Nebraska goes for it on 4th and 1 to seal the game, now 6-0 and ranked #10 in the country

[sWiley]

Nebraska coach Mike Riley on going for it on 4th-and-inches late, clinging to a two-point lead at Indiana: "This group has proven they can make the play when it counts. I'd rather put it in our hands than theirs."

Must be nice having a coach with a winners mentality who believes in his offense. And the Nebraska running game only averaged 3.4 YPC. MT averaged 5.3 YPC against WKU, but refused to end the game on 4th and 1.

Mike Riley's intelligent decision making skills have led Nebraska to a 6-0 start and #10 ranking in the country.

Too bad our coward coach can't grow a pair and win a game that matters. Quite unfortunate because the players did everything right to win this game and the coaches (who are supposed to put them in a position to win games) massively failed them when it mattered most.

Stock in his post game presser stated he didn't know what else he could do to win the game. Really? Are you that stupid dude? End the game on 4th and 1 and go home. That's what you could have done you blithering moron.

If I was a recruit considering WKU or MT, this game tells me all I need to know about where I want to play ball, and it aint in Murfreesboro.

 

[MTOleBlue]

We literally would have won the game with a first down at that point. There was what, 1:30 left and WKU had no TO's? That is HOW YOU WIN. It's time to get rid of the problem and that is Rick Stockstill. Freaking frustrating

 

[MTLynn]

The offense scored 30 points in regulation - that should be enough to win any game.

The defense, however,has been weak since Diaz left.

 

[FranklinRaider315]

The Blue Raiders should not have lost this game today. Pure and simple. This staff just plain blew it.

 

[MTOleBlue]

The Blue Raiders should not have lost this game today. Pure and simple. This staff just plain blew it.

Rick Stockstill just plain blew it. Our defense may not be that great, but they did what they needed to do. They intercepted WKU in our own territory and gave our offense the ball back and what do we do? PUNT with 4th and less than 1 when that 1 yard would have given us the WIN with time running out. It is just mind-bogglingly BAD!!

 

[dukewayne]

I gave myself a cooldown period before I started to post. Probably wise. On the other hand, it seems others are pretty much saying already what I'm thinking.

The coaches blew the game today. The players did what they were supposed to do. Perfect? No, but they played good enough to win.

In a critical point in the game, the defense finally comes up with a huge INT when MT desperately needed it. While having extreme difficulty in stopping WKU's offense, the Defense came up with the big play when MT was up 3 with about 3 mins or less left in the game. You all know the rest.

I was pretty upset with incomplete pass and no time off the about 1:35 clock. It doesn't even bother me that much that MT tried to pass at that point. It was just a poor play call. R James had been the playmaker all day; that's the pass I would have wanted to see. Then on 3 and 5; then a run? Ok, at least he was close setting up a 4th and 1. I could not believe that on 4th and 1 out around midfield that MT punted. Particularly bad since 1 yard puts the game away, game over. The other reason it was bad, our defense was struggling mightily. In a game dominated by offenses, why would you try to put it on our defense to try to win the game.

If MT had failed in a try on 4th at midfield, there might have been a little more time on the clock left if (or when) WKU scored. With some time on the clock, our offense would've had a decent chance for a win to close out the game. You know, whoever has the ball last will likely win. Well, coach stock saw to it that WKU essentially had the ball last.

Our kicker had been doing good. Now his confidence is probably shot. Additionally, you coaches just sent the message to a maturing developing potent offense that you didn't have confidence in them to get 1 yard to win the game!

Bottomline, the coaches made calls not to lose instead of making calls to win. You know how that turns out.

 

[sWiley]

And here's the really frustrating part. Nobody in the media is going to call Stock and his staff out on their piss poor decision making. Any other major college program would be GRILLING their staff on why they didn't go for it on 4th & 1, but not here in Little Middle Murfreesboro where everyone scratches each others back and the hard questions are never asked.

Some things will never change I guess.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

The play call that was incomplete was a GREAT call...we had been killing them with this play. Lee would have picked up several yards. Our QB short armed it and it was incomplete. Do you blame the coaches or the players. If this is complete we don't have to worry about the 4th and 1.

