That was for the most part, terrible.

Sep 9, 2018, 10:10 AM

The good news first though:

We won; that is absolutely the most important aspect of it all. Tee Higgins is a stud. Potters kickoffs are a thing of beauty. KB came in the game as a leader that we needed him to be. Hats off to him. We won on the road in front of 105K fans. DL played very well. Mond played the game of his life and we still held on. We are 8-2 vs the SEC in the last 10 games (2 loses to Bama). TA&M is a GOOD team and will be a top 15 team by the end of the season.

Now the bad:

We were dominated and outcoached in all 3 phases of the game last night in the 2nd half. Turtling up while in the lead is gonna cost us dearly one day or give me a heart attack. We won on talent and luck alone. If we didn't half @$$ this one, we should have blown them out.

1) First and foremost, the offensive play calling was a dumpster fire. Could we get any more vanilla? Jump balls on a fly pattern, dive up the middle, and hoping KB runs over or jukes someone out is NOT effective playcalling. There was no rhythm, zero creativity, and I dare anyone to defend it with a straight face. Missing The Chad more than ever now.

2) Punting/PR was bad, especially the rugby style 22 yard punt that when out of bounds at the 50 that set up TA&M's last TD. We even took a time out prior to that call. May have worked but the execution was terrible. Punt coverage was somehow worse. How do you allow a punt to sail over your head TWICE?! Poor coaching there. Why do we keep Pearman on staff again?

3) 333 yards in the 2nd half in passing by TA&M. Our pass defense was garbage. I have no explanation why BV kept calling that soft @$$ zone cover 2 defense. Our LB's acted like they have never dropped back into coverage. Corners and safeties were allowing 5 yard gaps in their coverage and wouldn't punish WR's who caught the ball. Make them pay for catching the effin' ball if you're going to give them that kind of cushion. I know we could use those 7 scholarships we have open for a safety or 2 or some CB's right about now. SMH

4) Offensive line. Just gonna call them what they are and it's about the worst thing you can call an Offensive lineman. SOFT. No motor, no mean streak, they just played patty cake with TA&M DL. No holes opened up for RB's. That fumble with the Jumbo set in on 4th and 1 at the goalline before the half is inexcusable. Falcinelli had a hand full of bad snaps all night. At some point we are going to have to start holding Caldwell accountable for the product he puts on the field. Maybe it was the play calling last night but the OL also looked pretty bad last week vs Furman in spots. Would be awesome to have an extra OL or 2 in those 7 open scholly spots.

5) Refs were bad all night. Make no mistake about it... we were absolutely saved by the refs on that Touchback. We lose that call and TA&M wins. The 4 DPI's called vs our defense were awful calls. TA&M's WR's would ask for the flag and get it every time. The refs called exactly one holding call all night while our DL was getting straight up tackled. They call even 10% of the holds in that game and we absolutely crush TA&M. Also, after the touchback, why didn't Jimbo get a flag? He was in the refs face yelling multiple times. I hope we never see this crew ever again.

These problems are fixable and our schedule is favorable here on out. We have time to fix it. But we pull this kind of crap vs BC, VT (if they make the ACCCG), or in the CFB Playoff, we will get our butts handed to us worse than Bama did last season.

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Excellent post and agree with a lot of what you are saying. However in all fairness the punts over the head came about because their punter had the game of a lifetime. A 73 yard punt is going over the head of every return man.

Also, the touchback over the pylon would have been reviewed either way. Video replay confirmed the ball went "over" the pylon, and by rule it was the right call. Yet we were fortunate it was a great tackle to cause the fumble.

Yes the bad snap at the end of the 1st half was terrible, it could have been the crowd noise ?? Crowd noise does effect QB communication.

That being said, for the most part I was impressed how the team handled the crowd noise. We have seen what crowd noise can do to a team plenty of times at The Death Valley.

That was for the most part, terrible.

Some good observations

Re: That was for the most part, terrible.

Re: That was for the most part, terrible.

@hillbillytiger

Re: That was for the most part, terrible.

Re: That was for the most part, terrible.

Re: That was for the most part, terrible.

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