My Post Game Thoughts:

[drt7891]

Let's face it, we didn't have a good day today. I'm glad we got the win, though, but we learned a lot. Here's what I took from this:

1. Let's cut to the chase... this whole "pretending we are still scrimmaging in fall camp" thing has to stop. Put your freakin' best players in and let them gel. I understand developing your backups, but that's what practice and blowout wins are for during the season. I will be freakin' pissed if we do this crap against South Alabama because my gut tells me those guys are going to play a lot better than we want them to be next week.

2. Why in the 17 do we not have a kicker? Why do we have to suffer through thinking "we might not even make this PAT?" Come on... this **** better be fixed soon. In all seriousness, I don't give a flying 17 how they are doing at practice right now, this is obviously the hand we've dealt ourselves. I think that if we are up enough against USA and are in a position to get them some reps, I'm all for it. They need confidence in the worst way right now and I don't know how else to let them get it. We can't sit on the ropes for chip shot kicks, and certainly not for PATs.

3. Ok, onto the game... first off, I think the offensive line played a lot better today. Besides a miscommunication between Dillon and Damian in the first half (which resulted in a sack and almost lost us the ball), they were a solid group. I don't think UAB's d-line was near as good as USM's, but glad to see the improvement, regardless. They've worked hard this week and it showed.

4. Our receivers had a pretty good day. I'm ready to see us trying to work Jameon into the mix more. He has been awful quiet these first two games and we need to get him going. Him and Dak clicking together will pay off down the stretch. Bear is gonna Bear... that TD catch he made was picture perfect. He made some spectacular catches. A hearty shoutout to Gus Walley, too... he made 2 great catches today from the TE position. Now, onto the "not-so-positives..." Dak obviously missed on some throws, but we also are still having communication issues where we aren't completely clicking between QB and WRs. There weren't blatant drops, but there were still some times where the QB and the receivers are not on the same page. We better be working on that this week.

5. RB's were huge. Robinson is a beast. Why he didn't get more playing time last year over perkins, I'll never know. My guess is he averaged 4-5 yards a carry... AFTER CONTACT. HOlloway looked pretty good, too. Griffin was serviceable. Shump got some playing time, but it's obvious he has spent a good deal of time working as a FB. That's good, keep him there. He likes contact and he can block.

6. Onto Defense... Our D-Line got some good push early on in the day. When we got after their QB, he was obviously uncomfortable. Overall, I don't think we did an awful job defending... EXCEPT the deep ball. We made no adjustments to defend it, and they showed their hand a couple of times by bringing in two TE's to protect him. Why we didn't drop everyone in coverage, I'll never know... but that **** can't happen once, much less 4 times. I'll talk more about the secondary in a second, but Redmond also decided to try to be a hero and try to pick the ball instead of knock it down. Twice, he was in a position to do that, and didn't. We've got to emphasize that with him... quit trying to be a hero and just knock it down.

7. It's obvious what our strategy was, and that was to key on the run and stop it. For the most part, I think we did pretty well defending it. I mean, we held their whole team to 113 yards rushing today, and that's not bad. Our goal was to key on the run and stop it and make them beat us through the air. Problem is, they did... and we made no adjustments to counter it. They have no size and no real, legitimate threat on the ground... why did we make no adjustments to stop the pass more than we did?

8. Special teams comments... we've already discussed place kicker... Bell did a great job punting and kicking off. I do wish he wouldn't have tried to kick the **** out of the kickoff after Preston Smith's TD because it turned into a line drive right to one of their return guys (in case you forgot, Will Redmond was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct after that play, which pushed us back 15 yards. I'm OK with preston getting excessive celebration or some ****... hell, I would go bat-**** crazy if I was a big guy and scored a TD because that doesn't happen. What redmond apparently did was uncalled for). Our punt and kickoff coverage was very good... we are very physical covering kicks, and that's good. I do wish we'd try to pressure punters more instead of retreating to set something up... because our punt returns suck *** right now (we dance around with the ball WAY too much... that **** don't work). At least try to get a block or something.

