Yes, we did beat one of the worst teams in FBS, and I am grateful for the victory…but it was far from the performance on offense we will need to beat OU. We were seriously outgained and almost doubled up in first downs by a pretty lousy team…so you can tell everyone how we are just a bunch of disgruntled older guys posting here, but the fact is that today’s kind of performance isn’t going to get us to 6-6 and a bowl.
We gotta get better, and maybe when we get a couple OL guys back, and Brett gets back in the groove, things will come together. One can hope.
Because a fan is not allowed to be optimistic. Its not over , nothings over until we decide it is. Was it over when the Germans bomber Pearl Harbor? Hell no, it ain’t over now….
Not to derail this movie conversation to steer back to the topic of this thread, but I think we need to at least give a reality check to what we have and haven’t done this year. Yes, very glad we won yesterday. We are 4-5 and have a chance at a 7-5 regular season. D again was outstanding. The offense showed some life with Gabbert. While we only scored 20 points (by the offense), we had 2 Miles Marshall dropped TD passes, both throws right in his hands, and a Nate Muersch TD that the refs completely blew the call on. Gabbert is still rusty, missing an early wide-open Hippenhammer for a TD and overthrowing badly Tracy on what would have been a sure TD. But the playcalling is still atrocious. And our run game is nonexistent. So who have we beaten, in those 4 wins?
Robert Morris 0-8
Northwestern 1-7
Kent State 3-5
Akron 1-8
So the teams we have beaten have a combined record of 5-28.
Certainly not juggernauts. But we play who is on the schedule. And a win is certainly a win.
Our MAC losses have come to:
Buffalo 5-3
BGSU 4-4
WMU 3-5
So teams with a combined record of 12-12.
What does this tell me? We are good against beating very bad teams. But teams at or around .500, not so good. Notice I left out UC and UK. With competent play calling (and execution) we could be better. Much better.
So I am glad Brett is back. Clearly our passing game is alive with him. But I am not going to act like this team is “headed in the right direction”. At best, we are treading water. That is why, the most important game of the year is the next one. Which also happens to be our biggest conference rival OU. They are a sound team. Beating them gives us a chance to finish above .500 regular season. I will use that as our next benchmark as to whether we go from treading water to swimming forward, or sinking.
D is good but we may need close to 30 points to beat OU…and they are a better team than Akron. But it is encouraging to note that we should have had another TD or two if we hadn’t had the “drops”.
Simply put this season is consistent with the other seasons under CM. He has very few FBS wins against teams that are .500 or better. Now part of that is because the MAC has many teams that finish under .500. But it has plenty that have finished above .500 as well.
I’m having a hard time getting past 2 of 13 on 3rd down…less about the 20 points as more points were there yesterday, just drops, penalty stopped them. 3rd down % is so bad…very telling on O execution and play call success.
Our OL was able to move NU, hang with UK and now looks average to below avg MAC…hard to figure.
Patton has to light a fire here…and CM has to take over O to see if it helps…if he has not already.
