Did the season flip on one play?

[San Antonio Mustang]

Flipping a season on one play? Every team gives up a long play every now and then.

There has been no evidence suggesting this team is soft or a bunch of quitters. If anything, there is ample evidence to suggest those tags accurately describe some of our team's fans.

I don't call them quitters, but I think they may think they are better than they are. Since Navy they have played uninspired. They certainly did not play like they wanted last nights game. UTEP did. They do not have the talent to win if they are not inspired and give their all. They still are like our teams in the past who only did well when they were underdogs and had to scrap. The difference is that when those teams were favored they didn't believe they should be and this team believes they should be and they do not have to play hard to win.

I think this group is the result of mediocre talent and overconfidence.

[Charleston Pony]

coming into this season, I figured the key to a winning record may well be whether we could win at Navy, so if you want to look at it that way, then perhaps letting them convert that 3rd and long, seize the momentum and go on to win the game could be viewed as a turning point in the season...except that we won at Tulane (a team that had road wins against Rutgers and UTEP) and still have 2 games to play to determine how successful/disappointing a season this might ultimately become.

the point is...this season is far from over

beat Marshall and we are back in the game...and would still have a chance to make this a more successful season than last year.

[San Antonio Mustang]

I agree the season is far from over, but we have gone from a probable shot at the championship before Houston and then once again going into the UTEP game we were in 1st place in our division. Now we are a long shot to play for the championship and even a bowl game is only a possibility. I certainly don't think a bowl game is a probable outcome for the season. In order to win out which it probably will take to get to a bowl we are going to have to make a huge turn around in will to win.

[skyscraper]

This current group seems to be horrible frontrunners.
A chance to seize control of the division vs. Houston and they come out and pee down their legs.
With the season on the line last week in the 4th quarter, they flip a switch and manage to pull out a win vs. Tulane.
Now last night, with the division in their control again, they come out and pee down their legs again.
While SMU seems to have shaken its 'culture of losing' it has not seemingly progressed to a culture of winning.
We are stuck in an in-between for now.

[Pony in SA]

I agree this game no good for us. No benefit to playing them middle of season.

[westexSMU]

The season flipped when we lost Sterling Moore. That took us out of most of our blitzes because the guys playing CB now are not good enough at one on one coverages. Look at how many wide open deep balls have been thrown at our CBs. Lucky the other teams have either overthrown passes or dropped them in many cases or it could be a lot worse. We are 1-3 since Moore went down. The only team SMU beat since Moore went down was Tulane who could not throw. We have a great potential D except at CB.

[Stallion]

I didn't know we had so many preordained fatalists onboard-not good for a football team. What happened to Bad Play(Snap) and Move On. Seriously this is loser talk. I'd kick any player with this attitude off the team. Losers point to plays in a season which "flipped" their season. Champions make plays that turn adversity into success. Guess we really haven't learned how to win after all.

[George S. Patton]

Champions make plays that turn adversity into succes.

Very true. How has that been working out for the SMU Mustangs since Mid-October? How would you characterize their play since the Tulsa win?

[Stallion]

Un-Champion-like. But I predicted 6-6 so it hasn't come as that big of a shock. Talent and experience level really isn't good enough to expect to run the table on the road. UTEP did have 27 Seniors-what does SMU have 7 or 8? I believe the situation we are seeing is more a reflection of unrealistic expectations as opposed to underachievement.

[RGV Pony]

Un-Champion-like. But I predicted 6-6 so it hasn't come as that big of a shock. Talent and experience level really isn't good enough to expect to run the table on the road. UTEP did have 27 Seniors-what does SMU have 7 or 8? I believe the situation we are seeing is more a reflection of unrealistic expectations as opposed to underachievement.

I predicted 6-6 assuming everyone was who we thought they were. As Pony in SA or SanAntonio Mustang or whomever pointed out, and I have mentioned, UTEP was far from 100%. We are without one (1) defensive standout, and everyone has been quick to say how that has led to losses. UTEP had twice that number out. Imagine Fleps & Sterling, or Banjo & Sterling, or Youri & Sterling, or Thompson & Sterling, or whatever combination out. That's what UTEP was lacking.

I don't think it was unrealistic to think given those factors, and the fact that Tulane beat UTEP on the road, and/or that we would at least score more points than New Mexico did against UTEP.

Couple that with the Houston debacle, how depleted they were, the fact they'd just lost to Rice, and the strangeness of the game...it was a road game for them, so they had that working against them also. Maybe they benefitted from the experience of already having played a game in front of no one at Ford (AFA after Ike)