The Morning After...

So sometimes you wake up the next morning feeling better about a tough loss...

not so much today.

I watched Coach's presser and looked through some of the stuff from the game.

Here's what I am thinking.  Through the year, and especially over the past 4 weeks, I thought we were making at least marginal improvement on the defensive side of the ball.  The offense was clearly struggling badly, but I believed, in general, that our team was moving in the right direction.

I guess after last night, the needle is moving move into the middle ranges of the dial.  When I listened to Coach, I just came to the realization that based on the performance last night, we haven't improved very much.  Coach said that we have struggled all season to tackle good players in the secondary, and that was clearly an issue out there last night.  The secondary was also torched for 3 long pass plays, and the Coach said that one of our goals was to keep everything in front of us.

Similarly, on the Eric Page pass play, he said that the player on the edge had one assignment and that was to turn his eyes to the widest WR.  Instead, he ran the alley, which I assume means he ran up to try and cover the run.  As Coach said, if we run our scheme the way we are supposed to, we are fine on that play.  And you'd like to think in your 11th game you'd be ironing that stuff out.

The first quarter was about as bad as it can get.  Any relief or positive feelings at the end of the game were primarily based on the fact that it looked like it could be 63-0 based on the first quarter, and at least it didn't get any worse from there on in.  But, you can't get by the fact that in a big game, UT came out a torched us on 3 long TD plays and the offense did absolutely nothing and even fumbled once (making it possibly less than nothing.)

We didn't have a first down in the first quarter.

I know that buried inside that 2-9 records are some close losses.  Buried inside that is that we were close in some games in which we were badly outplayed.  It has been an entertaining season this year (as 2-win seasons go), but when you look at the youth of the team, you'd really hope to see the effort get better as the season goes along.  From the standpoint of last night, it is hard to say that it has.  And that makes me worry as we look ahead.

The offensive line was dominated out there.  I do understand that we are horribly strapped on the o-line and that the cupboard in this respect is incredibly bare.  (Whereas the defense was healthy and at full force).  I think those guys are giving everything they have, they're just over-matched.  Schilz was under constant pressure and the running game was generally ineffective.  Offensive football starts up front, and we had no chance from the beginning.

I know that many people are concerned about our QB.  A few points.  I know he's a first year starter, and that brings with it some issues.  He is certainly laboring under difficult circumstances.  He has no running support and is under constant pressure.

I don't think anyone has any real idea how good he is or can be from this year.

As an example, look at Terrance Owens, who is not just a first year starter, but only starting his second or third game. With a running game and a strong offensive line, he was very effective last night.  I think if they switched places, you'd see Schilz thriving and Owens struggling.

The offensive line is a real concern, and it extends past this year, I believe.  I'm going to look at that in another post, but that's not for now.

I know that this was always set up to be a tough year, and I certainly haven't lost hope that we are building in the right direction.  It is disconcerting to feel stuck in the same place as the beginning of the season.