I don’t often start threads on this board, but I’m just amazed at a lot of what I’m reading and it’s just easier to put my thoughts in one spot.
1. I visit a lot of message boards and each have their own personality. This one is usually fairly light because most posters are relatively intelligent and have a life bigger than just Marshall sports. With that said, this game has turned this board into a carbon copy of a competing board where everyone just acts like somebody just shot their dog.
2. The game - this game only showed one thing - this team and coaching staff say the right things, but they don’t live those things. The only game that matters is this week, the only opponent I’m focused on is this weeks opponent, etc. From watching the first half I believe the coaches didn’t think they had to be worried and the players took that cue and didn’t focus on prep.
Why do I say that? Well, look at the game plan. Ali played the first possession and then was played sparingly the rest of the half. He only had six carries by halftime. Second, not only didn’t Fancher run any in the first half, he never even looked to run. These two things tell me that the staff put together a vanilla game plan with the main goal being to keep our 2 key offense players injury free. The result of that brilliant plan was a goose egg for the half.
After the embarrassment of the first half, we saw our real offense and we scored 3 straight TDs in less than 6 and a half minutes of possession on only 17 plays. Ali got his carries, got his TDs and averaged 8 ypc. Fancher pulled the ball and ran to keep the LBers honest. We attacked sideline to sideline to take advantage of our speed advantage. I’m convinced we didn’t really want to put that on film, but had to.
When the team sees the game plan and they know it’s a go though the motion plan, they are just going to go through the motions with their prep. Owen Porter said it in his post game interview. Guys were lax, didn’t watch as much film as they should have, etc. Montgomery said essentially the same thing. Not surprisingly, the two guys pointing it out both had good games because they prepared the right way.
3. Anyone that tries to project the season off that game is being ridiculous. The only thing I take from it is the coaching staff needs to practice what they preach and hopefully learned that lesson.
4. Fancher completed 80% of his passes and averaged 7.7 ypa. He did fine managing his role and was better in the 2nd half once their D had to make sure he didn’t take off with the ball. He’ll never be the type QB that can pass you back from a 20 point deficit, but he can be serviceable. He has a Bernie Morris ceiling.
5. The defense was fine considering what I mentioned above. Two busted plays accounted for 14 of their 17 points and a third of their total production. A little more focus and film study fixes that. We had 7 sacks and gave up 2.9 ypc and 3.3 ypa in the passing game. That’s very stout numbers.
So conclusion, we will know what we have in five days, we don’t already know. To act like we do is basing a conclusion on flawed information.
1. I visit a lot of message boards and each have their own personality. This one is usually fairly light because most posters are relatively intelligent and have a life bigger than just Marshall sports. With that said, this game has turned this board into a carbon copy of a competing board where everyone just acts like somebody just shot their dog.
2. The game - this game only showed one thing - this team and coaching staff say the right things, but they don’t live those things. The only game that matters is this week, the only opponent I’m focused on is this weeks opponent, etc. From watching the first half I believe the coaches didn’t think they had to be worried and the players took that cue and didn’t focus on prep.
Why do I say that? Well, look at the game plan. Ali played the first possession and then was played sparingly the rest of the half. He only had six carries by halftime. Second, not only didn’t Fancher run any in the first half, he never even looked to run. These two things tell me that the staff put together a vanilla game plan with the main goal being to keep our 2 key offense players injury free. The result of that brilliant plan was a goose egg for the half.
After the embarrassment of the first half, we saw our real offense and we scored 3 straight TDs in less than 6 and a half minutes of possession on only 17 plays. Ali got his carries, got his TDs and averaged 8 ypc. Fancher pulled the ball and ran to keep the LBers honest. We attacked sideline to sideline to take advantage of our speed advantage. I’m convinced we didn’t really want to put that on film, but had to.
When the team sees the game plan and they know it’s a go though the motion plan, they are just going to go through the motions with their prep. Owen Porter said it in his post game interview. Guys were lax, didn’t watch as much film as they should have, etc. Montgomery said essentially the same thing. Not surprisingly, the two guys pointing it out both had good games because they prepared the right way.
3. Anyone that tries to project the season off that game is being ridiculous. The only thing I take from it is the coaching staff needs to practice what they preach and hopefully learned that lesson.
4. Fancher completed 80% of his passes and averaged 7.7 ypa. He did fine managing his role and was better in the 2nd half once their D had to make sure he didn’t take off with the ball. He’ll never be the type QB that can pass you back from a 20 point deficit, but he can be serviceable. He has a Bernie Morris ceiling.
5. The defense was fine considering what I mentioned above. Two busted plays accounted for 14 of their 17 points and a third of their total production. A little more focus and film study fixes that. We had 7 sacks and gave up 2.9 ypc and 3.3 ypa in the passing game. That’s very stout numbers.
So conclusion, we will know what we have in five days, we don’t already know. To act like we do is basing a conclusion on flawed information.
