Scooch
Living Legend
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Messages
- 18,383
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- 64,722
9 games in and I think I've seen enough to feel that this is a slightly below average football team.
Not a bad team, or a team that sucks, or anything overdramatic like that. Just one that's on the other side of average.
There's nothing horribly wrong with that, it's not some great shame or embarassment. We're just... slightly below average. We can beat good 1-AAs (SB), and bad 1-As (UConn). We have mixed results against slightly below average to slightly above average teams (USF, Pitt, Cincy, Rutgers). And we can hang with good teams for a while (USC) but rarely beat them.
We're actually better than I thought we would be. I had us pegged at 4-8 for the season, and I think we're looking at 5-7 at worst. Which is, well, slightly below average. But we're in position to make plays. Every game it seems like we have 3-4 moments on either side of the ball to hit for something big, but we just don't cash in on most of those opportunities often enough to be above average.
And we play colossally stupid. The mental mistakes are constant, and killing us. That doesn't help. Nor does Marrone having such a terrible feel for the game in some key moments. But he's good in other areas, so I think we just have to accept that achilles heel. I don't see it changing significantly after 4 years. You either get that stuff or you don't.
Oh well. It's disappointing but we are what our record says we are. I'd try to be more positive and say that all we have to do is clean up X, Y and Z and we'll be good. But I don't believe that we can. 9 games in and we're making as many boneheaded mistakes as we did in game 1. It's just the nature of the team right now. Maybe someday it won't be.
Not a bad team, or a team that sucks, or anything overdramatic like that. Just one that's on the other side of average.
There's nothing horribly wrong with that, it's not some great shame or embarassment. We're just... slightly below average. We can beat good 1-AAs (SB), and bad 1-As (UConn). We have mixed results against slightly below average to slightly above average teams (USF, Pitt, Cincy, Rutgers). And we can hang with good teams for a while (USC) but rarely beat them.
We're actually better than I thought we would be. I had us pegged at 4-8 for the season, and I think we're looking at 5-7 at worst. Which is, well, slightly below average. But we're in position to make plays. Every game it seems like we have 3-4 moments on either side of the ball to hit for something big, but we just don't cash in on most of those opportunities often enough to be above average.
And we play colossally stupid. The mental mistakes are constant, and killing us. That doesn't help. Nor does Marrone having such a terrible feel for the game in some key moments. But he's good in other areas, so I think we just have to accept that achilles heel. I don't see it changing significantly after 4 years. You either get that stuff or you don't.
Oh well. It's disappointing but we are what our record says we are. I'd try to be more positive and say that all we have to do is clean up X, Y and Z and we'll be good. But I don't believe that we can. 9 games in and we're making as many boneheaded mistakes as we did in game 1. It's just the nature of the team right now. Maybe someday it won't be.