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After about half an hour to breathe, I'm in an ok place. I hate the fact that we lost but we learned a lot about this team today. Before we get any further let's talk about some truths:
- The SC win was fool's gold
- We are a year or two away from being a playoff contender
- We have a lot of young, unreliable talent.
So with that being said, let's talk about how today went.
Offense
I think we now see why the QB race was so close. Kenny made some good throws and he made some bad throws and that's the problem. He's pretty inconsistent which means that our offense is inconsistent. Right now this team is built to outscore folks and when our offense isn't clicking on all cylinders we aren't going to be able to do that. Kenny will throw a dart one minute and wobbly duck the next.
What can anyone say about the WRs today? 12-ish drops? That's not supposed to be how a David Beaty-coached roster works. The drops were inexplicable. The balls thrown weren't perfect but today none of our WRs (except for Speedy) made a tough catch. Our WRs played soft today.
But Speedy tho. Daaaaaaaaamn.
I'm as confused as the rest of you on how we rotate our backs. Why do we throw to the perimeter with Tra Carson then run up the gut with Williams? Why isn't it the other way around? And where the hell was Trey Williams all game long? We have so much talent at that spot and we are misusing the hell out of it.
Our OL had challenges today. Not sure if it was because we shifted around the lineup a bit by putting Harrison back in but they didn't have a consistent day. Also the high snaps by Mike Matthews have to be addressed. Those high snaps disrupt timing and neuter the play from the start.
Overall it felt like we stubbornly tried to play the same game all game long. We never made adjustments and basically thought that we could play our game and win.
Defense
Despite giving up 40+ points I'm not all that angry at our defense. They got stops. Our offense didn't help them out by scoring consistently when those stops happened. That's frustrating and we are not a good enough defensive team to hold a Dak Prescott offense to fewer than 30 points.
DL I thought had a good game. Myles Garrett did Myles Garrett things and everyone across the board played fairly well.
LBs are where our DL was last year. We need more bodies to figure out what we have. Can't count the number of times that they either got lost in the wash or didn't make an open field tackle. I'm not asking for our LBs to be a strength but I am asking for them not to be a weakness.
I have no no idea what to make of our secondary. Help me y'all. No idea.
Overall
I mean...what can you say? We got our ass kicked. We got out-schemed, out-executed, and out-coached. Hats off to Dak and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. They deserved this win.
BTHO ole miss.