The path to a conference win starts Saturday, Hope to be there to cheer the Clones on.
Find a Big 12 win
- Thread starter OscarBerkshire
- Start date
If we lose on Saturday this season could really spiral out of control. Would undo a lot of the work Campbell has done here very quickly.
The offense did enough to win Saturday. Remember that the kicking game left 9 points on the field in a 3 point loss. Against a team that was just a few votes outside the top 25 - a team that is a top 20 team this week.
SMH.
So let's say they made those 3 field goals. Now they have 20 points and probably win. I'd change my stance from going winless to winning one (KU) conference game. ISU would have scored 20 points against the worst defense in the Big 12. That won't cut it in this league.
They have lost two games by a combined 10 points. Get a grip.
Both OU and OSU have statistically worse defenses.
kicking game aside, the offense could've done a whole lot more....I don't see how you can defend 3 yard crossing routes, when we are at 3rd and 7
I don't see 3 more wins to be bowl eligible. Best bets for wins are probably WV and Oklahoma.
Defense is fine. Not as good maybe as last couple of years, but still very good.
Offense is bad. Dekkers does not protect the ball. Count on at least one interception each game. Manning seems to have no clue how to call a game. Seems to not take into account players' strong suits, or what defense is doing. Doesn't have Montgomery, Hall, Purdy, Lazar, Butler, Jones, Lanning and others to bail him out with his weak game plans and bewildering play-calling. Offensive line needs to open holes & protect qb. Again, the talent at the skill positions is not as good as in the past, so the fundamentals of blocking, assignments and such has to be better.
Tough to improve an offense mid-season (see Iowa) and not sure how you fix a kicker but maybe give someone else a shot? Special teams seem to have been a problem with. MC teams for 7 years now. If it is obvious to fans, why do the coaches not see it?
It's going to be a very long season if offense does not adjust & improve. Unfortunately, it's not just the players who need performance improvement but the offensive coaches as well (maybe more so).
Good news is, I doubt many schools will be pounding on MC's door to replace their fired coaches as this season progresses.
Defense is fine. Not as good maybe as last couple of years, but still very good.
Offense is bad. Dekkers does not protect the ball. Count on at least one interception each game. Manning seems to have no clue how to call a game. Seems to not take into account players' strong suits, or what defense is doing. Doesn't have Montgomery, Hall, Purdy, Lazar, Butler, Jones, Lanning and others to bail him out with his weak game plans and bewildering play-calling. Offensive line needs to open holes & protect qb. Again, the talent at the skill positions is not as good as in the past, so the fundamentals of blocking, assignments and such has to be better.
Tough to improve an offense mid-season (see Iowa) and not sure how you fix a kicker but maybe give someone else a shot? Special teams seem to have been a problem with. MC teams for 7 years now. If it is obvious to fans, why do the coaches not see it?
It's going to be a very long season if offense does not adjust & improve. Unfortunately, it's not just the players who need performance improvement but the offensive coaches as well (maybe more so).
Good news is, I doubt many schools will be pounding on MC's door to replace their fired coaches as this season progresses.
I think they'll play better going forward. Being humbled will lead to better focus and execution.
I hope I am wrong as well…I really do. I will gladly come back and eat crow if ISU wins. I hate it when ISU losses, especially to the Fighting Surly’s (don’t even get me started on the 2017 game).
I don’t bet against Iowa State as a matter of principle. Again, I hope I have a big dish of crow to eat Saturday night.
If they get beat this week, I 4-5 wins total is very possible but I can see them start to ascend at least in playing well as the season goes on.
Struggling to finish/close out wins may just be a thing that continues.
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I'd argue that digging in and getting the run game going makes the FGs a non-issue but yes, being more succinct there at least puts the game on ISU's defense.
What's missing in all of this is everyone automatically expecting a prior performance from a team like KU to carry over to the next game. At the same time, ISU's fan base expects drastic improvements when we get to October since they tend to look like two different teams.
Like what a crazy idea that a seasoned coach (Liepold) would adjust his defense around his personnel to find some things that work against a team that's limited offensively.
The only game I see it being particularly hard to win is the one in Stillwater. I'm not buying TCU yet but if they are actually for real that one will be tough too, on the road. And historically, the last game of the year is more often than not our a sub-par showing.
Yes and no. The defense may have technically done enough to get a win on Saturday - I can't say the offense did. Because while yes we missed three field goals -
the offense also failed to execute to the point of where we NEEDED field goals. If you are constantly kicking field goals instead of touch downs you're offense is not doing well. We have scored a combined 5 total touchdowns against 3 power 5 teams.
The defense carried us on Saturday, as it did against Iowa.
We are 104th nationally in yards per play - for comparison, Iowa is 108th.
We are 119th nationally in yards per completion.
94th in red zone offense.
111th in rushing offense.
84th in total offense.
I can't look at the offense and say they have done enough to win a game - I would say we have Baltimore Ravens' and 86 Bears it and we were in position to win despite our offense and special teams. Which is fine if that is the way we are going to play this year - so be it.
But I can't honestly look at anything regarding our offense at the moment - the scheme, play calling, or production and think that its going to be a major contributing factor to us winning games at the moment - Kansas' defense is BAD. Even with our game they are 79th in the nation in total defense. They weren't ranked or undefeated due to anything defensively where we rushed for under a yard, gave up 5 sacks and in general were a hot mess offensively.
We're 9th in total defense.
Yes, the kid missed three kicks. We also lost the turnover battle - and got two points due to a crappy snap that we turned into a good thing. One could make the argument that without Dekkers throwing a pick inside of our own 20 we win the game 11-7. That certainly wasn't on the kicker. Neither were perfect but the sad fact IMO right now is that the only unit pulling its weight right now is the defense. By a wide margin. Dekkers will get better, hopefully as will Jace.
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can we win big 12 games? Yep. But its not going to be by kicking field goals. We don't need to become the greatest offense ever but we are going to struggle to win games when you are constantly relying on a kicker to win the game for you.
There is some kind of issue right now either execution wise, schematically or play calling or all of the above on offense and its not just inexperience and injuries. Yes, that obviously plays a role. Its impossible to ignore that - but there is something else too.
oh no we've lost two one-score games against teams that are ranked, we will never ever be competitive again
TLDR
But you are right on all this. This defense is good enough to win any game, just need special teams and offense to not be absolutely horrible. Not great- just don't give the ball away and find a way to get mid-20s points... They can only afford to make 3 big mistakes on ST and offense, defense can handle that many, but not more.
