Morning after thoughts

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

1. This team has been hanging on by a few threads all season, despite the record. Fitz being 75% of our offense. A secondary that would make a Big 12 team blush. The Fitz thread was cut and the secondary was abused.

2. Ole Miss came to play... dirty. Once they took out Fitz they did most of what they needed to win the game. Losing him was devastating to us and hard to recover from tactically, strategically, and emotionally.

3. Fitz has really solidified himself as a leader. Coming back on the sidelines and mentoring Thompson and cheering the team in despite all the pain and being loaded with painkillers was phenomenal.

4. Play calling was bad. We should have continued running Aeris and Hill every single okay. The third and three and fourth and three sequence was terrible. Pass on third with a green quarterback who had done little with throwing? Option on fourth? After his first fumble running him into the pile should have been avoided at all costs.

5. If I were the NCAA, this game does nothing to influence my decision. If anything, I'm thinking "Have these idiots learned nothing?"

6. If Mullen leaves, we'll be fine. If he stays, I'm fine with locking him up with a guaranteed contract with a symmetric buyout.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

You can't turn the ball over that many times and expect to win. Take away a couple of turnovers and we win that game.

Everybody knew coming into the game they were going to throw bombs all night and they certainly stuck to that game plan.

 

[Grove Sh*tter]

I'm proud of the bulldogs. I saw us playing from our plums until the very end.

Nick immortalized himself crutching out and emboldening the guys.

I think the officiating was absolute DOGSHIT. I'm still scratching my head on the PI call on 87 who caught the ball in open space, ran, was tackled....and THEN they threw a flag for offensive PI. Several bad calls, but that one totally cat17ed my brain.

In the end, even barring terrible luck, bad officiating, the loss of our on-field general, a turnover bonanza, and the stadium half-emptying, our guys never quit and were playing for the W to the last minute. God bless MSU.

 

[RiverCityDawg]

I'm proud of the bulldogs. I saw us playing from our plums until the very end.

Nick immortalized himself crutching out and emboldening the guys.

I think the officiating was absolute DOGSHIT. I'm still scratching my head on the PI call on 87 who caught the ball in open space, ran, was tackled....and THEN they threw a flag for offensive PI. Several bad calls, but that one totally cat17ed my brain.

In the end, even barring terrible luck, bad officiating, the loss of our on-field general, a turnover bonanza, and the stadium half-emptying, our guys never quit and were playing for the W to the last minute. God bless MSU.

This exactly. Matt Wyatt said it best in the post game show: They needed one of two things to have a chance - Tons of turnovers or Fitz to get hurt. They got both and still our guys never quit. All this other talk is pointless... It came down to those two things.

 

[Original48]

And the worst one had to be after the blocked punt. What an absolutely HORRIBLE call. Throwing it up for grabs completely destroying our momentum after getting the ball on their side of the field.

 

[ShrubDog]

The recipe for not turning the ball over last night would have been to not put a freshman qb into the mix but that was unavoidable.

 

[CoastDawg18]

Morning after and it still sucks. It's unbelievable to me that there are people on this board and social media putting this loss squarely on Dan's shoulders. When Fitz was hurt we became the underdog in this game. Yes we are a better all around team, but having the injury happen during the game is different that it happening last week and having Key ready and a game plan installed for him. Having to deal with this on the fly made us the underdog. We were no where near the same team on offense, key turned the ball over 3 times, and our defense was forced to play a lot more than they would have had to otherwise. It changed the game strategically and obviously it changed the game emotionally.

Yes some of the calls can be questioned, yes the defense allowed them to hit big plays, yes we had 5 turnovers, etc. Yes the HC is ultimately responsible for all things that happen during a game. Even so, I can't fault Dan alone for this loss. Key did not give us the playbook we needed and that significantly handicapped us. The game was lost on the injury, plain and simple. It sucks.

I really hope Fitz recovers fully and is able to lead this team next year. As some have said, him coming to the sidelines after that injury was pretty incredible. That was gruesome and had to be extremely painful, even with meds. He's shown his toughness on the field but this took it to another level. That was damn impressive. Get well Fitz.