My thoughts

[Todd4State]

QB- Dak is awesome. But he sometimes tries to do too much- and that gets him in trouble sometimes. Honestly, I think all of the hype has gotten to him a little bit. It seems like he is trying too hard ever since the Auburn game. He just needs to relax and play. I do think he will be back next year- he needs to work on reading defenses and to refine some small things.

RB- We should have given the ball to Josh more in the first half. There is zero reason to not use our most consistent weapon for a half. Dan has to forgive things like the safety because for every bad play like that, Josh is going to make ten good ones.

WR- Great to see Bear and Jameon back! Probably the best news of the day to me was seeing Bear have more yards than Cooper. It was great to see Jameon back period. Now I want to see Gabe Myles and Jameon together in the same formation. The WR's had too many drops today- including a HUGE one by Jameon that would have been an explosive play. Jameon being back is going to help Dak because he can get open and make plays when the pocket breaks down.

O-line- Beckwith had a rough day. We had a false start on the one yard line, we had a personal foul that helped kill a drive. It was tough sledding out there. They did play a lot better in the second half though.

D-line- We suck at trying to sack mobile QB's. We constantly over rush the passer.

LB's- Did OK to my untrained eye. Zach Jackson is bad in coverage. Really should be a special teams guy. Dan continues to play the 1B's even though they constantly allow points. But hey! They've got experience getting burned now. IN THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF THE YEAR. It really is like Dan lacks basic common sense on personnel issues sometimes. And special teams.

DB's- We needed to shut Cooper down, and while he didn't have a career day or anything, we didn't exactly shut him down either. Our defense is not very opportunistic right now- in other words they don't create a ton of turnovers. Some of that may be due to dumb luck- like our defense in 2007. But it hurts because we never have a short field to work with.

Special teams- Great job by Sobiesk. He made all of his kicks. The punters were bad today. That was a big reason why we lost the game- field position. Their punter constantly pinned us inside the 20 all game long. We were shanking punts, giving them a short field. Just disappointing. The return game continues to be lackluster. We need a special teams coach, and we need to stop being cute with our special teams unit.

The effort is there, but the next step for us as a program is to bust through and win a game where we are number one and learn what it is to be the "better team" as opposed to the underdog. I'm pleased with how we fought and how we represented ourselves despite the outcome. We just need to clean up our mistakes and it would be nice if Dan would learn to use some common sense with personnel and special teams.

And I will say this- Alabama better hope that we don't make the playoffs and have to play them on a neutral field.

[SDDawg]

I am glad we covered and I hope every stupid Bammer lost their ass today. Good summary.

[HoopsDawg]

I am glad we covered and I hope every stupid Bammer lost their ass today. Good summary.

I didn't read that long ass post, but yes, I made a ton of money on MSU +10. And by a ton, I mean a lot.

[Political Hack]

That safety, our kick return, poor punting, & INTs killed us. Amazing we only lost by 5 considering. We just get out of that safety and we're looking for a FG late instead of a TD. Totally changes the dynamics of the game and maybe Dak doesn't force a 2nd half throw that ends up being an INT.

So many little things could've turned that game in our favor, even after we played like crap. The reversed fumbled call. The kid who got the INT stepping out of bounds and being the first to touch the ball. Tubby's drop. Beni not being able to wrap up Sims' legs on that long 3rd down scramble. Jones taking a bad angle on the other scramble and letting him bust it for ten yards and a first. Collins allowing Cooper to be matched up one on one with a safety in the freaking RZ for the easiest TD of the night. etc etc etc.

[basedog]

I agree Hack, that safety kinda set the tone, Robinson didn't read the hole which if he goes up the field he gains 2 or 3 yards.
Our punting was a big disappointment yesterday, we needed to flip the field especially the first and just gave them great field position.
Our KO receiving guys haven't done anything this year, we need two guys to explode up the field and I don't see that with Holloway and Johnson.
We had our chances, and one thing is certain to me, there are no great teams this year, several good and even teams.

[Political Hack]

I can't even half ass understand what the hell we're doing with our kick return team.

[basedog]

Me neither, no way do I think Holloway and Johnson are our two best return guys. Wonder what the longest run has been. Also, what the hell was wrong with Bell yesterday,to me his punting cost us big time, look at where we started our offense from.

[DudyDawg]

One thing you didn't mention was Jamerson loves play. In the first drive alone he made three big solo tackles, a couple on cooper. He played his best game all year IMO. Unless he had a shitty second half after I stopped paying attention to him

[Political Hack]

One thing you didn't mention was Jamerson loves play. In the first drive alone he made three big solo tackles, a couple on cooper. He played his best game all year IMO. Unless he had a shitty second half after I stopped paying attention to him

he did have a good game. defense in general did outside that 1 drive in the 2nd half.

[SDDawg]

Close games always come down to just a few plays, and there probably 3 plays in particular on defense that had we won the battle it's a different ball game. And they were close, certainly not blown assignments by our guys. But that's the way it falls, tough game and a tough loss.

A quick though: for years, all I ever wanted in these types of games was for our team to compete and have a chance in every game. I still feel like we should have won yesterday, but I do take comfort that even though we played our worst half of football all year and were on the road in a tough environment against a really good team, we didn't quit and had a chance at the end to come back. I hate losing, but if we're going to have to lose I'll live with this kind of loss over the blowouts and track meets we could stay in last year. Hopefully Mullen can use this as fuel to help us be prepared for next week and the Egg Bowl and if things line up the right way, it can still be a very special season.

[tcdog70]

We need some new plan on the kick offs. Why not put Shump and Smokey back to return? We know how talented Graham is maybe he could get his mojo back by returning KOs. you can't tell me Shump with a head of steam wouldn't be a good returner. the tip toe up the field is a bust, catch the KO and haul ass straight ahead.