WMD's AC QB: Natural Enemies Edition

[War Machine Dawg]

Peeps, the Natural Enemies Edition of AC QB is available (http://www.forwhomthecowbelltolls.com/2015/10/26/9611990/wmd-armchair-qb-natural-enemies-edition-msu-bulldogs-uk-wildcats-dan-mullen-dak-prescott) at FWTCT. Lots of good stuff this week, including a note on scheduling. Interested to hear your opinions.

[PassInterference]

It was a big offensive game. We have a lot of offensive weapons - so many that we didn't even use them all.

Not really complaining, but sooner or later I'd like to see more of Fred Boss Ross making big plays on deep passes. He can get behind defenses and Dak needs to lay it out there in front of him.

Lots of disagreement on Dak's INT. He didn't need to throw it flatter. That puts the DB in an even better spot to catch the ball. When you're open deep, the ball doesn't need to come in flatter. It needs to come in higher and in front of the WR. That way the ball comes down out of the sky at too high an angle for the trailing DB to make a play on it. More air, not less. The Dak threw this one high enough, he just needed to throw it farther with the same height.

Great night for Dak and the offense. This was exactly what a Dak offense is supposed to look like. Fear the Dak Attack. If Dak wasn't killing them, the threat of Dak was killing them. Lotta weapons making plays and good play calling.

I though UK's play calling sucked. They seemed to abandoned the run more than us stuffing. They had some sequences of 3 passes in a row right after running successfully that I thought was odd. Maybe we did something defensively to make them call those pass plays. I just remember a handful of times I'd have been pissed at Stoops if I were a UK fan.

Officials sucked. That TD overturn was indefensible. I (at the stadium) got a text message saying TV made Morrow's catch look incomplete - I haven't had a good look at it. But these guys sucked all night.

I give the crowd a B+. Pretty good, but sometimes they waited until 3rd down to get loud, even with UK being in the red zone.

Bye week comes at the perfect time. Good week to rest. Good coming off a good performance.

Its great to see the team improve at mid-season. Heaven knows we've seen a lot of MSU teams over the years that could only stay the same or get worse. Mullen has this young team improving as the season goes along. I hope they peak down the stretch and finish strong including an elusive upset over Bama.

[War Machine Dawg]

It was a big offensive game. We have a lot of offensive weapons - so many that we didn't even use them all.

Not really complaining, but sooner or later I'd like to see more of Fred Boss Ross making big plays on deep passes. He can get behind defenses and Dak needs to lay it out there in front of him.

Lots of disagreement on Dak's INT. He didn't need to throw it flatter. That puts the DB in an even better spot to catch the ball. When you're open deep, the ball doesn't need to come in flatter. It needs to come in higher and in front of the WR. That way the ball comes down out of the sky at too high an angle for the trailing DB to make a play on it. More air, not less. The Dak threw this one high enough, he just needed to throw it farther with the same height.

Great night for Dak and the offense. This was exactly what a Dak offense is supposed to look like. Fear the Dak Attack. If Dak wasn't killing them, the threat of Dak was killing them. Lotta weapons making plays and good play calling.

I though UK's play calling sucked. They seemed to abandoned the run more than us stuffing. They had some sequences of 3 passes in a row right after running successfully that I thought was odd. Maybe we did something defensively to make them call those pass plays. I just remember a handful of times I'd have been pissed at Stoops if I were a UK fan.

Officials sucked. That TD overturn was indefensible. I (at the stadium) got a text message saying TV made Morrow's catch look incomplete - I haven't had a good look at it. But these guys sucked all night.

I give the crowd a B+. Pretty good, but sometimes they waited until 3rd down to get loud, even with UK being in the red zone.

Bye week comes at the perfect time. Good week to rest. Good coming off a good performance.

Its great to see the team improve at mid-season. Heaven knows we've seen a lot of MSU teams over the years that could only stay the same or get worse. Mullen has this young team improving as the season goes along. I hope they peak down the stretch and finish strong including an elusive upset over Bama.