 

[RandallThomason]

The play call that was incomplete was a GREAT call...we had been killing them with this play. Lee would have picked up several yards. Our QB short armed it and it was incomplete. Do you blame the coaches or the players. If this is complete we don't have to worry about the 4th and 1.

For that play I blame the coaches. This is how that series should have been handled (not in hindsight, this is exactly what I was thinking before the ill-fated incompletion:

2:34 1st-and-10 (WKU has 1 timeout): this play call HAS to be a run. You or may or may not get good yardage out of it. WKU uses final timeout.

2:29 2nd down: This is the play where you MAY consider something aggressive depending on what happens with the first down run. But aggressiveness does not have to mean putting the ball in the air. You could use a misdirection run or some kind of a play fake and designed keeper for Brent. You can play to win here with the upside being a game sealing first down without bringing the huge downside of a clock stoppage into play.

1:45 3rd down: if there is a third down call to be made, basically repeat the thought process from second down above.

This approach makes your absolute worst case scenario be a punt, which would have been snapped with about 55 seconds on the clock and WKU would have taken over with no timeouts and about 45-48 seconds remaining. Your best case scenario is still a game ending first down. Running the ball 3 plays in a row is not in and of itself playing not to lose. It just depends on what 3 runs you call.

IF you do throw the first down pass (which we did obviously) you have to tell Brent there that accuracy is valued over yardage. Brent led the throw too much in front of the receiver. In that situation, he has to put the ball right into the receiver's chest. Even if that cost him yardage, I would rather that play go for no gain or a loss than risk incompletion. Even so, the play should never have happened.

 

[sWiley]

Wanna know what really sucks? I knew all week we were going to lose this game and I never thought for a second during the game that we were going to win. I knew it was 100% a loss when we punted it away on 4th and 1 with 90 seconds left. WKU honestly won the game in regulation because that WAS a TD by White.

If you read the game thread for this week you'll see my repeated pessimistic posts. What's sad is, I was actually wrong with regards to our players not being ready to play. I thought we were not going to match their intensity and get out-physicaled and outwilled, outhustled, etc. I thought WKU would want it more, but they didn't.

Turns out, our players actually showed up for this one (still surprised they did) and left it all out on the field. They played a damn near perfect game in my eyes minus a few flukey plays here and there.

Too bad our coaches utterly failed them with chicken shit, brain dead play calling and piss poor decision making skills in the 4th quarter to seal the loss and let WKU steal the game.

It's really pathetic that Stock hasn't changed his coaching philosophy in the least bit since arriving. I actually took advanced coaching of football in Stocks very first year here at MT. He was listed as the professor, but it was mostly taught by Danny Lewis, but Stock did come in from time to time and talk with us. I'll never forget something he told me that first year he was here. He told the class "If you look around the country, you see ball clubs losing game after game. More teams lose games than win games."

A decade later, I see he hasn't changed his approach one bit and if he hasn't at this point he isn't going to ever. He doesn't understand that sometimes (especially in big games) you have to take risks and not always play the percentages (though I bet our percentage of converting 4th and 1 was pretty high considering Mathers was averaging 6.5 YPC). He's paid $800k a year and still doesn't get that.

If I was our head coach yesterday on that sideline, it's extremely likely we would have won the game because we would have gone for it on 4th and 1. And when I (along with many others) can sit here at home and literally truly have better judgement than our head coach making $800k a year, then it's a problem.

We are 0-4 now over the last 2 years against regional opponents that people care about, and then people wonder why attendance and donations are down. This program is in the dump. Nobody cares about running the score up on the FAU's and FIU's of the world in November.

Cheers to another mediocre season that ends 7-6ish with an ass beating being delivered by a MAC school.

 

[dukewayne]

The play call that was incomplete was a GREAT call...we had been killing them with this play. Lee would have picked up several yards. Our QB short armed it and it was incomplete. Do you blame the coaches or the players. If this is complete we don't have to worry about the 4th and 1.

