Could not say it any better! "Overwhelmingly PLEASED!":<--:
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That call broke my heart! I wish we would have kicked field goals twice instead of coming out with no points! Score would have been 20 - 28, with time left on the clock! Kicking the implied field goals would have kept the moral up for the defense...a feeling of..."we are still in this!" Anyway...I'm so very proud! Good game Cajuns!:<--:
I could not agree more that Cajun Field should have a good crowd. If you are reading this you should be inside the gates come Saturday night; if your not working or something...
I think the Tight Ends will be used more in weeks to come.
Simmer down about the deep balls. South Carollina was week against the run last year, so we rightly thought it was something we could exploit. I think the coaches did the right thing playing the passing game close to the vest. We would have went for more yards passing but their secondary did well limiting the yards after catch. To throw deep you have to hold the pass block longer, which is tough for a Sun Belt offensive line to do against a SEC defensive line. On the deep ball we threw we were right on the money....and we didn't turn it over giving us a prime opportunity to pull the upset. We played to our strengths and came within an absolutely horrendous holding call from making them sweat big time. I would have liked to see that last 6 minutes with us only down 7. More should have been made of that bad call, it is really hard for the center to hold on a two yard running play. By the time he snaps and looks up and makes contact our back is past him....terrible call.
Look for the offense to open it up more against Ohio and McNeese.....and enjoy having one of the most explosive rushing attacks in the country.
Western Kentucky vs #6 FLORIDA
15-21 for 156 yards
Arkansas State vs #4 TEXAS
24-37 for 272 yards
That's good passing numbers by SBC schools against much better defenses than we faced last night.
There seems to be some confusion about our offense. The coaches didn't "hide" our long pass plays. They called little dinks und dunks because that is what our offense is suppossed to be.
We tried to run that silly offense the first series and went 3 and out. Fenroy or Desmo didn't rush the ball until the second time we had the ball. I think what happenned was that the staff freaked when we had run 3 plays of our new "offense" and were already down 0-14. I think they started running the option to burn clock and when we started scoring, we stuck with it.
The Cajun coaching staff mentioned in press conferences during the week that we will throw the ball to set up the run. We did so in the first series and it was short passes to help Desormeauxs confidence. We will continue to throw the ball in that kind of scheme,and run the ball with the zone option. That will not change, you must be willing to go with what is working. The staff did that last night. BTW, Desormeaux and O-coaches weren't playing defense on the first two series. Our defense needs to come out and play from the whistle.
156 yards ain't lighting it up....
Arkansas St. played well.....don't think that kind of passing yardage by sun belt vs major teams (and Texas ain't the SEC) is normal though......and not something I think we need to do to succeed....
I don't think we "hid" anything either....and never claimed such. I think we played to our strength and to their weakness, and didn't try to play outside ourself with the passing game. We limited our turnovers (I don't remember any), limited their possesions, and gave ourselves a good chance to win in the end.
I suspect we will have more opportunity against lesser opponents to open up the passing game....that's not the same as saying we "hid" anything.
Cats82, the boys are just "funnin ya". H'ell yeah, Louisiana it is. You are Ohio! I take it from perusing the board you have noticed our aversion to the "forced" city tag! It is a bullshirt law, forced upon us by a bullshirt school.
My man, it is my understanding that the Sunbelt is looking to schedule more games with the MAC. We look forward to the challenge. I have been to your board and do not see knuckleheaded smack that you see from other boards, just some good natured ribbing.
We hope that some of you guys can make it down to Lafayette. You will have the time of your life. I hope our ballgame is competitive with no injuries!
Hope to see you there,
L' Rontelamadingdong'
I cannot begin to tell you how screwed up this line of thinking is with this team.
The Cajun running game is always set up. We can run the option on anybody. We don't need no stinking passing game to move the ball. The first half of last night's game should have proved that.
We won a share of a conference championship in '05 because the staff and Babb said to hell with the pass, we are gonna run it down your throat. They did.
The Ragin Cajuns throwing to set up the run is like Hawaii running to set up the pass. It doesn't make sense. It's bass ackwards.
15-21 (71%) 156 yards (10.4 yards/completion)
24-37 (65%) 272 yards (11.3 yards/completion)
This is not lighting it up, but this is a competent passing game exhibited by 2 SBC schools known for their running games against top-10 teams.
Asking the same of this offense is reasonable. What I am saying is that this dink and dunk pass game is for the birds. A very effective rushing attack should lend itself to a competent passing game by opening up the LONG TO INTERMMEDIATE ROUTE, not a dink and dunk passing game.
Matter of fact, our dink and dunk passing game only brings the safeties closer to the line which is precisely what a rushing team does not want to happen.
ROTFLMAO RonMexico..
Since I already stipulated Ark St had a good game lets explore the West Ky v Florida stats a little further:
Final score 49-3
Total West Ky rushing - 48 yards (wow!)
Total passing yards by West Ky's starter - 104 (holy crap, call the heisman commitee)
I don't call any of that competant. Looks like an overall axx whipping. I bet West Ky wishes they could have rushed the ball a little better and limited Florida's chances. I'd be willing to bet they would have traded most of that astonishing 104 yards passing by their starter for just Fenroy's yards.
No doubt there are Sun Belt teams that can pass better against SEC teams than us (Troy did ok agaist Arkansas)....which is precisely the point, we did what we do best.....
I don't see much wrong with our gameplan, we just didn't get the breaks you need to upset good team on the road, and didn't punch it in when we had the cance (thanks partially to a TERRIBLE call - which all we should really be bixching about right now)....
Then you must have missed the part that I stated,they will go with what is working. Their goal is to be balanced, but will go with what is working best in each game. We didn't make it through last year without a effective passing game and we won't do so this year.
While I was impressed with our rushing attack in the 1st half, come the 2nd half South Carolina did manage to slow our rushing attack down some. I know we would like to dink and dunk with our passing attack, however we have to throw the ball 15-25 yds. downfield to keep defenses honest. the short pass does not stretch the field and will only keep opposing defense close to the line of scrimmage. I thought the slant route we threw for a completion was a step in the right direction and something we need to continue to use. On another note, while I enjoyed seeing Desormeaux run, I have some fears about him staying healthy if he has to continually run for 100+ yds. a game.
That is exactly what coach Anderson has said.....
Click "HERE" and listen to the on demand video of coach Anderson on media day.
Not a "ducky" fan, eh? Green and bright yellow are not my favorite colors either. :eek: Are you a Michigan alum or a Michigan State alum? I seem to recall you saying a while back that you went to MSU, but I could've been mistaken. I was curious because I wasn't sure if you were glad or sad about the Big Blue's "Big Stumble" yesterday.
BTW, did KP get some playing time yesterday? I didn't get to see or hear the game as I was at my HS class reunion up in north La.
I am NOT "overwhelmingly pleased"! We should be winning some of these games when we get this opportunity. We need players to make plays at critical times (playmakers!) Where's Chery and Nevels, et al? They need break some big plays! I would REALLY like to get that label ("Never Beaten an SEC team") off our backside!!!
OK, now that I got that off my chest, it sounds like we played a very competitive game. I AM pleased that we did that. I look for improvement from week 1 to week 2. If the team plays hards and with focus and intensity, there is no reason they can't have a superb season! But they must do those things each game.
GEAUX RAGIN' CAJUNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!