The Tape Doesn't Lie

[Pony in SA]

Get home from select baseball tourney late yesterday, fire up the game on the DVR last night to watch with my son, and then when I saw it on tape it was worse than I thought. We missed a block (really don't even try to block) on 2nd play of the game or could have gained big yards, then we drop well thrown ball on 3rd play of the game that would have been a TD.

I said this last year and many times before, I like AR and his speed but he drops way too many catchable balls. I would rather we give more playing time to guys who will hang on to the ball. This is his main problem and it really hurts us. If we go up 7-0 after 3 plays it may change things.

Defense holds, then next series ES drops the ball at midfield. My 9 years old says "why don't they ever catch the ball -- lets count how many drops we have." We charted the entire 1st half together going using rewind on the DVR on some questionable throws to make sure we got it right. We got 7 drops in the 1st half. We were so disgusted did not watch 2nd half.

I am not a Bo fan by any means, and still think he locks into his primary receiver too much, but the tape shows many drops were not on him. I don't care who we play at QB if our receivers aren't more consistent catching the ball this offense is doomed.

[lugus830]

I was upset about the early AR drop as well till I noticed that it was tipped by the defender in front of him. As a result, I can't blame him for the drop as it is pretty hard to handle when you have to adjust that quickly. He has dropped balls in the past, but if Mitchell got a little more loft under the ball AR may have brought it in.

[Longtime]

This horrible performance can't be unexpected coming off the Navy loss. That's two games we've blown in overtime because we can't protect a lead and don't do the conventional things teams (i.e. coaches) do to win games at the end.

You just don't lose a game like the Navy game and come back with a sharp performance mentally.

Now, don't be surprised at all if we play well at Tulsa. This is has been SMU's (and every struggling program's) M.O. for years: Lose a close one, play terrible the next week, play well the week after that. Repeat.

[The PonyGrad]

This horrible performance can't be unexpected coming off the Navy loss. That's two games we've blown in overtime because we can't protect a lead and don't do the conventional things teams (i.e. coaches) do to win games at the end.

You just don't lose a game like the Navy game and come back with a sharp performance mentally.

Now, don't be surprised at all if we play well at Tulsa. This is has been SMU's (and every struggling program's) M.O. for years: Lose a close one, play terrible the next week, play well the week after that. Repeat.

I hope you are right and we have played well vs. Tulsa recently.