Confused

[19MU88]

Quick note - 5-19 is just a little better than 20%, not 25%.

This is actually the third game in a row that we have went into a shell in the second half. The good news is that we are 3-0 in those games. The bad news is that it is only a matter of time before this style costs us a game we should win. The positive results in these games is only going to reinforce to Doc that it is the right thing to do. I spoke to a former Marshall player after the game (Donnan era) and his simple comment was that "I guarantee we would have played to put the game away".

At this point I'm not sure Legg is the guy to blame. He calls plays that accomplish the strategy of the head coach. If Doc, after watching the first half, is fully convinced that the opposition can't score enough points in the second half to beat us, his directions to Legg could simply be "let's focus on running clock and getting out of here". It will eventually catch up with him.

The thing that made yesterday so boring was that we consistently, for the entire game, snapped the ball very deep into the play clock, so we were running about 3 plays every two minutes. I was just sitting there thinking - remember when the staff used to run more players per game than anyone in college football? How does a staff go to such extremes in a 4-5 year period? It tells me that we really don't have a philosophy on what we want to be.

I would have preferred hearing from a Pruett era player....I seem to recall Donnan blowing a few second halfs in big games...Boise comes to mind.....YSU?

 

[19MU88]

I don't know whether to be happy with our record or aggravated that Bill 3rd Legg is still around. 14 points to Charlotte. Looked like we were playing the 69ers today not the 49ers

hey it could be worse, we could be like wvu and lose to every decent team we play.

 

[PullmanFinger]

hey it could be worse, we could be like wvu and lose to every decent team we play.

Who cares about those bums. You seem to have a Herd On for the wrong team...

Kids...

 

[All4TheHerd]

What exactly does everyone want? It seems they want MU to score 100 points a game...
That simply isn't going to happen.
They want an exciting brand of offense...
That simply isn't always going to happen.
They want Doc and Legg gone...
That simply isn't going to happen.

They wanted us to win more games than last year...
That is happening but some fans can't accept it.


Hell, I remember when last year, we struggled to score even 7 points!! Now we score 14 and our defense basically wins us the game and some of you are crying over it?
"Oh, I dunno...the season is going to be riding on Miami...I mean, they won like 6 games in a row last season!!!!"
We win.
"Well...alright. We didn't play well. Seems like Legg is back to his usual self."

"Oh well this NC State team...they're tough!! I doubt we win this one...Legg and Doc just don't have it to win."
We lose.
"Well, the loss was respectable...and we got hosed on a holding call that could have changed the entire game."

"Kent State is bad...we should win."
We win and shut out their team.
"Well, we so woulda lost had their QB been healthy!!!!"

"Oh Cincy is going to really dictate how/what direction our team is going in!!! I think the Herd may come up short on this."
We win.
"Whoa?!? That's what I'm talking about! I never doubted us for a second!!"

"Charlotte is pretty bad guys. But I do worry that we have a hangover from our win."
We win. Score 14 pts.
"14 points?!! THIS TEAM IS AWFUL!!!! MY GOD THE SEASON IS OVER!!! I GIVE UP! HAMRICK, DOC, AND LEGG ARE CONSPIRING AGAINST MARSHALL AND THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO STOP IT!!!!"

Looking back, we're 4-1....
Then suddenly everyone assumes the identity of the guy from A Beautiful Mind and begins spewing useless crap like number of 1st downs or stats about our opponents who lost to us and say...
"SEE!!! BECAUSE THE OTHER TEAMS LOST TO OTHER TEAMS AND WE BEAT THOSE TEAMS, WE ARE A BAD FOOTBALL TEAM!!!"

Calm the hell down people...we're 4-1 and 1-0 in conference. Homecoming is next week and hopefully you'll all be too drunk to complain about the team and just watch in some drunken stooper that vaguely resembles observational analysis.

 

[goherdorgohome2]

We love the wins... we are just afraid they are not gonna hang around when a games on the line that we should win... why because there are serious problems with the offense...

 

[marshallisqbu]

I don't like the conservative play calling in the second half, but let's be honest. If Litton could hit the broad side of a barn on several throws we would have had at least two more touchdowns

 

[ohio herd]

Heres my 2 cents worth. Legg has a tendencey to try to shorten the game and sit on a lead. I don't like this but it is what it is. I think when he does this it messes up our rythem.Second, If Chase hits a couple of those passes it is a 28-3 win not 14-3. Finally, I think the NC State game showed me that this offense can score. I think Legg wanted to work on the development of the run game before we head into the thick of conference play.

