Our defense has been doing alot of bending if not breaking this season. Judging by some of Diaz and Mullen's quotes they were not happy at all with the defense against Alcorn. It might be a good thing that they go into the Houston game with a chip on their shoulders instead of shutting out a SWAC team and thinking they had nothing that needed working on.
Is it a good thing we didn't play great against Alcorn?
- Thread starter Hanmudog
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OK, so we had a breakdown where their QB busted a big run and then he made a great throw on a back-up DB. Really, what else did he do? Our team was disinterested in this game, and I don't blame them.
I'm not upset because of the context of the game. We were working on stuff like Relf passing, Russell playing, all the while trying to not get Relf hurt. We were trying stuff like the wildcat and etc. I think we could have put 70 on them running the zone read option and coming in with our usual focus, but it makes absolutely zero sense to get Relf beat up in the middle of the season and it also makes zero sense to work on stuff that we typically do well when we have a ton of players that are young and need to work on things. Working on things that we need to work on is going to make us better this year and later. That game was as much about the future as it was the present. When you work on stuff that you don't typically do, or need to work on in the first place, sometimes it's not going to always go smoothly. It's not surprising that we made some mistakes on both sides of the ball.
As our players get older and more experienced, then we will be more diverse than what we are now and better in general. That's going to mean that we have less to work on on both sides of the ball and that means we can run more of what we typically do well, and therefore, we will get that point total up to 70 and shut them out. Also, as we continue to recruit well, we should be able to have better depth and that will help us finish out that shutout.
Essentially, we toyed with Alcorn. We scored when we absolutely had to. And it was effortless. We also shut them out in the second half. How many big plays did State have? A lot.
The stuff Dan is saying is coachspeak. He knew that we were going to have some screwups in the game, and he is going to hammer that home to the defense and offense so that they focus on and correct those screwups.
We should play better at Houston.
I'm not upset because of the context of the game. We were working on stuff like Relf passing, Russell playing, all the while trying to not get Relf hurt. We were trying stuff like the wildcat and etc. I think we could have put 70 on them running the zone read option and coming in with our usual focus, but it makes absolutely zero sense to get Relf beat up in the middle of the season and it also makes zero sense to work on stuff that we typically do well when we have a ton of players that are young and need to work on things. Working on things that we need to work on is going to make us better this year and later. That game was as much about the future as it was the present. When you work on stuff that you don't typically do, or need to work on in the first place, sometimes it's not going to always go smoothly. It's not surprising that we made some mistakes on both sides of the ball.
As our players get older and more experienced, then we will be more diverse than what we are now and better in general. That's going to mean that we have less to work on on both sides of the ball and that means we can run more of what we typically do well, and therefore, we will get that point total up to 70 and shut them out. Also, as we continue to recruit well, we should be able to have better depth and that will help us finish out that shutout.
Essentially, we toyed with Alcorn. We scored when we absolutely had to. And it was effortless. We also shut them out in the second half. How many big plays did State have? A lot.
The stuff Dan is saying is coachspeak. He knew that we were going to have some screwups in the game, and he is going to hammer that home to the defense and offense so that they focus on and correct those screwups.
We should play better at Houston.
Good teams play with intensity at all times. Letting up is for after the game is over. I hope you are right, but I do worry about bad attitudes in one game carrying over to the next. I just don't believe that competition has any substitute for going all out on every play. You're not only winning the game; you're also winning the battles witin each play. It's also a rip off to the fans that paid and travelled to have a team on the field that is not giving its best performance.
This is one thing that bothers me: I do not understand why we didn't kick the field goal on the fourth down in the first quarter. I don't care if we got the first down on not, as I was never worried about losing the game, but I don't understand the lack of confidence in and considerating for our kicking game. We are struggling and need the work. As a reminder, JWS emphasized kicking, which has won more football games than tricky jump passes and double reverses put together.
This is one thing that bothers me: I do not understand why we didn't kick the field goal on the fourth down in the first quarter. I don't care if we got the first down on not, as I was never worried about losing the game, but I don't understand the lack of confidence in and considerating for our kicking game. We are struggling and need the work. As a reminder, JWS emphasized kicking, which has won more football games than tricky jump passes and double reverses put together.
