we competed into the 4th quarter, light years different than under the clown. Heck, Kiffin felt sorry for us last year. I don’t think he was feeling sorry for us when we closed it to 24-17 in the 4th quarter. I think we’ll compete pretty well in conference play and believe we can win 5-6 ball games. Somehow, someway we’ve got to recruit some DL’s.
This is right on. We were in the game till midway through the 4th last night when they scored a TD to make it 34-17 with 6 minutes left. The O drove the ball well (26 1st downs), controlled the clock (39:17 TOP), and put up 474 yards (307 passing and 167 rushing). We committed no TO's and no penalties. The O is not even faintly reminiscent of last year. It is much better, and that includes the OL, which still has a good bit of room to improve.
The difference in the game was the D. That GA Tech D is really bad. However, heading into the game, the Ole Miss O was ranked #13 total offense at 511 YPG. It is no shame giving up a lot of yards and points to Ole Miss at their place, but the D seemed to quit after the score to make it 34-17, allowing 2 more quick TD's. We saw the D fall apart in the 4th in the Louisville game, too, and considered it fatigue. However, last night the O moved the ball all night, and the TOP was 2:1 in our favor, so last night was not fatigue. If so, we have a conditioning issue, too. The simple truth is we graduated our 3 top playmakers off last year's D (Thomas - LB, Eley - LB, and White - DE), plus 3 next-level players transferred - to Ole Miss (Stone - DT, Walton - DB, and Ivey - DE). That's 3 DL, 2 LB, and 1 DB, all of which had shots at NFL rosters or are starting in the SEC.
Louisville was a game that we had less than 50% chance of winning, and Ole Miss was never a game that we considered a winnable one. We ought not get bent out of shape that we lost either one, especially last night. Instead, we ought to use the team's performance last night against last year's Ole Miss benchmark game to measure significant improvement in some areas. In case anyone needs reminding, we lost 42-0 in a game where Kiffin essentially stopped his team from scoring in the 4th quarter. In that game, we put up only 13 1st downs and 214 total yards on O, and the D gave up 42 points in 3 quarters.
We are 1-2 now, with @Wake and Bowling Green next two weeks. We can be 3-2 heading into Miami on 10/7. I can still see 6 wins and a bowl for this team: WFU, BGSU, BC, UVA, Syracuse. Maybe we can knock off a Miami or UNC and win 7.
