LDopaPDX said:
Dear God, that was an atrocious effort today. No offense to Jax state, because they are a disciplined football team on the rise, but we should've beaten that team like they stole somethin'.
The defense once again looked like they hadn't watched a minute of film in the previous week and didn't show up until halftime. We aren't going to beat any of the remaining teams without a 4 quarter effort on D.
And our offense goes from moving the ball all over the field with butterfingers, to doing nothing and looking totally without confidence. Thank God for Quincy Forte and a couple of timely catches, and an Albert Havili bailout interception.
You could tell there was no pride in the team or staff when the game was over; they knew they played like garbage and almost pissed one away. Oh well... we need to learn that such a performance won't get it done against the top teams and get back to playing our game. Remember, we played like absolute ass in the quarterfinals in 2010 before finding another gear against Villanova.
Still shaking my head. Won so many battles today, but lost 3rd down most of the game on D and VA was inexplicable at times on decision making. In the end the war was won. Did it look like VA was favoring his left arm late in the game?
Line play was good all around today, that alone will win a lot of games. The D on long 3rd downs didn't spy the QB, play contain or pressure. If they did spy, it wasn't our fastest LB or safety. Would have rather seen extra guy off backside edge and take a chance at incomplete pass, breakup, interception, hurry or sack; more good than bad could of occurred given the actual outcomes.
Lack of aggression led to several JSU drives. Have to agree with Dopa, there is little evidence that film plays a role in the D game plan. Hard to tell all the time on ESPN3 coverage without replays, but our personnel groupings were not a good matchups in key downs that I could see. Results were haphazard with a lot of great effort by 9-10 wasted on breakdowns by one or more players on nearly every down (especially D).
Ref's sucked. Holds on nearly every big play were evident, so the D had to overcome those as well.
Kudo's to D line and O line, Forte, Clark, Cupp, Lee and Scheutzle off the top of my head. Easy to lose sight of just how hard this game is to play. The superior team won today in spite of itself. Proud of the team and their effort as always.