What's funny (sad) is that...

There's something terribly wrong about this year's team. They dont feel like a team. We shouldnt be this bad. We werent this bad last year and this is basically the same exact team.
 
TypicalTechFan said:
It’s almost like some people just see the final score of those games and think theyre respectable results instead of actually watching the games to see just how awful we are in every aspect.
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Every aspect? We had like 700 yards of offense against USF
 
TypicalTechFan said:
It’s almost like some people just see the final score of those games and think theyre respectable results instead of actually watching the games to see just how awful we are in every aspect.
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That's not true. We were played many series, on offense and on defense, pretty well in the Pitt and USF games.
 
Akinji07 said:
There's something terribly wrong about this year's team. They dont feel like a team. We shouldnt be this bad. We werent this bad last year and this is basically the same exact team.
Click to expand...

Agree. We shouldn't be this bad.

The offensive line is plenty good enough to be a bowl team. Parker Braun may be the best offensive lineman since Shaq Mason. We won the LOS in the first drive vs. Clemson and in spots afterward. That is good enough for us to consistently beat other teams on the line of scrimmage.
ABacks on an equal footing with previous Abacks (Fumbles being the exception). Orange Bowl team had Tony Zenon starting across from Charles Perkins with BJ Bostic and Deon Hill backing them up.
BBacks are good enough, even without K. Benson.
Wide Receivers and Quarterback are IMO the only offensive spots below the average GT bowl team. I'm not going to talk bad about young individuals.

The talent on defense is along the same lines, with my jury still out on the corners. I like what I have seen from Carpenter, Curry, Henderson (in spots), and Rivera. Physically, I don't think we are any worse off than previous GT bowl teams, but definitely lacking playmakers when compared to the ACC-CG and Orange Bowl teams (K. Freeman, A. Gotsis, S. Green, Q. Nealy, PJ Davis, I. Johnson, J. Golden w/ DJ White and C. Milton at corner). Basically, we need to be solid or really good at 8-9 spots and have role players in 2-3. We have the ratio flipped.

P. Harvin III and J. Thomas on special teams are bright spots, but we have to make field goals to win games (or, quite frankly, consider everything inside the 35 yard line 4-down territory and stop trying FGs).

So, my thesis is that we have adequate talent to make a bowl (I don't think we will). We are just too sloppy.
-USF we had 2 interceptions and 1 lost fumble to their 1 interception, 0 fumbles. Tack on 14 special teams points and there is no way to win a game like that. 419 yards rushing and 602 total offensive yards doesn't matter. We scored 38 points and lost by 2 scores.
-Pitt we had 1 interception and only completed 6-15 pass plays in addition to 3 fumbles (1 lost, but the 2 retained fumbles led to the fake punt and a failed 4th down attempt. All 3 Pitt TDs immediately followed the drives with fumbles). Pitt had 1 interception and retained possession on 1 fumble. Throw in the inexcusable fake punt play and it is amazing that we only lost 24-19.
-Clemson. 8 fumbles. This may well be the best Clemson team under Dabo. They are in the college football stratosphere. No team should fumble 8 times.

In a year where our average talent runs the offense well and defense and special teams are just OK, we are 3-1 with two road wins and feeling pretty good. I don't know the solution, but it isn't more of the same.
 
Akinji07 said:
There's something terribly wrong about this year's team. They dont feel like a team. We shouldnt be this bad. We werent this bad last year and this is basically the same exact team.
Click to expand...
Completely agree. I'm at the point where I am wondering if I am delusional to hope that they are things that can get cleaned up with execution, and win some games. I feel like with last year's team, without the shit luck we had, we would win 6 or 7 on our remaining schedule (more of a statement of how bad everyone else is than how good we we're last year - also a statement of how bad we are this year)
 
I feel like if we can beat BG (as we should) and Louisville (not out of the question - we've got the "first time they've seen us" thing in our favor, and the "Friday road game" thing working against us) maybe we can get a little confidence and make a little luck for ourselves in some games going forward. We're not a great team, but on top of that, we seem to be lacking confidence and playing a little tentatively.

Timing has a big impact on perception - if we got to 3-1 with wins over Alcorn, BG, and Louisville, then lost to Clemson, USF, and Pitt I don't think we'd be freaking out quite as much as we are right now. Duke and UNC were bad midseason losses in 2014, but they probably would have felt a lot worse in weeks 2-3. Things have been very frustrating to this point, but it's still possible that we could salvage a decent (6-6) season. Not what I was hoping for, but better than 2-10.

JRjr
 
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