We need to pump the brakes just a bit

[Tdawg]

All things considered, I was OK with what I saw last night. However, a couple of the big question marks coming into the season continue to be questions. First, our OL, against a putrid D, had trouble in pass protection and even had some consistency issues in run blocking the first half. This against a D that had 50 hung on it 5 times last year against powers like ECU and North Texas--had 60 hung on them by Boise and Marshall. The OL worries me.

Dak didn't look appreciably better as a passer and his decision making will cause problems against D's that have the players to make him pay and I'll be surprised in Bear and Jameon are running around that freely come SEC play. Dak needs to get more accurate and more consistent in decision making.

Now, with all this said, every single team in the SECW showed significant problems and impressive strengths. There isn't a division game that can't be won by either team. Arkansas is the weakest but they're probably a top 40/50 team in the country which is what makes this division so damn hard.

If week 1 is an indication then this season is completely unpredictable. We're good enough to win the west if things gel together. On the flip side, there are 6-7 teams on our schedule that 'could' beat us. I don't think there's an SECW team with less than 4/5 losable games on their schedule. This has the makings of a wild season.

[Political Hack]

Ole Miss sucks on offense. So, we're at least better than them.

[MarketingBully01]

You lost a lot of credibility with me when you typed this shit.

"Dak didn't look appreciably better as a passer and his decision making will cause problems against D's that have the players to make him pay and I'll be surprised in Bear and Jameon are running around that freely come SEC play. Dak needs to get more accurate and more consistent in decision making."

He made maybe one or two mistakes the whole night but to say that he marginally improved in the passing game is just plain stupid.

[GreenheadDawg]

You lost a lot of credibility with me when you typed this shit.

"Dak didn't look appreciably better as a passer and his decision making will cause problems against D's that have the players to make him pay and I'll be surprised in Bear and Jameon are running around that freely come SEC play. Dak needs to get more accurate and more consistent in decision making."

He made maybe one or two mistakes the whole night but to say that he marginally improved in the passing game is just plain stupid.

I know, right. We have some the worst fans and some know absolutely nothing about football. I think people expect Dak to be ****ing perfect. I heard people at the game talking shit about being the same ole MSU with stupid decisions. Everybody focuses on the couple of poor decisions he made and not the multiple good check downs he had. The guy is human he is going to make mistakes. It's the first game give the guy a freaking break.

[Political Hack]

I know, right. We have some the worst fans and some know absolutely nothing about football. I think people expect Dak to be ****ing perfect. I heard people at the game talking shit about being the same ole MSU with stupid decisions. Everybody focuses on the couple of poor decisions he made and not the multiple good check downs he had. The guy is human he is going to make mistakes. It's the first game give the guy a freaking break.

This is going to need to be repeated a lot this season. He's not going to throw 5 Tads, 300 yards, rush for 100 with zero turnovers every game. He's going to have off days. He's going to turn the ball over some. He's going to miss throws on big 3rd downs sometimes... just like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Arron Rodgers do.

[defiantdog]

Dak has improved tremendously since the beginning of last season. He came to State with comparisons to Relf. Now he's leading the team and throwing the ball to 11 different receivers in one game. The guy is good and I'm damn glad to have him. He made a stupid throw that ended in an INT. But luckily we have a dominant defense that can support him when he makes mistakes.

[NorCalDawg]

I know we all want to think that Dak can handle ALL the pressure of being "The Guy" and I think he handles it well; but still, all the hype and pre-season expectations have to weigh on him to some degree. Last year, he didn't have all the pressure or pre-season hype of being the guy. This year, with the media, Heisman trophy talk (warranted or not) fans, team mates, coaches, etc...are all expecting so much it's got to take it's toll. He doesn't want to let anyone down and he's probably putting a lot of pressure on himself for that reason. I think that might lead him into second-guessing himself at times instead of playing with instinct. I think there's a period of adjusting to all this that has to play out. We might want to consider those things when analyzing his play, especially this early in the season.

[Political Hack]

NCD, every bit of that fades when the lights come on. it's about the game, the moment, and finding a way to win. He's a gamer. make no mistake about it. kid wins.