9. It was freakin' hot today. As hot as I can remember it.

10. UAB is good offensively and seem much improved from last year. They beat the dog **** out of Troy last week and was able to do some things against us this week. I look for them to make some noise in CUSA this year... and I hope they do. They are well coached (offensively... defensively, not so much) and always seem to play us tough.

11. Onto next week, USA won't be a pushover, either... and we are playing at their place. This is the first time they have ever hosted an SEC team and they are absolutely hype to play us. We need to be ready to go and treat this as a test. Don't give them any reason to hang around... don't sub out our offense every other series, and don't try to get cute. Get off the bus ready to play, play our damn game, and we should have no problems. At this point, I'm not even thinking about LSU, let's concentrate on taking care of our business and getting better as a team and let's go kick the dog **** out of South Alabama.

That's how I saw it... feel free to discuss.

 

[msstate7]

Fred Ross completely disappeared today.

Holloway looked ok, but I'd rather have had shump or nick vs that wore out uab defense late in the game.

No more Williams unless we're up 30 or God forbid dak's hurt

 

[57stratdawg]

It's hard to be much of a factor as a WR when you only complete 12 passes.

 

[msstate7]

It's hard to be much of a factor as a WR when you only complete 12 passes.

It was 14 to 10 different receivers.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

1) I couldn't agree more.

2) We're 17'ed.

3) In my opinion Damian has regressed. He's trying too hard and is very cavalier with the ball.

4) J. Lewis gets a pass, no pun intended. He just lost his younger brother a week ago. I've never experienced anything similar so I can't begin to imagine the heart-ache.

5) Some on this board like to **** on Holloway. What I saw today was break-neck speed and acceleration. However, he can't seem to break a tackle to save his life. Use him in the right circumstances. Shump lacks vision. Perhaps that's due to your assessment of him practicing at FB. But, he's the future. He just needs more time and more film. He can break tackles, he's the strength to do so, but he doesn't see the field as well as Bowling Ball.

6) Redmond, like Damian, is trying too hard. I think he's earned his spot through sheer athletic ability, but he needs a bit more coaching between the ears. Understandably, he's trying to make up for lost time and prove his worth. But, Townsend needs to express to him the importance of consistent shut down DB play over INT's.

7) I got nothin'.

8) I couldn't figure out what propagated the penalty. I've watched the highlight clip replay several times. It was on Redmond? What did he "apparently" do? Yes, we danced too much. Engie needs to bring up some stats on returners who just haul *** and plug head long down field vs the jukers and jivers.

9) N/A: watched from two states away.

10) I hope they run the table in CUSA solely for my fandom ego.

11) I share those sentiments. I'm all for keeping things a bit vanilla before the Bayou Bengals, but we can't afford to be cute. Let's just take care of bidness!

12) I'm happy with the win and happy with the 2nd half... as a whole... mull that one over.

 

[bulldognation]

I'm upset that we didn't play to our potential. We did as usual, played to the level of the team we were up against and it almost cost us.

But I will say this: A win is a win. And it's pretty telling when we played like crap and yet still won by a fairly comfortable margin.

In the not too distant past we would have completely lost our composure after an inferior team took the lead and would have lost by trying to force big plays.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

Perspective. Very true.

 

[shotgunDawg]

Good post

The only place I differ is that I felt that Jamoral Graham looked outstanding at punt returner. He showed confidence and stability there.

 

[DirtyDog]

1. I think there is almost unanimous agreement that we are being too cavalier with the early wholesale substitutions. Everyone understands that the idea is to give guys game experience when the snaps are meaningful instead of just clean up time, but it causes an extreme lack of rhythm in our offense and obviously Damian is not handling it well so far. Let's establish some rhythm and then let Damian and others get their experience.

