back from the game...my observations...

[Frances Drebin]

I'm going to choose to believe that tonight was a case of being flat after a big victory last week. It's good to come out of these things with a win, and it's very nice to be bowl eligible. That said, we still have issues.

Defense is a problem. Our zone is too soft. If teams go to trips formation, we leave a guy uncovered every time. If we blitz, we better get to the QB or we will get gashed. This is a potentially catastrophic weakness for when we play Arkansas, and maybe even Kentucky.

Playcalling is also a problem. Too many first down pass calls, when we've got a QB who couldn't throw it into the ocean if he was standing ankle deep in it. Run the ball, get into some second and short, then take some chances. When 1st and ten becomes 2nd and ten and then 3rd and eight, yeah, we're going to struggle, no matter who we play. This is on Mullen.

I know we were down a couple of starters on the offensive line, but we've got to block better against a middling C-USA team. This is a team that lost to SMU, Central Florida, and Florida Atlantic (on their home field), and maybe worst of all: they lost to Tennessee, too. We should've had our way with them.

Kentucky concerns me. I know we run the ball well and they struggle to stop the run, but on the flip side, we are terrible against the pass right now, and they can fling it around pretty good. That one could get a little unnerving.

All that said, it still feels good to be bowl eligible, with some winnable games and a bye week still ahead of us. We've got to address some of these issues, though.

 

[SyonaraStanz]

I think we're no where near as good as we thought we were, and Florida is really 17'in terrible.

Relf is killing us with his lack of accuracy and decision making. We had guys open tonight, and he was too skiddish to throw it.

I really don't see us winning another game, not as long as we play at that level on defense.

 

[Todd4State]

Relf, God love him, really REALLY limits us. I think we have some talented WR's- like Bumphis, Carr, Heavens, Clark and maybe even Chris Smith, but the only way we can get them the ball is to freaking hand it off to them. How pitiful is that? They're getting open, and they're catching the ball when it comes in their area code- which is about the best Relf can do.

And if those "five horsemen" or whatever they were called when they were being recruited could actually pass block for a change, that would help a lot as well. More like "Sherrod and the four jackasses". I mean, JC Brignone is a freaking senior snapping balls and Relf's feet.

And then Sean Brauchle- can you please freaking not kick the ball out of bounds? And it is a minor miracle that we haven't given up a kickoff return for a TD.

What I thought was interesting about tonight- the guys that stepped up for us tonight- DePasquale, Perkins, and then Carr for making the hit to cause the fumble on the kickoff and then Nikoe Whitley who recovered- are all freshmen or were brought in by Dan. Whitley has arguably made the two most important plays of the season for us- the hit at the goal line vs Georgia and then the fumble recovery tonight.

The defense had a ploethora of missed tackles. If there was a positive tonight, I saw them hit harder than they have all year.

Also, those officials were horseshit. I don't know if they were on the take for C-USA, but we had almost twice as many penalties as UAB. This is the second year in a row where a C-USA crew tried to screw us over.

 

[mstatefan88]

I've heard that Balis really drove the team hard this week, including making the defense stay after a ton in practice this week. That was the 1st game we really got dominated at the line of scrimmage, and it was against UAB. Missing tackles, looking slow, Relf not finishing runs, lineman getting pushed around. We look very tired right now.

I think we wanted to attempt to pass first tonight with Relf because we are going to have to pass tohang withKentucky's offense. That game is going to be a shootout, and with their ability to score fast, we aren't going to be able to count on us scoring 4 or 5 touchdowns on smash mouth, running the football 10-12 times on a drive type of football. We have to throw it. We finally ran a damn bubble screen to Bumphis, and what do you know, it worked.

We need a week off badly because the team has played their asses off. But we get UK now, and I don't expect us to look like that when they come to Starkville. Not a pretty win, but i sure as hell would rather be us today than UAB. We got the win, and now we will end up probably 22nd in the nation heading into the UK game.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Both the Oline and Dline were getting dominated all night. There's no excuse to get dominated on both sides of the ball on the line by a CUSA team.

I hate the playcalling. Why do we feel the need to pass three times in a row to start a drive? We looked like **** on offense but alot of the poor execution on run plays was because the offensive line was collapsing and not creating the holes to run in. It was pretty bad. I did think that the option play to score the TD from the weak side was a great call.

DePasquale is the player of the game. Great kicks. Was worried about that last one from the right hash because they had all been left hash previously but he nailed it right down the middle.

Bottom line we won a game where we played like total **** after a big win. Better be ready for next week because the mistakes will be more damaging against KY.

 

[57stratdawg]

I hate the playcalling. Why do we feel the need to pass three times in a row to start a drive? We looked like **** on offense but alot of the poor execution on run plays was because the offensive line was collapsing and not creating the holes to run in. It was pretty bad. I did think that the option play to score the TD from the weak side was a great call.

It has to eat Dan Mullen alive to see those WRs being open, but Relf missing them. I dont have a problem with the calling the pass plays, because our offense would be unstoppable if we could start completing those.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

It doesn't help when your QB can't the water in the ocean. He threw a spot pass for a WR screen in the ground in front of the receiver. No excuse.

 

[Frances Drebin]

...and when you drop him back to pass on first and ten, it just kills the drive. I say this at the risk of Coach34 coming and hijacking this thread, but Relf is a liability, no doubt about it.

