Agree with first pt with the change offense style and new QB coming in. However, there should be plan in place to put him in the best situation to win game(s).
For your second pt on youth of the team, I just check hornets website and they have at least the same amount of freshman (both true and RS) on their team. If experience helps making the team better, it should apply to them too.
Lastly, EWU is a lot better than sac state and the nature of the game is different. The most disturbing thing about today game is the team STARTS playing after trailing 31 pts. How come we can focus and start playing from kickoff? This is not the first time happening and I hope this is the last time happening. Coaching staff needs to do a better job getting the team ready from the kickoff, not after couple quarters into the game.

I hope TT playing time is not impacted due to any non-football matters and expect to see him taking the starting position next season.

I agree with the team efforts on not quitting but getting fantasy stats doesn't necessary make things better. The last penalty "false start" is inexcusable (especially when our offense keeps rolling) and I hope Hawkins&Co playing this game tape 1st thing in next season training camp to correct all mistakes committed

Is it possible the coaching staff starts out with a conservative game plan? NAU was 90% run in the first quarter.

Glad to see they finally played TT! Maybe a few more studs are redshirting.

Classic Causeway. Sac State shows it is superior most of the game and then almost craps the bed. Aggies show huge resilience. The biggest difference being "almost." Sac didn't do it this time and for all the games in the past they "should have won" they actually held on today.

The game was a blast, had fun with both fans. This is a Sac area institution that needs to thrive and grow. The community is missing out not spotlighting this game.

When Sac was up big people around us started claiming it was over, I kept saying, "you don't understand...this is Davis." Sure enough the Ags stormed back. But for once Sac perservered.

PLEASE DOSS GO PRO....NO MAS!!!

movie lover, the problem in the first half is every one of their drives ended with a score. Our first possession had a pass to Doss and a pass to Preece both incomplete.Around that sac scored two touchdowns.

Two big game changers. The terrible ball handling by special teams inside the 10 which resulted in a fumble, and, some really bad calls, spots, and non calls. We were right on the 38 yardline and watched our RB pass the line by a good yard on fourth down, only to have the ball spotted a yard short. Then that long pass along the east sidelines with the hornet literally hooking the receivers arm for a good 5 yards as the ball was arriving. Just a few bad calls (or non calls) like that influences the final score. If we lost by a few TDs, i wouldn't be whining about refs.

I was sitting directly in front of the first down marker and remember thinking, "ok, got a fresh set of downs, let's do this!". Only to see the ball spotted 2 yards back. Then that false start, inexcusable, which made it 4th and 6th and from there we couldn't do it. I'm not blaming the refs because our terrible play got us into a situation where we needed them to make the right calls perfectly, and we also weren't able to respond when they denied us the first down, but I do think it would have made things really interesting if the refs got that ball spot right.

I think any explanation for our loss other than our defense in the first half is missing the forest for the trees. Offense can’t be perfect.
I wonder how much of our unprecedented success running the ball in this game was due to their huge lead.

When was the bad spot? Pluto was on and out for me.

FYI, game will supposedly be replayed in the Sac area on TV.

It must have been 4th quarter. Not so sure i want to suffer through that game again if its replayed.

The bad spot was on the Ags' final series on 3rd down when it appeared that Thomas had picked up a first down. Even the Hornet broadcast team, whom I think are very good and were pretty fair to the Ags, said, "Oh, he didn't get a good spot and I don't think they'll get the first down with that spot." Then we had the false start and failed on the 4th down pass...game over.

Ah, the mental gymnastics of playing the what if after a Causeway loss. We usually are the ones rationalizing how if a couple of plays or calls went our way, things would have been different.

100% the better team won yesterday imo. As Riveraggie said, the game was lost when y'all got 31 points ahead.

It's nice to wonder if we could have pulled out some miracle, but really doesn't change the big issue

It's definitely silly to try to justify a loss on one spot by the refs. If we really wanted to win the defense shouldn't have let you guys drop 50+ on em, simple as that. 40+ points and 650 yards of offense should win you most games, clearly not the case when the Aggie defense is playing.

