Any theories on why our defense goes full retard in Oxford?

[ShotgunDawg]

This is two straight trips to Oxford in which our defense has gone full retard.

Does anyone have any theories as to why we play vastly under our normal standard there?

1. Do we need to reconfigure how travel the day of the game to Oxford and Tuscaloosa? Does the hour + bus rides zap the energy from our team? I'm not sure, but it sure couldn't hurt to try something different next time.

2. Oxford isn't that loud, so I find it hard to believe that crowd noise would have huge effect.

I'm really having trouble understanding why we suddenly can't play defense in Oxford. Some may say it's Ole Miss, but Ole Miss can't play offense in Starkville, so they seem to be dealing with a similar issue, but on the other side of the ball.

What are your thoughts?

[GTHOM]

Its number 1, that and our DC has went full retard the last 2 trips. our coaching staff as a whole has

[msstate7]

If we ever take a bus ride from home to OM or bama again, I question mullen's sanity. Oh and NEVER let our players go home before the biggest game of the year.

[GTHOM]

If we ever take a bus ride from home to OM or bama again, I question mullen's sanity. Oh and NEVER let our players go home before the biggest game of the year.

Yep. Huge Yep.

[Coach007]

It's simple.... we are not fooling anybody on our 1a and 1b anymore. When the 1b is in they know and take shots deep every time.

Jones was injured by coman. We had the chance to pin them DeeDee eek and they popped a 91 yard run on the 1b unit.

[ShotgunDawg]

If we ever take a bus ride from home to OM or bama again, I question mullen's sanity. Oh and NEVER let our players go home before the biggest game of the year.

Yup, I think there is strong chance some guys went home, stuffed themselves, and came back lethargic and lazy

[GTHOM]

a bus ride will make you sluggish in a heartbeat

[archdog]

Yep. No idea on why we can't stay in Hernando or something.

[Apoplectic]

I know this year it doesnt help when we put our best D players on the bench for half the game.

[Todd4State]

I think changing some things up wouldn't hurt.

I do agree that letting the players go home for Thanksgiving probably wasn't the best idea. Now, yes I am the president of spending Thanksgiving with your family if at all possible. But let's say you are a player from New Orleans. You have to leave probably after Weds. practice or Thursday morning and drive 5 hours home, eat a ton of food, hang out with people you don't get to see, and then drive back I assume either Thursday evening or Friday morning. Then you get to ride a bus for a couple of more hours and play a football game. I assume we didn't practice Thursday. Normally we don't practice on Friday, and surely we didn't skip both days. And if we did practice on Friday, how productive could it have possibly been?

And as far as the bus ride over there- maybe we should spend the night in Batesville? Alabama we could easily do Birmingham. I do remember us busing to La Tech under Croom and than laying an egg that day as well.

[GTHOM]

i questioned ever taking a bus for the bama game, and thats a shorter trip than to ole miss. its just asking to flatten your team out. anyone who thinks it doesnt has never taken one of those bus rides

[Jacksondevildog]

I thought we flew to Ruston the day of the game? I questioned that move.

[Todd4State]

I though we flew to Ruston the day of the game? I questioned that move.

Now that you have jogged my memory, I believe we flew to Monroe, La. and then bused from there to Ruston all on the same day. Why we didn't just fly to Monroe on Friday and then drive over the next day I'll never know.

[Liverpooldawg]

So where exactly do you stay for those? Tupelo? Columbus?

[thf24]

i questioned ever taking a bus for the bama game, and thats a shorter trip than to ole miss. its just asking to flatten your team out. anyone who thinks it doesnt has never taken one of those bus rides

Somehow it just sucks the energy out of you. You can get on one in the morning fully rested and awake, and then get off two hours later feeling like you just woke up after getting four hours sleep. Bizarre effect, but it's even more bizarre that our team is subjected to it.

[Liverpooldawg]

This is two straight trips to Oxford in which our defense has gone full retard.

Does anyone have any theories as to why we play vastly under our normal standard there?

1. Do we need to reconfigure how travel the day of the game to Oxford and Tuscaloosa? Does the hour + bus rides zap the energy from our team? I'm not sure, but it sure couldn't hurt to try something different next time.

2. Oxford isn't that loud, so I find it hard to believe that crowd noise would have huge effect.

I'm really having trouble understanding why we suddenly can't play defense in Oxford. Some may say it's Ole Miss, but Ole Miss can't play offense in Starkville, so they seem to be dealing with a similar issue, but on the other side of the ball.

What are your thoughts?
Biggest difference in all honesty was missed tackles. We hadn't done much of that crap all year.

[messageboardsuperhero]

Our defense tonight was infuriating. I can't even begin to count the missed tackles...

The ONLY offense they have is the big play. That's it- especially without Treadwell. I seriously don't think they had a TD drive tonight of more than 2 plays- but for some dumbass reason, we continued to let Engram get behind us. Force UM to drive the field, and they have a lot of trouble. We've known that all year.

ETA: Actually they had one TD drive of 4 plays, but three of those were from the one yard line directly after an 80 yard bomb...

[War Machine Dawg]

I think changing some things up wouldn't hurt.

I do agree that letting the players go home for Thanksgiving probably wasn't the best idea. Now, yes I am the president of spending Thanksgiving with your family if at all possible. But let's say you are a player from New Orleans. You have to leave probably after Weds. practice or Thursday morning and drive 5 hours home, eat a ton of food, hang out with people you don't get to see, and then drive back I assume either Thursday evening or Friday morning. Then you get to ride a bus for a couple of more hours and play a football game. I assume we didn't practice Thursday. Normally we don't practice on Friday, and surely we didn't skip both days. And if we did practice on Friday, how productive could it have possibly been?

And as far as the bus ride over there- maybe we should spend the night in Batesville? Alabama we could easily do Birmingham. I do remember us busing to La Tech under Croom and than laying an egg that day as well.

Friday is never anything more than a walkthrough. Not a huge deal in terms of "practice." You take care of all that Sunday-Wednesday.