PonyFans.com

As of those games played last Saturday:

Of the 8 C-USA schools who have played SMU was #1 in rushing, go figure - hail the spread-bone. SMU was also last in total offense.

SMU was #2 in Passing Defense and Pass efficiency defense.

SMU was last in Passing and Passing efficiency and Total Offense.

Nationally SMU was:
#15 in Pass Efficiency defense
#16 in Punt returns
T - #19 in TO margin
#29 in Pass Defense

Individually:
Rushing - Romo was #54 and #2 in the C-USA
Punt Returns - Blake Warren was #16
KOR - Jessie Henderson was T - #26

Worst stats of 90 teams having played as of 9/3
SMU was #87 in net punting (due to the block)
#86 in Passing offense
#85 in Pass efficiency
#81 in Total offense
#74 in Rushing defense

The PonyGrad wrote:#81 in Total offense

Thats the main one that has been hurting us for quite some time now.

Of our big problems from last season you are correct about Total offense but it was even worse. Last seasons avg was 334 per game vs 270 v Baylor.

Rushing improved from 125 in 04 to 164.
Passing was a big disappointment dropping from 209 to 106
Pass eff. dropped from 110 to 82
Scoring however improved from 18 to 23.
Rush D almost identical
Pass eff D made a GREAT improvement from 150 to a rating of 89 (#15)
Total D was better by 54 yards
Scoring was 10pts better than our average last year.
Pass D was better by 60 yards.

So, we got worse in Total O, Passing and better in Pass, Total, and scoring D.

Turn over margin was in our favor, a big positive over last season.

Can we improve on the passing and total O. I say yes but we are way down.

Can we sustain our improvements? I also say yes.

What does that mean in W/L? Probably not much.

The PonyGrad wrote:Of our big problems from last season you are correct about Total offense but it was even worse. Last seasons avg was 334 per game vs 270 v Baylor.

Rushing improved from 125 in 04 to 164.
Passing was a big disappointment dropping from 209 to 106
Pass eff. dropped from 110 to 82
Scoring however improved from 18 to 23.
Rush D almost identical
Pass eff D made a GREAT improvement from 150 to a rating of 89 (#15)
Total D was better by 54 yards
Scoring was 10pts better than our average last year.
Pass D was better by 60 yards.

So, we got worse in Total O, Passing and better in Pass, Total, and scoring D.

Turn over margin was in our favor, a big positive over last season.

Can we improve on the passing and total O. I say yes but we are way down.

Can we sustain our improvements? I also say yes.

What does that mean in W/L? Probably not much.

If you take away that last drive that we spent completely in prevent, the passing yards look even worse. What was it, 53 yards? That's half your passing offense. I think SMU needs to stick with Romo and run a bunch of that zone option read with Henderson and Massey. That play will allow you to run the ball, there's not a huge risk of turnover like conventional option and you've got the players to run it. Plus, you have the Chase brothers that you can fake the option and go deep with to keep the passing attack alive.

I don't think your other receivers can be consistent enough to keep a traditional spread offense viable.

So why do we think our passing attack was soooo bad? QB, OL, receivers? Backs picking up the blitz?

With all the receivers we have and the success we had last year I find it hard to think that we do not have enough good receivers.

Eckerd seem to lock on to one receiver, at least some of the time. With a spread you have to make reads and go to the open guy. That is kind of what Bennett said about why he took him out. But Romo fared little better in the passing game.

Of course it seemed that the QBs were under pressure as well so what about the OL?

The most devastating stat from Saturday night was the second half time of possession. Baylor, 21 1/2 minutes to SMU, 8 1/2. Any wonder the defense ran out of gas?

Oh, and our lack of possession time can not be attributed to our "Quick Strike" Offense.

we'll let me be the first to tell you then that- No. we do not have enough good receivers-I've been trying to tell you all that for years. Of course, Eckert couldn't complete a pass to either Wilt Chamerlain or Mini-Me on Saturday Nite anyway.

Stallion wrote:we'll let me be the first to tell you then that- No. we do not have enough good receivers-I've been trying to tell you all that for years. Of course, Eckert couldn't complete a pass to either Wilt Chamerlain or Mini-Me on Saturday Nite anyway.

Does this mean that you thought the OL was OK?