[DudyDawg]

I know we all want to think that Dak can handle ALL the pressure of being "The Guy" and I think he handles it well; but still, all the hype and pre-season expectations have to weigh on him to some degree. Last year, he didn't have all the pressure or pre-season hype of being the guy. This year, with the media, Heisman trophy talk (warranted or not) fans, team mates, coaches, etc...are all expecting so much it's got to take it's toll. He doesn't want to let anyone down and he's probably putting a lot of pressure on himself for that reason. I think that might lead him into second-guessing himself at times instead of playing with instinct. I think there's a period of adjusting to all this that has to play out. We might want to consider those things when analyzing his play, especially this early in the season.

I don't see a point to this. You basically just said what every single college quarterback at a big school goes through.

[UMCDawg16]

All things considered, I was OK with what I saw last night. However, a couple of the big question marks coming into the season continue to be questions. First, our OL, against a putrid D, had trouble in pass protection and even had some consistency issues in run blocking the first half. This against a D that had 50 hung on it 5 times last year against powers like ECU and North Texas--had 60 hung on them by Boise and Marshall. The OL worries me.

Dak didn't look appreciably better as a passer and his decision making will cause problems against D's that have the players to make him pay and I'll be surprised in Bear and Jameon are running around that freely come SEC play. Dak needs to get more accurate and more consistent in decision making.

Now, with all this said, every single team in the SECW showed significant problems and impressive strengths. There isn't a division game that can't be won by either team. Arkansas is the weakest but they're probably a top 40/50 team in the country which is what makes this division so damn hard.

If week 1 is an indication then this season is completely unpredictable. We're good enough to win the west if things gel together. On the flip side, there are 6-7 teams on our schedule that 'could' beat us. I don't think there's an SECW team with less than 4/5 losable games on their schedule. This has the makings of a wild season.


SMH. I just hope you aren't a Bear.

[NorCalDawg]

I don't see a point to this. You basically just said what every single college quarterback at a big school goes through.

Yeah, but obviously not everyone understands that.

[LiterallyPolice]

SMH. I just hope you aren't a Bear.

SHE'S A WITCH! BURN HER!!!

[HailState39110]

Thoughts

Preston Smith is a freak and the dude is the most underrated player in the SEC. De' Runnya Wilson, how can you not be excited about this kids ceiling? 2 good lookin TDs last night. I hope his knee is ok from running over that referee.I like the potential of both Freds . Fred Ross caught a beautiful TD as well, and was really impressed with Fred Brown .Dak looked good . The INT in the endzone was just a plain bad throw and probably his one and only really bad mistake of the night. Atmosphere is electric and as a bulldog fan and Im so glad to be a part of it and looking forward to the future. USM was just bad and their talent level is porous. It makes you wonder how they got so bad so quickly. It will be hard for them to ever recover . I usually make this kind of comment when we play FCS opponents, but it was really hard to tell a lot form that game because that was a really bad team we played last night.

[Todd4State]

All things considered, I was OK with what I saw last night. However, a couple of the big question marks coming into the season continue to be questions. First, our OL, against a putrid D, had trouble in pass protection and even had some consistency issues in run blocking the first half. This against a D that had 50 hung on it 5 times last year against powers like ECU and North Texas--had 60 hung on them by Boise and Marshall. The OL worries me.

Dak didn't look appreciably better as a passer and his decision making will cause problems against D's that have the players to make him pay and I'll be surprised in Bear and Jameon are running around that freely come SEC play. Dak needs to get more accurate and more consistent in decision making.

Now, with all this said, every single team in the SECW showed significant problems and impressive strengths. There isn't a division game that can't be won by either team. Arkansas is the weakest but they're probably a top 40/50 team in the country which is what makes this division so damn hard.

If week 1 is an indication then this season is completely unpredictable. We're good enough to win the west if things gel together. On the flip side, there are 6-7 teams on our schedule that 'could' beat us. I don't think there's an SECW team with less than 4/5 losable games on their schedule. This has the makings of a wild season.

Dak will be even better once we add in the option part of our offense and let him run it a little bit. That's going to open up the passing game even more against better SEC teams. It will make our offense better than what we saw last night- which wasn't bad for the most part.

Also, we played our back-ups for almost half the game last night. If we kept our starters out there and used Shumpert- we could have bombed them back to the stone age. In the grand scheme of things, there's not a lot of difference between 49-0 and 70-0. We could have named the score last night- and essentially did.

People like ECU are going to keep their starters in longer vs. USM because it's a conference game for them. And on top of that, ECU doesn't have the depth we do which is going to force them to play some guys longer.

