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2ndandlong wrote:they still hung 30 on Virginia

yeah, I noticed that.
but, I'm relying on our offense to be able to generate significantly more points than Virginia did.
plus, there likely will be some defensive weaknesses due to injury, as Stallion pointed out (I'm hoping, anyway).

the crowd could be a problem. but, now that we know our players prefer a football crowd (any crowd) to play in front of, it could actually help.

The game like any road game against a quality opponet will require you to play a near mistake free game. If we avoid bone headed penelties turnovers and can generate a turnover or 2 for ourselves we will be fine. A big if put the potential is there

I agree that our D needs to get on the turnovers. Think of what that could give the O. No doubt usm will be tough no matter.

Go Ponies!

Where's the hot chicks tailgating pics? Wait, is this a real thread about the USM offense? Whoops, sorry.

The PonyGrad wrote:

2ndandlong wrote:they still hung 30 on Virginia

UVa threw 3 picks in a close game.

Regardless of rankings, do you think their pass defense will be better than UCF?

2ndandlong wrote:

The PonyGrad wrote:

2ndandlong wrote:they still hung 30 on Virginia

UVa threw 3 picks in a close game.

Regardless of rankings, do you think their pass defense will be better than UCF?

SMU quarterback J.J. McDermott threw for 358 yards and made the Knights' secondary look more disorganized than a teenage girl's closet. ~ Orlando Sentinel

has to be, right?
anyway, I think I saw that USM has a pretty good interception rate. something to at least be a bit concerned about.

I wonder if it is the pressure that makes for the ints. USM is #6 in tackles for loss. We are #73 in sacks allowed. Something to keep an eye on.

They may be down to there 4th RB, but they have had a week off to get him up to speed, and the run game starts with the OL. If our D-line is gassed by the fourth this could be a down to the wire game. Hopefully we can go into the 4th with enough points for it to not matter, and just slow play our offense similar to the UCF game.

Seems like our D-line is still a few years away from being completely stocked, but they are still leaps and bounds better than where they were a few years ago.

Can't wait for this game, go Mustangs!

The PonyGrad wrote:I wonder if it is the pressure that makes for the ints. USM is #6 in tackles for loss. We are #73 in sacks allowed. Something to keep an eye on.

TFL and sacks are a bit different. They had a rather large number of TFL against Navy which makes sense. Probably a lot of run blitzes against a running team.

We didn't allow a sack against the #2 (now #3) defense in the nation last week. And as much as we pass, sacks will always be an issue for us.

Not saying they can't pressure the QB which can lead to INTs, just saying the stats may not fit as well for this game because of the extremes in offense (running vs. passing)

ponyte wrote:

The PonyGrad wrote:I wonder if it is the pressure that makes for the ints. USM is #6 in tackles for loss. We are #73 in sacks allowed. Something to keep an eye on.

TFL and sacks are a bit different. They had a rather large number of TFL against Navy which makes sense. Probably a lot of run blitzes against a running team.

We didn't allow a sack against the #2 (now #3) defense in the nation last week. And as much as we pass, sacks will always be an issue for us.

Not saying they can't pressure the QB which can lead to INTs, just saying the stats may not fit as well for this game because of the extremes in offense (running vs. passing)

Actually USM was below their average in TFL at Navy.

UCF is 102 in sacks and T-84 in TFL
USM is T-65 in sacks and 6 in TFL

I expect more pressure from USM.