Disaster start to this season. South Florida and Pitt were both winnable games and we needed to win at least one, and maybe both, to have a shot at a decent record. Now we are looking at 1-3, because we aren't going to beat Clemson. This game, every unit played poorly in the first half, and every unit played pretty well in the second half, but that wasn't enough. This team continues to do just enough to lose. Its hard to win on the road but you can't be a good team unless you can win on the road.
I'm not going to bother analyzing this game too closely. Clemson's defensive front is simply too good. There is nothing really that we can do. They are vulnerable to a spread passing team that repeatedly threatens with downfield passing. But you need to be very good at that in order to trouble Clemson, and even then you might not. That isn't what we do and so of course we aren't very good at it. Even teams who are good at it often get beaten easily by this defense though.
Clemson's offense hasn't really impressed that much. I'm sure they'll have enough firepower to score on our defense, but hopefully we can get some stops. I just want something semi respectable like 31-10 maybe.
As always, let's go jackets. But I'm not excited about this one.
Stats
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Friday, September 14, 2018
Pittsburgh Preview
Well that was a disaster.
We continued our road losing streak and our troubling trend from last year of throwing away double digit second half leads. Special teams were awful. Obviously, you can't give up two kickoff returns. The defense was mostly awful. 35 points allowed on 10 possessions is fairly terrible. The offense was pretty good (38 points on 13 possessions) but sputtered in the 4th quarter, and of course there was the key fumble when had a chance to restore the 10 point lead late. Hard to blame the offense for its performance over the whole game, but that's yet another huge mistake with the game on the line.
Pretty much nothing went right.
Pittsburgh is coming off their own debacle. A 44 point curb stomping at the hands of their supposed rival, I guess. Not sure if Penn St. feels the same way, but Pittsburgh hates them. I guess we can relate. In any event, Pitt looks terrible too. We are actually favored by about a FG. I have no idea what to make of this game, and that's only compounded by the location at Pitt. That stadium annually produces some very weird results, both in college and pro games. I consider it, along with Iowa, as college football's bermuda triangle of sorts. Both places lived up to the billing last year, as Miami and Ohio St. were upset in shocking fashion and, in Ohio St's case, knocked out of the playoff. But Pitt and Iowa have been pulling upsets like that for a long time.
This, of course, would be no "shocking" upset. But still, weird things happen there.
More importantly, we don't know much about either team, except that neither is very good. We might still be pretty good (we'll see how USF turns out), but my guess is we are a 6-6 or 5-7 or 7-5 kinds team. If I'm right, this could end up being a crucial game in terms of making it to a bowl. We already have one loss. Clemson and UGA look like 2 more. Miami and VT won't be easy. Duke looks solid so far. There aren't too many probable wins on the schedule. So we need to win more than our fair share of toss ups.
Here is one.
As always, let's go jackets!
We continued our road losing streak and our troubling trend from last year of throwing away double digit second half leads. Special teams were awful. Obviously, you can't give up two kickoff returns. The defense was mostly awful. 35 points allowed on 10 possessions is fairly terrible. The offense was pretty good (38 points on 13 possessions) but sputtered in the 4th quarter, and of course there was the key fumble when had a chance to restore the 10 point lead late. Hard to blame the offense for its performance over the whole game, but that's yet another huge mistake with the game on the line.
Pretty much nothing went right.
Pittsburgh is coming off their own debacle. A 44 point curb stomping at the hands of their supposed rival, I guess. Not sure if Penn St. feels the same way, but Pittsburgh hates them. I guess we can relate. In any event, Pitt looks terrible too. We are actually favored by about a FG. I have no idea what to make of this game, and that's only compounded by the location at Pitt. That stadium annually produces some very weird results, both in college and pro games. I consider it, along with Iowa, as college football's bermuda triangle of sorts. Both places lived up to the billing last year, as Miami and Ohio St. were upset in shocking fashion and, in Ohio St's case, knocked out of the playoff. But Pitt and Iowa have been pulling upsets like that for a long time.
This, of course, would be no "shocking" upset. But still, weird things happen there.
More importantly, we don't know much about either team, except that neither is very good. We might still be pretty good (we'll see how USF turns out), but my guess is we are a 6-6 or 5-7 or 7-5 kinds team. If I'm right, this could end up being a crucial game in terms of making it to a bowl. We already have one loss. Clemson and UGA look like 2 more. Miami and VT won't be easy. Duke looks solid so far. There aren't too many probable wins on the schedule. So we need to win more than our fair share of toss ups.
Here is one.
As always, let's go jackets!
Thursday, September 6, 2018
South Florida Preview
Its always hard to tell much from an FCS game, but I did like the way the defensive scheme looked. We look like we are planning to attack more. We'll see if that translates into results.
Offense looked ok. Not great. A little sloppy with turnovers. Need to clean that up. Would like to see the O line play a little better. But, it was fine I guess.
Going into this week, I don't really know much about South Florida. Willie Taggart built up the program to a pretty good level before he moved to Oregon and then FSU. South Florida was 10-2 last year. They played a VERY weak schedule, but they did win 10 games I guess.
I think we are probably the slightly better team, but South Florida is a legitimate program. I would say they are probably on Wake Forest's level or so, talent wise. Maybe actually a little better. Meaning we probably should win (and we are favored, opened around 6, down to 3.5 now). But they could definitely win, especially at home.
I'll be happy with any win here. I don't care if its pretty. Charlie Strong is a good coach. He's in his first year, so not sure how much influence he has had so far. But normally he is a very good defensive coach. South Florida runs a spread offense but with a new QB. So a lot of question marks. I just hope we execute well and play smart football. If we do that, we should be OK.
As always, let's go Jackets!
Offense looked ok. Not great. A little sloppy with turnovers. Need to clean that up. Would like to see the O line play a little better. But, it was fine I guess.
Going into this week, I don't really know much about South Florida. Willie Taggart built up the program to a pretty good level before he moved to Oregon and then FSU. South Florida was 10-2 last year. They played a VERY weak schedule, but they did win 10 games I guess.
I think we are probably the slightly better team, but South Florida is a legitimate program. I would say they are probably on Wake Forest's level or so, talent wise. Maybe actually a little better. Meaning we probably should win (and we are favored, opened around 6, down to 3.5 now). But they could definitely win, especially at home.
I'll be happy with any win here. I don't care if its pretty. Charlie Strong is a good coach. He's in his first year, so not sure how much influence he has had so far. But normally he is a very good defensive coach. South Florida runs a spread offense but with a new QB. So a lot of question marks. I just hope we execute well and play smart football. If we do that, we should be OK.
As always, let's go Jackets!
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