Navy thoughts

[Ikus]

1. Defensive line was fantastic. Levelston and Williams, in particular, played their best games since transferring to SMU. Newman hardly played in the second half. Hope he'sOK.
2. For thre first time at SMU, Mordecai was average. Needs to protect the ball better.
3. I wish Bentley didn't play. To be that limited, he must really be hurting. He and Newman shouldn't stand up for about a week.
4. I had no idea Massey was that fast. He ... can ... fly.
5. What happened on Hall's field goal? Give Mazza every field goal from now on. Hall can punt (sort of) and kick off.
6. Denbow played his best game of the year, which makes sense since he's basically a linebacker playing safety. Speaking of which, Roderick Roberson needs to come back soon. Where is Donald Clay? Secondary is thin.
7. Jaylon Thomas did not play much and should not have played at all. The only time I noticed him he got run over, forcing Mordecai to run for his life AND picked up a personal foul on the same play. What's his injury?
8. Alan Ali is the best offensive lineman on the team. Pretty sure he could play all 5 OL positions. He's a great center and more than capable at left tackle, considering how little he has practiced there.
9. Watching the game, I kept thinking about all the times in years past this team "played well" and came up short. This win wasn't especially pretty, but they won. I'm looking forward to another bowl game.

[Charleston Pony]

1. Defensive line was fantastic. Levelston and Williams, in particular, played their best games since transferring to SMU. Newman hardly played in the second half. Hope he'sOK.
2. For thre first time at SMU, Mordecai was average. Needs to protect the ball better.
3. I wish Bentley didn't play. To be that limited, he must really be hurting. He and Newman shouldn't stand up for about a week.
4. I had no idea Massey was that fast. He ... can ... fly.
5. What happened on Hall's field goal? Give Mazza every field goal from now on. Hall can punt (sort of) and kick off.
6. Denbow played his best game of the year, which makes sense since he's basically a linebacker playing safety. Speaking of which, Roderick Roberson needs to come back soon. Where is Donald Clay? Secondary is thin.
7. Jaylon Thomas did not play much and should not have played at all. The only time I noticed him he got run over, forcing Mordecai to run for his life AND picked up a personal foul on the same play. What's his injury?
8. Alan Ali is the best offensive lineman on the team. Pretty sure he could play all 5 OL positions. He's a great center and more than capable at left tackle, considering how little he has practiced there.
9. Watching the game, I kept thinking about all the times in years past this team "played well" and came up short. This win wasn't especially pretty, but they won. I'm looking forward to another bowl game.

Levelston and Williams were terrific and Hailey, too I should add. Those guys were all around the ball all afternoon.

If you've ever had a hamstring injury, you would know that Bentley needs all the rest he can get before playing again. Was surprised he played at all. Those injuries don't heal quickly.

I think Hall drop kicked his FG attempt.

Good timing for a week off before Tulane, who basically has 2 weeks to prepare for us.

[ponyboy]

Hall reportedly kicked the turf. It happens. Not ready to run him off the team quite yet.

[JasonB]

Here are my thoughts;

- First of all, wow, the defensive line was incredible. Chatman and Newman both did some nice things. But wow, what games from Williams and Levelston. They were absolutley amazing. Best defensive line performance from those two of any players since the death penalty? I might even take what they did over the Hunt sackathon at the Aloha bowl. They were incredible. Both deserve to be AAC players of the week.
- The defense overall was great. We have never had an SMU defense stuff the dive against the option like that. Never come close to it. Struggled a litte early with the pitch but once we got confidence in the line taking the dive and the inside backer on the QB, the OLB started to make the plays on the pitch and we shut them down. That was just awesome to watch. Hailey had his best game as a Musting. Just fantastic.
- NWO had the missed tackle early on the TD and then blew his coverage assignment on the trick play. But rebounded to play better after that, and I still would like to see him on the field more than anyone else.
- Massey I thought played a really key role in coverage. Smart move to put him in the corner rotation instead of safety and use his physicality. His speed and athleticism is electric, as shown on the great return.
- Defense only allowed 17, 14 of which came on a broken play early and then the trick play. Under 250 total yards, only 177 on the ground. Awesome.
- Offensively, we came out really, really flat.
- Some of that was trying to play JT. Go take the next two weeks off and heal up.
- Navy is a weird defense to play. You know you are only going to get 10-12 drives a game, and although the talent level isn't great, the 3-8 scheme causes problems and is confusing. They try and keep everything in front with the 3 deep, force you to pick apart the zone and be patient. On top of that, they randomly send players from the 8. Really difficult to get a read on it for the RPO, and when the compress in the redzone, they can really bottle things up. I thought SMU did a good job converting for the most part (outside of the INT in the endzone) in the redzone, which was a positive.
- It took a while for Mordeci to get patient in the pocket. He got caught in his habit early - waiting for the deep ball. Against a zone like that, you have to anticipate that your WR will find holes in the zone and then let it rip. He held the ball early waiting for people to break free. He showed massive improvement however as the game went along. The pressure looks aren't good - multiple INT this year on a pressure and then the first sack of the year he fumbles. Cincy is taking notes.
- The INT was a bad one. He forced it into the zone. You have to dump that off early and just get some yards.
- Usually, if you lose the turnover battle 2-0 on the road, especially against Navy when your possessions are limited, you lose the game. Especially with 6 penalties. Really shows a lot for the team to fight and win that game, even if the overall performance was a little flat. SMU only punted twice i8 possessions of the game. The offensive efficiency in terms of how frequently we have a scoring drive (or scoring attempt) is way better than it has been in past years. It is pretty impressive. We eat up clock and have fewer possessions than the last couple of years, but the efficiency is very good.
- The offensive line continues to come around. Early, I thought there were two issues. The first was trying to play JT when he wasn't ready. The second was again overcomplicating the blocking schemes. When we got that first and goal in the first half where the first run was blown up and the second worked, it was all blocking scheme. First and goal from the 1 or 2, and we tried to pull a guard (51). Navy run blitzed and just killed the opening, tackle for a loss. From that point forward, we started to simplify and just drive block and it worked much better. The second half blocking was a significant improvement. Ali did really well against at Tackle, and Hickman outside of the holding call was solid as well.

Overall, a win is a win. Would like to see us come out better, but I love the fight the team has shown on the road. We are getting killed in turnover margin in road games so far this season. SMU and Okie State are the only undefeated teams with a negative TO margin overall, and it has to be rare for a team with a negative TO margin to be undefeated this late in the season. That problem needs to be resolved, otherwise SMU will lose a road game they shouldn't at some point this season. Memphis and Houston have flaws, but both are good enough to beat us if we don't clean it up.

[ALEX LIFESON]

When Tanner gets flushed to his left, bad things happen. Sonny has said the offense has come out flat on numerous games this season....has to be a head scratcher

[JasonB]

When Tanner gets flushed to his left, bad things happen. Sonny has said the offense has come out flat on numerous games this season....has to be a head scratcher

The first couple of games I thought it was the performance of the OL that caused the slow start.

The last couple it has been TM just slow reads. It takes him a while to come up to the speed of the game.