[martyup]

In our first two games, we suffered 10 offensive penalties, four sacks allowed, and eight fumbles: 11 "bad plays" per game.  A clean game against Army--one penalty and two sacks allowed, meant we averaged 8.3 bad plays per game for our first three.

Here's how that stat improved over our season:

First three games: 8.3 BPs per game
Games 4-6: 7.7
Games 7-9: 6.3
Games 10-13: 4.25
Games 11, 12, and 13 only: 2.0 per game

Thanks for these stats Hulk.  They really illustrate the learning/maturing process of this team throughout the season.  While it is the players that make the mistakes, the coaches cannot be entirely absolved of responsibility.  The hope is that a team will get the stupid mistakes out of their system during Fall camp.  Clearly this did not happen in 2014.  Every year coaches are faced with new player personalities, abilities, and propencities.  Coaches must make adjustments based on the team in front of them.  For some reason, this team didn't get those hiccups out of their system in camp.  The job of the coaching staff is to have their team ready to play relatively mistake free football by the first game of the season.  The fact that the 2012 and 2013 teams made very few mistakes tells us that our coaching staff is capable of achieving that goal.  The 2014 season showed us that our boys were not ready to play mistake free football at the start of the season.  It's hard to pinpoint one reason for that, but I would guess that lack of game experience played a large part.  I also think that in the early games Hogan was calling too many audibles.  With a relatively inexperienced offensive line, these play changes might have contributed to false starts, missed assignments, and even chop blocks.  Audibles were also responsible for several delay of game penalties.

[martyup]

In our first two games, we suffered 10 offensive penalties, four sacks allowed, and eight fumbles: 11 "bad plays" per game.  A clean game against Army--one penalty and two sacks allowed, meant we averaged 8.3 bad plays per game for our first three.

Here's how that stat improved over our season:

First three games: 8.3 BPs per game
Games 4-6: 7.7
Games 7-9: 6.3
Games 10-13: 4.25
Games 11, 12, and 13 only: 2.0 per game

Thanks for these stats Hulk.  They really illustrate the learning/maturing process of this team throughout the season.  While it is the players that make the mistakes, the coaches cannot be entirely absolved of responsibility.  The hope is that a team will get the stupid mistakes out of their system during Fall camp.  Clearly this did not happen in 2014.  Every year coaches are faced with new player personalities, abilities, and propencities.  Coaches must make adjustments based on the team in front of them.  For some reason, this team didn't get those hiccups out of their system in camp.  The job of the coaching staff is to have their team ready to play relatively mistake free football by the first game of the season.  The fact that the 2012 and 2013 teams made very few mistakes tells us that our coaching staff is capable of achieving that goal.  The 2014 season showed us that our boys were not ready to play mistake free football at the start of the season.  It's hard to pinpoint one reason for that, but I would guess that lack of game experience played a large part.  I also think that in the early games Hogan was calling too many audibles.  With a relatively inexperienced offensive line, these play changes might have contributed to false starts, missed assignments, and even chop blocks.  Audibles were also responsible for several delay of game penalties.