Topic: The sky isn?t falling...

[herdfan129]

Everyone needs to chill. Does this loss hurt? Yes it does, but ECU caught EVERY single break down the stretch. The fumble by Gammage and the missed FG and we win this game pretty big to be honest.

Now is when we will find out what Huff and this staff is all about. How do we respond on Thursday? Rome wasn?t built in a day. We are miles ahead of where we were with Doc as coach and we are only going in to game 4.

I said at the beginning I wasn?t going to make any assessments on this staff until we have played all of our OOC games, and I?m still in that boat. Let?s hope we try a new kicker and clean up some sloppy play on offense. Do that and I will be confident going in to CUSA play regardless of the App St outcome.

[whf]

Cucci didn't do too bad last year, Huff said he chose Sanders because he has "pop" in the ball; and you can hear it. Unfortunately the No Pop Cucci was scoring points.  Maybe we should return to less "pop" and more accuracy.

[goherd24]

Everyone needs to chill. Does this loss hurt? Yes it does, but ECU caught EVERY single break down the stretch. The fumble by Gammage and the missed FG and we win this game pretty big to be honest.

Now is when we will find out what Huff and this staff is all about. How do we respond on Thursday? Rome wasn?t built in a day. We are miles ahead of where we were with Doc as coach and we are only going in to game 4.

I said at the beginning I wasn?t going to make any assessments on this staff until we have played all of our OOC games, and I?m still in that boat. Let?s hope we try a new kicker and clean up some sloppy play on offense. Do that and I will be confident going in to CUSA play regardless of the App St outcome.

Unless we find a way to completely turn this team around and solve all the ball security and execution issues in 4 days, buckle up for a beat down Thursday

[herdfan129]

Unless we find a way to completely turn this team around and solve all the ball security and execution issues in 4 days, buckle up for a beat down Thursday

Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes it takes a heartbreaking loss to wake the players up. Let?s hope this woke them up.

[coalherd]

What's App State's strengths offensively?  What are their tendencies?  All we know now is that we looked pretty good against Navy a team with a bad junior high passing attack and against a so so, ho hum FCS program.  Against ECU we showed that against a stronger FBS foe we had little pass rush from our D line; so so play from linebackers who don't defend against the pass very well; and the same-o, same-o play from our defensive backs that we had under Doc:  play too far off the receivers, often slow to react and close on a receiver after a catch, and almost NEVER, NEVER try to locate and make a play on the ball BEFORE being caught by the receiver instead of waiting till it is caught and then trying to tackle the receiver!

[goherd24]

What's App State's strengths offensively?  What are their tendencies?  All we know now is that we looked pretty good against Navy a team with a bad junior high passing attack and against a so so, ho hum FCS program.  Against ECU we showed that against a stronger FBS foe we had little pass rush from our D line; so so play from linebackers who don't defend against the pass very well; and the same-o, same-o play from our defensive backs that we had under Doc:  play too far off the receivers, often slow to react and close on a receiver after a catch, and almost NEVER, NEVER try to locate and make a play on the ball BEFORE being caught by the receiver instead of waiting till it is caught and then trying to tackle the receiver!

Their QB is mediocre. Their defense is really strong, and their run game is good.

[MUther]

ECU was never on the list of teams we should lose to this year, even if we'd kept Doc, which I definitely did not want to do.  If we'd lost to Appy next week and did it with effort and they were better I'm fine with that.  But the way we lost to ECU was soulbreaking.  We pushed them around at will just like the others and then we stopped.  And then we made mistakes.  And then we compounded those mistakes with bad plays on both sides of the ball and special teams.  It's one thing to get beat by a better team.  It's another to lose to a fecking awful team because you can't do anything right to stop them.  That was demoralizing horesdung.   

The only good thing about yesterday was he did it in week 3 instead of week 8 so I've got my Saturdays freed up for the rest of the fall.  That guy blows.  And he admitted that he let his team choose how they were going to practice.  We see where that gets them.  There is nothing else to play for that means a bit of difference this year.  Oh yeah and I'm sure the AAC front office was watching that and laughing their ass off, too.  ECU has been their whipping post for years and we couldn't beat them at home up 17 points with 7 minutes left. 

If we spotted any FBS team in America 17 points and told ECU they had 7 minutes of clock to beat them, the other team would have just burnt 7 minutes off the clock or died trying.  We take drive killing, overthrown shots at the endzone and give them the ball back while our starting RB was getting 9 yards per carry the series before that slide.  It was as bad as it could have been.

There are no excuses and no redemption.  It was a short ride.  He can count me in as off his wagon.  The good news is who cares what conference we're in when we play like that.  It makes no difference. 

[herdinphilly]

There are no excuses and no redemption.  It was a short ride.  He can count me in as off his wagon.

Yeah that is about as short of a ride as it can get. But I am sure that you reserve the right to jump back on if they beat Appy. That?s weak.

[muherd34]

Yeah that is about as short of a ride as it can get. But I am sure that you reserve the right to jump back on if they beat Appy. That?s weak.

He is a fan, he has the right to jump on and off as he sees fit.  Let's be honest, Huff talks the talk but hasn't walked the walk. I support Huff, just don't see a reason to jump on Herd fans because they are sick of sh#t losses. JMO.

[svherd]

Cucci didn't do too bad last year, Huff said he chose Sanders because he has "pop" in the ball; and you can hear it. Unfortunately the No Pop Cucci was scoring points.  Maybe we should return to less "pop" and more accuracy.

Cucci couldn't hit from 40 plus. The new kid had a touch back on every KO, no our of bounds, none to the 10 for a return. To be honest, we shouldn't have needed an FG to win this game. If the secondary could cover someone and look for the ball, we'd have won. They played terrible.

[GreenWhite]

I agree with the OP. The sky isn't falling just yet. But, we are seeing those bad habits from last year still being a problem this year. Wells throwing into double and triple coverage and a defense that cannot defend the pass. The missed field goal I can take as long as it doesn't become a consistent problem. It happened yesterday in the NFL. What I can't stand is not protecting the ball. The Gammage fumble hurt way more than the missed field goal. Take care of the ball and we are looking at seven points and even a bigger lead. Instead, we let them hang around. Taking care of the football has to be the number one emphasis for our offense in the short practice week. If Wells continues to put us in bad position by throwing into double and triple teams, then he needs benched. I am hoping for a win Thursday night. I'm just not sure that it is going to happen. Nevertheless, I will be watching the game.

[herdfan129]

I agree. Gammage fumble was the major turning point. ECU was ready to quit and that gave them life. The sad part is, Gammage has carried the ball like that all year, but it hasn't been corrected. I really hope this becomes a point of emphasis moving forward.

We have a good running game, and our defense plays aggressive which I love. We just need to take care of the ball on offense. We were 20 points better than ECU and lost, but this is a long season. If we learn from this and grow from this then I'm fine with it. If this leads to the wheels coming off then....well, we will cross that bridge if it happens.