Sunday Morning QB- A Tale of Two Cities Edition
1. After spending 11 hours of my Friday/early Saturday on a bus ride to New Orleans and back, I knew it would affect my Saturday of college football. After a couple of hours of sleep- the alarm went off for that 11am kickoff. I knew being tired was going to limit the cook as well, so I went with the crockpot to BBQ some chicken. I'd like to thank UPig and LSU for playing a snoozer allowing me to get that nap for the entire 2nd half of their game.
2. In one city Saturday you had SEC Nation and the excitement of #9 playing on the road against Elitedawg's most overrated team in the entire country- #11 Mississippi. Earlier this week I posted that Mississippi will scare them and then Bammer would prevail. It played out pretty much like that altho I did not think the last play of the game would decide the outcome. I've been saying that Mississippi is not overrated and a solid football team. They proved it Saturday yet again. Their fumble before half changed the game. Also question Kiffin going away from his TB on that last series of downs with the game on the line. I get the "he was tired" factor- but you got to go to him at least once. Hindsight is 20/20 but go with the guy that brung ya is a staple of playcalling.
3. In the other city- you had the nation's #1 team invading beautiful StarkVegas. A place where battle tested teams have gone to die in 2022. A&M? Crushed. UPig? Roasted. Memphis and Bowling Green? Hunted down and slain. And who can forget that just last week- mighty Auburn was taken down in overtime. StarkVegas is known for its loud obnoxious fans clanging those bells to drive opponents crazy- and Saturday night those bells were ringing.
4. Our offensive genius had us ready to play- but that Jawja D just got lucky. We banked one 1st down on our 1st 4 possessions with a turnover on downs. Jawja scored on their 1st possession and also added a FG for a 10-0 lead. Then the Airbone had had enough and marched 14 plays for a FG. Jawja added a TD and we got a FG for 17-12 halftime deficit thanks to the punt return. (edited for the reminder)
5. Amazingly, neither of the 50/50 calls went our way in the 1st half. The roughing call was one of those that is called more times than not to protect QB's. I can see it not being called as the DE was engaged with our guy and then spun off. However its a call made alot on Saturdays and Sundays each weekend. Then not long after the State D steals the ball from a Jawja RB as he is being pushed back. Again- another 50/50 call. Yeah his progress was stopped but no there had not been a whistle. Those calls didnt decide the game but it's not surprising that we got neither call. Especially the fumble steal. That should have been ruled down and gone to replay. They took the forward progress approach to try and cover for them not seeing the steal being made.
6. Stetson Bennett is who most State fans want Will Rogers to be. A little undersized but is a winner. The difference in them is that Bennett can use his legs some to make some plays when things break down. Plus his arm is a little stronger to get the ball downfield. Our D did a great job of picking off a couple of passes. It's hard to say we played good D when giving up 468 yards and 45 points- but we really did. The only thing we did badly defensively was against the play pass inside the 5. I get that they are physical and such- but on 3rd and 2 after stuffing them we had to know the play pass was coming. We didnt and left the TE wide ass open.
7. Good job against the run by our D. While the overall numbers dont look it due to MaHonkey's 70 yard run on the reverse- the other 32 runs had them at 109 yards. That's good defense. Even on the reverse with MaHonkey- Banks 2.0 forced it back inside but Matthews was unable to make the tackle unblocked. Cant have that happen.
8. Offensively? Another sub-par performance. As Seven posted- we have struggled offensively really the last 4 weeks. Even the Auburn performance last week left alot to be desired. We finished with 308 total yards and 73 of that was attained on the last drive with Jawja in straight up prevent. So we were at 235 yards with 2 mins left in the game. Bad offense outside of the chunk play to Walley before half to get us a FG. Leach's offenses in other conferences had him among the best. In the SEC? Strictly average. We are 8th in the SEC in total offense- making us the best of the bottom half of the league. Scoring-wise we are 7th thanks to a TD on D, along with KO and punt returns for TD's lately to boost it. We had 139 yards at half- with 47 coming on 1 play. That tells you all you need to know. This offense continues to struggle against defenses with a pulse. This is the offense needed to beat the big boys???? We still posting that garbage on here? Have you guys seen running QB's giving Bama problems the last 2 weeks or is that just me?
9. A positive was the pass pro. I was expecting 4-5 sacks against their front but we did a good job protecting for the most part. Rogers got the ball out quick because you know he had been watching film but we did a good job upfront. Kirby ran alot of 3 man front in the 1st Q but he just couldnt stand it. Went back to a 4-1 look in the box for most of the rest of the game. We caught them in Man a few times to make some plays but not enough to sustain drives. Had some drops and some DB separated incompletions, but as I seem to have to say each week- those are going to happen when a team throws 50-plus passes per game. It happens to teams that throw it 27 times a game. We just notice it more with 55 passes a game. That's not going to change no matter who we trot out at WR.
10. Yesterday was a money maker as college football went back to being predictable. The Bammer/Jawja/Fla teaser did it's job as did the TCU/Mich/O-St one. Kids gonna love that bowl of queso at Superior Grill this week as opposed to the cup. Makes for fun memories.
HailState
