I'm surprised by how negative the board is right now

[Quaoarsking]

Yes, it sucks really, really bad that we lost the game, especially after playing well enough to win except on a couple of breakdown plays, but I'm not seeing all the negativity here as warranted. It seems like today was a step in the right direction.

• Offensively we played well enough to win, racking up 486 yards and 29 first downs on a much more talented defense than we've seen all season. That's the most yards we've had during the Leach Era, other than Costello's 623 yard stomping of LSU in game 1.
• More importantly, we threw it down the field more than we've been doing. Austin Williams is figuring out how to get open in the drop 8 and make plays, and Makai Polk is establishing himself as a reliable go-to guy. We haven't clicked yet, but we may go way beyond 486 once we do - we certainly could have today with better execution.
• We ran the ball more today, by both attempts and yardage. This offense will be even better when we're running for 100 yards each game.
• Both the OL and DL played better.
• The defense ... was mostly solid, but had not 1, not 2, but 3 absolute disasters that all led to TDs. Clean that up, and the game resembles our 2017 game with them.

Anyway, I'm in a bad mood that we should have won and blew it, but given the strength of opponent, and how last year + the first 3 games of this year went, I don't think a meltdown is warranted, at least not from a perspective of "I told you the Air Raid can't win SEC games!!!" since the offense was more than good enough to get the win and we're moving in the direction that the same people have clamored to move.

I think a lot of people just never liked Leach and are eager to complain about him any time we lose, regardless of how the game actually went.