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View Full Version : Shotgun's Thoughts - "You Play to Win the Game"



ShotgunDawg
11-02-2014, 12:54 AM
Well... This is what it feels like to number 1. We no longer have the hope that teams will show up flat against us. No, now we are the hunted, and we are being hunted by very very good teams. Tonight was a struggle, but we did what championship teams do. We found a way to win. I have sat in DWS for 20+ years and watched Alabama, LSU, and Auburn come into DWS and lay a turd, only to win a close one in the end and go on to win National Titles. Apologize for nothing. When you are playing for titles, it is only about winning.

1. Our defense may have played their best game tonight. Sure... Arkansas got some yards, but Arkansas has been averaging 250+ rushing yards per game this season, and we held them to a mere 160 on 33 carries. We played championship level football in this department and made one of the best running teams on the planet, one dimensional. This stat is also a good sign going into the Bama game. If we can stop Arkansas from running the ball, then I feel fairly good about making Bama one dimensional on offense and making Blake Sims beat us. That's a good spot to be in.

2. Our defense did a great job of not allowing big SCORING plays. This has been the real problem. We have the best redzone defense in college football, and if we can make offenses have to beat us in the redzone, then we stand a good chance. The problem against UAB and Kentucky wasn't that they gained yards, it's that we gave up big scoring plays. Tonight, Arkansas had some big plays, but we stopped them before they scored. This allowed our redzone defense the chance to shine.

3. Tonight's game encouraged me about the direction this team is taking because we won a game on the backs of our defense. Our offense had led our team this year, but tonight our defense stepped up and won a game. This should give everyone on our team great confidence that we can win football games in different ways. Again, another sign of a championship team.

4. Kicker was a big concern entering the year, and, while we still aren't NFL caliber at the position, Sobes has really stepped up to be reliable. Tonight's kick was huge and pretty difficult. He's been completely adequate for what we need.

5. Offensively, it was a struggle tonight for a few reasons. 1) Arkansas' style of offense takes so much time off the clock, that we simply didn't have a ton of possessions. We only ran 62 plays tonight, which is far below our yearly average. On those 62 plays, we had a very respectable 459 yards. However, the problem is that it's extremely difficult to find any rhythm on offense when your offense is sitting for 20 minutes between possessions and only getting 2 possessions a quarter. 2) We were not mentally sharp tonight. We lined up wrong a few times, ran out of bounds on a simple route that caused a penalty, etc... We didn't perform the fundamentals great tonight. 3. With the exception of one horrid pass before halftime, I thought Dak threw the ball well tonight. I have no clue what he saw on the second interception. That was the worst throw he's made this year. He has been a little off since the Auburn, but my guess is that either Bama or Ole Miss will pay for that. He's got a great game in his future. He's to awesome not to.

6. I feel bad for Jamoral Graham. Jamoral looked very natural and confident fielding punts earlier this year, but slowly his confidence has eroded to the point where now he looks a 2nd baseman with the "Yips". We can't put him back there anymore this year, but it is imperative that our coaching staff does everything in their power to help him regain his confidence. He is far too good of player to lose his career to this crap.


Going foward:

I feel like this team has been pressing a little the past few weeks and making some mistakes they don't normally make. I also feel like the most mentally challenging part of the schedule is over. Arkansas and Kentucky are two capable, trap teams that we just had to get through. Bama and Ole Miss are two good teams that are rivalry games. Our guys will have greater focus and energy in practice and in those games.

We'll probably play like crap against UT Martin next week, kind of like how Ole Miss played against Memphis. But don't let it bother you, because the focus, concentration, and energy we will play with against Bama will be at a completely different level. Hopefully, we can get an early lead, pull some starters, and coast to an unimpressive win.

What people need to understand is: When you play in an extended tournament, like College Football, you cannot play your best every week. You cannot play at full throttle every week. You just must find ways to win and survive and advance. The team you have seen the past two weeks is not the team you will see against Bama and Ole Miss. We will be up and ready to body slam babies and the elderly for those two games. We made it through the scariest part of our schedule with nothing more than a mid-season slump. So....Get ready, we are about to head down the home stretch with all of our hopes and dreams staring us right in the face.

This team has a ton of pressure on it, and the best thing that us fans can do, is help take it off of them. They aren't going to play perfect, but you don't need perfect to win a National Title. You just need to win.

RIdog
11-02-2014, 12:58 AM
Good post - agree , somebody else needs to handle punt returns .

Liverpooldawg
11-02-2014, 01:00 AM
That is one of the best posts I have ever read on any MSU board. Hats off to you sir!

IMissJack
11-02-2014, 01:03 AM
The bad news about AL being one dimensional is they have Cooper, and I don't know if we can cover him.

thf24
11-02-2014, 01:18 AM
Smokey looked great when he first started returning punts because we still had little to no expectations at that point and he could just play loose and have fun. When we started shooting up through the rankings and had some real pressure put on us, of course it was going to affect the 18-year-old true freshman playing in one of the most mentally demanding positions in the game the most. We should have seen it coming. I don't hold it against him in the slightest, and as you say Shotgun, hopefully we can get his confidence built back up so that he can return to that position in the future after this season for us. He really did look good back there at first.

mstatefan91
11-02-2014, 01:29 AM
At the beginning of the season, it looked like he had ice water in his veins when he was back there. Now he looks panicky. Need to build his confidence back up

TimberBeast
11-02-2014, 02:02 AM
I didn't read all of that so my apologies if you mentioned it but we have to learn how to run the clock at the end of the game when we have the lead. It is going to come back to bite us this season and almost did tonight, again. I just don't understand why we are snapping the ball with 3:50 left in the game and 30 seconds on the play clock. It's dumb.

