I hate to say it, but . . .

[Apptiger]

We pretty much suck everywhere except punting

[Black Saturday]

We pretty much suck everywhere except punting

Remind you of the Ain't Working days?

[MountainMan]

People pouring out of the rock at the half as usual. The weather is a problem they probably need to get on the road before dark.

I was one of them. Actually left a minute BEFORE the half, and was glad that I didn't get caught in the big rush that followed. Was not worried about weather or anything else, other than concerned about the stink that was rising from the field at Kidd-Brewer.

App looked like sh!# in the first half. I'm not going to call out QB, RBs, Coach, AD or any individual -- I don't know what the real problem is -- but this team looks like a VERY average, or worse, team. Injuries, new systems, new players.... I don't know; but I do know this team has not given us anything to be excited about yet.

And, don't talk about how we "almost" pulled it out at the end. Any respectable App team would have not needed to "pull it out".

[Apptiger]

We pretty much suck everywhere except punting

Remind you of the Ain't Working days?

Yes, Thanks for bringing that up. I need to go throw up now!

[goapps93]

Reminds me of '93. We'll improve.

I hope Price is satisfied. It's not all on him but he is a game changer that would have made a big difference in both games.

Price is a threat, but he'll need a QB that has enough time and a QB that can get him the ball.

t
True, but he is enough of a threat that he changes the way teams cover and what they do up front. That helps the line and opens up other receivers. Kam should be given the QB job and allowed to prepare as the starter. That will change a lot things.

[Gonzo]

We pretty much suck everywhere except punting

Defense did fine.

[AppAttack]

Only one TD given up. Who throws a 60-yd pick six with 4 secs left in the half? And we have the KO problems again. Missed FG. Embarrassing disaster tonight. Gotta put Kam in sooner. This is scary with a move-up looming. We have a LOT of work to do in the next 355 days. Wow.

[firemoose]

We pretty much suck everywhere except punting

Defense did fine.

Yes they did. Only scores on the D were both short field (1 TD & 1 FG). Even the best D can't keep the quality of play up when we get killed in the TOP.

Their punter should be the MVP of the game. How many times did we start drives from our 5 or under?

[Appersrule]

whats a shame is the sellout crowd, and the huge support from students, probably 10 thousand students, lose this game, you will not see that crowd again this year....SWITCH @##$$## qbs!!

That crowd was pathetic, not anywhere close to a sell out. Tons of students there for the party, not so much for the football. Most left when they sobered up at the half. 25,000 announced, Maybe 12,000 after the half.

[Apptiger]

We pretty much suck everywhere except punting

Defense did fine.

Going back over the game, they did. Only gave up one TD. Offense and special teams took care of the rest.
I'd take allowing only one TD every game out of the D in a heartbeat.

[MountainMan]

That crowd was pathetic, not anywhere close to a sell out. Tons of students there for the party, not so much for the football. Most left when they sobered up at the half. 25,000 announced, Maybe 12,000 after the half.

The team was the part that was pathetic.

Tons of students and others are ALWAYS there for the party, or the social aspect of it all. If we only allowed in customers that were there to seriously watch football, we better get used to crowds of about 8,000.

You're right about most of them leaving when they sobered up. While intoxicated they could be duped into thinking they were watching a football game. When they sobered up, they realized it was just a sham.

[fjblair]

Get use to it. Fans are tired of going to games and watching the team SUCK. They will leave early and eventually stop showing up. You don't have to win to keep fas interest but you need to play well, look prepared and don't embarrass the school.

[Gonzo]

whats a shame is the sellout crowd, and the huge support from students, probably 10 thousand students, lose this game, you will not see that crowd again this year....SWITCH @##$$## qbs!!

That crowd was pathetic, not anywhere close to a sell out. Tons of students there for the party, not so much for the football. Most left when they sobered up at the half. 25,000 announced, Maybe 12,000 after the half.

What game did you go to? There were >20k through much of the third quarter.

[GreatAppSt]

IMHO very humble that is. I believe the Defense looked fairly good and played well considering the length of time they spent on the field starting after our first O possession. I'm looking for the clamps to be put on the Elonians in two weeks.

