Good grief....

[Coach 57]

It was a tough loss. But you people that thought they'd lay down should have your head checked. It was SENIOR NIGHT! For those that have never played, it makes you (as a player) play like your hair's on fire. As a coach it makes you coach loose and free. Wallace maned up and made plays a senior QB needs to make on senior night. Give them credit, they played hard and we didn't.

The game was immediately changed when they went to a 3-3-5 defense. Our OL never could get adjusted to it. They would mix it up a bit but put Conner almost as a "dawg safety" (ala Ashley Cooper) and their DL moved and slanted very well. We could not adjust to what they did. Nkemdiche would slide from DE to an inside technique and Day, Malone & Ben couldn't get the scheme down.

It was a piss poor job of coaching on our part. Losing Cox AND Market really showed its head in this one. I said all week the one guy that scares me the most was never Treadwell or Sanders, it's Engram. Fortunately we didn't have to face him last year. He is a killer between the hashes. And he EXPOSED our secondary. We never adjusted to him.

Dak still is having trouble reading coverages. He made some really bad reads and stared down his receivers tonight. But Mullen didn't help him with conservative play calling either.

What happened to Josh? He went from being JRob to Perkins. He was TERRIBLE tonight! I mean TERRIBLE! He didn't do well when we went max pro (him picking up blitzes) he was tipping at the LOS. He hasn't been the same since UK. What happened to the guy? If we'd have won either Shumpert or DeRunnya needed to be player of the game. Ashton shut a lot of people up tonight. He may have played harder than anybody!

Our DL got WORKED! Where was the QB pressure? Tunsil shut Preston down when lined up opposite him. Aaron Morris was their best OL in certain cases he caked PJ, Chris Jones and Kaleb. They won the LOS most of the night both sides of the ball.

All the talk of injuries on their team and it turned out the biggest one of the night was on OUR team. When Market went down we lost control of Engram and he tore us up!

But despite all of this, we won 10 reg season games. We lost, I'm upset but they smashed is in every phase of the game. We didn't look like we were ready to go into a hostile environment and win. From our best player to our worst. We didn't look ready. That falls on Dan.

[IMissJack]

I agree with everything you said, but what I am questioning and I think a lot are questioning, is how could we not be ready when so much was riding on this game for us?

Edited to add...we played Vandy last week, so basically 2 weeks to get ready for this game.

[Coach 57]

The only thing I can say is that as a coach your players emulate your mood based on play calling. If you play call scared, they will do the same. It was obvious that Mullen play called two games VERY conservatively...both games we lost on the road. One thing he couldn't count on tonight was Bo forcing things. Freeze made sure that once inside the RZ Hugh pulled Bo out and went heavy. It took away the possibility of gaffs & blunders by Wallace. Credit him for that.

I felt like Dak missed Malcolm a lot in this game the same way they use Engram we could've used Malcolm but didn't. The way to expose a 3-3-5 is with the TE between the hashes. But we didn't do that.

[CadaverDawg]

Totally agree, Coach.

I am handling the loss fairly well compared to normal....and I think the reason why is because we were just beaten tonight. We didn't beat ourselves, we didn't get screwed by the refs, and we didn't lose on a last second fluke....nope, we were just beaten by a good team on Senior night. Does it mean we shouldn't have played better? Heck no. Mullen stunk, and Collins stunk....and even when they did have us in good positions, the players stunk on many occasions. Dropped passes, missed tackles, blown assignments, no emotion. I'm pissed about our preparation, but I can't do anything about it. Hopefully we can win #11 in an Orange Bowl, and then build on this season through learning from it and recruiting.

[drunkernhelldawg]

It was a tough loss. But you people that thought they'd lay down should have your head checked. It was SENIOR NIGHT! For those that have never played, it makes you (as a player) play like your hair's on fire. As a coach it makes you coach loose and free. Wallace maned up and made plays a senior QB needs to make on senior night. Give them credit, they played hard and we didn't.

The game was immediately changed when they went to a 3-3-5 defense. Our OL never could get adjusted to it. They would mix it up a bit but put Conner almost as a "dawg safety" (ala Ashley Cooper) and their DL moved and slanted very well. We could not adjust to what they did. Nkemdiche would slide from DE to an inside technique and Day, Malone & Ben couldn't get the scheme down.

It was a piss poor job of coaching on our part. Losing Cox AND Market really showed its head in this one. I said all week the one guy that scares me the most was never Treadwell or Sanders, it's Engram. Fortunately we didn't have to face him last year. He is a killer between the hashes. And he EXPOSED our secondary. We never adjusted to him.

