This ones on the coaches

[Yosef84]

Coaches certainly own a piece of this loss but there is plenty of "blame" to go around. I'm not one to cares much about assigning blame, but I do try to understand what led to an unexpected loss. There are plenty of factors and they aren't disconnected....one factor leads into another. It was cold, wet and VERY windy. I don't know how much the wind was to blame for the passing but Zac threw more bad passes than I've ever seen from him. I'm sure the wind had a role...just not sure how much. When he did throw good passes, we had more drops than we usually have...even Hennigan dropped a couple than hit his hands...VERY unusual!

The OL was getting zero push and opening no lanes for the running game. GS has a legitimately good D, so we should have expected some struggles. Problem is, when the passing game is falling flat, how do you get out of that rut? It's not as easy as just saying "call a different play."

The D played OK for most of the game, especially the 4th quarter...lights out! They gave up two BIG plays in the third quarter though and I've never seen them give up so many yards after contact as they did in the first 3 quarters. It just seemed like we were getting pushed / dragged for 5 or 6 yards per play at times even when we made contact at the line of scrimmage.

Officials decided to let the defenders have a lot of leeway in making contact during coverage....that certainly favored GS since they don't really throw the ball. Apparently this decision was made AFTER they called App on PI on a ticky tac "grab" which didn't impede the WR on a pass that was thrown out of he endzone.

I'm not sure how it all sorts out in terms of blame....nor do I think that's really important. Coaches will figure those issues out. I think it came down to focus and execution. It's hard to imagine how we show up so flat for this game and in the end, we failed to execute the game plan. I hope the team can bounce back and prepare for a SC team that will be much more talented.

[App1995]

I agree with several here who think Drinkwitz is struggling with the tug of war from the HC and OC perspectives. I'm sure it's tough for him, and it's tough to watch sometimes too.

Not sure if it was just me, but Drink looked very uncomfortable on the sideline last night. He’s obviously not acclimated to the Boone winter weather yet and it impacted his play calling.

[The Rock]

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

What really hurts this rivalry is it continuously being held on Thursday night for TV purposes. It is tough for 22,000 people to take off 1.5-2 days of work to make it up the mountain. Even harder if you have kids in school. Even less incentive to come when it is televised. Throw in the grab bag of $hitty weather, and you get the crowd we had last night.
I agree, there is no excuse for leaving early because your team is down, but i am sure it happens everywhere.

[WataugaMan]

As though last year wasn't enough, this one's going to hurt for a long long time:

[Stonewall]

Lot of truth here...and here is some more , the weather took away about half of our offense .Could we have won anyway , of course .We were one play away , on either side of the ball.GS did what they could and it was enough, last night....

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

Get used to it. The Rock ain't what it used to be.

Well it needs to change. Simple as that.

I've been on my soap box about this for years, as I witnessed year after year the atmosphere fade away. Not sure what can be done or if it's too late.

[appst89]

Attendance is down across the US. This is not a problem unique to us. Given the availability of games on TV and streaming, I'm not sure it ever bounces back to where it was.

[turnitupsome]

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

Having this game during the week is difficult. I for one cannot make a weekday game. I'm sure there are others out there that would have loved to come to this game had it been on a Saturday. This game deserves a Saturday atmosphere, not a Thursday night like it has been played in the last 2 years.

[Boonegoon]

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

What really hurts this rivalry is it continuously being held on Thursday night for TV purposes. It is tough for 22,000 people to take off 1.5-2 days of work to make it up the mountain. Even harder if you have kids in school. Even less incentive to come when it is televised. Throw in the grab bag of $hitty weather, and you get the crowd we had last night.
I agree, there is no excuse for leaving early because your team is down, but i am sure it happens everywhere.

I have to agree. Leaving early is one thing but loading up family on Halloween/school night to get to Boone from 2 hours away is a hard ask of many of us.

[BeauFoster]

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

What really hurts this rivalry is it continuously being held on Thursday night for TV purposes. It is tough for 22,000 people to take off 1.5-2 days of work to make it up the mountain. Even harder if you have kids in school. Even less incentive to come when it is televised. Throw in the grab bag of $hitty weather, and you get the crowd we had last night.
I agree, there is no excuse for leaving early because your team is down, but i am sure it happens everywhere.

Gillin needs to be hammering the home office to get this game back to Saturday. The conference needs to acquiesce.

edit - stupid autocorrect changed our AD's last name on me and I didn't catch it.

[GregPercussion]

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

What really hurts this rivalry is it continuously being held on Thursday night for TV purposes. It is tough for 22,000 people to take off 1.5-2 days of work to make it up the mountain. Even harder if you have kids in school. Even less incentive to come when it is televised. Throw in the grab bag of $hitty weather, and you get the crowd we had last night.
I agree, there is no excuse for leaving early because your team is down, but i am sure it happens everywhere.

Gillian needs to be hammering the home office to get this game back to Saturday. The conference needs to acquiesce.

