jump pass interception and not taking the holding penalty just before our 1st touchdown. I was not impressed with him at all.

Their offense was pretty good the week prior. I agree that they didn't look good Saturday, but our defense had a lot to do with that. We took their running game away from them pretty much, and many State fans, I think, don't realize how talented we are at corner. If those guys stay healthy they're gonna have big years. Also, they came in with an elite offensive line prospect and Crumedy whipped his *** all night.

 

[Xenomorph]

There he is, boys!

View attachment 21758

 

[Dawgg]

This was our most complete game since Leach's game 1 vs LSU and the best performance we've had out of Rogers yet.

 

[Drebin]

Funny. I watched us go up against a mid-level P5 defense and put up 17 points and not break double digits in yards gained until the middle of the 2nd quarter.

By the time this year is up, you are going to realize that NC State has a really good defense. Probably better than all of Ole Miss, Kentucky, Vandy, and Arkansas, and maybe as good as Auburn's.

 

[patdog]

Agree that our defense was outstanding. We had guys I'd never even heard of making plays all night long, and a lot of guys I did know making plays all night long.

 

[dorndawg]

I really enjoyed Mike Golic Jr on the television call.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Will Rogers

<header class="Card__Header Card__Header--no-border" aria-label="Career Stats" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); display: flex; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-align: center; -webkit-box-pack: justify; align-items: center; justify-content: space-between; margin-left: 12px; margin-right: 12px; min-height: 44px; padding: 6px 0px; color: rgb(43, 44, 45); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: medium; border: 0px !important;">[h=3]Great completion %, protecting the ball. Showing marked improvement from last year. When he does start seeing the whole field at game speed, it's gonna be fun!

Career Stats[/h]
See All

</header>

STATS
2021
2020

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CMP	ATT	CMP%	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	LNG	RTG
72	96	75.0	664	6.9	5	1	40	148.2
239	346	69.1	1,976	5.7	11	7	51	123.5

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[Kojak.sixpack]

Punt returns...duh

Tulu Griffin needs the ball. I don't care how the hell we make it happen it just needs to happen.

How is he not back there field punts he could score 5-6 this year

 

[patdog]

Maybe. I do realize their defense is a lot better with #11 on the field than with him on the sideline though.

 

[The Peeper]

I'd wouldn't call 22 net yds rushing on 15 attempts "complete"

 

[Drebin]

Maybe. I do realize their defense is a lot better with #11 on the field than with him on the sideline though.

#11 is now out for the year. Dillon Johnson trucked that poor kid and left cleat marks on him.

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

I am choosing to believe we dominated a solid team in NCState. It remains to be seen just how down the ACC may end up being this year. No, the Wolfpack are not as good as ANY of our brethren in the SEC West.

The Dawg defense looked amazing against the run, but we still gave up some big pass plays and not just at the end. I do think our corners are spectacular against the run - all of them look to be hard hitters as opposed to arm tacklers - and they were pretty good in man to man coverage.

Our offense can move the ball but is still too inconsistent. Dumb penalties are one thing, but there are times when we can't execute worth a damn and that looks to be on squarely on Will Rogers. We CANNOT continue to suck on third downs.

We could have and should have put that team away by the start of the 4th quarter. Our offense lacks a kill shot and a killer instinct.

Overall, happy for the win. Game atmosphere was great. But I didn't get a pretzel.

Tulu probably won the game for us in the first 12 seconds.

QUESTION: How uptight fans and players would have been if we hadn't jumped out of the gate with those quick 7 points?

 

[horshack.sixpack]

I bet if someone offered free gold bricks, you'd complain about the weight of them.

 

[patdog]

Yeah, about those gold bricks, could you just transfer the Bitcoin equivalent into my digital wallet? **

 

[patdog]

That's probably as good a summation of the game as there is.