Not being argumentative here; I admit I could be off in my memory. I just don't remember Ty Lee having much of a game vs WKU. Maybe one or two plays; otherwise, he seemed to struggle. Maybe TF thought Lee would catch WKU off guard, but he did not strike me as being on top of his game vs WKU. I would like to have seen James be the go to guy for that big play. James is the big time player who makes big plays. Even so, 1 yard on 4th down! That was the no brainer to me.

 

[dukewayne]

And here's the really frustrating part. Nobody in the media is going to call Stock and his staff out on their piss poor decision making. Any other major college program would be GRILLING their staff on why they didn't go for it on 4th & 1, but not here in Little Middle Murfreesboro where everyone scratches each others back and the hard questions are never asked.

Some things will never change I guess.

The public can ask questions at the coaches show on Monday night. Just sayin'. Sending in a question online might or might not make it. I imagine questions from the audience might have a slightly better shot of getting through. Rightly or wrongly, I perceive it to be an opportunity for the public to address the HC. I just figured it is general apathy that those challenging questions are not asked during the coaches show.

 

[dukewayne]

In one of these threads, a poster mentioned (maybe sarcastically, I don't know) that a win next week vs Mizzou will have fans forgetting about this lost. I don't think so. Sure a win would be nice and is pretty much needed, but I think the more invested and devoted fan will remember this game....for a very long time. Generally speaking, I think the devoted fan is all that is left especially as Nov home games approach. Then you will likely see the remaining devoted and invested fans.

Who on here has forgotten about last year's whoopin by WKU? Even though MT beat LaTech recently, who has forgotten about that whoopin last year from LaTech. Sure, the win this season helps get the bad taste out of your mouth, but it is still pretty fresh in the memory. The last two loses to Vandy certainly seem to be well remembered by the fans and those associated with the program.

Of those who have been around for more than a few years, who has forgotten the embarrassing home loss to McNeese St? Who has forgotten the home loss to SEMO quite a few years ago in front of a relatively huge opening home game crowd? What about the notorious FAU loss years ago that was their first 1A win? I'm not so sure a good or decent win the following week will get people to forget these terrible home losses.

Oh, I almost forgot, who has forgotten the home loss to Temple back when they were one of the worst teams in college football with a record setting losing streak? That one was on coach mac, but just saying that I don't think fans easily forget horrible losses especially at home.

 

[dukewayne]

Matter of fact, it is my contention that for the last few years MT has played SWAC or whatever conf they are as home openers as the previous years demonstrated that MT could not even be counted on to win home openers in front of good crowds vs avg to decent FCS programs. Then some of the poorest performing teams in FCS had to scheduled to have good confidence coach stock teams could actually win home openers in front of decent size crowds. Crowds at home openers, I might add, that seem to be gradually diminishing in size the last 4 or 5 years. Maybe the home opening crowds have stabilized somewhere around 15-18,000 for a home opener. That's down from 22-24,000 at a home opener a few years prior.

Sadly it seems, after about mid Oct and/or homecoming, home attendance seems to trend downwards the rest of the season to home crowds of 9000-14,000. A study of the stats may prove me a little off base, but do those recorded attendance reports count tickets sold vs butts in seat etc etc? Whatever the case, fan interest and attendance seems to wane as the season moves along.

 

[blueraiderJT]

When your opponent has 1 timeout remaining and it's first down with 2:30 remaining, you run the damn ball. No exceptions or excuses. You run it. They burn the last TO. You now have 2nd and 3rd to burn about 80 seconds. Even if it's 4th down, you are punting it with 1:00 remaining, not 1:38. By the time they get it, it's 53 seconds remaining not 1:31. That's all the difference right there. They made that big play with 33 seconds left. Under my plan, that play never happens because they run out of time. They would have been more desperate and erratic.

AGAIN, RUN THE DANG BALL WHEN YOUR OPPONENT HAS 1 TIMEOUT ON FIRST DOWN. Sheesh! It ain't hard.

Also, earlier in the 4th quarter on WKU's 20 when we threw the pick, it was 3rd and 2. YOU RUN THE BALL!!!! Had we done that, we get the first down or kick a FG. Then by the end, we're up by 6, not 3. They get the ball with 53 seconds left and have to score a TD. No OT and we win. Simple as that. Just ain't that hard. Learn to count coaches.

