What is the most pivotal game this season?

[aujeff11 6,243]

25 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

Agreed. The defense was far from perfect, but they came up with some big stops in big moments - TD to close the first half was a killer stop that was robbed on replay. 

Offense had two fumbles, one taking a touchdown away. One dropped touchdown pass. One fumble on 3rd and short. One touchdown pass that was overthrown on the most wide open receiver I've ever seen, and then special teams also has a fumble.

Whatever grade you give the defense, the offense deserved two full letters lower. So, if someone wants to give the defense a "C", they better acknowledge the big fat "F" put up by the offense.

Anyway, sorry for going there.

We can do letter grades, and the grades of C and F are pretty spot on, but it’s not like both sides had the same difficulty in test.

Mississippi State Total Defense: 1st

Mississippi State Total Offense: 70th. 

[Barnacle 9,064]

2 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

We can do letter grades, and the grades of C and F are pretty spot on, but it’s not like both sides had the same difficulty in test.

Mississippi State Total Defense: 1st

Mississippi State Total Offense: 70th. 

That's a fair point, but the big mistakes weren't caused by the defense. The fumbles, drops and overthrows were mistakes made by our players, and that does relieve our offensive coaches from some of the blame. We had some moments on offense, and didn't seem to capitalize on any of them. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

5 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

That's a fair point, but the big mistakes weren't caused by the defense. The fumbles, drops and overthrows were mistakes made by our players, and that does relieve our offensive coaches from some of the blame. We had some moments on offense, and didn't seem to capitalize on any of them. 

Like I said you were pretty spot on with C and F. I expected the offense to struggle going into the game but I didn’t know we would miss on every golden opportunity.to get into the game. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 hours ago, Barnacle said:

Sorry to keep a dead horse from being left alone, but there has been so much back and forth about the Miss State game from last year that I decided to rewatch it this morning (one of the perks of having a newborn and a few days off of work). 

My conclusion is that despite my judgment being affected by sleep deprivation, those of you who put the game on the defense without acknowledging they still played at least twice as well as our offense must be smoking crack. The defense bent all night without breaking until there were two minutes left in the game, while the offense was a clown show for all 60 minutes. That's all I've got. 😭

Expect to be seeing a lot more of you and the Barnaclette over in the picture thread, buster. 

[Barnacle 9,064]

Just now, McLoofus said:

Expect to be seeing a lot more of you and the Barnaclette over in the picture thread, buster. 

Oh man I already have an arsenal that needs to be unloaded. Updates to come!

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 hour ago, DAG said:

And please don't say I am attacking Gus. His side of the ball went through the same thing in 2014. How frustrated was it for the offense to know you had to put up dang near 40 to beat teams like USCe because the defense allowed score after score?

Glad you brought this up. I excused the offense in the uga game that year because I assumed they were sick of having to carry the defense all season and when they had an off night, it went all the way off the rails. Great point. Same deal.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, Barnacle said:

Oh man I already have an arsenal that needs to be unloaded. Updates to come!

Out of *love* reactions. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

3 hours ago, Barnacle said:

(one of the perks of having a newborn and a few days off of work). 

CONGRATULATIONS my friend!!!

 

[Barnacle 9,064]

12 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

CONGRATULATIONS my friend!!!

 

Thanks Nathan!!!

[Tiger 8,818]

IMO it's A&M. 

If recent history is any indication, Gus will show the entire playbook vs Oregon then cease to utilize more than 30% of the playbook until we face UGA. 

Because he's going to sandbag it we will likely drop the TAMU game which will turn the heat up. Knowing this is his last chance it's possible Gus and the team fall apart at the seams and things snowball from there. It's also possible he goes 2017-post LSU and we go on a tear with his back against the wall FOR REAL this time. But I wouldn't count on that at all with our schedule and a QB crop with a combined 1 pass thrown post-HS. 

I just think Gus' margin for error is so slim and his demeanor on the sideline already looks like he has sand in his underwear so I can't see how he could be operating at his best with a green QB and in must-win mode. Not since he lost his mojo. Unless he has been told there's a certain number of wins he has to reach to save his job. If that's the case he's totally going to play to that number and we will have a few 2015 Miss State like performances with Gus trying to keep his job rather than win the division. 