Yep. The pieces are starting to come together. We had the talent to completely beatdown UK and we did. Like I said before the game, they usually play us tough for no apparent reason. I think UK views us a rival the way we view Bama and Northern Miss views LSU. A team they play close, might occasionally beat, but generally lose to and isn't acknowledged as a rival by the other school. But we're at a place where I don't expect to lose to them. And now we're up to 7 wins in a row over them, which is pretty much how it should be. We're at the point when I'm projecting season win totals, I pencil them in as a W with our OOC games.

[Really Clark?]

Good write up and agree with most of it. I do think though Boom only had 95 yards rushing on the night and another 16 receiving for a total of 111 yards. I disagree with you saying Dan wasn't aggressive on the first series. The first pass was down the field instead of the normal throw to Ross. I thought our first scoring drive was key to setting the tone and it was from committing to running hard inside and get the interior pushing hard early.

[Taog Redloh]

I think UK views us a rival the way we view Bama and Northern Miss views LSU. A team they play close, might occasionally beat, but generally lose to and isn't acknowledged as a rival by the other school.
Replace MSU with Tennessee, and maybe you would be correct. But as it stands, your statement is false.

I know many Kentucky and Louisville alumi/fans, so I have a very good reading on how they think. They do not view us as any more of a real rival than we do them. They see us as their cross-division foe, and think it's a game they need to win every year. It may be starting to change slightly because we've won 7 in a row, but let's not get all cocky here, because there is no basis for it. The historical record vs. them is now 23-20. We are very similar programs historically, and come from the same type backgrounds, when it comes to numbers.

We have no basis to look down upon anyone, and that's not changing anytime soon. Fact.

[War Machine Dawg]

Good write up and agree with most of it. I do think though Boom only had 95 yards rushing on the night and another 16 receiving for a total of 111 yards. I disagree with you saying Dan wasn't aggressive on the first series. The first pass was down the field instead of the normal throw to Ross. I thought our first scoring drive was key to setting the tone and it was from committing to running hard inside and get the interior pushing hard early.

I didn't say it wasn't aggressive, I just said I didn't like it. Three straight passes isn't what we're supposed to be about offensively. I'm sure there was something on film Dan saw to script it that way, though.

You're spot on about the first TD drive, though. Committing to the run was huge and set the tone. Still wish we'd see some 2-back sets with Shump as a lead blocker. But for what Mullen wants to do, we had about as good a game offensively as we've had in a year. Certainly the best this season. Lots of reasons to be positive headed into the stretch run.

[thunderclap]

The scheduling thing drives me crazy. Always has. Don't know why in the everlovinghell we can't permanently get that Arkansas game out from between Bama and Ole Miss. It has ruined more than one season.

[DanDority]

Great Analysis WMD! Until the refs overturned their calls I had assumed that it could only be done in T-town.

[Really Clark?]

I didn't say it wasn't aggressive, I just said I didn't like it. Three straight passes isn't what we're supposed to be about offensively. I'm sure there was something on film Dan saw to script it that way, though.

You're spot on about the first TD drive, though. Committing to the run was huge and set the tone. Still wish we'd see some 2-back sets with Shump as a lead blocker. But for what Mullen wants to do, we had about as good a game offensively as we've had in a year. Certainly the best this season. Lots of reasons to be positive headed into the stretch run.

Maybe I misread it but under the first topic on coaching you wrote:

1. Mullen came out and coached to win. Other than the first offensive possession, the offense was aggressive and effective all night.

I took that to mean you didn't think the first series wasn't agressive.

[blacklistedbully]

I LOVE that we have that Thursday game after the bye because we get extra days to prep & rest for Bama.

[War Machine Dawg]

I LOVE that we have that Thursday game after the bye because we get extra days to prep & rest for Bama.

That's definitely a bonus. It's still weird because we don't have a "true" bye week. Players won't get to go home this weekend, because Mullen mentioned starting "game week" practice on Thursday. Regardless, other than ending with Murderer's Row, I like the way the schedule has fallen this year.