FOOTBALL Thoughts after Duke
- Thread starter Matt Dossett
- Start date
As others have said previously....
1) Out coached
2) Out played
3) Out prepared
The game was over at halftime.
We’ll see what happens in Iowa City and when Marshall comes to town. Hopefully the extra week off will give them a chance to reevaluate and reflect.
1) Out coached
2) Out played
3) Out prepared
The game was over at halftime.
We’ll see what happens in Iowa City and when Marshall comes to town. Hopefully the extra week off will give them a chance to reevaluate and reflect.
I am looking forward to Marshall...not sure what we have right now. I wasn't disappointed with the Duke game; we were never really in it.
However, I am proud of the MT fans who attended both home games...its up to the team to give them a reason to come back...I am in regardless.
However, I am proud of the MT fans who attended both home games...its up to the team to give them a reason to come back...I am in regardless.
This game was over when Cutcliffe's sneakers touched the green field turf of Horace Jones Field.
Two somewhat related comments:
To many area sports fans the only time they check MT games is when we play P-5 schools and that's why showing up and playing well in those games is so important. We didn't loose anything with our performance at Michigan. The same can't be said for last Saturday's debacle or the recent 4 game series with Vanderbilt.
Additionally, if MT FB is to be considered as a viable option for the mid-state's casual fans we must be able to recruit a percentage (we can argue whether it's 2% or 10%) of the area's lower P5/ upper G5 prospects. It is interesting to note that Duke has 4 (IIRC) of the area's top 12 recruits committed in this year's class according to The Tennessean. It couldn't hurt area recruiting if we fared better in the games more people are keeping up with.
To many area sports fans the only time they check MT games is when we play P-5 schools and that's why showing up and playing well in those games is so important. We didn't loose anything with our performance at Michigan. The same can't be said for last Saturday's debacle or the recent 4 game series with Vanderbilt.
Additionally, if MT FB is to be considered as a viable option for the mid-state's casual fans we must be able to recruit a percentage (we can argue whether it's 2% or 10%) of the area's lower P5/ upper G5 prospects. It is interesting to note that Duke has 4 (IIRC) of the area's top 12 recruits committed in this year's class according to The Tennessean. It couldn't hurt area recruiting if we fared better in the games more people are keeping up with.
I could write a novel on the problems with the Duke game and our team has a whole. Everything from special teams, to defense, to offense, to coaching. I just don't care enough to do it anymore. I'll briefly describe some of our problems.
This team has some serious fatal flaws and will struggle to reach 6 wins.
Our interior linemen on both sides of the ball are just bad. Bad, bad, bad. In particular, our DT's. We are desperately missing Jordan Ferguson and people with decent size on the inside. Losing Rosheem Collins and that other DT, can't remember his name, was a big loss. Duke's interior line completely dismantled our DL and front 7 as a whole because we have zero size at LB too. They didn't even have to try off-tackle stuff because they just completely dominated between the tackles and we were helpless. I've never seen a defense here at MT so thoroughly dominated on the interior. There should have been major alarms going off when we gave up 400+ yards to Tennessee State, a bad OVC team. I said Cutcliffe was going to be licking his chops looking at our film vs. Tn St......
Not even gonna get started on special teams. The onsides kick changed the complexity of the game completely. You cannot give Duke an extra possession there and lose a possession for yourself. It's a double negative and massive F up. Our punting sucks too.
Offensively, we cannot move anybody off the ball, our receivers are overmatched 90% of the time because they are 5'8" 170 pounds except for Marshall & Windham, and none of our RB's have any explosiveness or ability to break a tackle. #10 was running for his life for most of the night because he had no time to "go through his progressions"
It is what it is I suppose. A middle of the pack CUSA team, just like pre-season magazines and CUSA coaches predicted. Unfortunately, I just have no interest in another 6-6 season. The Duke game was a serious blow to my confidence in this team. In fact I've lost all confidence in it. I didn't expect to beat Duke, but I expected the game to be competitive and it was anything but that. They could have beat us 70-10 if they really wanted to.
This team has some serious fatal flaws and will struggle to reach 6 wins.
Our interior linemen on both sides of the ball are just bad. Bad, bad, bad. In particular, our DT's. We are desperately missing Jordan Ferguson and people with decent size on the inside. Losing Rosheem Collins and that other DT, can't remember his name, was a big loss. Duke's interior line completely dismantled our DL and front 7 as a whole because we have zero size at LB too. They didn't even have to try off-tackle stuff because they just completely dominated between the tackles and we were helpless. I've never seen a defense here at MT so thoroughly dominated on the interior. There should have been major alarms going off when we gave up 400+ yards to Tennessee State, a bad OVC team. I said Cutcliffe was going to be licking his chops looking at our film vs. Tn St......
