We came up more than just short, Dan. This was a thorough trouncing. There's a lot to fix after watching the last 2 weeks. Eastern and Sac are very good teams this season, but we weren't super competitive in either.

We lead in the 3rd quarter against EWU

Briefly because of a kickoff return for a touchdown. The offense was terrible in that game just like it was terrible today.

The curse of any sports fan is raised expectations. I spent 8 years at the University of Washington during one of their runs when they rarely lost, often got to the Rose Bowl and were in the top ten of the national polls consistently. My friends there got to the point where they were sorely disappointed if they did not go to and win the Rose Bowl every year. I'm not saying we're there but right up to the EWU game when we were ranked as high as #4, all of us had a national title in our hopes, right? Hence the frustration and some thoughts of sour grapes. I'm hoping that the team gets into the playoffs and that maybe we lost our last two games to two very outstanding teams, meaning that we could see a win or two after this week. But then, I'm an optimist. I actually expected Cal to rip Stanford today.

A few Stats that jump out:

- shutout until late in the 4th Q (did we score against 2s?)
- Rushing Yds = 73
- Passing Ave per Attempt: Sac 8.4; Ags 5.3
- Interceptions: Sac 3; Ags 0
- Punt / Av. Return: Sac 13.5, Ags 2.5
- TOP: Sac 36 minutes; Ags 24 minutes
- Red Zone Scores: Sac 3-3; Ags 1-3
- YPC: Skattebo: 11.5; Gilliam 2.1; TrentT 2.3
- Harrell and Crawford caught one (1) pass each
- Vaughn didn't play

and I think we lost Harrel if there is another game

Harrel was taken from the sideline in a cart after they helped him off the field. It looked like he got his foot stuck in the turf as he went up for the pass and his knee twisted awkwardly as he went down untouched. Just a unfortunate injury on a play that was clearly going to be a TD. Having him and Vaughn out is a huge blow to the passing game for us.

Was with family and took time to sort my thoughts on the game

• I don't feel comfortable inviting family and friends to big games after this and last week. Hawkins' teams have just not shown up for big games at home. His signature home win is far and away the playoff game vs UNI -- where we were clearly favored -- and after that, maybe the 2018 OT win against an decent-ish Idaho State?
• C. Hawkins might actually be okay as an OC -- I think he's a step up from Plough's playcalling tbh -- but "okay" doesn't cut it with the optics of hiring family. AD needs to step in and have a long talk with D. Hawkins about whether it's appropriate to even give Cody more time or just admit a mistake and move on with a national search. I don't think Daft or any prior OC is the answer, but I do think it speaks volumes that this forum is starting to get nostalgic for an OC who was from the team's least effectual years.
• I was willing to believe the whole game that HR was injured or something that made him nonviable because that was the most rational explanation for why he wasn't given a shot when the freshman QBs were struggling. But when he did come in, he looked like the readiest player on the field for the Ags (admittedly against the 2s, but still, a lot of poise and game sense).
• Defense has gone from perennially disappointing to kinda acceptable but that basically doesn't matter when the offense is in this shape and our conference is filled with high-octane offenses.
• We're still very, inexcusably sloppy. Not that it would have won the game this time, but a few better tackles and fewer penalties might have made the score a much more swallow-able 17-3 at the half or something, which changes the game plan, keeps crowd energy, etc.

I totally disagree on Plough vs. Cody Hawkins...early in his playcalling career Plough took his lumps, but in 2018 and 2019, I thought he was much more aggressive. We at least took shots, and made an effort to stretch the field. Now, up front this season, we have not run the ball consistently against better competition, and the pass pro has been suspect in big games as well. I think we're just soft up front save for Pettek and Amoah, not getting push, not protecting.

That's true, we did take more shots, though I'd say that was partly due to the risk-reward ratio of the long ball being different (or perceived by the staff to be different) with Maier and Doss making most of the connections. Plough's offense's preferred play was still handoffs to Gilliam up the middle as I recall.

I've liked some of what I've seen this year, especially earlier in the year, with serious attempts to simply get the ball to the best athletes and mix up whether we were going to the side or up the gut. Hard to tell with the quality of some of the early competition but it did feel like the team was running the offense that needed to be run with HR at the helm and when opponents didn't understand the full scope of TT's abilities. Then it certainly did get more stale and transparent, especially with the feeling that relying on Hastings didn't add anything to the offense, just no longer threatened some of the things that Rodrigues brought to the table. I'm not convinced Plough would have done better in the back half of the season -- it's still fresh on my mind how lackluster 2019 was once Doss graduated.

