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At least our team is not a total embarrassment anymore

We aren't strong enough Defensively to go on the road and beat a team like UH yet. We are right on schedule in this rebuild. We are about a 7 win team. 6+ in 3 years would be excellent

Cincy and Tulsa suck. Just blow them out and get to a bowl. We could very well lose the last 4.

Hicks definitely responsible for those two picks...refusing to use the open man and make early throws in the red zone. Having said that, he and the running game kept us in a game that we could easily have been blown out in due to the defense not being able to cover a quadriplegic in a broken wheel-chair with no battery. If you think Hicks is the reason this game was lost, you are lost. The defense is still a significant weakness and any strength we have at D-line is completely mitigated by our weak LB's and terrible DB's.

On the bright side Hicks is gonna have a really sweet locker next season!

I’m upset that we have a bottom-three defense and know it, have done nothing about it, and elect to trade FGs for TDs against two rivals, and have a third down conversion ration about the same as the worst offense in the nation. And our [deleted] defense actually pulls out miraculous turnovers in both games! Playing bottom dwellers HUGELY inflated our stats, and everyone is saying “well, we are exactly where we thought we’d be when we had little expectations”. We could have had a great chance against TCU and UH and totally tripped all over ourselves with poor throws and poor play selection.

2018Mustang wrote:I know a lot of people have been saying that Hicks has done his job because he hasn't lost us any games. However, at the end of the day, if we want to be a successful program we need a QB who can win us a game even if the defense is playing terrible

Did he not do that against Tulane last year, after being down double digits?

Defense was awful all game long. Offense couldn't punch it in when it counted most. Team lost it together. Sutton, Hicks all of em.

SMUer wrote: We could have had a great chance against TCU and UH and totally tripped all over ourselves with poor throws and poor play selection.

That's what mediocre teams do on the road.

Mustangs35SMU wrote:Defense was awful all game long. Offense couldn't punch it in when it counted most. Team lost it together. Sutton, Hicks all of em.

and yet we were up 2-0 in turnovers most of the game! And we have the best offense on Earth!

We are likely a bowl team but just barely. It's not as satisfying as being good, but don't forget where we were 2 years ago.

It's progress. Good progress.


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SMUer wrote:I’m upset that we have a bottom-three defense and know it, have done nothing about it, and elect to trade FGs for TDs against two rivals, and have a third down conversion ration about the same as the worst offense in the nation. Playing bottom dwellers HUGELY inflated our stats, and everyone is saying “well, we are exactly where we thought we’d be when we had little expectations”. We could have had a great chance against TCU and UH and totally tripped all over ourselves with poor throws and poor play selection.

Spot-on. Hicks ole tackle attempts on defense allowing RB's to saunter 40 yards untouched up the middle for TD's and WR's to run uncontested over the middle are definitely his fault.

This is equal to complaining about a kid getting a B- on a math test while they are failing english. That math test isn't going to make you fail out of school...crapping the bed in english will.

The defense is absolutely abysmal out there. The number of times a reply reveals the same simple mistakes being made by the same players is indicative of a complete lack of talent in certain areas and bad coaching. Issue is, if you are working with minimal talent, you have to concentrate on the basics vice true game preps. If you are still teaching tackling in October, what exactly did you do in spring and summer practice exactly?

2 bad picks there at the end because he was getting hit and lacks maturity yet to stay the course. First one was forced when he had Becker, and I don't know what the second one was. Just a complete lack of focus. But he should not be blamed for this loss. Sutton dropped a critical catch and we couldn't tackle anyone up the middle or in the open field (although we have the best blocking line backer in the country. I still see 6-7 wins but we have to re group and stay confident.

Congrats to Houston for a hard fought win and covering the spread. Pretty exciting game if you had the Mustangs and 8 or 9 points. Agree with those who say Hicks folded under pressure at the end as he was slow on his reads and pretty quick to bail from the pocket. He actually ran right into pressure a couple of times. Felt this game was closer than the final score reflected and I see we out gained them by 70 yards with Quinn and Sutton combining for 28 catches and 316 yards. Pretty incredible and has to be a school record for production from 2 WRs in same game.

Bottom line is that this was not a game we were expected to win. It's a good sign that so many thought we might win (non-SMU people, that is). We are making progress and this is a good time for a bye week. Hopefully the guys can regroup and steal one on the road at Cincinnati

Cincinnati is not good. I wouldn't consider that stealing one unless you consider every away game victory a steal.

Funny, for all the defensive hate, they actually 'held' Houston to 35, which is great for a Malone D.

The O only scored 22, but apparently nobody noticed. Looks like the blame for this one needs to go to the O