One more WS Journal-Post NMSU

[Longrifle28]

Statistically, they pretty much won every category except 3. Rushing offense, turnovers, and final score.

I don't think we can sugar coat it. They had 6 interceptions and still scored 31 points. We have to consider ourselves considerably lucky to have won this game.

[Rick83]

You people act like it's more important to get first downs and greater time of possession than more points at the end. Let's tell Lamb, Moore, and Upshaw to just take a knee when they've got enough yardage to get the first so that we can accumulate more 1st downs and hold the ball longer. Call me crazy, but I'd rather they do what they did Saturday and get a 46 yard touchdown run instead of a series that eats up the clock with 4 additional first downs to get there.
I don't really get the negativity this year, I guess the UGA and Wake losses were just unforgivable.

[Saint3333]

I'd argue the majority of the NMSU players (sans our two DBs) outplayed App for 50 minutes of the game, I don't see any harm admitting that.

That was the craziest game I may have ever seen App play, and after 30+ years that's saying something.

I wish them the best the rest of the way, Larry Rose is a class act and I'd like to see a player like that rewarded with a bowl game.

[Rick83]

I'd argue the majority of the NMSU players (sans our two DBs) outplayed App for 50 minutes of the game, I don't see any harm admitting that.

That was the craziest game I may have ever seen App play, and after 30+ years that's saying something.

I wish them the best the rest of the way, Larry Rose is a class act and I'd like to see a player like that rewarded with a bowl game.

And maybe for 50 minutes NMSU played great ball, but the thing is, the reference in the article was that NMSU is the better team: From the article:

"The Aggies need to realize from this game though, they are one of the best Sun Belt Conference teams. They didn’t show it today but they are a better team than App State."
And people on this board were seemingly agreeing with him which is what got my dander up.
If you look at the full 60 minutes of the game, our QB was better (slightly), our RB1 was way better than both of theirs combined, our DBs intercepted 4 more than theirs did, we sacked their QB 4 times compared to none for them, we had 8 TFLs (tackles for loss) to their 4, our kick returners averaged 8 more yards per return than theirs, Rubino maybe slightly edges out their kicker, and maybe their punter edges out Subotsch but not sure about the game situations. AND we beat them by two touchdowns, I just don't get the negativity on this board and hope prospective players and their families realize that the vast majority of our fan base does not have that negativity at all.
It's to the point that our beloved BGP people had to issue like a proclamation, "Five Ways To End Toxic App State Negativity."

[Saint3333]

Go listen to the post game reaction BGP show. If you think my post is negative you'll probably think their take is negative as well. I look at their thoughts and mine as being objective. NMSU is a solid team that without incredible plays by Tae and Duck would have beaten us last Saturday with the oline struggling in the first half and Lamb having one of his worse performances (I don't think he was 100% after Wake).

I gave credit to Texas St.'s dline and QB after our game with them and can recognize solid play from NMSU as well. Idaho "should" be an easier game as should CCU and UMass. ULM concerns me, their QB is on fire right now and we are going to have to score quite a bit to beat them while not looking ahead to the Thursday primetime date with our rival.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

They should have won had they not thrown 6 interceptions, not allowed our running back more yards in game than he's had all season, not allowed us to score 45 points, not allowed us to score 28 points in the 4th quarter, or finally, not allow us to get 9.2 yards per carry. But yeah, they should have won and they were awesome.

[Saint3333]

For the first 50 minutes there is no doubt NMSU outplayed App, if you don't agree you aren't being objective. Luckily the games are 60 minutes long.

[Rick83]

Go listen to the post game reaction BGP show. If you think my post is negative you'll probably think their take is negative as well. I look at their thoughts and mine as being objective. NMSU is a solid team that without incredible plays by Tae and Duck would have beaten us last Saturday with the oline struggling in the first half and Lamb having one of his worse performances (I don't think he was 100% after Wake).

I gave credit to Texas St.'s dline and QB after our game with them and can recognize solid play from NMSU as well. Idaho "should" be an easier game as should CCU and UMass. ULM concerns me, their QB is on fire right now and we are going to have to score quite a bit to beat them while not looking ahead to the Thursday primetime date with our rival.

I wasn't specifically calling you out being negative and didn't mean to come across that way. It felt like you were leaning that way and I'm sick and tired of the negativity in general. NMSU is a good team, my point is that we're the better team. The fact is our running backs out-played their defense and our DBs outplayed their offense. Granted, it took them 3 quarters to figure out how to beat those guys but the game is 60 minutes. I didn't see any of their players that I'd switch out for ours. That goes for coaches too, I wouldn't trade a single one of ours for theirs.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

For the first 50 minutes there is no doubt NMSU outplayed App, if you don't agree you aren't being objective. Luckily the games are 60 minutes long.

Outplayed for a good portion of the game, yes. Better team, no way.

[SpeedkingATL]

I think games like Saturdays show that teams that are used to winning often find ways to win when they aren't at their best. App has an experienced team with a winning tradition and at this point NMSU and TSU don't have that confidence. App believes they can win and often do in the 4th quarter when it's gut check time.

