First, the two teams in the BCS national Championship game will have a loss. So it is not the end of the world. I think the team knows that. I do not think they will be down about this too long.
Second, JT now knows that Kevin Riley is the real deal. I think that is big news. He obviously thought that, but seeing it on the big stage is a lot more comforting. He also knows that he will never make that mistake again (the one that shall be nameless). So having Kyle Reed transfer was not a great thing, but not a killer. And the team now knows that they have a backup who can lead the team to victory if Nate goes down. That has to be comforting to them.
Third, now we know where Lavelle Hawkins pre-game comment came from - "I didn't even know Nate was not playing" - of course not - 197 yards on 9 completions. He loves this Riley guy.
Forth - when they have 9 in the box on goal line, try to run something else. I think that is a lesson learned by JT. If Nate was in there, they would have done a QB sneak. He did not trust Riley. I do not think anyone has said that yet.
Fifth - when JT goes back to look at the film, he will see that putting points on the board is important. We had two drives over 75 yards where we did not score. Both of those were opportunities to kick the field goal, and we did not. We went for it on 4th and 1 and went for it with 14 seconds left and no time outs. I think he will become more conservative in the future after reviewing the film and stats on this game.
Sixth - Our defense gives up somewhere around 30 points per game. We need to score more than 30 to win. We did not. You can not go into the 4th quarter with only having 21 points on the board.
Seventh - with Kevin Riley in, you can't just run in the first half. I know you are trying to establish the run, but 3rd and long each series is bad news. The play after the long Forsett run, JT should have gone into the end zone with DeSean. Instead, three nore plays up the gut and miss a field goal. We had three series after that with the total yards gained of 5 yards. That first quarter lost us the game - forget about all the stuff that came after that. We did not hit them hard up front. That should be a lesson learned.
Eighth - the defense played great. Meaning that they played exactly how they were expected to play. This is a tough conference - you are not going to hold anyone scoreless. If the offense is inefficient, and turns the ball over, you are going to lose. Ask Oregon State about that. Our defense gave up two drives over 55 yards for scores. That is a reasonable amount. But Oregon State scored on three other short drives for two field goals and a touchdown because of turnovers and special teams errors. That is a level of mistake making that will doom our team. Even so, when we needed the stops, we got it in the 4th quarter - two three and outs to set up our game winning drive if we could have completed it. I do not think anything about the defense changes. And I can certainly tell you that JT is not going to change it just because a bunch of whiners on a board complain.
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All in all, I think the team did fine. We had some coaching mistakes and some execution mistakes, but Oregon State is a good team. They have had too many mistakes of their own this year to win effectively. I think they are a tough team to beat for many people.
That being said, I hope (and I think) that JT will start to get a bit more aggressive earlier in the game. We need to execute cleaner, and we need to get the ball to our play-makers outside the box a bit more. I like to think that will all happen.
Going on the road to UCLA, it will be interesting. I am not sure if Nate plays. I am thinking that he does not. I hope that does not give JT pause and he limits our playbook. We have a great team and we need to all parts to be clicking.
Finally, I love how he said that the team picks the coaches up after a loss. I know he has that knot in his stomach from Tuesday night to Kickoff. And he get's depressed after a loss like this. Hey, guys, he is just like us.
Actually, after this game, I am more a believer than ever. I really feel like out team and the future of the program is in great shape. We have great players AND backups at all positions. If we could have gotten the win, of course, that would have been wonderful, and we would have been the number one team in the land. But that doesn't mean a thing until January 7th. So let's get there.
3 comments:
"Forth - when they have 9 in the box on goal line, try to run something else. I think that is a lesson learned by JT. If Nate was in there, they would have done a QB sneak. He did not trust Riley. I do not think anyone has said that yet."
Defenses almost always have 9 guys in the box for their goalline defenses yet teams run right at them time after time after time. I see the point you're making, but I disagree with the logic of your conclusion. I think you could run something other than a run (such as a playaction pass) not because the D has 9 men in the box but because the D is more than likely expecting a run. Also, I don't think this is a lesson learned by JT just now. This is something he knew long ago. He just didn't call a pass play because he had faith in the OL to get a good push at the point of attack to get the TD - and in my opinion the OL is more at fault than JT.
Also, I don't think it's fair to say that JT didn't have confidence in Riley to call a QB sneak. JT did call an option play for Riley on the goalline too. An option play is much riskier than a mere QB sneak.
Other than this, I like the analysis and points you bring up.
my only disagreement is that OSU is NOT a good team. they are an OK team that caught us on a bad day. we still should have had enough to beat them, especially at home. the top teams find a way.
I agree that we should have won. By good team, I mean a team in the top third of division 1 - that is, a top 40 team. I think Oregon State is at that level. They screwed up a bunch and they lost some stupid games.
I predict they end up at 8 and 5 after the season. I am not sure they lose to Oregon at home, now that the ducks are a little more banged up. OSU has a good defense, and Yvenson Benson is a very good running back.
But, yes, we should have won. We definitely made more mistakes than the ducks and we lost because of it. We need to play more efficiently.
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