Dak still is having trouble reading coverages. He made some really bad reads and stared down his receivers tonight. But Mullen didn't help him with conservative play calling either.

What happened to Josh? He went from being JRob to Perkins. He was TERRIBLE tonight! I mean TERRIBLE! He didn't do well when we went max pro (him picking up blitzes) he was tipping at the LOS. He hasn't been the same since UK. What happened to the guy? If we'd have won either Shumpert or DeRunnya needed to be player of the game. Ashton shut a lot of people up tonight. He may have played harder than anybody!

Our DL got WORKED! Where was the QB pressure? Tunsil shut Preston down when lined up opposite him. Aaron Morris was their best OL in certain cases he caked PJ, Chris Jones and Kaleb. They won the LOS most of the night both sides of the ball.

All the talk of injuries on their team and it turned out the biggest one of the night was on OUR team. When Market went down we lost control of Engram and he tore us up!

But despite all of this, we won 10 reg season games. We lost, I'm upset but they smashed is in every phase of the game. We didn't look like we were ready to go into a hostile environment and win. From our best player to our worst. We didn't look ready. That falls on Dan.

It was a baffling performance on many levels. It's like we expected OM to come out half assed and when they didn't, we still continued to play at 3/4 speed. I especially don't get that it almost seems that we didn't even try to adjust. When the opponent is playing at a high level, the only hope is to up your own level. We just didn't. But that's what makes football so great, the way that the art in it baffles the science. shoulda coulda woulda.

[DudyDawg]

I agree cadaver. I'm mad at dan and the line, but it's not like Bama where we have red zone picks and stuff to say "damn, without blank happening we win". We just lost. Sucks balls, but happens. One hell of a year tho.

[Coach 57]

My biggest concern is if this will carry over as it did in 2012 to our bowl game. The mental psyche of a player after a game like this is fragile. Dan is STILL a young coach, I hope he's learned a very valuable lesson after the Bama game & this game. You've GOT to coach (play calling) like you are CONFIDENT in your boys...let the players PLAY! We've got one more, let's make sure we send these boys out with some love.

[thf24]

Ashton shut a lot of people up tonight.

Yep. He still lacks ideal speed and probably always will, but his vision has gotten a TON better during the last few games, and he's improved on a lot of little things in general. I'm perfectly comfortable with him as an every down back going forward.

[Coach007]

The only thing I can say is that as a coach your players emulate your mood based on play calling. If you play call scared, they will do the same. It was obvious that Mullen play called two games VERY conservatively...both games we lost on the road. One thing he couldn't count on tonight was Bo forcing things. Freeze made sure that once inside the RZ Hugh pulled Bo out and went heavy. It took away the possibility of gaffs & blunders by Wallace. Credit him for that.

I felt like Dak missed Malcolm a lot in this game the same way they use Engram we could've used Malcolm but didn't. The way to expose a 3-3-5 is with the TE between the hashes. But we didn't do that.

Robinson was hurt at bama. He has had limited touches since then. Just 12 tonight.

[Coach 57]

The thing I like about him is that he's that guy that as a coach you quietly root for & need. He's kind of an enforcer. He gets caught up in a bunch of chatter, he's not afraid of any team or player. He's just scrappy and loves to hit and talk. As a player on defense he's the player you love to hate. He puts SO much added negative attention to himself he can take the focus all on him and off of other players.

[FlabLoser]

The only thing I can say is that as a coach your players emulate your mood based on play calling. If you play call scared, they will do the same. It was obvious that Mullen play called two games VERY conservatively...both games we lost on the road. One thing he couldn't count on tonight was Bo forcing things. Freeze made sure that once inside the RZ Hugh pulled Bo out and went heavy. It took away the possibility of gaffs & blunders by Wallace. Credit him for that.

I felt like Dak missed Malcolm a lot in this game the same way they use Engram we could've used Malcolm but didn't. The way to expose a 3-3-5 is with the TE between the hashes. But we didn't do that.


How about the lack of hot reads? When OM was obviously blitzing or loading up one side, we seemed to run straight into it instead of calling something to counter their look.

[Coach 57]

As I said earlier Dak couldn't read the coverages. He's got to check out of that. If the CBs are playing off, he's gotta check to a slant. Gotta get those pre-snap keys before the snap.

[GTHOM]

Mullen has been holding Dak back, Dak really threw the ball well today for the most part. Dont let anyone tell you the guy is like Tebow cause he has a cannon. Mullen has got to let him take some more shots down field, Fred Ross and Bear Wilson are deep threats

[Irondawg]

I was crossing my fingers all year that our safety play wouldn't haunt us in a game all year b/c even on their best nights they were average over the course of the year. They killed us tonight, mainly b/c we asked them to make more plays. We missed more tackles up front and got beaten worse there than in any other game and that really exposed the safeties. We missed a 1-1 tackle on one of Engram's big ones and even on the trainwreck long run we gave up Coman had a straight shot and whiffed.