Finally- don't make the mistake of comparing teams from last year to this year. Boise could be a lot worse than they were last year and USM could be a lot better. It's just too soon to know.

It's fine with me if Ole Miss fans want to use that logic because we beat them last year, so therefore we're still better than them.

[Todd4State]

This is going to need to be repeated a lot this season. He's not going to throw 5 Tads, 300 yards, rush for 100 with zero turnovers every game. He's going to have off days. He's going to turn the ball over some. He's going to miss throws on big 3rd downs sometimes... just like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Arron Rodgers do.

If that was an off day, I'll take it. The guy tied a school record for TD passes on an off day.

On top of that, Dak is 11th in the country in QB rating.

[Todd4State]

I know we all want to think that Dak can handle ALL the pressure of being "The Guy" and I think he handles it well; but still, all the hype and pre-season expectations have to weigh on him to some degree. Last year, he didn't have all the pressure or pre-season hype of being the guy. This year, with the media, Heisman trophy talk (warranted or not) fans, team mates, coaches, etc...are all expecting so much it's got to take it's toll. He doesn't want to let anyone down and he's probably putting a lot of pressure on himself for that reason. I think that might lead him into second-guessing himself at times instead of playing with instinct. I think there's a period of adjusting to all this that has to play out. We might want to consider those things when analyzing his play, especially this early in the season.

This is poor ol' MSU talk.

Dan handles QB's better than any MSU coach I've seen period.



Last year with Tyler and Dak, I thought Dan handled that as well as you possibly could. That's why you don't have a lot of resentment towards Tyler from the fanbase. We have Brian Johnson as a QB only coach who has been there and done that before. Dan has been around and personally developed Heisman and NFL QB's. Chris Relf is in our record books. There's no question he knows what he is doing.

Dak has "it". That's something that none of our other QB's in the past truly have had at an elite level. It's that internal drive to be excellent and the charisma to lead the team. You have to have "it" to block out all the other stuff and focus on winning.

[Tdawg]

Dak will be even better once we add in the option part of our offense and let him run it a little bit. That's going to open up the passing game even more against better SEC teams. It will make our offense better than what we saw last night- which wasn't bad for the most part.

Also, we played our back-ups for almost half the game last night. If we kept our starters out there and used Shumpert- we could have bombed them back to the stone age. In the grand scheme of things, there's not a lot of difference between 49-0 and 70-0. We could have named the score last night- and essentially did.

People like ECU are going to keep their starters in longer vs. USM because it's a conference game for them. And on top of that, ECU doesn't have the depth we do which is going to force them to play some guys longer.

Finally- don't make the mistake of comparing teams from last year to this year. Boise could be a lot worse than they were last year and USM could be a lot better. It's just too soon to know.

It's fine with me if Ole Miss fans want to use that logic because we beat them last year, so therefore we're still better than them.

The vanilla nature of what I saw is what gives me comfort. I should have qualified my original statements with that context. Also, the point of my post was to nitpick the concerns, as opposed to highlighting the very bright points. To that end, I'm not sure I saw a weakness on our D. We are very strong at every level and appear to have depth throughout. The point of the original post was to try and settle people. I saw how much our program suffered in 2012 following the undefeated start and unrealistic revised expectations. That crap hurts because it results in negative energy resulting from situations that shouldn't otherwise be that doom and gloom. I don't want to see our fans start walking to the ledge if we don't go 2-1 vs LSU TAMU and AUB.

[Todd4State]

The vanilla nature of what I saw is what gives me comfort. I should have qualified my original statements with that context. Also, the point of my post was to nitpick the concerns, as opposed to highlighting the very bright points. To that end, I'm not sure I saw a weakness on our D. We are very strong at every level and appear to have depth throughout. The point of the original post was to try and settle people. I saw how much our program suffered in 2012 following the undefeated start and unrealistic revised expectations. That crap hurts because it results in negative energy resulting from situations that shouldn't otherwise be that doom and gloom. I don't want to see our fans start walking to the ledge if we don't go 2-1 vs LSU TAMU and AUB.

If we had won the Egg Bowl in 2012, there wouldn't have been any negative energy. I also think that if we didn't have a DC that was out of his league that year there also wouldn't have been as much negative energy.

