Here is Why We Have A Chance to be Good This Year

[ShotgunDawg]

- I'm the first one to admit & complain that YES there are concerns.

- However, if you told me that I had a limited number of points in order to build a good football team with, I would spend more points on my OL than anywhere else. Good OLs are the heart & soul of a football team & travel well on the road.

- The 2019 MSU Bulldogs, with all their faults, should have a good to great OL, a good to great RB, a good QB, & adequate WR play. That is a dangerous combo that could prove pivotal, if our defense can figure a few things out.

Here is a video from Saturday that shows some of what this unit can do:

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[TrapGame]

You're so damn bipolar.**

[Tbonewannabe]

The offense should be better this year and we will see in a couple of weeks at Auburn. Auburn will probably be a top 10 defense this year and it is a road game. Even if we lose, if we can put up some points then I will feel better about this team. I came in the year thinking 7-5 to 8-4 and from what I saw Saturday, even with the defense not as good as hoped, I still think it is 7-8 wins.

[Scared_Hitless]

Picked 9-3 before the season and still think we have a shot at the number, but our defense is worrisome. I am much more confident offensively right now than the other way around.

[ShotgunDawg]

Picked 9-3 before the season and still think we have a shot at the number, but our defense is worrisome. I am much more confident offensively right now than the other way around.

The defense is absolutely worrisome, but, if we'll commit to giving both Kylin & Gibson carries, we can eat up a ton of time on the ground. I think Tommy may also be good enough to keep the safeties out of the box.

The key IMO will be in big games, if Joe cares more about staying balanced or winning the game. It's going to be important that we run the ball & limit the plays our defense is on the field.

[Tbonewannabe]

Picked 9-3 before the season and still think we have a shot at the number, but our defense is worrisome. I am much more confident offensively right now than the other way around.

So you think we win one of the games against either AU, A&M, or LSU. Which do you think we have the best shot at? At this point, I might go LSU since it is at home. Any game against those 3 that we win will either be a game that Tommy blows up or is one of those games where we get a lot of turnovers that changes the outlook of the game.

[ShotgunDawg]

So you think we win one of the games against either AU, A&M, or LSU. Which do you think we have the best shot at? At this point, I might go LSU since it is at home. Any game against those 3 that we win will either be a game that Tommy blows up or is one of those games where we get a lot of turnovers that changes the outlook of the game.

LSU or A&M.

A&M is the best matchup for us and Kyle Field isn't as hostile as most road games.

[Tbonewannabe]

The defense is absolutely worrisome, but, if we'll commit to giving both Kylin & Gibson carries, we can eat up a ton of time on the ground. I think Tommy may also be good enough to keep the safeties out of the box.

The key IMO will be in big games, if Joe cares more about staying balanced or winning the game. It's going to be important that we run the ball & limit the plays our defense is on the field.

Last year, Joe tried to win the Bama game rather than tacking on a few FGs to make the score look better. Mullen a lot of times didn't really try to win as much as keep the score close.

[TrapGame]

I'm still going with 9-3. I think we can do it. There's a lot of hand wringing and asthma attacks right now but in a couple of weeks we'll see it's not that bad at all.

[Johnson85]

Picked 9-3 before the season and still think we have a shot at the number, but our defense is worrisome. I am much more confident offensively right now than the other way around.

I just don't see it. The good news is we have 8 mediocre to bad teams on our schedule, so we don't have to be that good to win 8. But one of those 8 might be good enough with the run that they can exploit us up the middle. Even if not, I think our D is going to be mediocre enough that we could lose to several of those teams if we have some untimely turnovers.

Even if we don't slip up against any of those 8, are either LSU, A&M, or Auburn really bad enough on the OL that they won't be able to exploit our D? Or are you thinking we're going to win a shootout?

[StarkVegasSteve]

I think the best news for us is that although we're young and inexperienced on the DL our guys will have 3 more games to start getting that experience and will face two teams who want to run the ball in KSU and UK before we get into the meat of our schedule. There's no doubt we'll still struggle at times, but I do believe we will continue to improve and it'll look better this weekend.

[TaleofTwoDogs]

You're so damn bipolar.**

Clap, clap, clap, whistle, whistle

[Scared_Hitless]

I just don't see it. The good news is we have 8 mediocre to bad teams on our schedule, so we don't have to be that good to win 8. But one of those 8 might be good enough with the run that they can exploit us up the middle. Even if not, I think our D is going to be mediocre enough that we could lose to several of those teams if we have some untimely turnovers.

