After watching the replay on ESPN classic last night... I forgot how we truly dominated that game. I am not talking about how we 'could' have won but how we just gave that game away. We dominated it on both sides of the ball. There were literally 3-4 plays that cost us from blowing them out.
1) All of our scoring drives were 12, 13 or 15 play drives. We had zero big plays, we just drove it down their throats.
2) They scored almost all of their points off of big plays. I am not saying that you should not win with big plays, I am only illustrating how we were in complete control of that game. They had a 60 yard run by Davis for a TD, the freaking 85 yard TD pass and others in the 25-40 yard variety. Almost all of their offense was either big play or nothing.
3) We scored a TD right before the half to go up 7 with about 2 minutes to go. We then proceed to let them drive it back down the field with big plays to get a FG before half. You keep them out of points there and get some first drive of the 2nd half, we can take this game over.
4) We open the 2nd half with the ball, are driving it down the field. Get to the 40 of Ark. Next play, we run the QB counter with a lead block from Hanrahan. The only person in the hole is the Safety for Hanrahan to block 15 yards downfield. NO ONE ELSE. Saulsberry doesn't get a great block on the DE who slaps Relf's knee and causes him to trip. We run a bad play on 2nd down and stall. We should have gone up 11 at that point and had basically kept the ball away from Ark for the last half of the 2nd quarter (other than their 90 second drive before half) and then half of the 3rd quarter. We could have salted it away.
5) Even after that, our D holds them to a turnover on the spectacular one handed pick by Whitley. So, we are driving the ball back down their throat. We have a 4th and 2 at their 35 yard line. We call the perfect play on the swing pass to Hanrahan that picks up the first down. So, we have 1st and 10 at their 30 with the third quarter running out. Next play, Relf runs for 6 and fumbles the ball. Could have salted the game away again...
6) After Knile Davis' fumble, we take it down the field by running the counter to the left4 plays in a row behind Sherrod and a pulling Lawrence and Hanrahan. We are clipping it off at 10-12 yards a play. Weget to the 15 with 1:07 left on the clock. We get cute and try to run the same play back to the right side. It gets killed and we scramble from there. We run another bad play to the right for nothing, then then attempt to throw a pass on 3rd down which Relf takes off running on. He gets tackled and we actually do a very good job of not rushing the FG with the clock running out. We should have kept running to the well on the left side. Make them stop us at that point. They were gassed and we were killing them.
7) I do not even count Ballard's fumble. That SOB was a beast in that game was just his damndest to score. I will never hold that against him.
I say all of this not to say "we deserved to win". I say it to say "we dominated that game". All of the things that kept us from winning were things we did. Thats a great feeling. I remembered that game as more of a 'shootout' than it was. It wasn't. We controlled the game, we gave up big plays that kept them in it. So, for all of the people that say "y'all haven't beaten a west team other than TSUN", well, I don't give a 17. I can see how good we really were in those last 3 games. If Relf plays 80% of what he played like in those games, no way we don't win 8...
1) All of our scoring drives were 12, 13 or 15 play drives. We had zero big plays, we just drove it down their throats.
2) They scored almost all of their points off of big plays. I am not saying that you should not win with big plays, I am only illustrating how we were in complete control of that game. They had a 60 yard run by Davis for a TD, the freaking 85 yard TD pass and others in the 25-40 yard variety. Almost all of their offense was either big play or nothing.
3) We scored a TD right before the half to go up 7 with about 2 minutes to go. We then proceed to let them drive it back down the field with big plays to get a FG before half. You keep them out of points there and get some first drive of the 2nd half, we can take this game over.
4) We open the 2nd half with the ball, are driving it down the field. Get to the 40 of Ark. Next play, we run the QB counter with a lead block from Hanrahan. The only person in the hole is the Safety for Hanrahan to block 15 yards downfield. NO ONE ELSE. Saulsberry doesn't get a great block on the DE who slaps Relf's knee and causes him to trip. We run a bad play on 2nd down and stall. We should have gone up 11 at that point and had basically kept the ball away from Ark for the last half of the 2nd quarter (other than their 90 second drive before half) and then half of the 3rd quarter. We could have salted it away.
5) Even after that, our D holds them to a turnover on the spectacular one handed pick by Whitley. So, we are driving the ball back down their throat. We have a 4th and 2 at their 35 yard line. We call the perfect play on the swing pass to Hanrahan that picks up the first down. So, we have 1st and 10 at their 30 with the third quarter running out. Next play, Relf runs for 6 and fumbles the ball. Could have salted the game away again...
6) After Knile Davis' fumble, we take it down the field by running the counter to the left4 plays in a row behind Sherrod and a pulling Lawrence and Hanrahan. We are clipping it off at 10-12 yards a play. Weget to the 15 with 1:07 left on the clock. We get cute and try to run the same play back to the right side. It gets killed and we scramble from there. We run another bad play to the right for nothing, then then attempt to throw a pass on 3rd down which Relf takes off running on. He gets tackled and we actually do a very good job of not rushing the FG with the clock running out. We should have kept running to the well on the left side. Make them stop us at that point. They were gassed and we were killing them.
7) I do not even count Ballard's fumble. That SOB was a beast in that game was just his damndest to score. I will never hold that against him.
I say all of this not to say "we deserved to win". I say it to say "we dominated that game". All of the things that kept us from winning were things we did. Thats a great feeling. I remembered that game as more of a 'shootout' than it was. It wasn't. We controlled the game, we gave up big plays that kept them in it. So, for all of the people that say "y'all haven't beaten a west team other than TSUN", well, I don't give a 17. I can see how good we really were in those last 3 games. If Relf plays 80% of what he played like in those games, no way we don't win 8...