 

[dawgman42]

Soft zones, no pressure by the front four, and just an all-out bad game by our LB's. Ole JK couldn't tackle worth crap last night, and White consistently shot the gap wrong and basically was a non-factor on the blitz. Boyd and Cox couldn't push back a freaking CUSA line (props to UAB's OL, because they had a great game). Diaz had a terrible game plan last night. Our guys were not prepared for what they saw, and they played like they expected the other group (offense, special teams) to bail them out. Mullen has to get all three areas focused on Kentucky this week, or the visitor will win this game as usual.

 

[Todd4State]

I have heard on ESPN and NFL Network that after you recover a turnover, that's a good time to throw the ball downfield because of the quick turnaround. Well, when we screw that up, the other team is thinking- "OK, they've GOT to run it here, right?" So, we decide to be unpredictable and throw on second down. So, after we screw that up, it's third and 10, and we HAVE to throw.

I agree, it's bad playcalling, but I see where they're coming from. Even though I don't agree with it. Teams have to figure we're going to run 90% of the time anyway.

 

[Todd4State]

I don't think UK can stop our rushing attack. If we can contain their passing, we should win.

 

[Todd4State]

I hate the playcalling. Why do we feel the need to pass three times in a row to start a drive? We looked like **** on offense but alot of the poor execution on run plays was because the offensive line was collapsing and not creating the holes to run in. It was pretty bad. I did think that the option play to score the TD from the weak side was a great call.

It has to eat Dan Mullen alive to see those WRs being open, but Relf missing them. I dont have a problem with the calling the pass plays, because our offense would be unstoppable if we could start completing those.

I don't have a problem calling pass play because 1913 is over.

 

[chew1095]

I don't think UK can stop our rushing attack. If we can contain their passing, we should win.

UGA only threw the ball 12 times. Get the O line healthy. Get Ballard back. We will be fine.

BTW, Locke has not played the last two weeks for Kentucky. Anyone know what the problem is?

 

[dudehead]

I've heard that Balis really drove the team hard this week, including making the defense stay after a ton in practice this week. That was the 1st game we really got dominated at the line of scrimmage, and it was against UAB. Missing tackles, looking slow, Relf not finishing runs, lineman getting pushed around. We look very tired right now.

I think we wanted to attempt to pass first tonight with Relf because we are going to have to pass tohang withKentucky's offense. That game is going to be a shootout, and with their ability to score fast, we aren't going to be able to count on us scoring 4 or 5 touchdowns on smash mouth, running the football 10-12 times on a drive type of football. We have to throw it. We finally ran a damn bubble screen to Bumphis, and what do you know, it worked.

We need a week off badly because the team has played their asses off. But we get UK now, and I don't expect us to look like that when they come to Starkville. Not a pretty win, but i sure as hell would rather be us today than UAB. We got the win, and now we will end up probably 22nd in the nation heading into the UK game.

I just don't see us being able to stay in a shootout game.

 

[mstatefan88]

I don't think its going to be a shootout, but I do think the game will be in the upper 20s or lower 30s. We have to figure out what is going on at the corner position. We sat 10 yards off UAB's outside receivers and they ran come backs on us like crazy. We do that against Hartline and they will beat us.

I stillhave no idea why we kept giving them such a soft cushion on the outside, and why we run so much out of our base 4-3 defense against 4 and 5 wide. We did the same thing against Houstion and had Chris White on the slot receiver, which I didn't like. I know Anderson was out for the game, but with Banks, Broomfield, and Langston, we should at least try to go nickel and have White and Wright out there and try to match them a little better with our corners.Does anyonehave an explanation for why we don't get out of our4-3 and try to put another corner on the field?

 

[patdog]

IF you have quick strikecapability. We don't have that. So we shouldn't be trying it every time. The problem I have with Mullen's playcalling (I guess it's really Koennig, but ultimately it's Mullen's responsibility) is that we seem to go into some drives with the mentality that we're going to throw more than 50% of the time this drive and we go into others with the mentality that we're going to run the ball every time. How bout a drive where we run it 2/3 of the time and throwsafe easy passes1/3 of the time. I do realize that we have some of those, and they're usually our best drives. But we have way too many that are either too pass heavy or too run heavy.

 

[SyonaraStanz]

Every time I see our corners hanging back 10 -15 yards off the line of scrimmage, I'm scratching my head wondering why. It's like Diaz is content with giving the opposing team short passing plays, as long as we don't give up the big play.

I'd rather see our opponent score on a1 minutebomb, rather than an 8 minute drive, demoralizing our defense the whole way down the field.

 

[Uncle Leo]

we are going to have to pass to hang with Kentucky's offense. That game is going to be a shootout, and with their ability to score fast, we aren't going to be able to count on us scoring 4 or 5 touchdowns on smash mouth, running the football 10-12 times on a drive type of football. We have to throw it.

Why do we have to throw the ball against Kentucky, just because they're gonna throw it? That makes no sense. Clearly, passing is not our strength. We're 2nd in the league in rushing offense. They're 11th in the league in rush defense. That plays into our strength, so why should we start throwing the ball around just because that's what they want to do?

 

[mstatefan88]

We can't run the ball on every play on every drive. We got lucky against Florida that they suck on offense because we couldn't run effectivelyin the 2nd half for much. We would get 1 or 2 first downs and flip field position which was enough to beat a team that only scored 7 points, but we couldn't sustain drives. We can't just flip field position against UK because Hartlinecan drive the ball and Randall Cobb can break one at any time.

If we just sit around and try to run the ball all day against UK, we will lose because you can't sustain multiple touchdowndrives in the SEC running the ball on every play.Against Georgia, we were able to win because we completed a few passes down the field, then eventually we got the big one to Arceto. We have to keep defenses from creeping up on us.