Five wins isn't a catastrophe but it sure looks like an underperformance to me. The "how" we got to five matters a lot. We beat the five weakest teams in our schedule. Most of the losses were pretty bad -- pretty much all the FCS losses except EWU and now Sac -- and there have been moments that really reflected inadequate coaching (bad special teams miscues, weirdly inconsistent playcalling, unpreparedness for 2-minute drill, etc).
We know we're not going to have the best talent at every position. But this team has smart players and an experienced staff so I expect the preparation, game-time decision making, and execution to be near perfect every single game without fail. Any less means the team is set up to fail against bigger, faster opponents in the conference.
I get to see a pretty good FBS team play week after week and to my untrained eye, I just don't see the inconsistency and sloppiness that Davis has. Talent and funding discrepancies are acceptable and expected but not preparedness and execution levels.
1. We went from slow mo, boring offense, to quick paced, throwing offense, with a brand new QB, and full staff!! Maier wasn't even here in the spring.
Point 2. We are young. Lots of Sophs on defense, and frosh, lots of sophs on offense, too. I count at least 25 true freshmen, RF, or Sophs who get a LOT of PT. And at least 4-5 of those are JC transfers.
We battled. EWU and Sac were down to the last minute. Why we didn't play TThomas earlier is beyond me, against Cal Poly, against SUU, and 1st half tonight. Wasn't his success a contributing factor in the O moving the chains?
Great near comeback by the Ags. They showed me a lot of Aggie Pride to come back like that after they were getting run out of the stadium and down 31 points in the 3rd quarter.
Total yards: Ags 659 Hornets 591
Passing yards: Ags 325 Hornets 276
Rushing yards: Ags 334 Hornets 315
Red zone: Ags 6-6 Hornets 4-4
Sacks: Ags 2 Hornets 2; TFL's: Ags 6 Hornets 3
Penalties: Ags 6 for 47 Hornets 7 for 66.
But the 2 big penalties on the Ags really hurt: the one that called back a 90 yard TD run and the false start on the final series when it was 4th and 1.
In just about all the categories the Ags edged the Hornets but lost the game. The first half was all Hornets and the second half nearly all Ags. The Hornets just managed to hang on for dear life.
Proud of this team...they could have laid down or got chippy and they did neither....they played with Aggie Pride and Sac knows they just escaped.
Yes, the block was not crucial to getting him in the open. Thomas is a beast. Why he wasn't getting more PT we'll never know. He has tremendous speed for a kid his size and breaks tackles left and right.
That 90 yard run was a thing of beauty. As big as he is you would have thought that the Sac DB's would have run him down or he would have begun to seize up but, once he got into high gear, he was gone. Great speed! He'll be fun to watch in the years to come if he stays with us.
Thomas was running over people at NAU in 2nd half, he seemed to stumble at times... but always forward and gaining yards!! Why didn't our staff see this in practice? Loyalty to a local player, 5th or 6th year senior? With that huge run he would have had 220 yards rushing - in one half!!!!! (He didn't play 1st half, right?)
OLine appeared to play solid. Firooz at LG, not sure when we made that change.
JW 3 TDs.
TThomas 125 yards rushing, 10+ yards per carry. Long of 26 yards. Most / all? in 2nd half.
Doss 173 yds receiving, 13 catches, most in 2nd half. (Why didn't we go to him earlier?) Doss also 45 yard sweep TD.
Hope for future: at least 25 big contributors tonight are true freshmen, RF, or Sophomores.
Whenever I hear someone say to step back from or off a ledge I remember back to that scene in Yes Man where Jim Carrey sings the Third Eye Blind Song to convince Luis Guzman not to jump. I'm going to watch that movie tonight- I've been so inspired.
Aggie fans, watch a silly Jim Carrey movie tonight (not Batman Forever). Some silliness you don't have to think about is a good way to get over a game like this.
I agree, the offense is an improvement, both in stats and style. It's much more fun to watch than previously, or at least the peaks are. I guess that's good for recruiting, attendance, and donations, but I'd rather take more Ws running the option or something if it came down such a decision.
The youth is a good point. It'll be interesting to see how everyone develops and how the staff fills in gaps when given more time to recruit into the new system. TT's underutilization is something I guess maybe I could've included in my list of ah, grievances, but we don't really know how all these guys compare in practice.
My vibe looking at the whole thing is that this is a team that had the ability to get around 7 wins that got 5. By the numbers that's an improvement and maybe we'll grow a bit but I really don't care for being a potential 8-win team that consistently gets 5 or 6 (we won't always have such a favorable schedule). And that's the path I see right now which is why I'm frustrated.
As it turns out I no longer own the Yes Man DVD. Must have sold it. I settled for Liar, Liar ! Batman Forever is not bad. Jim Carrey is only crazy as the Riddler, not so much funny. It's kind of Cable Guy- esque.