The Ugly, The Ugly, and The Ugly – Chattanooga
October 8, 2007 at 6:05am by TipsterHog
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
I realize that there was some good (Felix Jones and Alex Tejada…again) and some bad on Saturday. But when the head coach calls the game “ugly“…I won’t argue. So…some random (ugly) thoughts after watching the Chattanooga game.
The UglyÂ
– Sure…the first play snap for a safety was ‘ugly’ and has to be mentioned here first. But was an honest mistake by a player (Luigs) who rarely makes them…was that so bad that we needed to completely change our early offensive game plan? According to offensive coordinator David Lee, it was.
“At least this one didn’t turn out to be an Appalachian State deal, a loss,” [Lee] said. “We weren’t there. I had a bunch of things scripted as far as plays to start the game and after that first snap, we dumped it.”
That’s all it took? One play? Seven seconds? Is there still anyone out there who doesn’t see exactly why this offense has no confidence?
– A failed fourth down conversion brought out the boo birds. But the fact that the Hogs had 14 third down attempts against a much lesser team was more embarrassing. Converting only five of them was just plain pathetic. Only the 1 for 16 third down ratio by Chattanooga made it look respectable.
The UglyÂ
– The farther we get away from Gus Malzahn’s attention to detail and Danny Nutt’s ball protection instruction, the more we continue to throw the ball on the ground. In five games this season — 18 fumbles. In 14 games last season — 15 fumbles.
– As we brought up after the Kentucky loss, the fact that the safeties on this team are the leading tacklers is disturbing. And Saturday’s game was no different with Kevin Woods and Matt Hewitt leading the team with a combined 16 tackles. So have we really gotten any better on defense these past two weeks?
The Ugly
– Once a mention about the plane banner was included in the Associated Press game story (and, therefore, printed in newspapers and on web sites around the country), you knew the objective of the fans who paid for the banner had been met.
And so while Houston Nutt now wants to ask where the planes were last year at 7-0, the real question he should be pondering is why it took five seasons (out of ten) of 0-2 SEC starts for a banner like that to be flown?
– The Hogs finished this two week stretch of ‘improving’ the passing game still ranked 11th in the SEC and now 97th in the country in passing offense (182.5 yards/game). With an anemic 5.3 yards per attempt (7.0 is average) and just 116 passing yards on Saturday…against a team that allowed 221 passing yards the week before to The Citadel…well, that’s just about the textbook definition of ‘ugly.’
Walking on Sunshine contributed to this post.
Two words sum up our effort Saturday night “WE STINK”.
Sitting in the stands Saturday night, 8 out 10 times on offense, I knew what and where we would run the ball when we lined up. If I know then guess what the defense knows?
If Tennessee Chatt. can line up and run the ball most every play for 60-70 yd drives, guess what Auburn will do. In the second half Tenn. Chatt. did just that.
We can only hope our biggest problem saturday night was lack of focus. If not, the Hogs are in for a long night this coming weekend.
Where was that plane when we were 7-0 last year. Every win is precious baby.
After the last few weeks, he must be wearing out his cell phone texting Donna.
Watching the horrible end of the Broyles era is no fun to be sure. I hope some real lesson can be taken from it.
Certainly Frank had no idea that Dale would be such a disaster. No one really could have. That is why SEC schools don’t hire coaches with 5 years of limited experience at a lower level. And, how ironic that dale’s willingness to play on Frank’s ego is actually at the center of the whole disgusting mess.
At the center of all of the stupid questions is Dale’s fear of the passing game. If the final story is ever written, I would love to know the source of that ridiculous approach to college football. All of the way back to Gary Bashears Dale has been determined not to have a QB.
My only hope is that these kids will begin to win despite the coaching staff. They seem like a good bunch. Casey certainly can’t be benched for calling a few plays.
I still have faith in our coaching staff and our team…..I beleive that something GOOD is about to happen….
Houston continues to show his defiance of reasoning, through his comments he made about the banner, that was flown over War Memoriel. As Tipster noted above, the real question he should be asking himself, is why it took so long. If it’s so easy to reach back into last year to find an exscuse, then what happened the 2 previous years when we went 4-7 on both occasions? BlindHog mentioned once that the soap opera had caught up with Houston. Is this not true, since Houston continues to be so defensive about all the alligations of the past? If attitude reflects leadership, then it should be no suprise why this team is no more focused than what they are. From what happened last year, with all the distractions, Houston has developed a “me against the world” attitude. The only problem with this, is that it’s affected his ability to see that changes need to be made. We made some of those changes last year with our offense, which made things a lot easier for D-Mac and co., but when it came to crunch time at the end of last year, we again went back to Houston’s deliberate conservative style of playing scared. (not to lose) What’s it going to take for this guy to wake up? Stop blaming the players, and take a good look in the mirror Houston! This is your team, which means your responsible for it. Thier attitude will reflect your leadership, period! Your own misery is bringing this team to it’s knees, so it’s either time to do something different, or just watch it all fall apart. It’s up to you boss. GO HOGS!!!!!