Maroonthirteen
11-02-2014, 02:04 AM
I agree for the most part. Arkansas is a big physical team and no push over. But I thought our offensive and defensive approach to the game was scrimmage like. We can't do that against good competition. Offense.... We threw the ball 6 of the first 8 plays? Defense...we didn't blitz, played huge cushions and let that guy have all day to throw. Resulted in a closer game than it had to be.

But it was one of those nights where a lot of bounces went their way. Which saved the tails and extended their life

TUSK
11-02-2014, 02:26 AM
The bad news about AL being one dimensional is they have Cooper, and I don't know if we can cover him.

yeah, I didn't get that at first, either.... "bama" and "one dimensional" are mutually exclusive...

...unless you get a huge lead, early...

ShotgunDawg
11-02-2014, 09:44 AM
The bad news about AL being one dimensional is they have Cooper, and I don't know if we can cover him.

Maybe, but being able to shut down Bama's running game will certainly go a long way in being able to stop him.

justwin
11-02-2014, 01:42 PM
justwin


You just need to win.

blacklistedbully
11-02-2014, 07:54 PM
I would say that Bama is a completely different animal. I'm much more concerned about their ability to burn us on play-action-pass than Arky could. And if they can do that, it will be more difficult to defense the run. Blake Sims is a bigger passing threat than Brandon Allen.

We will need to play MUCH better to beat Bama. An effort like yesterday will get our ass beat in T-town.

msstate7
11-02-2014, 08:17 PM
The bad news about AL being one dimensional is they have Cooper, and I don't know if we can cover him.

Our dline has to show up and pressure sims. I was very disappointed with our dline in passing situations last night. If they don't get pressure against bama, we lose.

TUSK
11-02-2014, 08:30 PM
I would say that Bama is a completely different animal. I'm much more concerned about their ability to burn us on play-action-pass than Arky could. And if they can do that, it will be more difficult to defense the run. Blake Sims is a bigger passing threat than Brandon Allen.

We will need to play MUCH better to beat Bama. An effort like yesterday will get our ass beat in T-town.

that's good insight, Blacklist... a lot of people don't realize that Sims/Bammer is #3 in the country in passing offense eff... and #1 in the SEC (by a decent margin).

When healthy, they can still run it down people's throats... they just don't have to rely on it as much...

cheewgumm
11-02-2014, 08:48 PM
How fast is Cooper?

msstate7
11-02-2014, 08:55 PM
How fast is Cooper?

As a cheetah

BulldogBear
11-02-2014, 08:56 PM
I agree for the most part. Arkansas is a big physical team and no push over. But I thought our offensive and defensive approach to the game was scrimmage like. We can't do that against good competition. Offense.... We threw the ball 6 of the first 8 plays? Defense...we didn't blitz, played huge cushions and let that guy have all day to throw. Resulted in a closer game than it had to be.

But it was one of those nights where a lot of bounces went their way. Which saved the tails and extended their life

I wasn't really impressed with out offensive gameplan either. I can't understand coming out throw, throw, throw. Were they afraid Arkansas was gonna run clock so we didn't want to? We played Arkansas's game for most of the first half, doing exactly to script what they needed us to do to give them a chance to win (short drives that don't score with turnovers thrown in for icing on the cake). It was kind of screwy when we were in the second quarter still running head scratching playcalls when I realized it was because we hadn't even run enough blinkin' plays to get out of the script. At Kentucky we were in the wrong defensive gameplan and last night the wrong offensive gameplan. I hope it's just a fart. We woulda got murded in Tuscaloosa last night. I know the gameplan wouldn't have been the same, but I sure hope when the time comes it'll be better fitted to the opponent.

TUSK
11-02-2014, 09:20 PM
How fast is Cooper?

AL.com reported he'd run 3 forties in the 4.3 - 4.35 range one day...

he has really improved his speed since getting on campus... his acceleration is staggering...

there's not anyone that will catch him from behind...

edit: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000334551/article/alabama-wr-amari-cooper-says-he-ran-431-40yard-dash

it was NFL site from Alabama Pro Day... 4.31 to 4.38

TimberBeast
11-02-2014, 10:44 PM
I wasn't really impressed with out offensive gameplan either. I can't understand coming out throw, throw, throw. Were they afraid Arkansas was gonna run clock so we didn't want to? We played Arkansas's game for most of the first half, doing exactly to script what they needed us to do to give them a chance to win (short drives that don't score with turnovers thrown in for icing on the cake). It was kind of screwy when we were in the second quarter still running head scratching playcalls when I realized it was because we hadn't even run enough blinkin' plays to get out of the script.

How was this surprising to you?

BulldogBear
11-02-2014, 11:53 PM
How was this surprising to you?

I really thought we could have...would have...and should have...beat them at their own game...RTGDF

drunkernhelldawg
11-03-2014, 12:22 AM
Bill Cower said something to the effect today that he knew a good football team when it looked like crap all through the game and still ended up on the right side of the score. I'm not at all upset about our performance yesterday. Ark. did a great job limiting our running game. Their defense was about as good as it could be against us. Like Mullen said, getting the win takes something different in every game. It's terrific that he's taught the players to look at it that way too.

cheewgumm
11-03-2014, 12:32 AM
I heard that show with HD6 saying Cooper wasn't a burner. I spit out my drink when I heard it but them figured I just maybe didn't know and my eyes were deceivibg me as he ran away from people every Saturday.

Anyway that is what I thought.