Also, as far as not going 2-1 against Auburn, LSU, and Texas A&M- we have too many fans that buy into and listen to what Ole Miss sells us. It has been that way for years. Other than make people aware, I don't know what else to do about that.

Things that happen in the past are just that- they're in the past and we have to move on from them. We don't want to get ourselves into a situation where we don't fully enjoy what we have because we're pumping the breaks over something that happened two years ago as well.

[NorCalDawg]

This is poor ol' MSU talk.

Dan handles QB's better than any MSU coach I've seen period.



Last year with Tyler and Dak, I thought Dan handled that as well as you possibly could. That's why you don't have a lot of resentment towards Tyler from the fanbase. We have Brian Johnson as a QB only coach who has been there and done that before. Dan has been around and personally developed Heisman and NFL QB's. Chris Relf is in our record books. There's no question he knows what he is doing.

Dak has "it". That's something that none of our other QB's in the past truly have had at an elite level. It's that internal drive to be excellent and the charisma to lead the team. You have to have "it" to block out all the other stuff and focus on winning.

Yeah, I guess I can see how you think this is "poor ol' MSU" talk, but you can't deny there is a lot of pressure on him. No doubt we have the staff to deal with it, though.

[gravedigger]

I don't want to see our fans start walking to the ledge if we don't go 2-1 vs LSU TAMU and AUB.

They will because that is the nature of being a fan. We are irrational, uninformed, emotional, legends in our own minds and worst of all, because we regurgitate the same stuff over and over, we think those things are truth because we hear them so much.

Fact is, most of us have very little inside info on the team and what it's going through internally. I don't think this team is nearly as fragile as many before it. But of course our fanbase is what it is.

But I will say this, I don't think your assessment of Dak is necessarily accurate. He has just gotten the keys to the car. Last year he was the backup for the most part. I think he will rise to the occasion. I think the OL might be somewhat of a weakness but we can plan around that. Dak's decisions will get better through experience and simply knowing he has to last ALL season. Not just one game.

[Reason2succeed]

State fans are no where near as irrational and delusional as bear fans. There is no need to pump breaks. Even in hindsight I do not apologize for believing in my team even though they faltered terribly down the stretch. What else should a fan base do: second guess an undefeated team? There is nothing wrong with believing in your team. It's what we are supposed to do.

[Tdawg]

State fans are no where near as irrational and delusional as bear fans. There is no need to pump breaks. Even in hindsight I do not apologize for believing in my team even though they faltered terribly down the stretch. What else should a fan base do: second guess an undefeated team? There is nothing wrong with believing in your team. It's what we are supposed to do.

There's nothing more fun than riding the wave of success when you see the product you know will produce it. The CWS team two years ago was a perfect example. The FF team in the 90's another. I guess I saw enough problems out of all our competitors to get me excited and then enough little things out of us to make me temper it.

But you're right--it's our job to jump on board and HOPE for the best, but we have to be reasonable if it doesn't happen.

[MarketingBully01]

This is about as poor 'ol Mississippi State as it gets:

"I don't want to see our fans start walking to the ledge if we don't go 2-1 vs LSU TAMU and AUB."

I like how our schedule sets up. We play LSU then get a week off before we play A&M and Auburn so we will have an extra week to prepare for A&M's offense. Our defense matches up as well as a defense can against A&M because our first units tackle well. I think we have a pretty good shot to go 2-1 in that stretch especially if we beat LSU in week 4. We should be in every game we play this year simply from our defense. Oh and Dak completed 70% of his passes last night with a 4/1 TD/INT ratio. If that is marginal passing improvement, I'd like to hear what you call great improvement.

[CadaverDawg]

All things considered, I was OK with what I saw last night. However, a couple of the big question marks coming into the season continue to be questions. First, our OL, against a putrid D, had trouble in pass protection and even had some consistency issues in run blocking the first half. This against a D that had 50 hung on it 5 times last year against powers like ECU and North Texas--had 60 hung on them by Boise and Marshall. The OL worries me.

Dak didn't look appreciably better as a passer and his decision making will cause problems against D's that have the players to make him pay and I'll be surprised in Bear and Jameon are running around that freely come SEC play. Dak needs to get more accurate and more consistent in decision making.

Now, with all this said, every single team in the SECW showed significant problems and impressive strengths. There isn't a division game that can't be won by either team. Arkansas is the weakest but they're probably a top 40/50 team in the country which is what makes this division so damn hard.