The other frustrating thing was Dan learning nothing from Bama. In this case I think he thought we would wear them down on offense over the game and as coach said we just never adjusted to what they were throwing at us. I really thought we were going to bring out the diamond in the second half or some better power sets if we were going to focus on the ground game and we didn't.

Dan played not to lose against Bama and OM while he played to win against LSU and AU and it showed. Bama and OM have better defenses but you could see the difference in our offensive swagger as well.

And as coach mentioned Dak has to be able to check out of stuff at the line. Just a bad night all around for both coaches and players.

[GTHOM]

I was crossing my fingers all year that our safety play wouldn't haunt us in a game all year b/c even on their best nights they were average over the course of the year. They killed us tonight, mainly b/c we asked them to make more plays. We missed more tackles up front and got beaten worse there than in any other game and that really exposed the safeties. We missed a 1-1 tackle on one of Engram's big ones and even on the trainwreck long run we gave up Coman had a straight shot and whiffed.

The other frustrating thing was Dan learning nothing from Bama. In this case I think he thought we would wear them down on offense over the game and as coach said we just never adjusted to what they were throwing at us. I really thought we were going to bring out the diamond in the second half or some better power sets if we were going to focus on the ground game and we didn't.

Dan played not to lose against Bama and OM while he played to win against LSU and AU and it showed. Bama and OM have better defenses but you could see the difference in our offensive swagger as well.

And as coach mentioned Dak has to be able to check out of stuff at the line. Just a bad night all around for both coaches and players.

Like Ive said, at some point he has to go back and look at the anthony dixon offense we ran in 09. we dont run very much power, we just go full dumbass and run read option but theres no read in it....its just Dak giving it 100 percent of the time. Has been since Kentucky. The only real option we have ran since is the speed option and that shovel option that we ran vs vandy. Horrible effort by our coaches since the auburn game if you ask me

[Tdawg]

It was a tough loss. But you people that thought they'd lay down should have your head checked. It was SENIOR NIGHT! For those that have never played, it makes you (as a player) play like your hair's on fire. As a coach it makes you coach loose and free. Wallace maned up and made plays a senior QB needs to make on senior night. Give them credit, they played hard and we didn't.

The game was immediately changed when they went to a 3-3-5 defense. Our OL never could get adjusted to it. They would mix it up a bit but put Conner almost as a "dawg safety" (ala Ashley Cooper) and their DL moved and slanted very well. We could not adjust to what they did. Nkemdiche would slide from DE to an inside technique and Day, Malone & Ben couldn't get the scheme down.

It was a piss poor job of coaching on our part. Losing Cox AND Market really showed its head in this one. I said all week the one guy that scares me the most was never Treadwell or Sanders, it's Engram. Fortunately we didn't have to face him last year. He is a killer between the hashes. And he EXPOSED our secondary. We never adjusted to him.

Dak still is having trouble reading coverages. He made some really bad reads and stared down his receivers tonight. But Mullen didn't help him with conservative play calling either.

What happened to Josh? He went from being JRob to Perkins. He was TERRIBLE tonight! I mean TERRIBLE! He didn't do well when we went max pro (him picking up blitzes) he was tipping at the LOS. He hasn't been the same since UK. What happened to the guy? If we'd have won either Shumpert or DeRunnya needed to be player of the game. Ashton shut a lot of people up tonight. He may have played harder than anybody!

Our DL got WORKED! Where was the QB pressure? Tunsil shut Preston down when lined up opposite him. Aaron Morris was their best OL in certain cases he caked PJ, Chris Jones and Kaleb. They won the LOS most of the night both sides of the ball.

All the talk of injuries on their team and it turned out the biggest one of the night was on OUR team. When Market went down we lost control of Engram and he tore us up!

But despite all of this, we won 10 reg season games. We lost, I'm upset but they smashed is in every phase of the game. We didn't look like we were ready to go into a hostile environment and win. From our best player to our worst. We didn't look ready. That falls on Dan.

Weird that our seniors didn't take their last game ever as seriously. Is that what you're implying?

[hells bells]

This could go on for days. Today, State was out coached, out played, and flat got our ass kicked. Hurts especially in this situation. As a fan and supporter this is unconscionable a coaching staff would be this unprepared. The entire sideline looked lost. Get back to Starkville, put away the pretty uniforms and get back to football.