 

[RaiderDoug]

Thinking about the game again, I don't know if I have a huge problem with any one single particular decision.

I don't like the idea of the last swing pass, but your all-conference QB should be able to complete a freakin' 6 yard swing pass - and you have to think it's probably as safe as a running play at that point. Yet, the QB throws it straight into the ground.

I probably would have gone for it on 4th and 1, because I had much more confidence in Mathers picking up 1 yard than the defense, which did nothing but drool all over itself all day, stopping the WKU offense. But, going by the book, you probably punt there.

My beef is more of the overall feeling of Middle being Middle again.

The East was served to us on a platter on Saturday. The crowd was good for going up against UT/Bama. We had a hyped game, against a rival, on homecoming, with some genuine excitement.

And we, for what seems like the 40th time in the Stockstill era, failed to take a step forward. There's always some reason we can't or don't win, while I watch WKU, Marshall, LT, USM all have impressive seasons, top 25 rankings, conference title game appearances, etc.

The talk of the "win or lose, we're still in the driver's seat" and the "we competed" makes me sick.

I seriously question whether MT really wants to have a championship caliber football team, or whether it's just perfectly content with the minimum investment necessary to obtain a "non-losing" season and graduating it's players.

 

[SmithO1906]

Thinking about the game again, I don't know if I have a huge problem with any one single particular decision.

I don't like the idea of the last swing pass, but your all-conference QB should be able to complete a freakin' 6 yard swing pass - and you have to think it's probably as safe as a running play at that point. Yet, the QB throws it straight into the ground.

I probably would have gone for it on 4th and 1, because I had much more confidence in Mathers picking up 1 yard than the defense, which did nothing but drool all over itself all day, stopping the WKU offense. But, going by the book, you probably punt there.

My beef is more of the overall feeling of Middle being Middle again.

The East was served to us on a platter on Saturday. The crowd was good for going up against UT/Bama. We had a hyped game, against a rival, on homecoming, with some genuine excitement.

And we, for what seems like the 40th time in the Stockstill era, failed to take a step forward. There's always some reason we can't or don't win, while I watch WKU, Marshall, LT, USM all have impressive seasons, top 25 rankings, conference title game appearances, etc.

The talk of the "win or lose, we're still in the driver's seat" and the "we competed" makes me sick.

I seriously question whether MT really wants to have a championship caliber football team, or whether it's just perfectly content with the minimum investment necessary to obtain a "non-losing" season and graduating it's players.

I know I'm not great at math but I don't understand how Stock figured we would still be in the drivers seat with a loss. WKU owns the tie-breaker over us. They have to lose again and us to win out now

 

[blueraiderJT]

Bottom line. We do the 2 things I mentioned above, we win this game in regulation. Don't care about much else. We have the team to win with. We have the talent. This came down to 2 plays that should have been run plays. If we ran the ball on those plays, we win. Simple as that.

 

[sWiley]

Pretty sure he meant we are in the drivers seat for a 6-6 season followed by a mac bowl game thumping

 

[blueraiderJT]

I think we still win 8-9 games realistically now. What's really weird is that ODU could win the east. If they beat WKU this weekend, they have a soft road other than USM which we would have to root for so and then we're tied. If we won out in conference play, who takes it? Wild.

We had this. I wanna puke now.

 

[sWiley]

I don't care what happens. Bottom line, we don't deserve to play for the championship IMO. We had our chance, and we blew it.

 

[dukewayne]

Get 1 yd on 4th and 1 late in the game and all this talk of other teams needing to lose vs xyz is irrelevant.

 

[RaiderDoug]

I think we still win 8-9 games realistically now. What's really weird is that ODU could win the east. If they beat WKU this weekend, they have a soft road other than USM which we would have to root for so and then we're tied. If we won out in conference play, who takes it? Wild.

We had this. I wanna puke now.

And on an unrelated matter - how the heck are we not playing all the other teams in the east?

I don't care about scheduling quirks wrt UAB or whatever. If you can play 3 west teams, then you can certainly fit in all the east teams.

The conference needs to get it's head out of it's arse and start acting like a big time conference.

If ODU, who just started football, somehow wins the east before we do - that's so Middle.