If week 1 is an indication then this season is completely unpredictable. We're good enough to win the west if things gel together. On the flip side, there are 6-7 teams on our schedule that 'could' beat us. I don't think there's an SECW team with less than 4/5 losable games on their schedule. This has the makings of a wild season.

http://img.pandawhale.com/post-36877-agree-to-disagree-gif-Anchorma-kFLi.gif

Enjoy the ride

[BulldogBacker]

Dak's QB rating was 204....and he started slowly.

[Goat Holder]

I know, right.

Seriously? "I know, right"? That pretty much confirms you are sheep-thinking hive-minded trendy fem. and you have the nerve to call another guy stupid. One that simply questions the hype of this team, and justifiably.

You must be proud.

[MarketingBully01]

Seriously? "I know, right"? That pretty much confirms you are sheep-thinking hive-minded trendy fem. and you have the nerve to call another guy stupid. One that simply questions the hype of this team, and justifiably.

You must be proud.

Who unbanned this guy?

[GreenheadDawg]

Seriously? "I know, right"? That pretty much confirms you are sheep-thinking hive-minded trendy fem. and you have the nerve to call another guy stupid. One that simply questions the hype of this team, and justifiably.

You must be proud.

Yep, real proud. You're such a douche bag. It's been nice not having you around for a couple days

[JDog13]

Who unbanned this guy?

+1

[TheRef]

Who unbanned this guy?

All we need is WJ and it'll be back to the good ol days

[bulldawg28]

This is why you don't type high or on alcohol. Dak looked almost perfect in executing the offense with the plays called. I only wish Mullen would have allowed for him to break the single game passing record like most coaches would have.

[engie]

This is why you don't type high or on alcohol. Dak looked almost perfect in executing the offense with the plays called. I only wish Mullen would have allowed for him to break the single game passing record like most coaches would have.

Exactly. Dak was less than 10 yards from Tyler Russell's best career yardage game. He played less than a half worth of snaps. The last time we had a QB throw for over 300? 2007(Carroll for 421 vs Arky). Overall, it was the 12th most prolific passing game in MSU history by yardage. The 5TD passes ties our modern record.

Easily would have broken every offensive record we have had we kept Dak in the game and our foot on the gas. Dan won't throw in the style points when he has the chance -- I hope it doesn't cost Dak any worthy individual honors at the end of the year.

[I seen it dawg]

Seriously? "I know, right"? That pretty much confirms you are sheep-thinking hive-minded trendy fem. and you have the nerve to call another guy stupid. One that simply questions the hype of this team, and justifiably.

You must be proud.

Great first post back. Classic goat.

[CadaverDawg]

Exactly. Dak was less than 10 yards from Tyler Russell's best career yardage game. He played less than a half worth of snaps. The last time we had a QB throw for over 300? 2007(Carroll for 421 vs Arky). Overall, it was the 12th most prolific passing game in MSU history by yardage. The 5TD passes ties our modern record.

Easily would have broken every offensive record we have had we kept Dak in the game and our foot on the gas. Dan won't throw in the style points when he has the chance -- I hope it doesn't cost Dak any worthy individual honors at the end of the year.

Totally agree. We were only up 35-0, so Dan could have left them in one or two more series IMO. I would have let Dak pass for about 25 more yards to put him over 300, and I would have let JRob get 13 more yards to break 100. But Dan won't get us style points. And by not doing that from time to time, he hurts us in the National Perception department.

[Coach34]

The national perception department will be just fine if we beat LSU, Auburn, or A&M

I was laughing at Bafoom proclaiming Dakota's Heisman bid over after 1 game of nearly 300 yards and 4 TD's...let him shine in a win vs LSU- and the whole damn country will be talking about him

[CadaverDawg]

I was laughing at Bafoom proclaiming Dakota's Heisman bid over after 1 game of nearly 300 yards and 4 TD's...let him shine in a win vs LSU- and the whole damn country will be talking about him

Yea, they are desperate. Dak's potential for Heisman took no hits on Saturday night. He threw for 4 TD's in basically 2 Quarters. They are hoping so bad that he doesn't get recognition....it's going to be fun to watch them try and downplay his performances all year. They will play the "weak schedule" and "stats" cards over the next few weeks, because Dak will only play 2-3 quarters in each of those games. But they will be shut up if we can do something in death Valley