Jacques Strap said:
MidWestBear2010 said:
Sounds like Rhule thinks the shots down the field would hurt us more than the short yardage plays. But that's only true if they can make that play. Why not make Liberty prove they can complete the shots down the field? Instead we gave them a free 5 to 8 yards every pass play which resulted in a ton of third down conversions. How about forcing them take a bigger risk down field, this is liberty, how good could their deep ball have been? I could see that justification if we were playing Tech or Ok state but it was Liberty... You have to make adjustments based on who you're playing.
He is the coach so we have to believe he knows the limits of his players. If we are worried about Liberty beating us over the top then this will be a season long issue. Perhaps we should prepare ourselves for DBs off the ball all season long and hope for drops or penalties to kill the other teams drives.
We are going to have different DBs as the season goes along, and the ones that played in the first game will improve as well.
The team looked tentative and slow on Saturday, particularly on defense. Some have argued that this was because they practiced too hard. I doubt it. They are 18-22 year olds and they have fast recovery times. I suspect that they are having to think too much as they are all learning a new system, and sometimes getting it wrong. Repetition, in practice and in games, will make them better and allow them to play the game without thinking. They are going to get much, much better.
I also suspect that there may have been a little bit of over confidence on the part to the team as a whole because it was Liberty, who had a 2.2 percent chance of winning. Overconfidence can cause people to subconsciously sit around waiting for something good to happen instead of having a sense of urgency and making something good happen.
Those who claim that the cupboard is bare on defense are simply making meaningless excuses. The cupboard is not bare, the team will get better as the season goes along. We'll be fine.