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Our man on the sideline just quoted Bennett as saying "they're going to score 80 on us if we don't tighten down the corners."
Jimmy said he singled out KG.
Then he pulled Jonas.

Someone please give me a reason for optimism.

Optimism? You read it here first: SMU will beat Hawaii.

The Rainbows will look at the score from tonight's game and start preparing for Boise State, who they play Oct. 5.

SMU will realize that it's a new season now that we're facing WAC opponents. The Ponies will be more inspired than you'd expect from a team that's getting clobbered tonight.

We're healthy.

ShanDerrick Charles will be very confident, since he's gotten some carries tonight.

Hawaii no longer has Tim Rolovich or, more importantly, Ashley Lelie, who's even better than OSU's Rashaun Woods. They're good, but they're not unbeatable.

Thankfully, the talent level of our opponents is going down starting next week. We were in a bit over our heads this week.

"Someone please give me a reason for optimism."

Well, there is the fact that we won the second half, 17-10. If we could somehow dismiss the first half tonight as a meaningless exhibition, then the Ponies picked up their first win tonight!

Think that would hold up in Vegas?

The talent level is going down? You realize that La. Tech beat the OSU team that just ran us off the field, right? Fresno and Hawaii arent slackers either, easily several steps past the Navy team that lost to Northwestern today. San Jose beat Illinois. Tulsa is the only team thats really clearly weaker than the teams we've seen, and we dont play them until the very end of the season.

The Navy game was an aberration. Yes, LA Tech beat OSU, but I’m not sure how much you want to write into that. OSU was spanking LA Tech almost as bad as they manhandled SMU, 36-18 through the third quarter in fact. Then, because they were so far behind, Luke McCown & Co. lit up the LA Tech flying circus. This exposed OSU’s weak area, and LSU rolled 21 straight to win 39-36.

I think SMU can win every game remaining on their schedule. Just depends on which team shows up; the Mustangs who played Texas Tech and TCU, or the team that played Navy.

Some gel is the passing game would certainly help as the season progresses.

Nice to see something from K. Briggs again.

Oops - I meant we won the second half 16-10, not 17-10.

And I agree, we don't have one game left that's un-winnable. Of course, if we play like we did against Navy and Oklahoma State, there aren't any that are un-loseable, either.

I'm predicting we go 5-3 in WAC games.

You cant be serious PP. La. Tech led OSU 15-14 in the 3rd quarter. You want me to believe that thats almost the same as losing 45-0 at the half? OSU pulled a couple of big plays and pulled away, Tech made some plays and came back. If OSU "manhandled" Tech, then Tech did the exact same thing to them in their comeback.
Tech lit up the OSU secondary, their starters, the same guys that we could only manage 2 first downs against in the first half. Our offense couldnt go anywhere until OSU cleared their bench, and thier offense went through our defense like wet toilet paper. They scored on EVERY possession in the first half.

But yeah, you're right, other than that the 2 games were practicallly identical. The only minor discrepancy was that little 37 point differential on the scoreboards.

Actually, I believe OSU was up on Tech 36-18 in the third quarter before La Tech got it going. That's pretty significant margin (therefore, my manhandling statement).

When La Tech got rolling, they used their strength (passing) against OSU's weekness (pass defense). Starting in the third qtr., La Tech put up 21 straight.

Our problem stemmed from 1) We didn't have a passing game in order to expose their weakness. 2) It sounds like our DBs weren't playing to their ususal standards. 3) Sounds like we didn't get much of a pass rush, which gave them too much time to play jump ball with Woods. 4) Refs were push-off friendly.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the game, so a lot of this is based on what I heard on the radio.

I'm embarrassed to admit (not really) that I'm married to a LaTech grad, so I've had the joy of going to 2 OSU games this year - I was at the opener between LaTech and OkState, and I was in Stillwater this weekend. And as painful as this weekend's game was, I think Peruna Punch is right. OSU has far more talent than LaTech. The Bulldogs played a terrific game against OSU in the opener, and the Cowboys frankly didn't play that well. Had they played the way they did against us, OSU would have run LaTech off the field, too.

Luke McCown is terrific, as we all know, and LaTech's running back is better than people think - he's extremely strong. But their defense isn't very strong, and they can be beaten.

OK PP, I'm going to run through this step by step, so you can keep up. OSU led at halftime 14-9. Tech score early in the first half to take the lead, 15-14. OSU scored immediately afterward to retake the lead, 21-15. Tech kicked a field goal to make it 21-18. OSU scored twice, to briefly extend their lead to 36-18. So, yes, there it is, the magic number you seem so fixated on. Tech scored on their next possesion, cutting the lead to 36-25, and thats where the 3rd quarter ended. In the 4th quarter Tech scored 2 touchdowns and held OSU scoreless, to win the game 37-36.
If thats being "manhandled" I cant tell you how much I would love to see SMU get manhandled that way EVERY FRIGGING WEEK! I would love to see the Mustangs get manhandled all the way to a road victory over a Big 12 team. The last time that happened there was no Big 12, we were still the SWC and the DP hadnt come down yet.
I dont see how any rational adult could look at a game where Tech trailed by 5 points at the half, held the lead for part of the 3rd, and wound up winning the game, and then say it was in any way similar to a game where we were getting beat by 45 at the half. Perhaps this equation will help you: We trailed by 45 at the half, tech trailed by 5. 45-5=40. A 40 point difference between the 2 games. This is what we engineering majors used to refer to as Statistically Signifigant Data.
I'm not going to try to convince you, because I've learned that irrational people only see what they want to see. But I needed to tell the actual story for my own peace of mind, and so innocent bystanders wouldn't fall for the illusion.

[This message has been edited by Horseradish (edited 09-27-2002).]