My thoughts on the game yesterday

[patdog]

1. This is the best and most balanced Texas A&M team I've seen since they joined the SEC. Their game at LSU will decide the West. I think A&M wins it.

2. Turnovers (and lack of defensive turnovers) killed us. We were -2 and that cost us a minimum of 6 points, possibly 10. Both fumbles were inexcusable. You have to protect the damn football.

3. Malik Dear is going to be a star player for us.

4. I like the adjustments Manny Diaz made in the 2nd half. The defense played really well after the adjustments. But he's GOT to quit playing soft, read and react defense at the start of games and then getting more aggressive as the game goes on. We've given up 38 points in the first quarter this year, and only 51 in the other 3 quarters combined.

5. Not our game, but what the heck happened in Gainesville? Florida had been winning ugly against bad teams in September, then they all got the flu and took Mississippi to the woodshed.

6. Edited to add, this was a tough loss, but I'm not suicidal like a few on this board are. A&M is a very good team and it was on the road. I still think we win 8 games this year, and that's a good season.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

Also, I'll add averaging 17 points per game in SEC play is not going to cut it.

 

[tatedog]

Removing the Vandy blowout from the end of last season the 17 pt trend is pretty strong. 17 vs Arkansas (one TD being on a total busted coverage), 17 vs Ole Miss, 20 vs Bama (one TD in the last seconds that was pretty meaningless unless you bet the game). Granted, those were 3 pretty good defenses but the point remains, our offense of late hasn't exactly been a juggernaut.

 

[Dawgzilla]

A&M got pretty conservative on offense once they were up by 17. I do credit the defense for holding them to fieldgoals and not giving up the TDs, but if State's offense had scored more I think A&M easily puts up over 40 points.

A&M will not beat Bama or LSU, and they might lose to UMiss. State could get to 8 wins....but they need to beat Kentucky and Missouri to do it. They will have to play much better to do that.

 

[ronpolk]

A&M got pretty conservative on offense once they were up by 17. I do credit the defense for holding them to fieldgoals and not giving up the TDs, but if State's offense had scored more I think A&M easily puts up over 40 points.

A&M will not beat Bama or LSU, and they might lose to UMiss. State could get to 8 wins....but they need to beat Kentucky and Missouri to do it. They will have to play much better to do that.

They didn't get conservative. Allen just started missing on a bunch of passes. Probably had a lot to do with us bringing more pressure. Fact is them not just running the clock out is what kept us in the game.

 

[basedawg]

1. This is the best and most balanced Texas A&M team I've seen since they joined the SEC. Their game at LSU will decide the West. I think A&M wins it.

2. Turnovers (and lack of defensive turnovers) killed us. We were -2 and that cost us a minimum of 6 points, possibly 10. Both fumbles were inexcusable. You have to protect the damn football.

3. Malik Dear is going to be a star player for us.

4. I like the adjustments Manny Diaz made in the 2nd half. The defense played really well after the adjustments. But he's GOT to quit playing soft, read and react defense at the start of games and then getting more aggressive as the game goes on. We've given up 38 points in the first quarter this year, and only 51 in the other 3 quarters combined.

5. Not our game, but what the heck happened in Gainesville? Florida had been winning ugly against bad teams in September, then they all got the flu and took Mississippi to the woodshed.

6. Edited to add, this was a tough loss, but I'm not suicidal like a few on this board are. A&M is a very good team and it was on the road. I still think we win 8 games this year, and that's a good season.

Whew, finally I read a post that is right on the mark.

A&M was the better team but we had our chances, 2 fumbles, missed TD pass to Gabe, poor punting, and mostly the speed of the Aggies was way to much.

We lost more talent from last year than what we have right now, rebuilding this year and winning 7 or 8 games would be a win win for sure.

 

[Dawgzilla]

They started running more on first down and then having to hit downfield passes on 3rd and long instead of those quick plays to the edge that were working so well for them. Of course, they converted a lot of those 3rd and longs, too.

 

[TBone.sixpack]

I predicted 8-4 before the season and that is still doable. I am frustrated with the coaching to be honest. The Shumpert stubbornness. The first quarter feeling out by the defense. The lack of any urgency whatsoever.
Dan raised the expectations, and this is what you get with expectations. Sometimes I would love to know what is going through his head. He is baffling.

