That was a horrible performance

[JasonB]

Well, that was awful.

For those of you who have been calling for blood over the past couple of years, what you have been asking for is certainly going to come to pass this season. There is no way June could be shown the door after 4 straight bowl games. Even last year, it started poorly, but probably ends in a bowl if gilbert doesn't get hurt. This loss however won't be acceptable to anyone. Poorly played and clearly showed a lack of athletes on the offensive side of the ball, which comes down to the coaches' recruiting.

Offensive series:
1) Burcham had two bad throws, one was caught. Briggs and Mccarty completely missed a guy on another incomplete pass. Turn over on downs, but if burcham is accurate drive continues.
2) Briggs looked awful on the holding call that eliminated the first down, punt.
3) bailed out on a PI, then Brown blocks nobody on a screen and it gets blown up. Line looks better, but recievers can't get any seperation and punt.
4) Line looks better. DT horrible blocking on screen, but I wouldn't expect more from a small guy. Burcham medicine ball on the pick.
5) Deion is horrible on the return, WR drop, should have been PI on 3rd, but threw into triple coverage. O line good again, but receivers aren't getting open or not throwing down field.
6) bailed by PI on deep ball. 75 gets toasted and burcham fumbles for TD.
7) Deion another bad return. Good run blocking, strong pull by McCarthy. Brown false start, then nobody open, then horrible throw on third.
Cassell in. Overthrows DT, but DT can't adjust his route and looks bad on the play. Bad throw on second. Brown holding. Incomplete to line on blitz, nobody chips the blitzer again and then pass is 100 MPG.
9) Inside the 10 again. Malone almost a great catch. Third down nobody open, but Pope does a poor job on the blitz pickup and there is a sack.
10) Deion another slow return. Great pass by Cassell, then Pope fumbles after we take Cassell out after his best throw of the day and put Davis in.
11) Davis nice long pass to DT. Then the worst throw ever. Then the oline blocks run, davis does play action and he takes a sack (busted play). Awful throw incomplete on third by Cassell.
12) Cassell awful pass. Walker nice catch and run. Holding 75, and an awful throw on fourth down.

I feel bad for the defense - they gave up a bit late but really played pretty tough the entire game. UNT moved the ball early when Bordano filled the wrong gaps and was caught out of position, and the defensive line took a little time to catch up physically. Other than that they played on a short field all day and actually played pretty tough. Montes struggled - played way off the receivers and showed a couple of times that he isn't quick enough out of the break. I love that he is always around the ball, but Yenga showed a couple of times that he is probably a little undersized to be playing in the middle in a 3-4 - he can't stand a blocker up and make a play, and he gets dragged a few yards if the run is up the middle. Sanders made some nice plays, so did Minor. HG is really good in pursuit when the play is run wide but isn't the greatest in coverage. Wright had a solid day. Barnes is now undersized even at OLB and was pushed around quite a bit when in the game and failed to contain on the outside. The second/third team got toasted on that last TD drive.

Offensively, wow. The offensive line was poor on the first couple of possessions, and then started to hold their own. 71 and 75 both look about half as mobile as they were last season. McCarty is much better as a run blocker than pass blocker, and Brown as well. The line had some missed communication especially early, and then held their own. Burcham plays scared. He throws the ball with a lot less force in the game than in practice, and it gets his players blown up. He is trying to place the ball instead of throw the ball. Cassell is the exact opposite - throws it 100 miles everywhere, even when Line is two yards away. Davis looks great on one pass and then the next I can't describe with words. Burcham refuses to throw the ball deep, and it looks like the rest don't know the offense well enough to go through progressions. I expect they will significantly pair back the offense in the next two weeks and let Matt Davis run the show. Only chance they have to win this season possibly. The big question is if Colbert is read to go if Davis gets hurt, or do you just go back to the regular offense? Shelby and Malone show a little something at WR, but nobody else can really get open. DT is supposed to be a speed guy, but I haven't seen him seperate from a CB yet this season. Getting DJ back will help, but there really isn't a lot. Maybe Halverson can make something happen. Deion isn't fast enough to return kickoffs and isn't a playmaker. Lancaster is supposed to be fast, but we haven't seen him running in space all season.

This was a really, really bad performance. And it probably has to spell the end of June Jones at SMU.

[Arkpony]

We all hope so.....soon!

[sbsmith]

But I thought this was supposed to be the "Biggest, Fastest, Strongest" SMU team since the DP. Are you telling me all those practice observations were wrong? This just can't be true.

[floridianstang]

June never adjusted the offense to Matt Davis. Too late now, he's gone

[Stallion]

Could you reassess the Depth at the QB position. I hear SMU has never had this many great QB prospects

[JasonB]

Does Burcham slow his delivery down in practice and try to place the ball everywhere? No, the receivers would get killed in practice as well. He throws a much different ball in the game. Cassell doesn't throw the ball 150 MPH at practice on a screen either. I'll stand by the claim that SMU has 5 legit division 1 QBs on campus right now. But obviously they aren't performing in the games for a variety of reasons. Against Baylor you just can't get past the o-line. But in this game, Burcham's speed on his passes was low, and you could see his accuracy was way, way off. IN the post game, Jones said he had an elbow injury, and I have no idea if there was an impact there, but no doubt that was bad.

The biggest fastest strongest was June's quote I believe from earlier this summer, but I fully admit that I expected more. I thought the d-line was solid, and when the o-line didn't struggle against the d-line in practice, I assumed we would be fine. WR was always a question mark, and when Nelson was a starter over Gaines, etc, that was not a great sign. DT hasn't turned the corner as a senior that Holmes did. Obviously we are going to see a lot more of the frosh WR and I suspect Halverson as the season goes on, and that should help, but WR is a much bigger weakness than I thought it was.

Still, the overall talent on the team is way, way better than it was when Bennett left. Which leaves no excuse for performing this poorly in the games.

[Arkpony]

Doesn't that just leave coaching?

[Charleston Pony]

Does Burcham slow his delivery down in practice and try to place the ball everywhere? No, the receivers would get killed in practice as well. He throws a much different ball in the game. Cassell doesn't throw the ball 150 MPH at practice on a screen either. I'll stand by the claim that SMU has 5 legit division 1 QBs on campus right now. But obviously they aren't performing in the games for a variety of reasons. Against Baylor you just can't get past the o-line. But in this game, Burcham's speed on his passes was low, and you could see his accuracy was way, way off. IN the post game, Jones said he had an elbow injury, and I have no idea if there was an impact there, but no doubt that was bad.

The biggest fastest strongest was June's quote I believe from earlier this summer, but I fully admit that I expected more. I thought the d-line was solid, and when the o-line didn't struggle against the d-line in practice, I assumed we would be fine. WR was always a question mark, and when Nelson was a starter over Gaines, etc, that was not a great sign. DT hasn't turned the corner as a senior that Holmes did. Obviously we are going to see a lot more of the frosh WR and I suspect Halverson as the season goes on, and that should help, but WR is a much bigger weakness than I thought it was.

Still, the overall talent on the team is way, way better than it was when Bennett left. Which leaves no excuse for performing this poorly in the games.

way way better? what team are you watching?

[JasonB]

well, we had a zero win team and a 1 win team at the end of PB, so we aren't exactly shooting at the top barrel there. But yes we have more skill at more positions than PB even if it is young.