What adjustments did we make to become defensive beasts in 2nd half? I know one was stopping the QB keeper for 20.

PH makes a valid point. But, I would like to make this a test of our cognitive memory powers of the other “what ifs” of Aggie lore. Meaning old guys have to game up here! In 1988 sac had one of the most dominate RBs the Ags ever played against and with him sac won a causeway for the first time in 18 years and went to the playoffs. What was his name? What if we had stopped him? In 2009? We had a record breaking WR who, in the causeway, clearly caught a ball inbounds. All the TV replays and commentators said he caught it and called it an “NFL catch, I.e. both feet in and the refs called it out. Who was he and would we have won the game with the right call? Lastly, would we have won the 1982 championship playoff if O’Brian hadn’t gotten hurt and couldn’t play? Yes, I am an old guy but I need my cognitive therapy and this does it for me. All questions here are rhetorical only. No reply needed, but fun to have. . . .

I really couldn't tell you what we did, but they didn't come quick enough. Allowing 30+ points in the first half is tough to bounce back from.

How about if we didn't commit several TOs in the championship game?

Then we would have won!! Easy as that. And yes, we have all committed a lot of turn overs in our lives and would like to have them back. Someone a lot smarter than me once said sports are actually a very true metaphor for life. I certainly committed a lot of turnovers in mine. Sadly, no replays please.

Chris Carter was our WR who was the victim of that terrible call after he had made one of the most remarkable receptions of his stellar career.

Donald Hair was the ‘88 RB for Sac, Mark Young the WR. First time I ever saw Sac beat Davis as a youngster.

Troy Mills came a few years later.

That call WAS terrible but selfishly led to one of most iconic moments in the series for Sac, the Mattos March

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nlGmxNyYy1E

SUU's only conference loss...Slac...and it wasn't close.

SUU was without their star qb for that game. We would have hammered them also in that situation.

We have a long way to go. We have some great pieces, but the puzzle is far from complete. This isn't a shock, and I'm the staff feels the same.

Valiant effort to be proud of, absolutely. Need to recruit and get better. Hawkins and co probable started working Sunday morning.

I have a feeling we will feel loses like this less and less.
Good things in store for Aggie Football!

Classic Causeway. Sac State shows it is superior most of the game.....the Mattos March — Phantom Hornet

I would say Sac was superior in the first half, UC Davis showed it was superior in the second half. Sac just held on. Did you see the stats?
Mattos, well, not highly regarded around the league. I'll leave it at that.

The Aggies this year were a superior offensive team but on some occasions a little slow to get started. Sac SSU NA Are examples.
Defense was very weak. It seemed like an anomaly when they forced a punt.
I’m not sure the stats where we won the second half are very meaningful. When you are down multiple touchdowns the other teams defense isn’t focused on run defense. Could we rush for 300 yards that if the score was even? I have doubts.

It is not widely known, but the GOP tax bill will eliminate the 80% deduction for ticket purchasers. Maybe not for us, but this is a very very big deal for the major football conferences like the SEC, Big 10 etc. ironically many if not most conferences affected are in trump states.

speechless... What an embarrassing deduction to have in the tax code.

Long way is right. Weakest schedule in years, and we were 5-6. Giving up 38 first half points to Slack St. is horrible, but every few years we seem to give them one to keep it somewhat interesting. Overall, this season was a C+ in my book. I still feel Hawkins was handicapped by our system and the effects of years of recruiting difficulties. I think it got better this year, and he's had some good recruits so far. Another 5-6 season and we are going to lose a lot more of our already dwindling fan base.

In other Notes, out of curiosity I thought I would look up and give a few updates on our former coaching staff. Gould is coaching a Heisman candidate for 8-3 Stanford as RB coach. Daft is the OC for 8-2 Dartmouth. Watts, and his Fresno St LBs, are 8-2 (after going 0-11) playing for a conference championship under first year coach Tedford. From 0-11 to 8-2 in one year with the same players, gotta give it up to Tedford and his staff...that's some coaching for you. Each of our former big 3 coaches are enjoying 8 win seasons so far...good for them.

We sniffed 7!

Why is our defense so challenged?