2. Our field goal kicking game is just embarrassing. Ignoring it or saying we don't have a problem is about as ignorant as it gets. The only thing about Bell's punting that concerns me is that he holds the ball a little while. Either he has a slow wind up for the kick or he's doing it on purpose to give the coverage an extra second. Kickoffs have been excellent.

3. Agree that the line played somewhat better, but there was still some general confusion. On one play Beckwith went one way, Malone the other and they smacked right into one another. There were a lot of missed blocks early but it got better. They need to gel for sure.

4. I thought the receivers continued to play well other than either running the wrong route or QBs being on the wrong page. They did try to get the ball to Jameon today…even trying to force it when it wasn't there. I am not worried about it. He'll get more involved as the year goes on. I'm just glad that we are having the drops and things like the past.

5. JRob looks awesome. He knows how to squeak out the extra yards and runs hard every time. I was a bit disappointed in Shump's runs but I think he'll get better. Holloway actually looked better than previously but I will never understand why we try to run him up the middle.

6. I'll disagree here. With all the rotating we are doing, we didn't get a lot of push from our front 4. After the first few series, we didn't have much consistent pressure from our line without blitzing…hence getting lit up in the air. I have to say that the lack of a safety over the top was probably excusable for one pass, but the lack of adjustment was ridiculous. The front 7 had the running game shut down so why not make an adjustment to pull the safeties back. Good grief, it's fundamental. Those long passes had so much air that a decent safety should have had plenty of time to get over to either break up the play or make a hit.

7. Agreed, we had a plan..and refused to adjust.

8. General agreement, but a shout out for having Jamoral Graham handle the punt returns. He received the ball well and even gained a few yards when he could. He looked solid and less scary than either Jameon or the Hollowy punt return experiment.

9. It was hot as hell, but the damn fans…old and young should stay and actually cheer. Would it be possible to make a little noise when we are on defense? Please…..

10. UAB is a well coached team and their OL was good. Their running back who we held in check did not go down on first contact. I think they'll do well in CUSA this year.

11. Give up on this notion. We have one of the most stubborn coaching staffs I've ever seen. While some of their logic makes sense in getting our depth quality snaps, the reality is ugly and painful and probably not worth the risk. They'll stick to it and we'll see Damian early and often again, along with the 1B's and 1C's and 1Z's.

Adding that the crowd looked good at first, decidedly maroon. Thanks to all the fans looking good initially, but really disappointed that so many left at the half…students and six packers alike. We looked like The Rock after halftime…shameful.

 

[goindhoo]

Give me a break.

When the **** can we become a real team and realize its UAB or sa instead of ******* dreaming up the best scenario that UAB wins CUSA or whatever. When can u ******* get the mindset that we should steamroll UAB and sa and anything less is unacceptable. It's like y'all try to make wins over theses ****** teams good wins. They are not. Lsu, al, and AU don't limp past these ****** teams. They go in expecting to beat the ever living **** out of them. But we look for the worse. Quit
being a ***** and expecting ***** expectations. We should have beat the **** out of UAB and sa and anything less is unacceptable. But pump them up to make you feel better because reality is gonna be a *****

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

1. I have to admit I am on this bandwagon now. I have no problem in getting Damian snaps, but wait until the 1st unit has some time to get the rhythm of the game first.

2. I got nothing only that I predict we lead the SEC in going for it on 4th down this year... by a landslide.

3. Line play was improved. I like how Dak realized he was a bit off throwing the ball and just partnered with Robinson to run it down their throats.

4. I was a bit more unhappy than you with our receivers. There were several plays where they obviously ran the wrong route. We can have this against stronger opponents. That being said, there were some bright spots that keep me believing our WRs will be something we can count on against the big boys.

5. Josh Robinson was the ****. Period.

6. It concerned me that we had to blitz to get pressure. It concerned me more how our DBs were playing the ball in the air or just getting run right by.

