[NU Sports] Re: when 41 points just isn't enough [rant]

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

>> As for the Hawaii game my wife is of the opinion that Dunbar should be
>> sacked for such a poor gameplan.  As emphasized on other posts -- RUN
>> THE BALL!!!!!!!!
>
>...because dammit, 41 points can't reasonably be expected by anyone to win
>a football game.  That's right folks, when our offense scores 41 points
>and the team loses, we point the fingers at the OC.  It's because of our

Honestly - yes. We're facing a powerful offense that hits on our key
defensive weakness -- the passing game. I don't think anybody reasonably
expected us to hold them to fewer than 30, 40 or even 50 points. So what do
you do?

1) Run the darn ball. We hit their weakness just like they hit ours. Hawaii
allowed big yardage this year on the ground and we run well up the gut.
When we did run between the hashes on Saturday night, we usually got 10+
yard gains. They were smaller and we should have been able to overpower
them on the ground ... especially since that also helps the D by keeping
Chang off the field. But instead we run to the sidelines (which allowed
Hawaii's speed to make up for their lack of size) and pass way too much. If
we had a gameplan to run the ball, we abandoned it way too early. And on
that last drive, we're at the 20 with 1:20 remaining ... RUN THE BALL! For
no other reason than to take time off before scoring, because we saw what
Chang did with less than 30 seconds at the end of the first half.

2) Take control when you had the chance. Our defense was never going to
shut out Hawaii ... but we did shut them down in the first quarter. We
didn't allow them past the 50 and we had the ball on their half of the
field four times but came away with a TD (off the kicking error by Hawaii)
and two field goals. It should have been 24-0 at least.

The defense allowed seven touchdowns ... no one's going to call that a
banner day, but our offensive gameplan and our O-line execution at Hawaii
was awful and the biggest reason we lost. One TD was the blocked punt ...
one was set up by the "onside" kick and two FGs (or maybe one?) came off
interceptions.

So that offensive production -- that couldn't even get Noah over 100 yards
-- was good for two legit drives, two ones that came up short for FGs and a
stall at the goal line.

>And let's fire that hack Dunbar.  I mean, really.  Only 41 points?
>Frances Peay would've scored 50 on those Rainbows!  By himself!  With
>Dennis Green tied behind his back!

Probably - because they would have at least put the ball in the hands of
our best player and allowed him to do what he does best -- run up the
middle.

No one gets off the hook here -- the special teams messed up, the defense
messed up, our friends in stripes messed up ... but our offense never tried
to do what it supposedly does best (and what Hawaii does worst). Either
Noah or the Oline were hurt, or we had a bad gameplan and poor execution on
offense.

Oh well ... it doesn't make it any better pointing fingers, I guess. But
simply scoring 41 points doesn't make it a good day for the offense ... it
depends on the game. Against someone like Auburn, 41 is more than a heck of
a day ... against Hawaii in a WAC-style shootout, 41 points ... and a 1,000
rusher who has fewer than 100 yards ... is a big disappointment.

Like I said Sunday morning ... maybe in a few days this feeling will wear
off and we can look back and appreciate the season as a whole ... but for
now, we just have to rehash old debates about coaching, recruiting and
success I guess. It's part of therapy.:)

GO CATS!!!
-SjT


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