Those were not an OL issue. We had some read issues.
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Our o line play was bad. Their nose guard was whipping anyone on our oline one on one. I'm betting the rest of the teams we play will have d linemen more like the nose guards talent level and its going to be bad. On the plus side, defense looked legit for the first time in a long time.
So let me get this straight - on the first weekend of the season, when only 2 SEC teams are playing P5 competition, we rank second in the SEC in Total Offense (18th nationally) and tied for 2nd in Scoring (tied for 26th nationally), played almost the entire eligible offensive roster, only punted 5 times, racking up 555 total yards and 49 points, our OL is trash, we have no chance to improve, and we are doomed to another underwhelming season.
Y'all some real shitty fans.
I rewatched the game and when they got into our backfield it was due to stunts, not by beating our OL heads up. Mostly linebackers spying Fitz and rushing in unblocked. Still not good, but us outweighing them by 70lbs had nothing to do with it. They weren't blowing us off the ball by any means.
Don't think we'll underwhelm. We're just not close to a play off team. I still say 9-4.
Our schedule will allow a loss to bama and still make it
I'd be thrilled with that. I'm kinda in the 7-5 camp but cautiously optimistic that it could be better. Win any of the 3 against murderer's row after the La Tech game, that bumps us up to 8-4. Win more than one of those, and we can start talking about what needs to be done to win the West / get into CFP. Yesterday definitely made me more wooly though, not less. Vastly improved D greatly overshadowed the OL question marks.
This. I saw a drastically improved team yesterday vs 2016. We will compete with every team we play.
There was expected rust, but how many teams has Mullen had that would have pitched a shut out yesterday? Just think about that. We usually give up points to teams of that caliber and lost so USA last year.
For those who can't see this team is every bit of 2014 and maybe more, are trying to find something to bitch about.
I always like reading Hoops opinion because he is always fair without going to far either way. He calls it without the positive/negative bias of most of us. Just an honest fair assessment. I think we are a really good team with a few warts(like everybody else) and we should win 7-8 games possibly 9 with a few breaks. 2018 is setting up like 2014 for us though and it will be a year to make real noise. Dan has built an extremely solid program and we are setup to be successful for quite awhile.
The truth - when you watch your current team win impressively, the D gives up 2 first downs or something, yet you see the true freshman 'futures' and are still in awe or the word 'shiyat!' Comes to mind
It's a good time to be a bulldog in all sports!
I see 8 wins that will not even come close to MSU breaking a sweat.
La Tech
BYU
Umass
Ole Miss
Ark
Tamu
UK..
None of those games will be a loss. Something terribly wrong would have to happen.
The leaves:
LSU beat us by 3 with a better team than they have now on the road. We are way better and at Home. That's 9.
Auburn.. Not going to lie... They are over hyped and we will see the this weekend. They will not blow us off the field.
Bama.. At home, but we will have a hard time with that game.
UGA... Was not impressed with them vs ap st. Would like to see more.
Of the teams I did not call a win, NONE will walk away and is a for sure win for them.
I want to see our safeties and corners get tested and they will this week.
Also, I want to see what adjustment the OL makes. I was disappointed with the pass blocking and the run blocking. We will face much better DL in every other game and that scares me. I was afraid Fitz would get blasted.
The WR & TE need to catch the football. You just can't have that many drops. Hopefully their competitiveness and focus will improve as the season progresses.
Other than that I feel confident in saying we have a talented team that could do great at things if they continue to come together and develop:
Anyone want to debate 'the least' improved SEC team? Just for kicks.
I think offensively we will be ok as KT nearly had 3 TDs in his debut and Nick barely did any running plays - or its like Daks transition. I love Farrod, the D, aeris and Kylin, and the Donald is the Donald.
Or the only thing I worry about, like truly most of you, is what happens when we play a team with a good rush.
I agree with Hypno. On a number of plays several of the CSU DL would drive our linemen backwards. But to the credit of our guys they rarely released the block and the DL was neutralized in the play. But it is still a concern that our OL is being driven backwards since a more elite DL will probably succeed in disrupting the play.
So let me get this straight - our team managed 5.6 yards per carry (QB's averaged 6 YPC, Aeris was at 5.2 and Kylin was at 6.9), we ran 86 offensive plays, CSU managed 5 tackles for loss and had no sacks and y'alls takeaway was that our OL sucked?
Look, the OL has to get better, but some people don't understand football.
It doesn't matter if your playing a high school team, if they bring more defensive players than you can block, they will get penetration.
The sacrifice they make however, is that they are vulnerable somewhere else on defense due to that.
That's what happened. When you watch the tape, their DL wasn't beating us. They were delay blitzing LBs that were able to shoot some gaps. That defense also left things wide open for other plays.
They put 8 in the box and said beat us with the pass which we did some. Hard to tell about the OL yet but our center was working the hell out of Fitz with those snaps.
He's probably only there bc he's the best snapper we got too. I can see us winning 7 or 8 now as good as the D looks.
Not worried about D-Line depth either, Kobe and Thomas and Trey Brown all looked good out there on the field.
JWS always said you make your most improvement between the first and second games. I believe that, especially as young as this team is in certain positions.
But making the leap that this team can go to the playoff after whipping Charleston Southern seems really foolish.
Saw some really bright spots on offense yesterday. Can't ever remember being this deep at running back. Farrod Green was impressive, and that other TE is going to make people sorry when they try to tackle him. If he can use his body the way Bear Wilson did it's going to be entertaining. Donald Gray might be the strongest receiver we've ever had.
Like others, I'm looking forward to seeing the secondary tested next week.
It could be a good season if a few things come together. Always felt like we could win 7, but the way things are shaping up in the conference, I'm feeling more positive.
Now waiting on the talk of Dan Mullen going to A&M. Someone put Megan out in front of this. She could eliminate that rumor quickly given the chance. One of the best advocates of the MSU life we've ever had.
I agree, everything could stand to get better. That doesnt equal not being able to compete for the opportunity for. Playoff spot.
We went through this with Dak... everybody was "senior year"... this team will compete. I laid out the 9 wins. Now we have to figure out how to game plan for 2 more wins.