7. Great job early controlling the run early.

8. I thought our special teams play was really good if we weren't trying to kick the 17ing ball between two posts in the end zone.

9. It was hot in Texas today too.

10. UAB had 15 JUCO transfers in this season. That's 15 experienced players added at once. That freeking WR of theirs is really, really good. I think we overlooked them a bit as a whole and I sure hope that won't happen again this season.

11. It was an ugly as **** win, however, our offense put up good numbers in spite of spending most of the first half trying to get their composure due to the sub patterns. I really understand why we are doing it, I just don't like the WAY we are doing it. I also hope we put our DBs on our first team WRs this week and play catch/stop the bomb. I truly think that they probably have never seen footballs thrown that way before since we never do it on offense and didn't know how to react.

No really... I do.

 

[121Josey]

1. I have a hard time seeing USA being tougher than UAB yesterday. The first road game may be an adventure, but I feel a lot more confident about this game since UAB gave us all we wanted.

 

[drt7891]

I'm pretty sure my first sentence was "let's face it, we didn't have a good day today."

 

[msstate7]

1. I have a hard time seeing USA being tougher than UAB yesterday. The first road game may be an adventure, but I feel a lot more confident about this game since UAB gave us all we wanted.

Uab ruined any chance USA had IMO.

 

[gdogg]

FEED WALLEY!

I like that guy

 

[DerHntr]

1. Bringing in the second team so early and so often leads to the assumption that our coaches believe our first team is basically ready for a true test like LSU and that they don't also need the reps. I couldn't disagree with that idea more.

Additionally, anyone believing we are holding something back offensively so that we don't show our hand to LSU in these three games will be disappointed. Even if it were true, it pisses me off that our coaches would think we can't win unless we do some sort of sneak attack. I don't think that is the way to instill confidence.

 

[121Josey]

1. Bringing in the second team so early and so often leads to the assumption that our coaches believe our first team is basically ready for a true test like LSU and that they don't also need the reps. I couldn't disagree with that idea more.

The opposite is more likely. State is trying to give the first team less reps No matter who the opponent is, four straight games is still four straight games. Add to that State will probably run 90+ plays this weekend. A&M ran 99 against USCe.

Additionally, anyone believing we are holding something back offensively so that we don't show our hand to LSU in these three games will be disappointed. Even if it were true, it pisses me off that our coaches would think we can't win unless we do some sort of sneak attack. I don't that is the way to instill confidence.

Have you seen the wishbone? Have you seen any option routes for Tubby? I've seen a lot of out routes and Dak up the middle. The play calling has been pretty vanilla.

"Can't win". More like probably won't win. We're playing LSU at night in Death Valley. It's war. Why would we not want every advantage possible when we can beat these first three teams with the base sets?

 

[DerHntr]

The opposite is more likely. State is trying to give the first team less reps No matter who the opponent is, four straight games is still four straight games. Add to that State will probably run 90+ plays this weekend. A&M ran 99 against USCe.


Have you seen the wishbone? Have you seen any option routes for Tubby? I've seen a lot of out routes and Dak up the middle. The play calling has been pretty vanilla.

"Can't win". More like probably won't win. We're playing LSU at night in Death Valley. It's war. Why would we not want every advantage possible when we can beat these first three teams with the base sets?

Playing our starters and running our offense fully will help us to execute better when a good team is on the field. It is the exact same logic of Mullen giving our 1b team reps. Think that through just for a moment longer.

Our "advantage" will be our first team offense being ready. Plus, I don't think we will see much different in the LSU game from our offense. I heard the holding back argument in the #WeBelieve season. Even if it is somehow planned to be different, when they stuff it we will go back to what we are doing now and our first team will wish they had the reps, just like #WeBelieve.

Either our offense can win games or it can't. Hamstringing them by not using sets in the game is ridiculous. We aren't 17ing Rocky waiting to punch southpaw.

