The kicker's leg strength and accuracy is a vital piece of information to know before hand. And our field goal should have been the fallback plan not the main plan. However, truthfully... maybe they were trying to get a TD. If so it never looked like it. There are safe plays and safety type plays. In the end we are still talking about the youngest team in the SEC. And considering the stage they played on... they played better than I expected.
Agreed, Tilly, but it's the run calls themselves that were called that changed. It went from aggressive spread option handoffs that involved Max being a threat to just plain conservative handoffs from the backfield. The huge gashing runs that Max and ETN had on the last TD drive and the final drive down into the red zone went away to obviously set up a FG. I for sure didn't want us to pass, but still be aggressive running the ball and Napier called off the dogs. That's what I saw at least.
Settling for a fg *attempt* with. 1:30 left and the other team having a veteran QB and a solid long distance kicker was questionable at best. Add in the fact that our kicker had missed a game winning fg vs Ark and it makes even less sense. The FG was hardly automatic. . I'm just glad that Smack made the kick. Good confidence builder for him at least.
It's not fair to pin everything on one play, but our Redshirt Junior LB was the person that was out of position on the most important play of the game. The youth excuse has been beat to death even when not applicable.
I don't think "every team" plays the number of young players we're playing. But youth is just part of it. We're young at S. We lack talent in other spots like LB.
We are talking about percentages here and a feel for the game. The defense was hanging on by a thread. Running into a stacked box isn’t a high percentage play. Doing a play action rollout with a mobile QB has a much better chance of success than the plays that were ran. This should have been all about what play calling would give the best chance of getting a first down. Instead, Napier was playing for a FG with 2 minutes left on the clock and the opponent with all 3 TOs. If we had a better defense, then that may be a winning play style. However, our defense isn’t at that point, and we are back to the same complaint about Napier that has been there the past two years, that he coaches way too conservatively and it has cost this team wins.
That last red-zone drive. I felt good up until the end. But I was still happy we made the field goal.
It just blows me away throwing out excuses when we are 1-9 away from home in the last 10 games and that game needed all the luck in the world against South Carolina to win. Thats not just a young team...its a team needing major changes. Guys may be giving it their all but damn...1-9.
Why is there this assumption that he has to pass the ball? He was hurting them with his legs. He was 4/5 on his passes. Brown can actually threaten the defense with that roll-out in ways Mertz cannot. Give him that run/pass option, instead of the handoff into the loaded box.
I’d like to re-watch the series. I was so nervous at the time, so my memory may be off… but o think Travis stepping out of bounds proved a killer. I believe it was on that stretched handoff that pushed him off the designed play… so maybe not his fault. But man… a clock stoppage there is brutal.
With Brown at QB, call a good play that has a chance but don’t call a play thinking he’s Joe Montana. Do NOT go backwards or call some goofy play that could result in a TO. Of course, kick the FG on 4th. I think most angry posters on here tonight think he should have foregone the 4th down FG to try to score a TD.
There is no way anyone is making this argument. Pass up a fg to take the lead with 1:45 remaining?? That is an actual suggestion being made?
The three run calls on the last series are defensible given the situation. But it was scared money, the defense is so bad giving Mizzou 1:30 and only needing a FG to win was not a great situation. If they called a pass play on 3rd down that was incomplete, I would have defended the call. The difference between Mizzou having 1:30 with 0 or 1 timeouts to me is not very significant. But I agree with you that others would kill Napier for the call at that point. That being said, if he was calling an outside run on 3rd down (After a Mizzou timeout), he HAS to tell Etienne during the timeout the last thing you do on the play is fumble or go out of bounds. And yet Etienne ran casually out of bounds, because the team just doesn't have great game awareness.