Not even gonna get started on special teams. The onsides kick changed the complexity of the game completely. You cannot give Duke an extra possession there and lose a possession for yourself. It's a double negative and massive F up. Our punting sucks too.
Offensively, we cannot move anybody off the ball, our receivers are overmatched 90% of the time because they are 5'8" 170 pounds except for Marshall & Windham, and none of our RB's have any explosiveness or ability to break a tackle. #10 was running for his life for most of the night because he had no time to "go through his progressions"
It is what it is I suppose. A middle of the pack CUSA team, just like pre-season magazines and CUSA coaches predicted. Unfortunately, I just have no interest in another 6-6 season. The Duke game was a serious blow to my confidence in this team. In fact I've lost all confidence in it. I didn't expect to beat Duke, but I expected the game to be competitive and it was anything but that. They could have beat us 70-10 if they really wanted to.
But that's just it. I truly 100% believe that CRS puts less emphasis on OoC games. And by that I mean somewhat preparation, but also allowing his coaches more freedom from the offensive playbook and the defensive schemes. Being willing to take risks with regard to two point conversions, 4th downs, trick plays, etc.
How many times has he said "all our goals are still attainable" after a P5 loss. Well last year we reach that first goal of the championship game and it hardly garnered us any additional fans.
G5 teams survive on beating and playing well against P5 times (ie Boise and UCF). I'm not saying put more emphasis on them over your conference games, but I am saying that they matter more than at least what CRS and the AD are letting on.
Maybe I'm reading too much in to it because I'm so frustrated.
How many times has he said "all our goals are still attainable" after a P5 loss. Well last year we reach that first goal of the championship game and it hardly garnered us any additional fans.
G5 teams survive on beating and playing well against P5 times (ie Boise and UCF). I'm not saying put more emphasis on them over your conference games, but I am saying that they matter more than at least what CRS and the AD are letting on.
Maybe I'm reading too much in to it because I'm so frustrated.
Look, Duke's DL was big and super fast. What I didn't understand is why we didn't just cut block (which is still legal) at that point. It buys time and it benefits a mobile QB. Defensively, they had our number.
Duke is no middle of the pack team. They will play for the coastal title. No doubt in my mind. We crapped the bed but we will improve. We did last year and will do so this season. I also think we do hold back and not show our cards for conference play. It makes sense. No fun for us or the program overall ut from a strategy standpoint, it makes sense.
Duke is no middle of the pack team. They will play for the coastal title. No doubt in my mind. We crapped the bed but we will improve. We did last year and will do so this season. I also think we do hold back and not show our cards for conference play. It makes sense. No fun for us or the program overall ut from a strategy standpoint, it makes sense.
Hell, I don't think Rick puts any emphasis on winning bowl games (2-6 bowl record)
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6 wins to be Bowl Eligible.
A Passing APR.
Make plays. Execute. Compete.
A Passing APR.
Make plays. Execute. Compete.
Rinse and repeat. Year after year after year after .........
Same cliche’s for 14 seasons. I wish one of you tech savvy members would put together a mix of sound bites from every post game show since 2006.
Chances were we would be 1-3 in our first games and now that that most likely is true a lot of you are acting like this was surprise...
Be honest, if we would have played a close game against Duke would you be saying anything different? If we would have won, would you truly be happy?
Be honest, if we would have played a close game against Duke would you be saying anything different? If we would have won, would you truly be happy?
I honestly thought we had a shot to beat Duke if the defense showed up. Then the first Duke drive and subsequent onside kick pretty much dashed my pregame optimism.
We are who we thought we are. According to most pre-season predictions, we should be 1-6 going into homecoming. After all this time with Stock and after some dealings with members of our athletic department last year, I would say MT fans should just be pleasantly surprised with anything better than that at this point.
Ditto. I had 1-7 pegged before the season started. Not that we should be ok with that but that’s just the reality.
Only caveat at this point is FIU isn’t nearly what I expected so maybe 2-6 is possible.
We have the same record most, if not all, of the teams in our conference would have against this schedule and our season is already over? We cannot judge how the season is going to go until we get into conference play. 6-8 wins is where we are every year and probably where we will be at the end of this year. Cannot judge a season by one game no matter how much you all want to. We may only win 4 games this year, but there is no way to know from this one game.
Absolutely to both questions! If we had shown up and played a competitive game against a P5 that we were 6 point dogs to in front of a big home crowd, I'd be happy with that. It's just time after time, we lose badly when we have the region's, our students, and our alumni's attention. We can't afford to keep doing that but I see no sign of that changing.
