My heart says we start clicking on offense and defense continues to shine.

My head says we come up short vs CCU and ULL.

Thoughts on the remaining game.

Hypothetical, would you give up a loss to GS knowing we’d win the remaining regular season games?

I think us having the experience playing in big games will be a huge factor against Coastal.

We don’t think that way. One game at a time. Give’ em Hell!

2015 11-2, 7-1 Sun Belt
2016 10-3, 7-1
2017 9-4, 7-1
2018 11-2, 7-1
2019 13-1, 8-1
2020 5-1, 3-0

We lost 1 game to a good team down 18 players in a weird year.

I'm not sure why many don't have faith in this team. While it's certainly hard to repeat every year, we control our destiny with a group of players with a history of going 1-0 week after week after week.

I know what you speak of Saint. It is hard for me to look at this objectively and when I do, CCU seems like the better team. I still try to convince myself so I dig deeper but dang if they don't beat us on almost every stat. Now, we will be the best they have seen all year but the same holds true for us. We haven't faced a team as good as them yet and we already have a loss. It isn't that we don't have the talent on offense, we are just shooting ourselves in the foot too often. If we don't fix those problems soon, I am afraid we won't be able to fix them. If it continues, it is just how this team will be defined. I am not nearly as worried about ULL because almost all of their games have come down to the wire, so they have issues too. I trust our guys over theirs, especially in Boone in December. But to answer your question, I hate GS but that questions means that we end up Sun Belt Champs with only 2 losses on the year and I would be real hard pressed at this date to turn down an offer like that. So yeah, I would make that deal with the devil if it meat we win out except for against the Eagles.

t4pizza wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:46 am

I know what you speak of Saint. It is hard for me to look at this objectively and when I do, CCU seems like the better team. I still try to convince myself so I dig deeper but dang if they don't beat us on almost every stat. Now, we will be the best they have seen all year but the same holds true for us. We haven't faced a team as good as them yet and we already have a loss. It isn't that we don't have the talent on offense, we are just shooting ourselves in the foot too often. If we don't fix those problems soon, I am afraid we won't be able to fix them. If it continues, it is just how this team will be defined. I am not nearly as worried about ULL because almost all of their games have come down to the wire, so they have issues too. I trust our guys over theirs, especially in Boone in December. But to answer your question, I hate GS but that questions means that we end up Sun Belt Champs with only 2 losses on the year and I would be real hard pressed at this date to turn down an offer like that. So yeah, I would make that deal with the devil if it meat we win out except for against the Eagles.

For CCU, I don’t think that they are the better team. I think that they have the better player in McCall. They are a different team with him under center versus Payton. Neutralize his game and make the other ten beat you and I like our chances.

SP+ has App ahead of both Coastal and La. And as a predictor SP+ is pretty good. I saw Coastals game last week and their D looked average, especially vulnerable around the edges. As to O, they looked good but they have not faced Apps D yet.

My biggest concern is play calling in tight games.

Rankings are great, but when CCU and ULL line up across from us. they'll be looking at an opponent they've never beaten. It's King of the Hill, and we're still on the top. If Henni gets healthy and special teams don't kill us, I like our chances to win out.

No idea how it will play out. But I’ll take a hard pass on the GS loss scenario. We absolutely need to restore order there.

MAD Doctor wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:44 am

Rankings are great, but when CCU and ULL line up across from us. they'll be looking at an opponent they've never beaten. It's King of the Hill, and we're still on the top. If Henni gets healthy and special teams don't kill us, I like our chances to win out.

Hennigan may not be 100% the rest of the year. But if he can walk, he will play. The kid is a gamer.

Using Arky StAte as a common opponent barometer, there's nothing that indicates were aren't a superior talent in the remaining games. I wouldn't bet against the Mountaineers in late season play.

Let's go 1-0 this week!!

WASU 93 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 11:56 pm

2015 11-2, 7-1 Sun Belt
2016 10-3, 7-1
2017 9-4, 7-1
2018 11-2, 7-1
2019 13-1, 8-1
2020 5-1, 3-0

We lost 1 game to a good team down 18 players in a weird year.

I'm not sure why many don't have faith in this team. While it's certainly hard to repeat every year, we control our destiny with a group of players with a history of going 1-0 week after week after week.

We were down 18 players against Campbell, not Marshall. Pretty sure we basically had a full roster for that one, but you're right, we should still have faith in this team.

I read an news article, just don't remember which one, that we were down players at Marshall. The article didn't say how many though.

Williams and Pearson were out for Marshall. Pearson at TE may have had an impact.

I'd love to play Marshall again. I fully believe CCU is better than Marshall watching them both play a couple times.

My only ask is that we kick it out of the endzone every single kickoff so we don't get those giant momentum killers where they start on the 45 or better or get a return TD. And to answer your question, I would never give GASO a free win. Ever, ever ever ever.

D seems to be up to the task, they give up yards and plays but not as many points. Bend but don't break. There is not much rhythm on Offense, we have the talent but the plays are not there. As long as we keep putting the ball on the ground, and false-starts, this will stay the same. Those are mental, discipline mistakes, but they keep happening. At this point we are the only team that can beat us, but i dont see any signs of the current status changing. I hope i am wrong.

According to the stats (see pg 15), we had over 20 players out against Marshall including the already mentioned starters in Williams and Pearson. Several of the players missing have contributed this season like Haigler and Noel, while a couple players, McLeod and Wells, who were out have even started a game this season. The team also lost Virgil and Crosby to injury in the game against the Herd. Add on to the fact that Marshall had an extra week to prepare for App and you can see the deck was stacked against our guys heading into Huntington.

This is not to make excuses, Marshall played better and deserved to win. I'm merely trying to point out that we can't look at that game as a barometer once you take all those variables into consideration. CCU looks complete in all phases and the Cajuns offense can be a beast when it's clicking. Both CoastaLLLLLL and ULLLLLLL may end up beating App this season or next, hell they have to at some point right but the east and the Sun Belt still run through these mountains.

I'm glad to see our conference mates stepping their game up and happy for their individual success as well as the light they are helping to shine on the Sun Belt. However, let us remember, everyone else is trying to catch App, not the other way around.

https://appstatesports.com/documents/20 ... tats20.pdf

I will say this - (one caveat - without a major injury or a Covid outbreak) - APP will finish the regular season undefeated in the Conference - There is no team out there I see that has anywhere near the level of defense we have - with all our RBs healthy (hopefully), we get a lead and just pound the hell out of our opponents defense, our young WRs are coming along and we get Virgil back an keep Hennigan on the field, our OL are winners, the offense will score points -
Worse Case - we beat Coastal, then another loss won't hurt APP being in the Championship game.