[Rick83]

They should have won had they not thrown 6 interceptions, not allowed our running back more yards in game than he's had all season, not allowed us to score 45 points, not allowed us to score 28 points in the 4th quarter, or finally, not allow us to get 9.2 yards per carry. But yeah, they should have won and they were awesome.

Funny how the Sun Belt chose 2 of OUR players for Players of the Week, but zilch for NMSU from Saturday's game.

[The Rock]

I don’t think there is anything wrong with having high expectations. I don’t think NM state is a better team than App, as the article stated, but I believe on Saturday, they were close. There are 2 ways to look at it.
1) it took 6 ints, and 31points off turnovers to win by 14. Taylor Lamb had a terrible day only passing for 48 yards and 2 ints. And the defense allowed the qb to pass for 356 yards
OR
App had a defense that forced 6 ints and the offense to score 31 points from those turnovers. Lamb was smart and scored a td with his legs when the pass game wasn’t going, and really only 1 int was his fault. He didn’t have a great game, but he didn’t screw up bad enough to cost us the game.

There is truth in both statements. I think the one that is correct is the one that has the most consistency and patterns to it.
This game is just like the wake forest game, but with us coming out on top.
Statistically, we were beat in nearly every aspect except turnovers and rushing. Total yardage, TOP, first downs; but the only stat that matters is the score, and we had more points when the clock hit zeros.
I feel like we played well overall vs. wake, just didn’t execute when we had to.
However in conference games, I don’t like the trend thus far. Flat, slow starts, mistakes, giving up too much yardage on defense, but eventually do just enough to win. I hope that changes and we start playing a solid 4 quarters, if not, it will bite us.
It’s not good to always complain and be negative, but there are such things as ugly wins, and room for improvement. Our first 2 conference games are both.
Message boards are the place to discuss the team and the games, and it is important to discuss them objectively both good and bad

[BUTCH1991]

As long as we're going down this road, don't forget that we had 3 turnovers of our own and a missed FG. Add all that in and you have a lot ifs and buts.

[fjblair]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/ap ... ar-AAt5Z1S

This analyst had a substantially different assessment of the game. This more closely resembles the game I witnessed on Saturday. I don't like people sugar coating or blowing smoke for me. I want us to continually improve our program and the only way you can do that is truthful self reflection. Let's call it like it is and not be afraid to face the truth and then get stronger as a result.

I pretty much agree with that assessment of the game but had to spit my coffee when the guy said NMSU is a better team than ASU. That's just ludicrous.

We were lucky to win. Lamb had a terrible game throwing the ball and the team was just flat for most of the game. I was impressed with the speed of NMSU and their QB is a great scrambler. We had pretty good pressure and should have had way more sacks, but that guy was slippery.

“We were lucky to win. Lamb had a terrible game throwing the ball and the team was just flat for most of the game.”

End result: good teams find a way to win and we did. It’s a “W” and that’s all that matters. Whatever went wrong on Saturday can be fixed in practice. I will not push our coaching staff and team under the bus over a less than stellar performance.

I agree and I didn't mean to imply I was throwing anyone under the bus. A win is a win.

[AtlAppMan]

A win is a win and that is good, but as stated above, we are not trending well for our performances in conference games. The great takeaway is we figured out a way to win but the bad truth is if we continue to play like this for the remainder of the season we will likely lose a few games in the process. The reason I am disappointed is that I expected we would be playing much better across all facets of our game at this point in season than we are. In all games we have many warts that are preventing us from being a much better team.

I stand behind saying the article was correct as I was mainly referring to how we played Saturday, not really agreeing with "NMSU is better than App". Any time it takes 6 turnovers to win by two scores, as good as it sounds for your defense, the reality is you are not doing something else right. We could not consistently move the chains for 3 qtrs. How is that good? We can't afford to play like and win the conference. I am not being negative, just trying not to lie to myself.

[Rick83]

I just hope that when we play Idaho that we rack up a bunch of first downs, total yardage and time of possession. Oh yeah...and more points I guess. My final post on this thread. I stand by my original point that, although they played well enough for 3 quarters and were able to hang with us longer than they should have, they couldn't for the whole game...the NMSU Aggies are not better than our guys..

[AppStateNews]

Would I say NMSU is the better team overall? No, but they were certainly the better team for a large portion of the game on that given Saturday. I don't see this as being negative. I see this as NMSU having a good game plan and executing it. Just because someone says NMSU played well enough to won does not mean they are down playing Apps abilities. It just means NMSU played a solid game with a good game plan. If the ball bounces a couple times their way, they win that game. If you don't agree with that, you watched a different game than me.

[App91]

For the first 50 minutes there is no doubt NMSU outplayed App, if you don't agree you aren't being objective. Luckily the games are 60 minutes long.

Objectivity is NOT allowed on this board! We must be in lockstep proclaiming our superiority. Objective discussions regarding poor play will not be tolerated

[WVAPPeer]

While everyone is speculating - what if --- that pass deep in their territory hadn't been stripped from Hennigan and intercepted by their DB I think we score there - the offense was getting into that beautiful groove and we go into half up 27-7 instead of only 20-14 ???

[hapapp]

Actually, the halftime score was 17-7. That play was an even bigger turn around.