 

[civildawg88]

I predicted 8-4 before the season and that is still doable. I am frustrated with the coaching to be honest. The Shumpert stubbornness. The first quarter feeling out by the defense. The lack of any urgency whatsoever.
Dan raised the expectations, and this is what you get with expectations. Sometimes I would love to know what is going through his head. He is baffling.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I can take losing but I can't take losing because our coaches make bone headed decisions. I wish I could just sit down with Mullen while watching this film and ask him why would you do that there, what is going through your head in that situation. He just does some very stupid things at times.

 

[KeyserSoze1999]

As an Offense in football at the High School, Junior College, and University levels your goal is at least 28 points total for a game that is 1 Touchdown every quarter.

1.) Now MSU has the best QB that we have ever had.
2.) MSU has the deepest WR group that we have ever had.
3.) MSU has some of the best Offensive minds on staff that we have ever had.
4.) OL is serviceable, not great, but not our worst.
5.) RB we have several options here and these options need to be explored and used better. I firmly believe 1 of our top options is masquerading as a WR and the 2nd is sitting on the bench.

In summary we have way too much talent to be averaging just 17-19 points in SEC games. We have 4 WRs capable of having a 100 yard receiving game any given Saturday. But against Texas A&M we had 30 rushing attempts and 16 were by Dak himself, the other 14 were divided between 5 guys. To be successful we have to find 1 primary good RB who can take the run game burden off of Dak's shoulders.

The good news is that we have the talent to fix most of our problems---this is not like the Croom years where we knew the problems but did not have the personnel to correct the problems. 7-8-9 wins is still a possibly and should be the goal going forward. But just work the remaining schedule as a 1 game per 1 week approach, no more talk about "a 3 loss team will win the West" and no more Atlanta talk just practice to get better each day and worry about this week's game, that is really all a team can control.

 

[Shooter McGavin.sixpack]

Baffling is correct. It's definitely not all his fault. Our players made way too many mistakes to win that game, but the coaches are not putting the players in the best positions to be successful with some of their decisions. That's ultimately the head coaches responsibility.

 

[KeyserSoze1999]

I'm really hoping Dan has a 2009 Egg Bowl Tyson Lee / Chris Relf moment where he realizes that the less talented upper class man needs to sit down and the more talented under class man needs to play.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

For whatever reason Dan tightened up his butthole after the UK game. He's so afraid of Dak getting hurt that he's willing to lose games over it.

 

[BulldogBlitz]

Bottom line, Dan is the man. He has zero clue or care for defense, and if he doesn't have someone at qb pulling Tebow like stuff out, he isn't all that great on the O. Can we hope that la tech makes some wholesale offers on our coaches?

 

[BossDawg78]

The good news is that we have the talent to fix most of our problems.

But "will it be fixed" is the question. I've gotten to where I can't stand watching the offense play because it looks like they are too timid. It's got that "Careful!!! Be very careful!!! We don't NEED to score, just don't do anything stupid." feel to it.

 

[anon1787432961]

Next few games SHOULD be great scrimmages for us to improve

 

[notoriousD_O_G]

Next few games SHOULD be great scrimmages for us to improve

This is exactly what we need. A couple of games with less pressure to get some confidence and momentum. Maybe some of our under classmen can get a shot at taking starting jobs too. Starting the year with 2 or 3 cup cakes is a big help especially for a team with a lot of turnover like ours.

 

[patdog]

Agreed. I think were going to see younger guys like Dear, Aries & Lee got more touches on offense in the next few weeks.

 

[KeyserSoze1999]

I agree there is not much attacking nature to our Offense now. We need some hard hitting runs by someone, that will open up misdirection plays and play action passing.

But right now we do not have one play or one player that the opposing Defense fears.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I give a little credit to the aTm DEs and two turnovers that were at really bad moments in the game at keeping us at 17 points. But that's just me.

I am more worried about OL and Myles injuries right now and glad we have two easier opponents at home to hopefully fix that.

 

[Shmuley]

Not buying the aTm hype yet. The west will come down to Nov 7 in Tuscaloosa. aGAIN.

 

[patdog]

I'm not buying any hype either. From what I've seen so far this year, A&M is a more complete team than anyone else in the West. I just really don't see any weaknesses and they have standout talent at several different positions. Simple as that.

 

[kired]

I still think the west beats up on itself and no one finishes with less than two losses.