Thoughts on the game

[ALEX LIFESON]

Impressed by:
McDaniel and Bentley -- and I didn't expect to say that, at least not this early in the season.
Offensive line
Chevin Calloway
Brandon Crossley
Danny Gray
Chris Naggar

Concerns/unanswered questions:
Conditioning -- lot of guys getting treated for cramps
Punting
Linebacker depth -- sure would like to get Richard Moore back soon
Return game -- not crazy about seeing Gray or Roberson back there

What impressed you about the Offensive line? Our 4 returning starters, allowing Shane to be under constant pressure? Assignments blown, where rushers were untouched, knocking the crap out of our star qb? Getting stuffed on 3rd and 1 or stuffed on 4th and inches.. all against a make shift Tx State 3 man front, where they had to move a fullback to nose tackle in the 2nd half.

[dalpony]

We are going to have conditioning problems on and off through most of the season due to heath protocols brought on by COVID - we like most schools have had numerous players having to sit out practice for extended periods of time

[Mexmustang]

Look, our excuses for our level of play are just plain silly. TEXAS STATE is in the same boat as we are, subject to the same practice limitations, the same safety concerns and protocols. Some people seem to believe SMU is the only team managing under limitations this season. TEXAS STATE also had 50 or so new players, no spring ball and had to work these into their system in a very limited fall practice. I thought our Offensive Line looked poor, against a rag tag TEXAS STATE defensive line that was cobbled together during the game, with I believe two offensive players including an offensive lineman. This a TEXAS STATE, a team that went for 3 wins last year, without the resources and players, and a lower division than SMU. Our offensive line, which has 11 players, should have dominated and in key situations got beat because of missed assignments, poor play, poor conditioning and stamina, and lack of fire.
Previous comments concerning June's teams were correct, save for one thing, he never had the depth of this team and certainly never had eleven offensive lineman!

[HubbaHubba]

O-line needs to step it up. It takes a super elite running back (which we don't have) to make gains when you are dodging defenders in the backfield. Thank goodness we have a super elite QB who can make something happen when the line doesn't their job.

Play calling on both sides of the ball seemed uninspired. Hopefully it was because we didn't want to show everything early in the season or were keeping it simple on purpose. Didn't throw down the field much. Only 1 completed pass to tight end in the box score. tsu never seemed surprised or out of position because of our play calling. Did we ever even change the snap count?

On defense, the wide splits on a 3 man line with LBs playing 15 yards off the line was not a good look. A high school QB would audible to a draw and rip us for a big gain. tsu was happy to do it.

[leopold]

Meh. It was the first game and we won it.

Our OL was horrible when it shouldn't have been - agree with AL on that one.

But we have the chance to move forward. No biggie.

[EastStang]

I thought our O-line had a rough day as well. Not to make 4th and 1 foot says it all. TS was in the backfield before the hand-off occurred. That can't happen. Shane was hurried especially on that second interception when TS blitzed. We won an ugly game and hopefully that will inspire greater effort next week against a familiar opponent. I think we played it a bit conservative early, but with some new personnel, I don't think that was necessarily wrong.

[ponyboy]

Unless Southwest Texas State ends up being all world with its new transfers - i.e. a top 40 or better team -- I was deeply disappointed. I hope to see significant improvement against North Texas State. Yes, it was during a weird time. Yes, at their place. But that sucked.

[CJPONY16]

I think we all need to take a deep breath and remember a couple things:
-This was the first game, so there was bound to be rust.
-The rust was compounded by players not having adequate conditioning.
-This game plan was more than likely created prior to TCU cancelling on us, and therefore intended to be more vanilla.
-We had multiple TDs wiped off the board, which would have significantly inflated the score. Yes, most of those were our own fault. (see previous point about rust)

Lets wait and see how we play in a week and a half before we draw judgement about this team, Coach Riley, and the new 3-4 defense.

[Mexmustang]

Sorry, but didn't TEXAS STATE have many of the same excuses and more...

[CJPONY16]

Sorry, but didn't TEXAS STATE have many of the same excuses and more...

Yes, but they also had
- home field advantage. not talking about crowd, just being on familiar turf.
- a new QB with no film for us to watch
- the HC, regarded as somewhat of an offensive genius, calling plays
- 50+ new players that we knew nothing about (similar to us last year, and we know how that worked out)

In spite of all of this, we still won, put up over 500 yards of Offense, and if not for some mental errors would have probably covered the spread.

Their QB was constantly running for his life, and if he wasn't a natty lite version of Johnny Manziel, we would have sacked him more than twice.

Our team will be fine.

[Mexmustang]

You are right in some respects, but I just don't buy that they we had any more excuses than they did. In fact, with their depleted defensive line, and having to fill in with offensive players they probably had more. As far as their QB play its was even worse for them to break in a new QB with limited practice opportunities in the fall and none in the spring. As far as not knowing how their offense would play? Good grief their coach worked for Sonny as his OC at Cal. He knew what to expect.

Once again, this was TEXAS STATE, not A&M.

Its time for our coaches and players to take personal responsibility for their performances, not excuses. Our line simply didn't perform. They should have dominated, we had more players available, eleven offensive lineman and just as much time to prepare. Get this, they had two defensive lineman available for almost the entire game. Is the sky falling, no. I just don't buy these excuses for our play when you really consider our opponent and their problems.

[panhandle_pony]

Well stated

[Charleston Pony]

Bottom line is that we won a road game after playing poorly and turning the ball over far more than we did all of last season.