Even if we don't slip up against any of those 8, are either LSU, A&M, or Auburn really bad enough on the OL that they won't be able to exploit our D? Or are you thinking we're going to win a shootout?

I just don't expect the product in week 1 to be indicative of the entire season. We will improve and injuries happen every season. I believe Auburn to be the most limited offensively of those teams, and Nix made some turnovers Saturday they are not out of the question if Tommy keeps improving. I think we win 1 of those 3 am I saying 100% chance of course not. If we go 8-4 the season is still a success with our current holes.

[TrapGame]

Two things:

1) Shoop's got some packages and disguises we ain't seeing till Auburn.
2) Joe put plays he hasn't used in 10 yrs in the play book this season (He said this in his XM interview).

The season ain't over after one game folks.

[Johnson85]

I just don't expect the product in week 1 to be indicative of the entire season. We will improve and injuries happen every season. I believe Auburn to be the most limited offensively of those teams, and Nix made some turnovers Saturday they are not out of the question if Tommy keeps improving. I think we win 1 of those 3 am I saying 100% chance of course not. I don't think we're going to be as bad as we looked, but I think that's true of most teams that aren't poorly coached and I think more of our problems are actual personnel problems rather than just week one sloppiness.



If we go 8-4 the season is still a success with our current holes. Agreed.

[Scared_Hitless]

Honestly if we just had Gay and Autry this could have been a special season. Horrible losses given our current situation in those positions.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Two things:

1) Shoop's got some packages and disguises we ain't seeing till Auburn.
2) Joe put plays he hasn't used in 10 yrs in the play book this season (He said this in his XM interview).

The season ain't over after one game folks.

Honestly, with the way our offense works, if we just had a quicker tempo we would catch the defense off guard some. Giving them 40 full seconds to gather their thoughts is really not allowing us to attack the way we could.

[gtowndawg]

So what should our goal be for time of position? That's the critical goal in my mind.

[StarkVegasSteve]

So what should our goal be for time of position? That's the critical goal in my mind.

We need to win the TOP in every game we play and when we play Auburn, LSU, A&M, and Bama the TOP needs to look like it did vs Auburn last year. We had the ball 41:53 to their 18:07. So we need to control the ball probably 35+ minutes. I think 40 minutes is probably the threshold where I'd feel really good we'd be able to come away with a W

[gtowndawg]

We need to win the TOP in every game we play and when we play Auburn, LSU, A&M, and Bama the TOP needs to look like it did vs Auburn last year. We had the ball 41:53 to their 18:07. So we need to control the ball probably 35+ minutes. I think 40 minutes is probably the threshold where I'd feel really good we'd be able to come away with a W

Totally agree. Saturday we had it 30:37 minutes and they had it 29:23. Basically even. We can't do that in bigger games.

[Cowbell]

Totally agree. Saturday we had it 30:37 minutes and they had it 29:23. Basically even. We can't do that in bigger games.

We will have to be more careful with this Stat than in years past because we actually have a deep ball threat now and I think that will come in to play at some point. I think we can win a shoot out if need be

[gtowndawg]

We will have to be more careful with this Stat than in years past because we actually have a deep ball threat now and I think that will come in to play at some point. I think we can win a shoot out if need be

Coach Peterson at Washington says "run to win, throw to score." I think that can describe us nicely.

[Jarius]

It really depends on who we play our suspended players against. I hope we don’t play them against Alabama. I think we can beat Kentucky and Tennessee and Ole Miss without them. I would prefer we not take the chance to not play them against Ole Miss and Kentucky though.

[Jack Lambert]

We have eight games where we should be the favorite and the better team.

[Tbonewannabe]

Coach Peterson at Washington says "run to win, throw to score." I think that can describe us nicely.

We have been able to run on Bama one time and that was in 2017 when all of their LBs were hurt. Some teams require you to throw to win. You can't be one dimensional and beat typically great teams like Bama and LSU. Incidentally in 2017, LSU also had several key players injured like Arden Key. Key played a few snaps but it definitely affected them.

[R2Dawg]

- I'm the first one to admit & complain that YES there are concerns.

