Difference playing at home or opening up the offense?

[gostangs]

O.K. which is it? Or maybe SH is just not very good at all. I guess it is all three, but if Bennett lets them open up a bit a NTSU then we are sitting here at 2-1 with a much diferent outlook on life.

Next week is even bigger then this one. We need a win vs a better team heading into the CUSA schedule.

[PlanoStang]

Look what happened when we had a little vertical passing offense

Pfil wasn't AFRAID of these guys. I was, given the offense shown in the
last two games where Pfil was AFRAID.

Playing not to lose when the point spread is relatively small gets you
beat everytime when the opponent is very motivated to beat you like
UNT was

Losing DeMyron was NO excuse.

[Col. Nathan R. Jessep]

O.K. which is it? Or maybe SH is just not very good at all.

Don't mean to rain on the parade, but SH is small & slow. They look like us a few years back.

But congrats-- our guys owned 'em like they should of.

[gostangs]

Thier O line was not small

[PK]

O.K. which is it? Or maybe SH is just not very good at all.

Don't mean to rain on the parade, but SH is small & slow. They look like us a few years back.

But congrats-- our guys owned 'em like they should of.

Turn your binoculars around, you are looking through the wrong end. SHSU had plenty of size...but they are of course only 1-AA and we did to them what a 1-A team should do to them. Evidently the 10 D1-A transfers they got that had Stallion worried didn't do them much good tonight.

[PlanoStang]

O.K. which is it? Or maybe SH is just not very good at all.

Don't mean to rain on the parade, but SH is small & slow. They look like us a few years back.

But congrats-- our guys owned 'em like they should of.

Yup, they did look smaller than us, especially on defense. Thats why Pfil
wasn't afraid of them.

Did you hear Leach's comments about both Tech's, and TCU's offenses
playing like they were scared, and TCU's came out of it more? We
played scared offense at TT, and UNT.

[MustangStealth]

Pfil wasn't AFRAID of these guys. I was, given the offense shown in the
last two games where Pfil was AFRAID.

Playing not to lose when the point spread is relatively small gets you
beat everytime when the opponent is very motivated to beat you like
UNT was

I think that's probably pretty close to the bullseye. We actually went into this game not afraid to take a chance, and it payed off. We need to keep the momentum up now.

[Huey78]

O.K. which is it? Or maybe SH is just not very good at all. I guess it is all three...

My apologies all for still feeling questionable, but am I being unreasonable? I saw several plays last night that scared me to death.

-Our backs ran in to each other in the backfield
-We're tentative and tip-toeing in to the line when running the ball (more than a "draw" should account for)
-A few of their incomplete passes last night were in the direction of players that were wide-open from obvious blown coverage.
-Arm tackling and a lack of wrap-up on a couple notable plays

I think you can really attribute this win as much to D1-A vs D1-AA as anything else. We had enough leeway that some inconsistency on our part didn't kill us - or even really hurt us at all.

Don't get me wrong - I thoroughly enjoyed the game, the long-ball was great to see, the special teams turn-around could almost bring a tear to your eye... the score showed almost complete domination. I would have like to see us be really crisp and I just don't feel like I saw it.

If nothing else - I hope this game builds the guys confidence up enough that they can relax and start to really fly around without "thinking."

We'll need to continue along the lines of significant improvement to compete as the season goes forward - I'm looking forward and fully expecting us make the jump - but if I noticed some of the issues watching the game - the opposing coaches are going to pick us apart if we don't continue to make big jumps in a hurry and get "perfect".

Hate to throw anything less than sunshine out there after last night, I'm just having these flashbacks that are bothering me.

Had to take my family home at the half (3 yr old son had a fever) so I missed the 2nd half except for listening to it on the Ticket - maybe I just got sideways in the first half and I'm still in a funk comparing this years start to last years finish... ::shrugs:: I've been known to be paranoid before, hehe.

In any case, GO MUSTANGS!

[OC Mustang]

Not crisp???!! Did you see the same game I did??

It was certainly a Div 1A vs. AA sort of thing, but SMU owned them.
Perhaps our defense was not quite as crisp; SHSU moved the ball okay between the 20s and in Q4 when SMU had its 2nd & 3rd team guys on the field. However, SMU had 14 pts before our first penalty and 28 before JWillis threw an incomplete. Perhaps it was the opponent, or the location, or just determination, but the offense was 180 degrees what I saw at Fouts the Saturday before.

I agree with Stallion & Big10Ponyfan on this: vertical passing game. Nuff said. Givens' catch is DMN picture worthy, even if their coverage still sucks.

I looked at a friend next to me at the beginning of the game and saw something I did not see at UNT...Focus. For whatever reason, I saw distraction and then quicksand at Fouts. If SMU can show the same sort of FOCUS and put it to Arkansas State in the manner that they did to SHSU, then we are 2-2 going into conference play, better than any September in recent memory, even if one off of where SMU ought to be.

BTW, as an aside, I bought my son and one of his friends those red horns to make noise. Stupid, stupid, stupid. They blew those obnoxious horns all night long. Section 105, Row 1. That was horrible.

Met Special Delivery on Blvd. Was my first "walk-through" of the Blvd. since its inception. Very nice. Ate at Goff's. Very much enjoyed it.

[Peruna2001]

It was the opening up of the offense. When we were up by a couple of touchdowns, they started playing the "safe" game again and it slowed us down considerably. I remember one of our guys getting drilled after catching a screen pass. I was starting to get upset that they were going back to the same ____ as the previous weeks. Opening up the offense allowed us a lot. Although, I think we need to find a middle ground for ASU. I'm afraid some of the passing plays won't work with defenders that might be able to keep up with our guys. However, we don't need to go back to the run, run, screen pass, punt offense.

[docpoco]

O.K. which is it? Or maybe SH is just not very good at all. I guess it is all three, but if Bennett lets them open up a bit a NTSU then we are sitting here at 2-1 with a much diferent outlook on life.

Next week is even bigger then this one. We need a win vs a better team heading into the CUSA schedule.

Yeah... either that or the fact that you played a D1AA school.

What will be said when you guys "open it up" against ASU, and still lose?

[Peruna2001]

What will be said when you guys "open it up" against ASU, and still lose?

If we lose, we'll say that we opened it up too much and we should have run the ball a little bit more. But I don't think that we'll have to worry about that.