SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- It’s often said of a good coach “Give him time to prepare for a team and he’ll find a way to beat you”. Shafer and his staff spent practice time preparing for this game since training camp. The results were not encouraging.
- There were two major strategical decisions that basically ensured we had no chance to compete with this team. On offense, after winning a game at NC State with “smash-mouth”, “hard nosed” football where we went right at them with our strength, the rushing attack, wore the opposition down and dominated in the fourth quarter when the game was decided, we came out firing, trying to beat the triple option with Terrel Hunt’s passing arm. No chance. No chance at all.
- Defensively, Shafer and McCullough apparently decide that the 3-4 defense was a way to stop Tech’s triple option, even though we normally play a 4-3 and Dyshawn Davis was out. We wound up being unable to stop anything, inside, out or deep. I realize playing against the TO is a different deal but playing a defense you haven’t played before is not the answer. No chance. No chance at all.
- Whatever we tried, it was subverted by our lack of discipline. While Tech played a flawless game, we had ill-timed penalties all game long, many of them negating good plays, (none worse that the roughing the passer on third and long deep in our own territory). Without the quick-strlke capabilities, we had to run 10-12 plays in a row without a mistake- a penalty, a bobble, a missed block- to score. There were drives that had promising starts but we never made it to the end zone and kept their drives alive in the rare cases where they needed any help. We had 9 official penalties for 91 yards and they had none. The one time there was penalty on tech we negated it with a personal foul. With offsetting penalties the play stood and they got a first down.
- Because we fell behind early, we abandoned even the running we were doing and wound up with only 75 yards rushing after 323 and 362 yard efforts against Clemson and NC State. Meanwhile the Jackets stung us for 394 yards on the ground.
- The book says that when you fall behind by three touchdowns you have to start passing to come back. But do you, if that’s nbot what you are good at? I think we would have been better off in the second half just trying to win that half by doing what we do best. We would have been more productive and kept the ball longer to keep our defense and that TO they couldn’t handle off the field. We wouldn’t have won but it could have become a 14-42 type game, maybe a bit better than that.
- Drew Allen had a perfect opportunity to prove we made a mistake when we benched him. Instead he showed why we did it. Meanwhile Hunt was hopeless. I came into the season feeling that we were all set at this position because both guys were good options. Now it appears neither is the answer.
- It didn’t help to be minus 3 in turnovers and have a punt blocked to boot. The interceptions were bad passes, the fumble a bobbled snap and the block was a result of whiffing on a block.
- I remember 1999 when we started 5-1, having out-scored our opponents 196-78), and went down to Blacksburg to play Virginia Tech and lost 0-62. After that game we went 1-3 and were out-scored 84-103, including the only win a 1-10 Rutgers team had all year. Jake Crouthamel responded to criticism by saying that “this team lost a game 0-62” and that a team never really recovers from something like that. How will this team respond to getting beat this badly?
- There were two major strategical decisions that basically ensured we had no chance to compete with this team. On offense, after winning a game at NC State with “smash-mouth”, “hard nosed” football where we went right at them with our strength, the rushing attack, wore the opposition down and dominated in the fourth quarter when the game was decided, we came out firing, trying to beat the triple option with Terrel Hunt’s passing arm. No chance. No chance at all.
- Defensively, Shafer and McCullough apparently decide that the 3-4 defense was a way to stop Tech’s triple option, even though we normally play a 4-3 and Dyshawn Davis was out. We wound up being unable to stop anything, inside, out or deep. I realize playing against the TO is a different deal but playing a defense you haven’t played before is not the answer. No chance. No chance at all.
- Whatever we tried, it was subverted by our lack of discipline. While Tech played a flawless game, we had ill-timed penalties all game long, many of them negating good plays, (none worse that the roughing the passer on third and long deep in our own territory). Without the quick-strlke capabilities, we had to run 10-12 plays in a row without a mistake- a penalty, a bobble, a missed block- to score. There were drives that had promising starts but we never made it to the end zone and kept their drives alive in the rare cases where they needed any help. We had 9 official penalties for 91 yards and they had none. The one time there was penalty on tech we negated it with a personal foul. With offsetting penalties the play stood and they got a first down.
- Because we fell behind early, we abandoned even the running we were doing and wound up with only 75 yards rushing after 323 and 362 yard efforts against Clemson and NC State. Meanwhile the Jackets stung us for 394 yards on the ground.
- The book says that when you fall behind by three touchdowns you have to start passing to come back. But do you, if that’s nbot what you are good at? I think we would have been better off in the second half just trying to win that half by doing what we do best. We would have been more productive and kept the ball longer to keep our defense and that TO they couldn’t handle off the field. We wouldn’t have won but it could have become a 14-42 type game, maybe a bit better than that.
- Drew Allen had a perfect opportunity to prove we made a mistake when we benched him. Instead he showed why we did it. Meanwhile Hunt was hopeless. I came into the season feeling that we were all set at this position because both guys were good options. Now it appears neither is the answer.
- It didn’t help to be minus 3 in turnovers and have a punt blocked to boot. The interceptions were bad passes, the fumble a bobbled snap and the block was a result of whiffing on a block.
- I remember 1999 when we started 5-1, having out-scored our opponents 196-78), and went down to Blacksburg to play Virginia Tech and lost 0-62. After that game we went 1-3 and were out-scored 84-103, including the only win a 1-10 Rutgers team had all year. Jake Crouthamel responded to criticism by saying that “this team lost a game 0-62” and that a team never really recovers from something like that. How will this team respond to getting beat this badly?