Special teams is the most responsible area for costing us this game. It really eludes me as to why Appalachian State University's Football program can not figure out how to consistently cover KO plays. I would lay a wager that ASU has given up more KO returns for TD's than any other division one team over the last 15 years time, any takers? (punt cover isn't much better) The days of playing players not good enough for the first team, on the special teams just so they can have some playing time needs to end.
The best players need to be on the field at all times, that includes for the rest of this season on punt protection. From now on you can bet you sweet patoot that every team we play will be going for a punt block every time, as we will now be perceived as very weak in this area and that perception is deserved.


Poor QB play kept A&T in it for the first half (JJ's fixation with Washington continued over from the UM game)but the adjustment was made. A little late for me, But that's just this one fans opinion.

Honestly I can see Satt letting JJ have the whole half allowing his senior Payton award nominee a FAIR chance to find himself/prove he could or could not get it done, so that JJ would not ever be able to surmise he had been benched ad-hoc. He was treated with the respect he has earned in the past on the field and given every opportunity to right the ship, I'll not fault the coach for that. There is no need to discard JJ to the trash heap with a pre-mature benching, back to the drawing board for awhile now, sure, and rightly so. But let's keep in mind we may very well need him again at a moments notice, and he could come back as strong as ever or better with more time to heal.

Up until four seconds before the half we were only down 1 point, a deficit Satt probably thought the O with Kam could cover in the second half if need be. Remember the D held A&T to Zero points on Offense the whole first half. And again without a special teams gaffe (punt block ) I think the D would have held A&T to just three pints in the second half.

The coaches must let Washington take a ball off a hop if he can't get under it on the fly, too many times this has been the case at UM and again last night. There have been many times when he has been in the clear and could have taken a ball after a hop but hasn't, and that is clearly a coaching instruction and it is costing us dearly in FP. A&T's punter is as much to blame for our offensive woes as anything. That kid deserves the game ball and my hat's off to him, dangnabit .

I have a few other issues:
Our seeming inability to keep opponents from converting third down plays for 1st downs when we have them in third and long, longer, and longest situations. I've gone so far as not getting to my feet on third and 8's or longer and that's sad.
I miss runners like Neil Cornatzer, etc etc at ASU.
Late in the 3rd Qtr. we went for it on 4th down around mid field I didn't like it one bit we could have finally flipped the field with a punt. Going for it did keep with the always attack philosophy, but not flipping the field I'll argue almost guaranteed we would start our next drive deep again, and we did. IMO this was one of the most key decisions of the game.

In summation of this season I'll say this. Our young team ran into a buzz saw at UM and faced a team with 19 returning starters (that our senior laden team only beat by 8 at home on a final drive INT last year) with a chip on their shoulder for a win at their most in-hospitable in the FCS house. Yet we were in it until ten minutes left in the game before the D finally lost wind.

Last night we couldn't catch a break, we did recover one of 2 onside kicks And I believe if we had another 30 seconds to play we would have come away with a W. I think it's all close to coming together very nicely. Again IMO Have I seen areas of concern? Yes. Have I seen areas of irritatingly, frustratingly, stomp my feet and get red faced moan and sulk continued concern? Yes. Have I seen evidentiary play that makes me feel this season is a wash? No I haven't. All things I have seen are fixable for this season and I fully believe Elon, GSU and the rest of the forlorn SoCon are in for a real kick in the teeth. Have I lost hope in the 2013 ASU team? No. To the contrary I'm extremely optimistic that the football team is about to Give 'em Hell the rest of the season.

Then again my wife says I am always the optimist and I never give up, that was the impression I finally at long last came away with during the last five minutes of play. It was a beautiful sight to behold from the stands under the lights in the shadow of the Knob. In the end I may not have liked the result and that it didn't work out for us, but I can't think of any other place I would rather have been at the time than right there with my Apps.

I want to thank those of you who were still standing there with me . Go App!

GAS

[GreatAppSt]

That crowd was pathetic, not anywhere close to a sell out. Tons of students there for the party, not so much for the football. Most left when they sobered up at the half. 25,000 announced, Maybe 12,000 after the half.

