The final 3 games

[Paul C]

I’m gonna say we finish 3-0 and go into the offseason with some confidence. Crazy you say?

Data driven, I say. (That was for my friend gf)

We have an O that is helpless when we can’t run the ball. When we CAN run the ball, we win. We score points, we possesses the ball and our D rests.

Looking at the SoCon stats this morning, it was clear to me….

Chattanooga leads the league in rush D, and ETSU and Mercer are 2 and 3. (We are 4th)

We’ve notched wins over Citadel (5th) and Wofford (6th) best run Ds.

Our final 3 are against Western (8th), Samford (7th) and VMI (9th).

I expect to see us establish the run, throw off play action, score points and our D, given that they’ll have some time to rest as we should avoid repetitive 3 and outs, will play decent ball as they have all year.

Trust the data.

[apaladin]

Sounds very possible. The unknown factor is the mindset of the team after CCH quit on Saturday. Will they play hard and give great eftort or have a what the heck attitude. It will be cool in the whee Saturday so CCH will be wanting to get out if there asap. The other factor is all 3 gave really good offenses so we are going to gave to score more than 20 points. WCU scored 17 on UTC we scored 3, WCU scored 24 on Mercer we scored 3.

[DeepPurple]

We got whipped Saturday. The better team won. CCH did not quit on Saturday. FU played Chatt a tough game on Saturday. Chatt is the best team in the league. We are not.

[Furmanoid]

Maybe we didn’t quit, but we chose not to compete with about 3 min left. That’s unusual. It was realistic, but nobody does that.

Anyway I’m not sure we want results in the last 3 games that send us to off-season with CONFIDENCE in this offense. If that happens, nothing changes.

[Paul C]

Interested to see how the team responds to the final 3 weeks. I expect to see us continue to work on developing our youth and the reps that Jace will get are critical to his development.

I know Clay well enough to know there isn’t an ounce of quit in him. The decision to punt w 5 min to go may have a logical basis, but as a leader he has to make sure the kids don’t see it as a reason to give up.

[Paul C]

One more thing on this topic.

We are 0-4 when rushing for <100 yds
We are 4-0 when rushing for >100 yds

[apaladin]

I have no idea but when is the last time FU has had 4 games with under 100 yds rushing?

[Paul C]

I’d speculate in the latter parts of the CBF era.

[The Jackal]

Maybe we didn’t quit, but we chose not to compete with about 3 min left. That’s unusual. It was realistic, but nobody does that.

Anyway I’m not sure we want results in the last 3 games that send us to off-season with CONFIDENCE in this offense. If that happens, nothing changes.

Hendrix addressed that.

He didn't want to get players injured in a game we had very little chance of winning against a defense knowing we were going to throw.

[FU3]

Sort of makes sense if you avoid the fact that we got our stud RB dinged up in the final few minutes at Wofford up by 3 TD’s.Guess lesson learned, but that just wasn’t a great look for this program. What about taking some shots down the field with your back ups ?

[Sir William]

No doubt, this has been a rough season following a rough spring. If truth be told for most here, our expectations skyrocketed after CCH’s first 2-3 seasons, and none of us expected to be where we are at the moment. It’s painful to say the least. That said…

Nothing wrong with expressing frustration over the play-calling, the lack of O, etc, etc, etc. It’s appropriate here and certainly one of the benefits of having a message board. But when you say our coach is a quitter, that crosses a line. It gets personal; you’re now not only questioning his play-calling and coaching ability, but you’re also questioning his personal character. And it proves you don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about.

Express your frustration, but show some class and intelligence.

[Furmanoid]

Maybe we didn’t quit, but we chose not to compete with about 3 min left. That’s unusual. It was realistic, but nobody does that.

Anyway I’m not sure we want results in the last 3 games that send us to off-season with CONFIDENCE in this offense. If that happens, nothing changes.

Hendrix addressed that.

He didn't want to get players injured in a game we had very little chance of winning against a defense knowing we were going to throw.

OK, but have you ever seen anybody do that before? No, you use your timeouts and get the ball back. Odds are they will opt out of their good D and start “keeping everything in front of them”. That means any QB you’ve got will look like Tom Brady for the first few downs. They’ll give you 10-15 yds per catch. So you put in the walkon from FL, let him complete 4 wide open passes to scrub receivers and now you can go ahead and get the 3 you need or try to make a couple of contested plays for a TD. Then it all comes down to the onside kick. Nobody just stops playing with that much time left down by 10. In CH’s defense, his offense is so generationally bad, that further resistance was probably futile. But usually you don’t let your team know that you think they’re hopeless.

[apaladin]

Furmanoid is correct, no team gives up down 10 with 5 minutes to play. If we were down 25 ok, maybe. We had a chance, not a good one but a chance. Remember VPI 2 years ago? We were down 10, scored with under 2 mins to go and recovered the onside kick and had a chance until the refs made up a call and took it away If you are worried about injuries why play the next 3 games? They mean nothing. No way anyone can defend giving up down 10 with 5 to go. No team in the country does that especially when their season is on the line. Yogi Berra said it ain’t over til it’s over but in this case it was.

[cavedweller2]

Furmanoid is correct, no team gives up down 10 with 5 minutes to play. If we were down 25 ok, maybe. We had a chance, not a good one but a chance. Remember VPI 2 years ago? We were down 10, scored with under 2 mins to go and recovered the onside kick and had a chance until the refs made up a call and took it away If you are worried about injuries why play the next 3 games? They mean nothing. No way anyone can defend giving up down 10 with 5 to go. No team in the country does that especially when their season is on the line. Yogi Berra said it ain’t over til it’s over but in this case it was.

Yogi Berra was talking about baseball.

[FUBeAR]

Furmanoid is correct, no team gives up down 10 with 5 minutes to play. If we were down 25 ok, maybe. We had a chance, not a good one but a chance. Remember VPI 2 years ago? We were down 10, scored with under 2 mins to go and recovered the onside kick and had a chance until the refs made up a call and took it away If you are worried about injuries why play the next 3 games? They mean nothing. No way anyone can defend giving up down 10 with 5 to go. No team in the country does that especially when their season is on the line. Yogi Berra said it ain’t over til it’s over but in this case it was.

Yogi Berra was talking about baseball.

…or stealing pic-a-nic baskets.