- However, if you told me that I had a limited number of points in order to build a good football team with, I would spend more points on my OL than anywhere else. Good OLs are the heart & soul of a football team & travel well on the road.

- The 2019 MSU Bulldogs, with all their faults, should have a good to great OL, a good to great RB, a good QB, & adequate WR play. That is a dangerous combo that could prove pivotal, if our defense can figure a few things out.

Here is a video from Saturday that shows some of what this unit can do:

1168896724909416449

Ouch, welcome to the SEC. That right there is the difference in Power 5 and the rest. Our DL may have got blocked but never bulldozed like that. I do agree in principal that the game is won on LOS, which is why there is concern in SEC play on DL. Most of the time our DL did eat up blocks, they just didn't make a ton of plays. Bad thing is they had 8 yards before our LB made the play.

[Doggie_Style]

Two things:

1) Shoop's got some packages and disguises we ain't seeing till Auburn.
2) Joe put plays he hasn't used in 10 yrs in the play book this season (He said this in his XM interview).

The season ain't over after one game folks.

So your saying Shoop was/is willing to risk UL, USM, K. St. and Ky dropping a ton of points on us so we can save our super-secret defensive moves for Auburn? I think it is more likely that he was/is trying to keep things simple due to our lack of experience.

[Coach007]

Honestly, with the way our offense works, if we just had a quicker tempo we would catch the defense off guard some. Giving them 40 full seconds to gather their thoughts is really not allowing us to attack the way we could.

Let's put that into the context of this team as a whole.

- Our issue is that we offensively allowed ULL to stick around. I think we can all agree with that. We took it from them 5 times. That's easy to clean up.
- We gave them 7 points on ST.

- Our defense (the issue people are talking) only gave up 200 yards until 3 minutes into the 4th quarter. What they did was go up tempo and our guys had youthful thoughts that the game was over... and we allowed them in 1 quarter 220ish yards. The tempo didn't allow subs. They have to finish. They have to have that killer mentality.

- The Defense is young.... and I don't think right now we want a faster tempo that could result in putting them back on the field in 1 minute on a 3 and out.

[Coach007]

So your saying Shoop was/is willing to risk UL, USM, K. St. and Ky dropping a ton of points on us so we can save our super-secret defensive moves for Auburn? I think it is more likely that he was/is trying to keep things simple due to our lack of experience.

I think it's actually both. If you have to jump in deep into a playbook, great. If you don't... why do it?

ULL was never at risk. So keep it simple and grow.

USM will be the same way and KSt will not be. We will show more. It will look very different.

[gtowndawg]

We have been able to run on Bama one time and that was in 2017 when all of their LBs were hurt. Some teams require you to throw to win. You can't be one dimensional and beat typically great teams like Bama and LSU. Incidentally in 2017, LSU also had several key players injured like Arden Key. Key played a few snaps but it definitely affected them.

Yeah, none of this matters against Bama.

[TrapGame]

So your saying Shoop was/is willing to risk UL, USM, K. St. and Ky dropping a ton of points on us so we can save our super-secret defensive moves for Auburn? I think it is more likely that he was/is trying to keep things simple due to our lack of experience.

Bullshit. You know damn good and well we ain't showing some shit.

[Percho]

You're so damn bipolar.**

Post of the week.

[Tbonewannabe]

Yeah, none of this matters against Bama.

I think Mullen proved that we can develop players and play safe against most people and get to a bowl game. Now that rarely works against a team that is hands down better than you which is why we rarely beat a team that was better than us the last decade. In a normal year, you aren't going to grind down on Bama, LSU, UGA, or AU. The teams that beat those type of teams either have big plays or get turnovers, and sometimes both.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

I'm as worried about our defensive tackles as anybody. But here is the bright spot: they are young and inexperienced and should therefore improve a good bit as the season goes on. Hopefully these guys grow up right before our eyes. Certainly Lovett and Crumedy in 2019 won't be as good as Simmons and Hoyette in 2018. But they will be probably improve a good bit more over the course of a season. Pickering may get in the DT rotation eventually. And maybe De'Monte Russell can help us off the edge on passing downs as a DE. Let's hope these youngsters stay healthy, work hard, and improve.

In my lifetime, I've seen many freshmen look like a lost ball in high weeds early, only to look pretty solid late in the season. Sometimes they just need those game reps.