 

[All4TheHerd]

Heres my 2 cents worth. Legg has a tendencey to try to shorten the game and sit on a lead. I don't like this but it is what it is. I think when he does this it messes up our rythem.Second, If Chase hits a couple of those passes it is a 28-3 win not 14-3. Finally, I think the NC State game showed me that this offense can score. I think Legg wanted to work on the development of the run game before we head into the thick of conference play.

I think there doesn't need to be a massive opened playbook for someone like Chatlotte. Yes, our offense was not scoring, but we drove all down the field on them. Our defense held them from scoring. Yurachek dropped a TD and we missed 6 pts in FG's...thats 13 pts more on 3 plays that didn't go our way. We had several near breaks but foot tackling prevented either massive gains or flat out scores.

This scheme reminds me much of the Tressell days at ohio state. The offense didn't really shine except when it felt it had to (for us against UC for example) and really didn't give away alot when playing someone like Bowling Green (for us, Charlotte). Defense kept the opposition out of reach, even if that reach looked slight.

At this point, I can't go more than question the guy. Do I disagree with his calls? Of course I do, I think we all have (some would disagree with him if the offense scored 50 pts against Alabama) been like, "WTF?!" With him.

But the team is working together, Chase is doing better than before and we have topped our win total from the year before.

 

[Bankerreturns]

So far the best defense we have played is currently ranked 58th. The others are 67th, 93rd, 99th and 106th. We still have to play UTSA (9th), MTSU (32nd), USM (35th) and WKU (36th). ODU is 108th, so this week won't tell us much, well, unless we only score 20 or something like that.

 

[pdbailey]

If anyone is satisfied with this win they have their head stuck where the light doesn't shine! Our defense is solid and are responsible for our wins. Our offense is the poorest I have ever seen. Holiday should have made some changes on the staff before the season started. We need to find an offensive line coach and an offensive coordinator. Having two offensive coordinators is BS and was just a way to keep the fan base quiet. Well we can now see that Legg is still in control and our offense sucks for air. It's sickening to watch such a performance when you have weapons to score from anywhere on the field.

Lets see, we have only allowed 3 sacks this season, have had our starting LT and LG missing for large parts of the season, and have been playing 3 RS-FR consistently so I don't think Mirabal is the issue. Our RBs are really average this season to be honest so that is where the blame should lie for the running game. I do believe Legg could have been replaced but Doc decided to go with the known instead of the unknown in a situation where another bad season would cost him his job. If the offense isn't any better by the end of the season then Legg should be replaced as Doc won't get fired if we win 8-9 games and our defense should help us win that many with the remaining schedule.

 

[pdbailey]

How do you only win this league once? That says a lot right there. Maybe this is our year. The league is that bad..

It happens all the time in all sports. You could feasibly have a very good team every year and still not win the title if there was a team each year that was a little better.

 

[pdbailey]

Yea but wait till the end of November once they are playing there best ... they need to get that chemistry and fluidity cause they are so young...

3 of our top 8 OL players are redshirt FR. They are young and inexperienced but the injury issues will help us long term as the young guys have played pretty well.

 

[pdbailey]

Special teams bailed out the offense against Miami and the defense bailed us out against Kent St and Charlotte. Is 14 points against one of the worst teams in FBS acceptable? 21 points against another of the worst FBS teams. Our offense only scored 10 points against Miami...10.

The offense was just as efficient as Miami's was in that game, they just happen to be on the field for a lot fewer plays due to having 3 less offensive possessions. I'll give you Kent St, we stunk it up on offense, but we moved the ball well against Charlotte and just failed to make plays in key situations or the score would have been about 35-3.

 

[pdbailey]

So far the best defense we have played is currently ranked 58th. The others are 67th, 93rd, 99th and 106th. We still have to play UTSA (9th), MTSU (32nd), USM (35th) and WKU (36th). ODU is 108th, so this week won't tell us much, well, unless we only score 20 or something like that.

UTSA's ranking is a joke, they played no one decent until USM and gave up 30+ to lose. NC State's defense will be ranked much higher by the end of the season. Guess what, we are currently favored to beat each of the teams you mentioned except for UTSA. Our offense needs to be more consistent, but our defense is championship caliber. If we can get both, there is no reason we could not win the conference this year, but our big problem is that we play at FAU and we likely need to beat them to win the East.

 

[pdbailey]

We love the wins... we are just afraid they are not gonna hang around when a games on the line that we should win... why because there are serious problems with the offense...

I don't believe the defense would let that happen. There are a lot of gamers and junkyard dogs on that side of the ball.