By far best performance since UT. Heart of the team is unquestionable. How BN leaves it in the hands of the D, I just don't understand. Everyone knew we needed to get a first down at least, if not get into the endzone, except our head coach. I hate prevent D, but our prevent O is even worse.
I didnt love the play calling at the end, but I think that fumbled snap was in the back of Napiers mind. They almost fumbled the third down run, and ETN just can't go out of bounds right there. I think letting brown run zone read instead of the straight hand offs would have possibly yielded 1 more first down. Dline didn't get close to cook on the last drive neither 3rd downs or the big 4th down play. Defense played fine in moments, but overall it's going to get overshadowed by the final drive and score. Before the game I felt like the FSU game was more winnable than this one, I honestly thought we would lose big tonight. Team fought hard, they just have to learn how to finish
In some ways getting this close to a win then losing on the last play hurts more than getting beat by 14 points.
Heartbreaking loss. The kids played their hearts out and should have won the game. Little things cost them all night, but ultimately, I honestly think our coaching staff isn't up to the challenge.
This... Unfortunately, it was probably what made the difference in the end. Gave them a free TO or a free 40 seconds, both of which they needed to win. Painful way to lose.
On 4 and 17, the offense has to throw it close to the first down so they don't risk coming up short. So you have a window to cover 14 to 20 yards from scrimmage. With a 4 man rush, you have 7 guys to cover that 6 yard zone. You put 4 along the front of the zone and three along the back. Anyone comes near, you get on him. High school stuff
Max gets an easy 1st down if he keeps the ball on 2nd down. There's just so much that could go wrong trying to throw the ball in that situation with a true freshman QB.
Those backups put us in a position to win the game. They drove the length of the field to score a TD the previous drive. Napier took the air out of the ball trying to run clock with 2 minutes left. He played not to lose. The play calling once we hit FG range was vintage Addazio. Dive, dive, dive.
Then do what was working, run Max at least once instead of handing it off, which BTW, has a higher chance of fumbling the exchange. The way he was running, Mizzou had no answer.
That last turnover hurt us badly... How on Earth do we call that kind of play instead of a straight handoff up the middle.
I can’t stand watching them looking around when the ball is being snapped. Some of them aren’t even set. All season.
Man O Man. Hurts but Billy has the team still believing and fighting to the end. 2 turnovers to 0 was the difference with one in FG range. Prayers out for Mertz!!! FSU next!!!
