A couple points here, some of which have been implied or stated already but that some people need to let sink in.
0 for ACC – We are 0-4 in conference right now – NO ONE expected any better than 1-3 at this stage. We have played arguably the 3 best teams in the entire conference and everyone knew we would be 0-3 in those. The arguments of 0 for ACC are one game against BC this year where they jumped up and surprised us. Yes I think we all wrote down a W for that one, but BC has proven tougher than anyone thought.
No one predicted a 10 win season – most realistic people would have said between 5-7 and 7-5. We are on track to hit that mark. Would it be nice to exceed expectations? Of course, but reality says sometimes meeting expectation is good and even means progress.
Program and Ethics – coach is in a losing streak and suspends 7 players. DD is more concerned with teaching a lesson than one specific game (which was an expected L anyway). Compare to GA where Gurley was benched immediately and FSU where denials are rampant for the same offense. Or to Brokeback Hill where denials and deflection rule the day. We used to talk of TOB being an old military style disciplinarian but DD has shown several players the door, experienced guys that he could use, and been forced to use young guys in the process. I have said it before, I would rather be 8-4 and clean than 12-0 and dirty (or dirty and struggling like in Orange County). My way or the highway with DD reminds me very much of Sheridan.
1st down on the 1 Maybe the coaches saw something on film – you know they do watch some film – that they thought they could exploit and catch them off guard. The mistake was not the play call. The mistake was the QB should have thrown it into the 2nd row. Incomplete pass and now we have 3 more shots at smash mouth football. Peyton Manning has 84 career passing TD’s of less than 3 yards, or about 1 in 6 of his TD’s are short. They stuffed the middle all game long – the effective runs we had were around the corners and draw plays but very little up the middle. As someone else said, if he completes the pass or even throws it away, we are not talking about it today. It is not like we inserted a trick play or something new – it came straight from the playbook probably based on coaching homework. Throw it away JB if not there is probably what DD and Canada said when the play was called.