The thing is: they put GS on Thursday because it's the biggest draw. They know it wont be the best turn out, but it's better than it would be if it were Texas St. All about the $$$.

I'd love GS to be back on Saturday and have no weekday games at all. But unfortunately it's just not how it rolls.

[AppStFan1]

Thank god for Corey Sutton. Should’ve gone to him earlier.

I have said it before on here to feed Sutton. He should never have less than 100 yards receiving in a game and should be the go-to-guy in big situations. Others have said it as well. Good things happened when Sutton got the ball. He needs to be fed big time in Columbia.

[AppStFan1]

Coaches certainly own a piece of this loss but there is plenty of "blame" to go around. I'm not one to cares much about assigning blame, but I do try to understand what led to an unexpected loss. There are plenty of factors and they aren't disconnected....one factor leads into another. It was cold, wet and VERY windy. I don't know how much the wind was to blame for the passing but Zac threw more bad passes than I've ever seen from him. I'm sure the wind had a role...just not sure how much. When he did throw good passes, we had more drops than we usually have...even Hennigan dropped a couple than hit his hands...VERY unusual!

The OL was getting zero push and opening no lanes for the running game. GS has a legitimately good D, so we should have expected some struggles. Problem is, when the passing game is falling flat, how do you get out of that rut? It's not as easy as just saying "call a different play."

The D played OK for most of the game, especially the 4th quarter...lights out! They gave up two BIG plays in the third quarter though and I've never seen them give up so many yards after contact as they did in the first 3 quarters. It just seemed like we were getting pushed / dragged for 5 or 6 yards per play at times even when we made contact at the line of scrimmage.

Officials decided to let the defenders have a lot of leeway in making contact during coverage....that certainly favored GS since they don't really throw the ball. Apparently this decision was made AFTER they called App on PI on a ticky tac "grab" which didn't impede the WR on a pass that was thrown out of he endzone.

I'm not sure how it all sorts out in terms of blame....nor do I think that's really important. Coaches will figure those issues out. I think it came down to focus and execution. It's hard to imagine how we show up so flat for this game and in the end, we failed to execute the game plan. I hope the team can bounce back and prepare for a SC team that will be much more talented.

I'm with you on this. Here is the list I came up.

1. I felt like bad play calls by Drink in the first half
2. Not getting the ball to Sutton in first half like in second half
3. Dropped balls
4. Bad throws by Zac, which could be due to wind
5. Kicker missing an easy field goal, again wind had an effect but you have to adjust for that
6. GSU seemed to want it more.
7. GSU OL and DL whipped our butts in first half
8. Our OL got exposed for being too small and size is something we have to get in the next 2 recruiting cycles big time. We can win the SBC with it but we won't ever deserve a ranking until we get the horses on both sides of the ball.

[Appmanrcb]

Plenty of things can be said. For me it was simple. One team simply executed better. And sadly it was the Stink. Hats off to them. They showed up and executed, and ultimately won the game. The staff has a lot of work to do, or this may be an ugly few games.

[97grad]

I don't know what's going on, but this team needs to wake up. We looked bad last week too, it was just harder to see because USA is an abysmal football team.

[Victory Yosef]

So you're mad that people didn't want to sit in miserable weather and get up to go to work in the morning in a game that looked like a blowout? C'mon, man. We've got bigger issues. There's nothing wrong with the football culture. Sheesh....

Everyone just needs to calm down and remember that we've played four games in 22 days. That's hard on any team. Let it go and let's get ready for next week.

On our side: the student section was filled today. The sold seats looked half empty, and the bandwagon fans left in the 3rd. This is bad football culture. I understand people having their reasons to leave, but SO many people left after that second touchdown in the third. Nothing makes me angrier.

[appstate77]

We just got curb stomped folks, plain and simple. Stink played better in the cold than we did. Our guys looked cold and entitled. Drink admitted his play calling, early before the wind got bad, was "too conservative ". Stink beat us square up. Werts was fanbloodytastic. I enjoyed and appreciated his athleticism.
0-1 this week. We cannot flush last night's commode.
1-0 next week. Beat USC.

[canes_mj]

Offense: I think weather was a major factor in the playcalling. 30+ mph winds are difficult to throw in, it was affecting Zac's throws all night, so he had to try to run the ball. They finally got to the point they had to abandon the run, but it was too late.

Defense: The factor here is the coaching staff. See previous threads. Only reason D looked better in the 4th is because GaSo went uber-conservative prevent offense and just about blew the game for themselves. Roof is a bad coach and it finally caught up to us, as it will continue to as long as he's our DC. Why weren't we blitzing and stacking the box more against them? Force them to throw...if WE were having trouble throwing in that wind, don't you think an option team that averages less than 50 yds per game would've had trouble too? Terrible.

[HighPointApp]

Roof was not on the field taking bad angles and missing tackles.

[SpeedkingATL]

Tough game, tough conditions, tough opponent but what a great effort in the 4th quarter. IF App could have scored one more time it would have been an epic finish.