Playing not to lose...

[JasonB]

Wow, that game pissed me off. The officials lost us that game, but...

1) Offense. We scored on two drives because of two lucky pass plays to Chase. We have got to get someone back there who isn't afraid to throw a football. Romo has that look of fear every time he drops back. He is also really banged up, he isn't scrambling the same number of times that he did at the beginning of the season, which is the only reason he was effective. We play not to lose. Every single run we do ends up being a delay. We need some hard hitting runs. Our line isn't good enough to hold blocks for long enough for delay to work. An, since we aren't hurting them in a consistant, downfield passing game, the ends aren't just pinning their ears back and running up field, so there aren't holes developing for the delays off tackle. Also, even when we run block, we don't even try to block downhill, we are backpedaling a lot like it is a pass play because it is a designed draw. At some point we jus need to try to bloody some people up and move forward. We have got to learn to play aggressive and not scared on offense and start playing to win instead of playing not to lose.

2) Offensive line. horrible. There were two plays that could have been big gainers, but the o-linemen didn't hunt out another player to block and just stood there, impeeding the progress of our RB while someone else comes in unblocked and keeps it from being a big gain.

3) Use our playmakers. Givens, Turner, Henderson, no touches. We need to be clever and come up with WR screens or jsut send these guys deep and get them the damn ball.

5) Defense. No negative comments. Those guys gave effort, shut the other team out for most of the game, and waited for the offense to do something, and it never happened. No problems with the defense. That is 1.5 games straight of good effort by those guys.

[mrydel]

I live in a state that blames the officials every time they lose a game. I refuse to do that. We need to be in a positon where one bad call does not matter as much. I think the problem with the call was that it was called incomplete. That means the whistle blew before the fumble recovery. I do not think it could be changed regardless. The officials are told in a case like that to call it a fumble and then it could be overruled to incomplete if needed and appropriate. The problem was with the initial ruling not the review. That one call did not lose the game. A totally inept offense and lack of depth on defense caused this. Bennett may or may not be the right man but I have lost faith in Burns.

[Greenwich Pony]

I have to say, I have been as disappointed as anyone out there, but I really do think we're close. The D is good- as good as we could ask at this point. The offense needs two decent recievers, and we just don't have them. The OL could be a lot better, but without a serious recieveing threat, teams can just stack the line, squash our running game and beat up Romo. Burns' offense would work much better if we had someone who can catch a damn ball.

[Nacho]

You guys who thought the D was good need to look up the stats. We let them pass all day long. I don't have the exact numbers at this time but I heard them on the radio after the game--not pretty, not pretty at all. Ton of completions and ton yards by Marshall.

[Ponymon]

Most of that was near the end of the game when the D was starting to tire out. Its obvious from watching the game on TV and listening to Swann that the problem was the offense!

[Stallion]

its not just the offense-its also the lack of quality depth on defense. You know you don't just recruit first stringers -good teams have quality to bring off the bench. SMU defensive line which was getting some heat in the 1st half was gassed-the only thing they could do is bring the blitz at that point. I have no problem though with the effort of the players on defense-they played their hearts out.

[GoRedGoBlue]

No, our defense is terrible. They actually gave up 10 points.

That is totally absurd.

[Stallion]

they also gave up 27 First Downs-the idea is to get off the field before the other team gets a first down. Again they played their hearts out but they didn't stop Marshall when the game was there to be won. It had more to do with lack of depth than lack of wffort but the defense needs to some more Defensive linemen especially who can make plays.

[ALEX LIFESON]

Marshall's QB had an insane amount of time to throw ALL day!

[JasonB]

Marshall's QB had an insane amount of time to throw ALL day!

Not all day, only in the second half.

Agreed with Stallion, we obviously have some depth issues on the d-line, or refuse to play our depth more. Therion didn't see the field much. D-line obviously gassed at the end.

however, a decent offense would have kepth them off the field a bit and would have kept them fresh. The offense definately let the defense down in this one.

[lugus830]

I find it hard to criticize a defense that tires out because they are on the field the ENTIRE GAME!

I realize that they did not make the plays when they needed to in the end this week, but each week we see the same thing. The defense plays hard and keeps us in the game for three quarters. That's when things start to catch up.

The primary problem with this team is the offensive scheme that does not match the personnel that we have. Sure the offensive players have made mistakes, like Ro not even trying to catch Romo's pass despite that fact that it was overthrown, but the best coaches will mold their plays and schemes to the personnel that they do have. Not what they would like to have.

[2112]

ENTIRE GAME? SMU had more time of possession 31:11 to 28:49.

[EastStang]

First, Givens was thrown to once, but was overthrown. I agree, draw plays are not going to get it done. Secondly, we constantly had second and long all day and ran the ball probably 75% of the time on second down for zero or short yardage. This of course plays into the playing not to lose theory. We played quite a few wide-outs but none of them got much. I'm not sure if this offense is designed to take advantage of the tight end. Kennedy was thrown to once, but was covered every time I looked. He may be needed to block.