Well that sucked. I think for a lot of us, we saw the team yesterday that we were expecting to have early on in the season. The problem is that the Oklahoma State game made us think we were better than we are. One thing I learned yesterday is that Oklahoma State is S-L-O-W. Our defense that looked lightning fast against OSU looked pedestrian against South Carolina. Let's just hope that we lost to a good South Carolina team yesterday, and not a middle of the road SEC team. I think it's still too early to really tell much about us or them.
The big complaints I've been hearing are about offensive play calling and dropped passes. I think the Deaner will agree with me that it's hard to catch bullets thrown behind you. When the receivers are having to dive for catches all night long, there are going to be some drops. That being said, there were also some good passes that were dropped. My point though is that I think that needs to be spread across receiver and QB. You can't put it all on the receivers.
As far as the offensive play calling goes, I think it was good enough to win. If Stafford doesn't overthrow Moreno, that's six. If Michael Moore makes the diving catch across the middle, that's six. On the same play, if Stafford threw it to a wide open Tripp Chandler instead of Moore, he walks in, and that's six. If Tony Wilson catches the high pass across the middle in the end zone, that's six. (I know he got rocked on that play, but he dropped it before he got hit)
I do have two things that really got me on the coaching though. The fact that it crossed my mind we may be running the "rooskie" play on 4th and 2 is not good. If I thought about it, I'm sure South Carolina did too. We generally run that play on 4th down around midfield out of the same formation. The other thing I don't get is kicking a field goal on 4th and 15 on our second to last drive. I think the coaches would say the strategy worked since we got the ball back with a chance to win. But if you convert, worst case is overtime. If you don't convert, South Carolina has bad field position. I'm not a coach, but I just don't get that.
I would like to point out, however, that you can't just say we just messed up and lost the game. Give South Carolina credit. They absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Who knows, if we protected Stafford better, maybe he would have got his feet set more often. He was throwing off his back foot all night long. If that happens, maybe he is less erratic. Who knows?