1) Has this ever been a problem since Mullen got to Starkville? The only really disappointing game for me was Houston last year, but we got rid of Torbush, and it's not like Keenum and that offense were easy to stop anyway. Attitude is something that has been far from a problem on the team lately.drunkernhelldawg said:
2) And you knew what was coming in the Alcorn game. It was a score enough to get in some practice game, so don't ***** about all the money you wasted. I took it for what it was. A beautiful day hanging out with some friends and a no stress football exhibition.
3) Really? How many booming kicks to the 15 is it gonna take before you realize our kickers would be pushing the limits of their range if they had to retry a PAT after a holding penalty?
Alcorn had 121 rushing yards on 37 attempts, 78 coming on one play, for an avg of 3.3 yards per carry. Take away the one 78 yard run and they had a total of 43 yards on 36 attempts, for an avg of 1.2 yards per carry.
After playing Auburn, LSU & Georgia back to back to back, it is only natural to lose that intensity for an Alcorn.
I didn't see the fans as focused or as intense as they were for Auburn and Ga. Or is it the teams job to energize the fans?
We're fine. A few short years ago we would have beaten Alcorn 24-16....and would have left the stadium whispering to the fan next to us, "I'm just glad we won the game".
After playing Auburn, LSU & Georgia back to back to back, it is only natural to lose that intensity for an Alcorn.
I didn't see the fans as focused or as intense as they were for Auburn and Ga. Or is it the teams job to energize the fans?
We're fine. A few short years ago we would have beaten Alcorn 24-16....and would have left the stadium whispering to the fan next to us, "I'm just glad we won the game".
Why should he be?
I do agree that we'll be up for Houston, but I was thinking of an interview I heard with Oregon's coach in which he said that it is easy for a football team to let up and slow down but it's a lot harder to speed up. That's why he wants his team to play at full speed all the time. I think it was on "The Herd".
As far as the kicking game goes, this is a very important issue. We have two kickers who proved last season that they can get the job done. However, they are in a slump this season. We need to get them going and I didn't see the benefit of going for the fourth down and not letting one of them try to score while giving the whole field goal unit some valuable game experience. I still don't get it.
You've got a good point about the fans' mindset for this gimme game. However, I enjoy quality football regardless of the context.
Don't worry about me going back and forth on this if you reply. Express yourself without fear. Unless you ask me a question or bring up a new issue, I will let this thread die a natural death.
I do agree that we'll be up for Houston, but I was thinking of an interview I heard with Oregon's coach in which he said that it is easy for a football team to let up and slow down but it's a lot harder to speed up. That's why he wants his team to play at full speed all the time. I think it was on "The Herd".
As far as the kicking game goes, this is a very important issue. We have two kickers who proved last season that they can get the job done. However, they are in a slump this season. We need to get them going and I didn't see the benefit of going for the fourth down and not letting one of them try to score while giving the whole field goal unit some valuable game experience. I still don't get it.
You've got a good point about the fans' mindset for this gimme game. However, I enjoy quality football regardless of the context.
Don't worry about me going back and forth on this if you reply. Express yourself without fear. Unless you ask me a question or bring up a new issue, I will let this thread die a natural death.
with good intensity 12 games a year. Hell, as a fan, Im not intense 12 games a year. I hated the fact we had to play alcorn b/c it was so disinteresting but we have to do it.
Nick Saban did something really cool 2 years ago. He said its really tough to get guys to be intense and focus for 60 minutes a game so he didn't say "give it everything for 60 minutes". he thought that was too intimidating. So he broke down the actual time it takes for plays to start and finish. The total in a game is something like 6 minutes. I really can't remember. But that's how long he told them they had to be intense. Great mental ploy.
Nick Saban did something really cool 2 years ago. He said its really tough to get guys to be intense and focus for 60 minutes a game so he didn't say "give it everything for 60 minutes". he thought that was too intimidating. So he broke down the actual time it takes for plays to start and finish. The total in a game is something like 6 minutes. I really can't remember. But that's how long he told them they had to be intense. Great mental ploy.