Or if we never let ‘em score, we’ll never lose. And actually had we scored a TD on just less than half our drives, we win.
The thing I see with Sark right now is what I see with all offensive coordinators that I watch closely enough to criticize everything they do. He fully believes his plays will be executed perfectly with no acknowledgement of his personnel and their shortcomings. He really believes that if they line up in wildcat, it doesn't matter if the other team expects it, they will execute the play and get the yards. There seems to be no accounting for three freshmen linemen, and the simple fact that you can't just expect your RB to be superman and beat tackles in the backfield. I hope he looks in the mirror in terms of some of his playcalling, because it has been suboptimal. I get that the defense has been horrible, but from what I could see, I think the defense is fixable. I think a team that has to be out there for 100 plays on the road is going to struggle getting off the field. That game should have become a track meet in the third quarter, and we can't just crawl into a shell because we lost our best deep threat and our QB isn't AS good going downfield as Ewers. I hope we call the game to win this week - I really think this team can be OK - but the training wheels have to come off.
BTW - I can't wait for the year when we can end the annual tradition of arguing about whether the offense or defense cost us the game.
Sure, but almost nobody does that. Even our 2005 all-time great offense didn't quite do it - 81 touchdowns on offense, 18 FG attempted, 38 punts, 11 interceptions, 9 lost fumbles, 8 failed 4th downs, total of 49% of drives produced touchdowns. Against Tech in regulation, we had 11 possessions: 4 TD, 2 FG, 3 punt, 1 turnover, 1 failed fourth down. That's 3.1 points per drive, which is pretty good. For comparison to last year: Alabama at 3.2, Oklahoma at 3.2, Cincinnati at 2.9, Michigan at 3.0, Notre Dame at 2.7, Baylor at 2.5, and Oklahoma State at 2.3 for the season. Also note that 11 regulation possessions is slightly low for college football. Average is about 13.25 per team. So we scored on Tech at a rate that would lead to 41 ppg in a typical contest. Sure, it ain't perfect, but that's more than enough offense that you really have no business losing like that unless the opposing offense is an all-time great one, you gave up a couple of special teams scores, or it was a bizarrely boom or bust game where you scored a bunch but also turned it over on your own half the field 4 or 5 times.
I think it is clear that there is still a huge player development issue. The fact that we have to start a Freshman at OG is horrendous. Banks is an outlier but Stroh isn't a super athlete. He is a big guy that doesn't do stupid stuff. But he is weak as all Freshmen OL will be compared to Jr and Sr DLs. The same things shows up in several other groups. Even we don't have top talent the players are playing below the level of a mid-level 3 star that has trained and been taught the position properly. One of those is DBs. They haven't been taught to actually defend passes. Look anytime there is a ball in the air. I rarely see the DB turn and play the ball. They flail about and give up the pass or commit PI.
That’s good info. I like it. And over a season, one should work with that frame of reference in mind. We will have some above the line and some below. This was merely one game. One in which the offense kicked butt in first half and far less so in the second. The offense squandered one great opportunity then failed to maintain momentum on another. Also, and maybe I’d be surprised, I find it unlikely those teams you referenced would have gone on 4th so many times so our offensive approach should be adjusted somewhat with that thought in mind. Tonight we had 10 possessions, 5 TDs and a FG. Then two possessions ended each half so we basically scored on 75% of possessions and obviously as you presented that’s unrealistic over the season. WVU only had 9 possessions. It would not surprise me if all our games didn’t end with fewer possessions than the average game. Now the offense tonight followed up a stellar first half with an incredibly efficient 2nd half. Whether we like it or not, that’s probably our recipe for success. The defense feels as though it’s doing much better this year but much of it is because of offensive ineptitude like two drive killing drops for WVU whereas Tech made those plays last week
Oh man. The fans don't know what they are looking at. Whoa. The D gave up more points in the 2nd half than the O because they couldn't maintain close coverage for 4 quarters. Plays that were PBs in the 1st half were 1st Downs in the 2nd. Wait til we are playing KSU, TCU, Baylor, and OSU.
10 points on 3 2nd half possessions (excluding running out the clock) is pretty efficient. Alabama was 9 points on 6 drives. 10 points, 7 drives versus Tech. Last year 2nd halves, OU 10 points on 6 drives. OSU 7 points, 8 drives. Baylor 10 points, 5 drives. ISU 0 points, 6 drives. So yes the 2nd half offense was very productive. Pretty sure WVU dropped two 3rd or 4th down passes to kill two first half drives. Then they ate up time in the 2nd half to score so kinda who cares.
