- Joined
- Feb 27, 2018
- Messages
- 17,117
No, I'm telling the defensive story. The defense was just as culpable for their inability to get off the field on 3rd and 4th downs. The offense for sure, w/o a shadow of a doubt was a chit show, but let's not act like our defense has been this all world unit, ESPECIALLY against this schedule.
There is NEVER an excuse for LA Tech to almost hang 200 on us on the ground in a bowl game w/ weeks to prepare. There is NEVER an excuse for a 2 win GT team to just run the ball down our throats. There is NEVER an excuse to make an unknown TE famous for VT. There is NEVER an excuse to give up 4th and 17 to a rookie QB in his 2nd game, ever. There is NEVER an excuse to allow FIU look like a competent P5 team. I don't give af if the O was giving you 3 and outs all day long. Our defense was SUPERIOR than any team we faced outside of UF. It's time for Manny and his staff to own some of this bull chit that's been going on. We've blown leads when it mattered, as well....and if CMU WRs could catch a darn ball, they would've won their game, too.
Again, stats on their own are just stats. This is what these teams scored offensively through roughly 3 1/2 quarters or even deeper into those games:
CMU-5 points
La Tech-7 points
GTech 7 points
Duke-13 points
Pitt-9 points
Virginia-6 points
FSU-10 points
BCU-0 points
UF-20 points
UNC-20 points
How differently do those games have played out had we put up 21,28 or even 30 points? What if we had just hit every chip shot FG and PAT or not turned the ball over 3-4 times straight offensively to start games?
Other than the FSU and Louisville games we NEVER got to watch our D just pin it's ears back and really wreak havoc. That's because nearly every game was a nail biter where we couldn't afford to take ANY real chances defensively.
Our D didn't choke. By the end of most game it was gassed, demoralized and operating on a high wire, literally having to play perfect football to get a win. That's why every drive, point and 4th down conversion was so magnified.