Also, he's calling the O again. So be prepared for those horrible clock management moments and terrible overall in game team strategeous decisions to show up like we saw when Gus was in his first few years which will likely cost us one game at least. This will likely be in addition to our freshman QB costing us at least ONE game where he looks like a freshman out there. Hopefully our D can bail him out. 

Edit: I also think opposing DCs will go back to figuring out our tendencies quickly again and we all know how good Gus is at adjusting on the fly...

[BigWhiskey91 632]

3 hours ago, DAG said:

And please don't say I am attacking Gus. His side of the ball went through the same thing in 2014. How frustrated was it for the offense to know you had to put up dang near 40 to beat teams like USCe because the defense allowed score after score?

Honestly it was easier to watch the offense steam roll while the defense struggled than what we got now. 

That South Carolina game was nuts though. spurrier threw everything at us that game. Defense made a few key stops and the run game was unstoppable that day. It’s amazing that Mason (2013) and CAP (2014) were able to go the entire season without major injury. We haven’t had that luck since.

[Tiger 8,818]

2 minutes ago, BigWhiskey91 said:

Honestly it was easier to watch the offense steam roll while the defense struggled than what we got now. 

This is personal preference but in this day and age IMO it's better to have an O that can score gobs of points because no defense in today's game can be asked to keep offenses under 21 points for every game which is what we have been needing post Nick Marshall. The rules favor offenses and offenses are too explosive now from week to week that we face. 2017 we had a nice mix but we used up all our margin for error in the Clemson and LSU debacles. Clemson was great but we should have beaten them with a competent game plan that attacked parts of the field Venebales repeatedly was giving us. Football 101 type of stuff. 

[kevon67 2,368]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Out of *love* reactions. 

Outta Love......one of my favorite Van Halen songs ala 1979..........Someone hit the nail on the head earlier.........Offense lacked leadership.........Never expected last offseason that Stindam wouldnt lead the team........he was a different person from the season prior and cant totally blame O line as they begin to improve.......just my opinion.

[Tiger Refuge 6,661]

3 hours ago, Barnacle said:

Agreed. The defense was far from perfect, but they came up with some big stops in big moments - TD to close the first half was a killer stop that was robbed on replay. 

Offense had two fumbles, one taking a touchdown away. One dropped touchdown pass. One fumble on 3rd and short. One touchdown pass that was overthrown on the most wide open receiver I've ever seen, and then special teams also has a fumble.

Whatever grade you give the defense, the offense deserved two full letters lower. So, if someone wants to give the defense a "C", they better acknowledge the big fat "F" put up by the offense.

Anyway, sorry for going there.

Letter grades...reminds me of a story from the summer camp portion forestry school. We had a guy that was struggling mightily with the classes, so much so that he started showing up late, chronically. After a public verbal warning from one of the lead professors, he showed up late again the next day. The professor called him down to the front after our morning class and lit into him. “Smitty, if you show up late for my class one more time, I’M GONNA DROP YOU A LETTER GRADE!”

Smitty(without hesitation)- “Whaddya gonna give me? A “G”? “

Much snickering and laughter at the front of the room, even from the prof.

Smitty quit the next week, presumably to go back to driving a skidder.

Sorry for the derail.

I completely agree with your assessment of that game.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Nvmd 

 

37 minutes ago, Tiger said:

The rules favor offenses and offenses are too explosive now from week to week that we face.

Yeah I want a balance though. Oklahoma’s offense is electric but their defense will yield 44-55 games which are still bad Ls. Entertainment for basketball on grass fans.

[Barnacle 9,064]

32 minutes ago, Tiger Refuge said:

Letter grades...reminds me of a story from the summer camp portion forestry school. We had a guy that was struggling mightily with the classes, so much so that he started showing up late, chronically. After a public verbal warning from one of the lead professors, he showed up late again the next day. The professor called him down to the front after our morning class and lit into him. “Smitty, if you show up late for my class one more time, I’M GONNA DROP YOU A LETTER GRADE!”

Smitty(without hesitation)- “Whaddya gonna give me? A “G”? “

Much snickering and laughter at the front of the room, even from the prof.

Smitty quit the next week, presumably to go back to driving a skidder.

Sorry for the derail.

I completely agree with your assessment of that game.

I love that story. 