 

[121Josey]

Playing our starters and running our offense fully will help us to execute better when a good team is on the field. It is the exact same logic of Mullen giving our 1b team reps. Think that through just for a moment longer.

So, is this an "always playing our starters..." argument. How many practice reps do they need to fully execute? How many games one, two, three, or eight? How many reps? Mental fatigue usually follows after physical fatigue. You still don't get the keep people fresh argument. Take a little time and think that through.

Our "advantage" will be our first team offense being ready. Plus, I don't think we will see much different in the LSU game from our offense. I heard the holding back argument in the #WeBelieve season. Even if it is somehow planned to be different, when they stuff it we will go back to what we are doing now and our first team will wish they had the reps, just like #WeBelieve.

That's laughable. Our "first team offense" being "ready" sure didn't help the #WeBelieve season. Why do you think we are playing with tempo? That's right, it's an "advantage". Why couldn't we stop the Wishbone against Oklahoma State for two qtrs.? That's right, we hadn't seen them run it on tape. It was an "advantage."

You are right that we probably won't see "much different" from State's offense in the LSU game, however you quantify or qualify that.

#WeBelieve didn't start until the BAma game, the eight game of the season. By that time, the team has enough tape to nullify any special packages.

Either our offense can win games or it can't. Hamstringing them by not using sets in the game is ridiculous. We aren't 17ing Rocky waiting to punch southpaw.

Then they can't win. "You can't win" ~Adrian, Rocky IV We're definitely not going to pull a Rocky and go into the LSU game using only something outside our base packages. Cook that a little longer.

Who's being hamstringed? What do you think they do in the "closed practiced"? Trade Rocky quotes?

 

[Sutterkane]

This. I like him much better on punts than Tubby or Redmond. That first fair catch was trouble but he caught it with no issues.

 

[drt7891]

I'm only concerned about USA because of the hype they have around this game. My point is not so much that they may upset us playing out of their minds... but if we trot out there not giving a ****, they could give us a lot more than we want. I also know that state fans will make up a big portion of their crowd, but to me, that doesn't matter at all. I can't express anymore than I have how hype they are to play us down there. I just want to ensure we take it seriously because we need confidence going into death valley next weekend.

It'd be an entirely different story if we were playing them at DWS.

 

[DerHntr]

121Josey... Name me one championship quality football team that takes out their entire first string in the first quarter when up by seven.

Name one team who has been in the top ten in the country that had to hide their offense multiple games into a season just so they could compete. My reference to WeBelieve was the season, not the twitter campaign the week of the game. Not sure how you missed that. We heard from C34 and a bunch of others on this board that we were playing vanilla all 7 games and that we would unleash our real offense on Bama. I simply don't believe Mullen is holding anything back, just like that season.

Why are these things acceptable to MSU fans? I never see other good coaches do things like you are suggesting with the offense. That is why I reference top teams above. The standard is to at least do things similar to good coaches. You are so worried about fatigue when the normal good team pulls out starters early in the third quarter after establishing the win. You seriously can't be concerned about one half of football three weeks in a row for our team. If so, then you have less faith in their ability than just about anyone on this board.

 

[121Josey]

There you go again... confusing MSU with a championship quality football team.**

Nebraska rotates 10 OL and 5 RBs

Teams don't waste their "wrinkles" on inferior opponents. I don't think Top 10 teams have many superior opponents. Early in the season, the lesser teams have 6 months to prepare for their Goliaths. Try this.

You reference C34. Bad form.

Has State ever released offense on Bama? I'll keep track of the new plays for you during the LSU game. Remind me BEFORE the game.

I hope you work in sales because you don't understand competition and gaining a competitive advantage.

Nice straw man on the "one half of football", BTW. You're still thinking in qtrs and not reps. State's running 12-16 more plays a game than last year.

Is there a difference between pulling the starters at the beginning of the 3rd qtr than the beginning of the 4th qtr? It's called, "meaningful reps", not "garbage time".