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If we miss ACCCG + CFP, it will come back to one decision (SMU game)

HurricaneAce07

HurricaneAce07

Class of 2007
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Sep 21, 2015
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816
Losing to Louisville was almost inevitable when you go down 14-0 in the first quarter and your QB throws four interceptions, including one on the final drive. I'm not going to waste energy there.

But I just can't get past Mario's decision to kneel the ball to force overtime against SMU in Dallas.

1st and 10, 0:25 seconds left, one timeout at your 25 yard line. Beck was playing well, you were moving the ball in the air, and we have a kicker that can hit from 50+ yards. It just baffles me to this day that he made the call to go to overtime instead of playing to win in regulation.

Two completions + a long kick and we're sitting at 10-1, ACCCG all but locked up and CFP playoff birth waiting for us.

That loss stings almost as bad as the Syracuse loss last year. This is a top-10 team, and we're likely going to be playing in the Pop-Tart bowl again this year...
 
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Nope. I dont believe that. It comes down to Mario.

He wanted to eeek out close games. It came back to bite him in the *** and instead of mixing it up he doubled down against SMU. When you try to eeek out games and you aren't Saban Bama elite on both sides your margin for error is minimal. In fact it lead to ND and FSU coming back and us nearly ******** the pooch with Florida. This style doesnt work against a competent offense.

Now they have opened it up. Mind you we are playing better with more starters out.

I believe Mario will learn a hard lesson here. Lean on them can and will come back to bite you in the *** if that is all you rely on.
 
OP fails to blame Manny, the announcers, Adidas, officiating bias, ACC bias, or Playoff committee bias.

Trigger Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
 
He probably regrets that decision as well. But let’s not act like if he didn’t kneel we automatically win the game. We would have needed 3 excellent plays in a row. The one play that did change the outcome of the game was the personal foul on Lightfoot. Find me another occasion when a player actually held a player up and still got called for a foul. It doesn’t happen.
 
Mario wants to be like Saban. Only problem is Saban and Bama had the NCAA and officials under their control for years. You can’t replicate their style of play if the field isn’t level or slanted towards you. Hopefully he learned but I doubt it. I fully expect him to double down on the conservative hybrid power air raid offense if Dawson leaves. Even last week we had about a quarter of our plays being run with 2 TEs. I think we’ll never see Mario allow a real air raid system or spread and tempo.
 
edge said:
He probably regrets that decision as well. But let’s not act like if he didn’t kneel we automatically win the game. We would have needed 3 excellent plays in a row. The one play that did change the outcome of the game was the personal foul on Lightfoot. Find me another occasion when a player actually held a player up and still got called for a foul. It doesn’t happen.
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It’s just mindset. He’s always going to play it conservative even when we have a huge talent advantage. Our lack of downfield passing attack, especially on the road is more evidence of it. We did it against FSU but once we got up they shelved it. SMU same. And even this last weekend we did it sparingly.
 
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It was a bad decision and I crushed him at the time, but the fate of an entire season doesn't come down to just that play. We shouldn't have even been in that situation. Part of the reason we were is Mario and the staff, part is the players.

It was the flat wrong decision, but it's silly to say if we miss the playoffs it's because of that. We needed 2-3 plays to go right consecutively in order to win the game. If you really want to point to one small snippet in time to point to, which again you can't, but a way more valid example is 4th and 9 and you smash your face into the QB's helmet and give the other team a first down without even running a play. THAT was the season. One play. A 9 yard conversion. You stop one play, you're 10-1.
 
PennsylvaniaCane said:
Mario wants to be like Saban. Only problem is Saban and Bama had the NCAA and officials under their control for years. You can’t replicate their style of play if the field isn’t level or slanted towards you. Hopefully he learned but I doubt it. I fully expect him to double down on the conservative hybrid power air raid offense if Dawson leaves. Even last week we had about a quarter of our plays being run with 2 TEs. I think we’ll never see Mario allow a real air raid system or spread and tempo.
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You should dig out your VCR and pop in tape from 2024.
 
PennsylvaniaCane said:
It’s just mindset. He’s always going to play it conservative even when we have a huge talent advantage. Our lack of downfield passing attack, especially on the road is more evidence of it. We did it against FSU but once we got up they shelved it. SMU same. And even this last weekend we did it sparingly.
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Against SMU it was puzzling the lack of deep shots against a poor secondary. Against VT we took our shots. The problem is JoJo can’t seem to get open on the deep shots and he is our stretch player. They threw him one against VT and he was covered up.
 
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OrangeBowlMagic said:
It was a bad decision and I crushed him at the time, but the fate of an entire season doesn't come down to just that play. We shouldn't have even been in that situation. Part of the reason we were is Mario and the staff, part is the players.

It was the flat wrong decision, but it's silly to say if we miss the playoffs it's because of that. We needed 2-3 plays to go right consecutively in order to win the game. If you really want to point to one small snippet in time to point to, which again you can't, but a way more valid example is 4th and 9 and you smash your face into the QB's helmet and give the other team a first down without even running a play. THAT was the season. One play. A 9 yard conversion. You stop one play, you're 10-1.
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You talking about the Lightfoot play?
 
TooWise said:
I lowkey blame that game on the following
- Jojo drop shifted momentum A LOT
- Marty Brown & not Fletcher on the play where we needed 1 yard
- The PI no call & the unnecessary roughness on Lightfoot
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lol nah that JoJo drop / fluke INT was in the first half of the game it had nothing to do with why we lost to SMU. Carson Beck throwing an interception at the 7 is 100% the reason we lost.
 
HurricaneAce07 said:
Losing to Louisville was almost inevitable when you go down 14-0 in the first quarter and your QB throws four interceptions, including one on the final drive. I'm not going to waste energy there.

But I just can't get past Mario's decision to kneel the ball to force overtime against SMU in Dallas.

1st and 10, 0:25 seconds left, one timeout at your 25 yard line. Beck was playing well, you were moving the ball in the air, and we have a kicker that can hit from 50+ yards. It just baffles me to this day that he made the call to go to overtime instead of playing to win in regulation.

Two completions + a long kick and we're sitting at 10-1, ACCCG all but locked up and CFP playoff birth waiting for us.

That loss stings almost as bad as the Syracuse loss last year. This is a top-10 team, and we're likely going to be playing in the Pop-Tart bowl again this year...
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Mario said he went by the analytics. Murphy's law I guess. But against GT he does not take a knee. I would bet analytics said take a knee.
 
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