[cardcrimson]

Some of the doom and gloom is premature. Shaw deserves a chance to work us into a better place this season. He has shown the ability to change--just last year, once the O-line and Love's injuries ruined the running game and cost us several games, he shifted to the air and we got back on track. I fully expect he will shift strategies as required to maximize success with whatever handful of healthy bodies he has left.

All the criticism about whether he should shift to a spread offense or not is just silly. There is not that much wrong with his offensive philosophy--27 points should be more than enough to win a game. We have had excellent seasons when we averaged in the low 20s. For that matter, we have scored more points every week than the week before. So despite the ridiculously thin offensive line and spate of injuries we would be fine if the defense had been up to expectations.

But the defense has not been up to expectations, as the first half today and the second half against USC demonstrated.

Our run defense did not seem terrible until every warm blooded linebacker was injured.

But the consistent big problem is that our corners, who were expected to be a strength of the team, have turned into glaring weaknesses. We gave up 11.6 ypa today, we gave up 11.4 ypa last week. Yes, that is per ATTEMPT. Opposing coaches have spotted something terribly wrong in our secondary and are beating on it.

Now, if you were able to have any coach in the world on your team to help straighten out an underachieving secondary, who would you pick? Duane Akina. It may take time and therefore more losses, but they will get better. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later.

Don't recall seeing any safety help over the top today. At all.

[cardcrimson]

Some of the doom and gloom is premature. Shaw deserves a chance to work us into a better place this season. He has shown the ability to change--just last year, once the O-line and Love's injuries ruined the running game and cost us several games, he shifted to the air and we got back on track. I fully expect he will shift strategies as required to maximize success with whatever handful of healthy bodies he has left.

All the criticism about whether he should shift to a spread offense or not is just silly. There is not that much wrong with his offensive philosophy--27 points should be more than enough to win a game. We have had excellent seasons when we averaged in the low 20s. For that matter, we have scored more points every week than the week before. So despite the ridiculously thin offensive line and spate of injuries we would be fine if the defense had been up to expectations.

But the defense has not been up to expectations, as the first half today and the second half against USC demonstrated.

Our run defense did not seem terrible until every warm blooded linebacker was injured.

But the consistent big problem is that our corners, who were expected to be a strength of the team, have turned into glaring weaknesses. We gave up 11.6 ypa today, we gave up 11.4 ypa last week. Yes, that is per ATTEMPT. Opposing coaches have spotted something terribly wrong in our secondary and are beating on it.

Now, if you were able to have any coach in the world on your team to help straighten out an underachieving secondary, who would you pick? Duane Akina. It may take time and therefore more losses, but they will get better. Hopefully it happens sooner rather than later.

Don't recall seeing any safety help over the top today. At all.