Reminds me of a guy in high school who played a few years before me. His name was Ifeanyi, and dude had a really great personality. One day during practice the coach got on to him about hustle and said "Ifeanyi! There's no "I" in team!"

Ifeanyi turned to him and quipped, "Yeah, but there's two I's in Ifeanyi!" 

[Tiger 8,818]

1 hour ago, aujeff11 said:

Nvmd 

 

Yeah I want a balance though. Oklahoma’s offense is electric but their defense will yield 44-55 games which are still bad Ls. Entertainment for basketball on grass fans.

Balance is the perfect scenario of course. If I gotta pick one and roll with the results I'll go with overpowering O. JMO

Our 2 teams that played for the title were overwhelmingly stronger on O than D. We won a championship that way. The defense has to show up of obviously but those teams were great because of the O and timely D rather than defensive units you could hang your hat on

[alexava 6,973]

On 7/9/2019 at 7:59 AM, McLoofus said:

I can't imagine any circumstances under which that embarrassment would or should have been overlooked. That was a division game and it happened 3 weeks over choking away yet another LSU game. Gus simply cannot keep doing crap like that. 

It was a division game!

Maybe it would have been magnified more if we beat ut. My point is it was a worse loss. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

1 hour ago, Tiger said:

Balance is the perfect scenario of course. If I gotta pick one and roll with the results I'll go with overpowering O. JMO

Our 2 teams that played for the title were overwhelmingly stronger on O than D. We won a championship that way. The defense has to show up of obviously but those teams were great because of the O and timely D rather than defensive units you could hang your hat on

I agree. I guess I am going to qualify balance into tiers? 

+Clemson last year in the playoffs was dominant across the board on both sides. Can’t get anymore explosive or balanced than that imo. 

+Slightly less spectacular but still well rounded and balanced:

 -2004 Auburn

-Bama- most years 

-On a smaller sample size: 2017 amen corner. If we kept that level of play up, we would’ve been champions. 

+And then nearly on the opposite side of the spectrum there is

-2010 and 2013 Auburn- not a great balance at all but the weaker sides did sometimes play up. 

-2012 Florida- Muschamp’s defense is the main reason why they made it to the Sugar Bowl but the offense sometimes pitched in.

+ Lastly 

-2017 Oklahoma (lost to Georgia despite scoring 48 points)

-2014 Iron Bowl

-Your typical Big 12 conference football game.

 

 

[BigWhiskey91 632]

5 hours ago, Tiger said:

This is personal preference but in this day and age IMO it's better to have an O that can score gobs of points because no defense in today's game can be asked to keep offenses under 21 points for every game which is what we have been needing post Nick Marshall. The rules favor offenses and offenses are too explosive now from week to week that we face. 2017 we had a nice mix but we used up all our margin for error in the Clemson and LSU debacles. Clemson was great but we should have beaten them with a competent game plan that attacked parts of the field Venebales repeatedly was giving us. Football 101 type of stuff. 

Oh no doubt it’s personal preference. I meant to preface my comment with that. I still wonder how the Clemson game turns out if Kerryon was healthy for that game. 

Oh well. I’m just hoping for this year, that whoever starts at QB, can lead this offense to be one where we have a shot at winning any game we face. I miss that feeling lol.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

1 hour ago, BigWhiskey91 said:

Oh well. I’m just hoping for this year, that whoever starts at QB, can lead this offense to be one where we have a shot at winning any game we face. I miss that feeling lol.

I had that feeling just 2 seasons ago. When we were up 7-0 against Uga in the seccg I thought we were going to win it all. Then it all just fell apart and we never recovered... even last year. 

[ellitor 33,080]

I'm a numbers guy so I turned the thread into a poll. I know Oregon will be #1. Just curious what the %s will be.

[Crouching Tiger 76]

My own opinion is that we need to win the first four games. After that, I will have an opinion of what the next "pivotal game" will be.

[DKW 86 7,419]

Lose Oregon, and its all downhill from there...

[bigbird 60,460]

An Oregon loss can be recovered from...especially if they win the Pac-12. A conference loss is almost impossible to recover from. Allowing us to lose to TAMU has the potential to relegate us to 4th in the west behind bama, LSU, and TAMU. That would have a substantial effect on our program as a whole, not just this season. I chose TAMU.