Learn to Count.

[WilkesCtyWildMan]

If you think it's bad now wait until App has it's first losing season. The kids haven't got much to play for; no rings or championships which is part of the heritage of being a Mountaineer player. Recruiting and fan following are bound to suffer (probably already have). Sun Belt is going to be a tough sell to get fans to buy plane tickets to most of the away games and that hurts the massive tradition ASU has worked so hard to build (it's hasn't been lonely for a long time being a traveling ASU fan). Where's the money to support the program going to come from once the fans get throw in the towel?

So where do we go from here? Who knows...Charlie must have had a plan. He worked so hard to sell ASU into FBS so we could go from being the big fish in a small sea to a piece of chum floating along the bottom of the big FBS ocean. Wonder where ole Charlie plans to be in five years? Following the money no doubt!

I'll still be in the stands a little lonely and a lot more sad dreaming of the days when ASU meant more than just showing up...We came to PLAY!!! We came to WIN!!!

[huskie3]

I have the solution to giving up KO returns, kick it out of the end zone every time! Our kicker has the leg.

[App91]

No mention of the O-line? 31 rushes 67 yards...against a smaller less talented line, Kidding right. Our o-line is terrible. Not something that coaching can fix. Armanti or Richie couldn't operate behind these guys.

[Maddog1956]

The coaches must let Washington take a ball off a hop if he can't get under it on the fly, too many times this has been the case at UM and again last night. There have been many times when he has been in the clear and could have taken a ball after a hop but hasn't, and that is clearly a coaching instruction and it is costing us dearly in FP. A&T's punter is as much to blame for our offensive woes as anything. That kid deserves the game ball and my hat's off to him, dangnabit .

This was my problem with the team all night. Yeah we got some bad bounces but that is what going to happen if you decide you're not going to even try to return a kick. Washington was no where around the ball as I'm sure he was trained not to let it hit him. We had to start so deep every series and with a offense that is having problems this is just a killer. Plus you take any possibility of a return away. That's ugly, just ugly playing.

[DaphneUrquhart]

Last night we couldn't catch a break, we did recover one of 2 onside kicks And I believe if we had another 30 seconds to play we would have come away with a W. I think it's all close to coming together very nicely. Again IMO Have I seen areas of concern? Yes. Have I seen areas of irritatingly, frustratingly, stomp my feet and get red faced moan and sulk continued concern? Yes. Have I seen evidentiary play that makes me feel this season is a wash? No I haven't. All things I have seen are fixable for this season and I fully believe Elon, GSU and the rest of the forlorn SoCon are in for a real kick in the teeth. Have I lost hope in the 2013 ASU team? No. To the contrary I'm extremely optimistic that the football team is about to Give 'em Hell the rest of the season.

Then again my wife says I am always the optimist and I never give up, that was the impression I finally at long last came away with during the last five minutes of play. It was a beautiful sight to behold from the stands under the lights in the shadow of the Knob. In the end I may not have liked the result and that it didn't work out for us, but I can't think of any other place I would rather have been at the time than right there with my Apps.

I want to thank those of you who were still standing there with me . Go App!

GAS

I, too, have concerns about special teams. I will refrain, with some effort, from comment on particular personnel decisions in certain situations.

That said, I will readily admit that I do not have the same insights the coaches have on day to day player development, nor do I know which players are dealing with which tough off-field issues or nagging minor injuries. Those are simply not my role in the Mountaineer family.

My role is to support the student-athletes who play to 0:00 every game. For those who don't believe our guys played to the very end, please replay the last two minutes of yesterday's game. My role is to honor those who work the full-time job that is college football while they somehow manage to get to class, write papers, and do all the things a regular student does.

I was there until 0:00 last night just as I was at Michigan, VaTech, all the national championships, and The Citadel game last year. Many of you were there as well. Some of those games were more fun than others

Being a fan is a volunteer job for sure. When the going gets tough, some will choose to volunteer elsewhere. I'll continue to stand to the end with those who welcomed me so warmly to the Mountaineer family not too long ago- whether the bitter end or not. It's an honor to stand with you in support of some mighty fine student-athletes.