My challenge to the team the two next weeks is get up 21-0 and pull Lamb and RBs early to limit hits and heal up. Those guys are clearly not 100% and need some rest.

So is Coach saying that our next two opponents suck and we need to take advantage of their Suckiness?

I would be careful assuming anyone sucks.

sixtoes9134 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:17 pm

I would be careful assuming anyone sucks.

Exactly.

Coastal sucks. Don't have to assume, just look at their results.

Doesn't ensure we'll play well against them, of course.

Guys CCU is a bad team and they beat UMass by 10 our opponent in two weeks.

If we struggle to run the ball and put those teams away in the first quarter it will be a bad sign the rest of the way. Let's not prop up our opponents to make us feel better.

This team can be very good, see the Wake game and 4th quarters the last two weeks, but currently we are banged up and need to get healthy.

I am very glad we have won so don't get me wrong. The way we have been playing EVERY team on our schedule is a major challenge. Now we have lived up to the challenge in conference so far but sometimes your luck just runs out.

Saint3333 wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2017 3:02 pm

Guys CCU is a bad team and they beat UMass by 10 our opponent in two weeks.

If we struggle to run the ball and put those teams away in the first quarter it will be a bad sign the rest of the way. Let's not prop up our opponents to make us feel better.

This team can be very good, see the Wake game and 4th quarters the last two weeks, but currently we are banged up and need to get healthy.

Don't take away this board's go-to defense mechanism. That's just cruel.

We need to get at least a few blowouts so we can give more of the younger guys to get some real playing experience. But a win is a win, and that's the most important obviously.

I don’t think we blow anyone out. Let’s just win.

Two words- Texas State

Play them all one at a time. See Troy.

The challenge for next week? ---
WIN and move on !!!

I still believe that this year's App team is capable of winning in a big way, but for whatever reason we just haven't shown it. It's a frustrating season to be sure, but we're winning and the games are most certainly exciting. I think some are way too dismissive of "weaker" opponents just because we have dominated them in past year. College football is FULL of huge swings from year to year. I still think the turnover on the OL is the key. We just don't have the push that we had last year and we're having to "out tactic" our opponents in order to move the ball because our base running game just isn't there. I keep hoping those guys gel and we hit our stride but this might just be a season where we win (hopefully) close ones.

Yosef84 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:39 am

I still believe that this year's App team is capable of winning in a big way, but for whatever reason we just haven't shown it. It's a frustrating season to be sure, but we're winning and the games are most certainly exciting. I think some are way too dismissive of "weaker" opponents just because we have dominated them in past year. College football is FULL of huge swings from year to year. I still think the turnover on the OL is the key. We just don't have the push that we had last year and we're having to "out tactic" our opponents in order to move the ball because our base running game just isn't there. I keep hoping those guys gel and we hit our stride but this might just be a season where we win (hopefully) close ones.

There might be something to that point re: New Mexico State - they're clearly improved. But halfway through the season, it's pretty clear Idaho is a couple notches worse than they were last year (at least), and Texas State is just terrible (again).

The hard cold fact is that we are just not as good as we were last year, plain and simple. We are scratching and clawing our way to victory. We are getting the victories so I guess a W is a W. We have extremely high expectations every year and they are just not going to get met every year. Just a couple weeks ago this board was lit up with " we have to beat these P5 teams" and now we are worried about every Sunbelt team we face. Ulcers and grey hair you bet. Not very pretty, but in the end we have a W. If we can still win the conference then we have had a successful season.

The reality is that in conference play there are very few gimmes, if any at all. Just ask Clemson, Washington, and Washington State about assuming a conference win, or expecting to get playing time for the 2nd and 3rd stringers . . . the problem with being the team with a target (which I think we can all agree App State is the target circled on all Sun Belt teams' schedules) is that App will get every team's best shot. So Texas State gives everything they have to beat App State, but settle for Louisiana. Every team on the App schedule will hit a little harder, run a step faster just on the adrenaline of the chance a knocking the Mountaineers off the mountain (figuratively and literally for home games).

I tend to agree with BigC in the BGP Postgame, there seems to be something just off with the App State offense. Outside of it being unbelievably slow to start each game, like molasses on a January morning in Boone is quick comparatively speaking. Even when the offense appears to roll in the fourth quarter, some of the good stuff that happens seems more like catching lightening in a bottle than expected engineered good plays. I don't know if there are nagging injuries, if there are chemistry concerns in the unit, but the sum total of this season's offense is just not above or even with to the ability, talent, and athleticism of its parts.

I've seen it before with other really talented teams in other sports. Sometimes, for whatever reason, or a variety of small issues, the spark just is not there. I believe we have seen the spark with this offense (the Wake game), but something is holding it back. Until that spark can ignite the conflagration that this offense is capable of becoming, every single game will be a scrap to the end, regardless of how good or bad the opponent has been against other teams.

EastHallApp wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:53 pm

Coastal sucks. Don't have to assume, just look at their results.

Doesn't ensure we'll play well against them, of course.

When we were in transition we sucked too, until we didn't and went on a tear. Don't think CCU isn't looking at us the same way we did Troy after our embarrassing loss to FCS Liberty at home.

The Chants might be 1-5 but three of those losses were within a TD.

UMass for that matter have only lost the bulk of their games by a few points too, so neither one of those are shoe-ins. Especially if we play asleep at the wheel like we did the first half this week's game.

Is CCU pulling half a dozen red shirts for this game?

hotrod2001 wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:23 am

EastHallApp wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:53 pm

Coastal sucks. Don't have to assume, just look at their results.

Doesn't ensure we'll play well against them, of course.

When we were in transition we sucked too, until we didn't and went on a tear. Don't think CCU isn't looking at us the same way we did Troy after our embarrassing loss to FCS Liberty at home.

The Chants might be 1-5 but three of those losses were within a TD.

UMass for that matter have only lost the bulk of their games by a few points too, so neither one of those are shoe-ins. Especially if we play asleep at the wheel like we did the first half this week's game.

All true. Yet for every team that goes from terrible to kick-ass overnight halfway through the year like we did in '14, there are... well, pretty much all the rest of them, who continue to struggle.

If Coastal wins their remaining six games, I'll be glad to come back to this thread and say I was wrong.

But I agree, we need to play better.

It was amazing how the defense just like took over the game in the 2nd half Saturday. Linehan was clearly rattled and those key forced fumble recoveries were game changers. Boggs, Simms, Townes, and others were playing lights out inspired football to close out the game.