(And as others have said, no knocks on Hastings, I expect him to contribute for years because Hawkins is good at getting a ton of guys in for specific purposes, but I don't think his role will be to play the majority of downs)

.
Mostly it’s a question of talent. Did we beat the teams we were more talented than? With the exception of Idaho State we did. Did we beat any more talented teams? Yes, Tulsa, and Weber may have been more talented.
We finished again behind teams that finished ahead of us in 2019, with everyone playing a lot of returning players. except we squeezed in ahead of Weber.
Until we can win in the trenches our offense is going to look disjointed and limited.
This was a transitional year at QB, and they were inconsistent, unsurprisingly.

Feedback from alums, post-game.

1. We came out with no energy, poor body language. Sac came focused and ready.
2. We have no identity.
3. Our offense is basic with a few wrinkles.
4. Why no quick slants?
5. Why don't we ever play UG & LL together?
6. One individual claimed our Center and Left Guard can't block and cripple our running game. Above my paygrade.
7. We don't throw deep enough to keep the Defense honest, we don't test DBs
8. Universal unhappiness with our Offense and play calling
9. Why does TT rarely hand off? (Predictable.)

5. I assume you mean as running backs. Basically we have single and zero running backs in the backfield. This is the way football has evolved, the theory is that having spread formations stretches the defense horizontally and allows more effective run plays as well as making it easier to get more receivers out for passes. Adding another formation with two backs implies having a whole series of plays out of that formation. So while some teams do it we haven’t chosen to.
6. It wouldn’t surprise me, Lamson had the left guard job and lost it to Ford in 2019 or earlier.
So he’s not our first choice to play there. Illustrates that we don’t have a lot of depth in productive offensive linemen that they had to move him from tackle. He’s played multiple positions on the line. Center is a different story, multi year starter at that position.
9. When TT is in, doing the wildcat, he is often alone in the backfield, often a receiver is passing through with the fly motion but there is no running back. There is no handoff to running back position player in wildcat plays. So how many plays does TT run that aren’t wildcat plays? This gets back to the question of what is meant by Marsh as the “magic package”. Does package refer to a set of plays? Or does package refer to personnel? Or does Marsh mean that TT is an instantiation of a package. I’m sure it’s been said many times, “ Trent Tompkins is the complete package”.

Trying to be as optimistic as possible ... if we made our FG, and Harrell scored on the deep ball... that theoretically makes it 27-17. ... still, Sac dominated. HR looked great in limited action, and Blake Thorpe made at least one difficult, contested catch (3 total).

Should we have brought in HR earlier?

Yes

I noticed in replay that Ford played some.
So apparently we had all our offensive linemen, some no doubt dinged up.

as for 4, I think there’s no quick slants because teas are stuffing the box and clogging the middle. They are getting pressure with the front 4, so LBs can sit on the short passes. Safeties are up close also.

Run game would open that, coupled with RPO and/or play action.

Did they ever say what the Harrell injury was? I know there was speculation on here. I hadn't seen it before now but boy that didn't look good. The non-contact injuries are rarely good, especially when it comes to the knee. Usually ends up being the ACL.

I don't think anything specific has been said about Harrell's injury, All I can say is that it did not look good and I would think an ACL injury is likely.

I watched the whole Causeway Classic yesterday, and there were some glaring problems, starting w our Play calling. I thought Hawk said he didn't like "see ball, get ball" predictability. Opening 3 offensive series, unknown why we decided to run up the middle when our O line is struggling.

D1 - UG
D2 - UG
D3 - 3rd and long pass, unsuccessful

D1 - UG
D2 - UG
D3 - 3rd and long pass, unsuccessful

D1 - UG
D2 - something different & success

- Perryman taunting call.
- Castles dropped a catchable ball.
- poorly designed play to have Carson Crawford:
i) throw across and down the field on trick play
ii) throw a jump ball to 5'10" Ulonzo Gilliam

I had no idea Dunniway started his career here.

Castles first catch - Q3.
Lars Larson - poor return decision, starting us deep in our own territory.

Announcers claim Carson Crawford has the best arm on the team. And repetitively note the middle of the field is open (Dr. Mike) - "don't make it complicated".

wasn’t that D3 on the second drive a drop of a 15 yard pass to an open receiver. That one caused a lot of slumped shoulders in the stands after they had scored so easy

Yes. See above.

The crowd was great, and Sac fans were well behaved. Taylor has omitted the Hornets cocky behavior which hurt them.

Reduced fan experience. Aggie Stadium lines get even longer, they converted the Buckhorn concession area to tshirt sales, and food sales TVs off. Lost revenue.