09-02-2012, 07:22 AM
Which team is are these two quotes about?:
"[blank]'s offense great on first two drives, then disappeared. The scripted plays looked fantastic early. Once it was just a physical battle. ...[blank] showed lots of reasons for concern. That effort won't get more than 6-7 wins."
[blank], in this case, is UW. (From Bob Condotta's twitter--https://twitter.com/bcondotta/status/242133320471805952) .
UW wasn't alone in struggling against a supposedly inferior opponent. kal, of course, we know about. Allegedly these are our closest competitors in the North. In the South, Arizona went to overtime against Toledo. Wazzou didn't play a cupcake in BYU, but struggled mightily. Colorado lost to Colorado State. ASU blew out their cupcake, as expected. UCLA had a blowout score, but looked weak on defense and special teams. Only SC and Oregon looked as dominant as they should've in their opening efforts.
And yet lackluster efforts weren't just confined to the Pac-12. Wisconsin only beat Northern Iowa by 5. Iowa lost to Northern Illinois. Oklahoma ended up beating UTEP by 17, but were only leading by 3 after 3 quarters. Florida beat Bowling Green by 13 but was only up 3 after 3 quarters (causing Florida fans to call for firing the coaches after halftime). (EDIT: Number 10 Arkansas gave up 21 points in the first half to Jacksonville State.)
The conclusion is that tons of people sucked, aside from--of the games I watched--Alabama, SC, Oregon. I remember someone writing before the season began that this looked like another 2007-esque crazy season. With all the weak efforts in the first week, perhaps this theory is accurate. At any rate, unusually sloppy execution appears to be closer to the norm than the exception. So I suspect Shaw has a lot of company among his befuddled coaching peers. We don't seem to be an exception to the trend, despite the Luck hoopla; the question is, whether we can get exceptional coaching--or close--to improve execution.
"[blank]'s offense great on first two drives, then disappeared. The scripted plays looked fantastic early. Once it was just a physical battle. ...[blank] showed lots of reasons for concern. That effort won't get more than 6-7 wins."
[blank], in this case, is UW. (From Bob Condotta's twitter--https://twitter.com/bcondotta/status/242133320471805952) .
UW wasn't alone in struggling against a supposedly inferior opponent. kal, of course, we know about. Allegedly these are our closest competitors in the North. In the South, Arizona went to overtime against Toledo. Wazzou didn't play a cupcake in BYU, but struggled mightily. Colorado lost to Colorado State. ASU blew out their cupcake, as expected. UCLA had a blowout score, but looked weak on defense and special teams. Only SC and Oregon looked as dominant as they should've in their opening efforts.
And yet lackluster efforts weren't just confined to the Pac-12. Wisconsin only beat Northern Iowa by 5. Iowa lost to Northern Illinois. Oklahoma ended up beating UTEP by 17, but were only leading by 3 after 3 quarters. Florida beat Bowling Green by 13 but was only up 3 after 3 quarters (causing Florida fans to call for firing the coaches after halftime). (EDIT: Number 10 Arkansas gave up 21 points in the first half to Jacksonville State.)
The conclusion is that tons of people sucked, aside from--of the games I watched--Alabama, SC, Oregon. I remember someone writing before the season began that this looked like another 2007-esque crazy season. With all the weak efforts in the first week, perhaps this theory is accurate. At any rate, unusually sloppy execution appears to be closer to the norm than the exception. So I suspect Shaw has a lot of company among his befuddled coaching peers. We don't seem to be an exception to the trend, despite the Luck hoopla; the question is, whether we can get exceptional coaching--or close--to improve execution.
