One day later it’s definitely not all gloom and doom. The defense is elite, and will keep us in every game we play. Combined with a punter that can flip field position, there aren’t any offenses on our schedule that I see scoring more than about 27 on us, and most will be held under 20.
The take away I have after that game was that we are every bit on Ohio State’s level in terms of talent and experience, but they maximized that talent and experience far better than we did. I think they played at about 95% of their capacity yesterday and we played at like 65-70%. Hell, flip the results of two 4th and 1 plays (they got a TD, we got stuffed), and you flip the score of the game.
The x-factor for everything is Arch. I just don’t know what to make of his inability to make the easy throws. I can understand inaccuracy when you have a pass rusher bearing down on you, or it’s a pass 20-25 yards downfield. But there were at least 5-7 throws yesterday that were under 10 yards and should have been easy completions and he flat out missed them. That’s a failure of a basic level of competency that I don’t know how to account for going forward.
Our margin of error just got real tight. After last year, UGA looms large. The trip to the Swamp, possibly at night, with a Manning at QB gives me 90’s era PTSD. And if anybody is penciling in the RRS as a win, you must be new to that series. Weird things happen in Dallas.
Agree with this. Take the load off Arch’s shoulders and lean on the run game. Have him play-action off it.
We do have a guy who can run, he caught the TD yesterday.