Observation of the week - play to win

[JasonB]

When our backs are up against the wall... end of the Tech game, end of Montana State, 4th quater of Rutgers, we play aggressive on offense and defense. We play to win the game. We start throwing the ball downfield to take some chances, and our defense plays to snuff everything out. And we are good enough to succeed.

Unfortunately, most of the time we play not to lose. We let the underneath stuff go on defense and let teams dink and dunk all the way down the field, playing a conservative zone in the middle.

On offense, we play sideline to sideline, often throwing wide on the short side of the field (makes no sense). Really conservative, trying to gain four yards a play. In our blue unis yesterday, the first three quarters looked to me exactly like Frieberger to Wolf. Say that you are playing a high powered, passing offense, but in reality, you are just doing what you can to get 4 yards a play and run up some numbers that look decent. In the end we still lost a lot of SWC games 52-14 even though we completed a ton of passes. Watching a pre-designed 2 yard pass on third and 8 where we come up two yards short just drives me nuts.

It's time to take advantage of Holman, Taylor, and Halverson on the outside and throw deep go and post patterns a hell of a lot more often. Doing that will open the underneath game up so that the 5 yard slant to JJ will turn into 15 yards, and our running game will have space to operate.

On defense, I loved seeing the nickel package more often and the young corners. It allows us to man up more. Sure, if we play aggressive, we are going to give up the occasional deep ball that Richardson did, but at least we are trying for the three and out. Come out and play agressive on D, then if it doesn't work out morph into the conservative 3-4 zone. But at least try it from the start.

The 4th quarter was what Jones stressed when he got here - aggressive defense, not afraid to make mistakes because the offense would make up for it. Aggressive throws on offense, and aggressively going for it on fourth down. I would rather see us do that and play to win than to play conservative and still be down 30 at halftime to A&M.

[Rebel10]

In the 4th quarter we went for it on 4th down a lot because we were so far behind. I would not suggest doing that through an entire game from start to finish.

[Mustangsabu]

I agree. The fourth quarter and overtime were about the best football I've seen us play. We obviously have at least some downfield threats and we need to use them more. I just hate that we lost that game.

[SMU 86]

I do not think they are true down field threats as they got caught from behind every time but I do think that they are running their routes well.

[GiddyUp]

Good points J, poor coaching/game plan, poor execution. Some light turned on all the sudden. Taylor has some ability for sure. Hes a bright spot.

[StallionsModelT]

Start playing the young WR's Ja'Bryce Taylor and Jeremiah Gaines alongside Johnson and Joseph. I can see using Holman in certain situations but with the season going the way its going, we need to find out which young guys can play.