Quick post-game thoughts

[UNTstormchaser]

1. Thompson was better than last week. He was 18-30 for 251 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT. This is an improvement over last week, though FAU isn't as tough as Troy. But, despite a few poor throws and one TERRIBLE decision that nearly cost us the game, he played well enough to get a win on the road against a conference opponent, even without the run game helping at all. Speaking of the run game...

2. It sucked. The ground game needs to be better going forward. Obviously, it has been the strong point thus far and we can't hit the panic button over one bad game, but the blocking was suspect today, and the backs had no chance. You can almost never put a poor running performance on the RBs, and today is no different. There was just nowhere for them to run. FAU came out with the intent of stopping the run at all costs, and they did just that. I don't expect every team to focus on the run this much, especially as the passing game continues to improve (hopefully) going forward. So I'm not really too worried about the ground game today...FAU wanted to stop the run more than they wanted to win the game, and they suffer for it now.

3. The defense looked great again. I'm very happy with how the D has played this year. We're forcing a lot of turnovers (and blowing a few opportunities for TOs as well...but at least we're getting in position for them), getting a lot of pressure on the QB and actually getting sacks as a result of that, and we've been pretty good in controlling the run. Last week I complained about tackling, this week I can't really do that, so hopefully the tide has started to turn in regards to that as well.

4. Special teams was much better than last week. Atterbury didn't have his best game, but he's one of the best punters in the country and he is of no concern going forward. Olen absolutely has his confidence back (thank GOD he made that first 47 yarder...he misses that and his head might have never come back), Chancellor was at least a little more aggressive in regards to punt and kick returns, and we didn't allow a return TD. I'm happy with this.

5. The playcalling was suspect again at times, at least in my opinion, but it was also not as bad as last week. I HATE the call to punt on 4th and 1 from the 35 early in this game, especially after Olen just drilled a 47 yarder (it's also 4th and 1...we could just go for it maybe?), but outside of that I can't remember anything specific that angered me about the playcalling, as opposed to last week when I could name a few different occasions that I nearly threw something at the person in front of me out of anger at the coaches.

It wasn't pretty guys, it really wasn't, but it was a win. Maybe FAU IS actually better than we give them credit for (like their fans would like us to believe), but I doubt that they're good enough to warrant this being a 6 point game. I really thought this was a 27-3 kind of game coming in, but we didn't really play all that well and they played better than expected, defensively at least. But, on the bright side, we're 2-3 before heading to play a team that got blown out by Texas State. If we play like we did today, I don't see us winning next week, but our defense is going to give Houston fits and I think we'll be in for a close one. Imagine....there is a chance, a legitimate chance, that after next Saturday, we are 3-3. Three wins, three losses. A .500 record through 6 games. Can one of the elders give us the year that we were last 3-3? Apparently this is the first time since 2005 that we are 2-3, and only the 3rd time in a while or something (2003 and 2005 we were 2-3, apparently).

Things are on the ups guys; this was a painful game to watch at times, but let's not forget where we came from. As someone said in the chat room, if this was a Dodge-era team, the score would have been 56-13 FAU, and while that may have been an exaggeration, it wasn't too much of one.

Go Mean Green!

[Side Show Joe]

The running game was bad because FAU didn't respect our passing game. They played the safties up most of the time and shut down the running game. I'm not sure why we didn't throw more on 1st down. The FAU LBs and DBs were crushing our RBs at the line of scrimmage way too much. Thompson should have been able to carve them up all night. Our bigger plays seem to come from play actions and deeper passes.

[UNTstormchaser]

The running game was bad because FAU didn't respect our passing game. They played the safties up most of the time and shut down the running game. I'm not sure why we didn't throw more on 1st down. The FAU LBs and DBs were crushing our RBs at the line of scrimmage way too much. Thompson should have been able to carve them up all night. Our bigger plays seem to come from play actions and deeper passes.

Exactly, and that's why I'm not concerned with the running game going forward. FAU wanted to stop the run at all costs, and they did, and it ALMOST worked out for them.

[Greenhorn]

DT is a mystery to me. Great throws ...terrible throws..he does it all.

[Side Show Joe]

Exactly, and that's why I'm not concerned with the running game going forward. FAU wanted to stop the run at all costs, and they did, and it ALMOST worked out for them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad we won the game, but...

As long as we are limited to short passes, every team will stack the line to stop us from running. We have to get better at throwing down the field, or we will be in for a long season. We held on to beat FAU tonight. We went 0 for 3 in the redzone...IN ONE SERIES?!?!?!

We came into this game looking for answers to problems in the redzone, and the kicking game. It seems the kicking game problems have been fixed, but I'm even more concerned about the offense now. Having a redzone problem against Troy is one thing, but having the problem against FAU is something much worse.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Side Show Joe

[CaliMeanGreen]

W is a W... And on the road. Its even more important.

1-1 in conference.

Beat Houston.

[MeanGreen01]

DT is a mystery to me. Great throws ...terrible throws..he does it all.

I agree. He can be great at times, and other times you wonder where the hell his head is at? I left the game last week against Troy so pissed at his performance. He seems to really play bad at home lately

[Aquila_Viridis]

3 of 14 on third down. Got to do better.

[NM Green]

We were very fortunate that FAU kept extending our drives in the final quarter because that chewed a serious 3 - 4 minutes off the clock. Thank goodness we still got the 3 too.

GMG

[UNTstormchaser]

Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad we won the game, but...

As long as we are limited to short passes, every team will stack the line to stop us from running. We have to get better at throwing down the field, or we will be in for a long season. We held on to beat FAU tonight. We went 0 for 3 in the redzone...IN ONE SERIES?!?!?!

We came into this game looking for answers to problems in the redzone, and the kicking game. It seems the kicking game problems have been fixed, but I'm even more concerned about the offense now. Having a redzone problem against Troy is one thing, but having the problem against FAU is something much worse.

I think we solved that problem today. DT threw a ton of deep balls tonight, and most of the deep ones were spot on. Chancellor has had a couple of long pass TDs in the last 2 games now, and we were going down field a lot today (as well as last week), so I don't think teams will be as generous with bringing a safety into the box going forward. I think we showed a definite improvement on the deep balls this week compared to last as well, so I'm not too sure that it'll be too much of an issue.

[Side Show Joe]

I think we solved that problem today. DT threw a ton of deep balls tonight, and most of the deep ones were spot on. Chancellor has had a couple of long pass TDs in the last 2 games now, and we were going down field a lot today (as well as last week), so I don't think teams will be as generous with bringing a safety into the box going forward. I think we showed a definite improvement on the deep balls this week compared to last as well, so I'm not too sure that it'll be too much of an issue.

We did not solve the problem today. We went deep, but did not connect on enough of those passes to force FAU to drop their DBs. We are too inconsistent in the passing game.

[houstonmeangreen]

1. Thompson was better than last week. He was 18-30 for 251 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT. This is an improvement over last week, though FAU isn't as tough as Troy. But, despite a few poor throws and one TERRIBLE decision that nearly cost us the game, he played well enough to get a win on the road against a conference opponent, even without the run game helping at all. Speaking of the run game...

2. It sucked. The ground game needs to be better going forward. Obviously, it has been the strong point thus far and we can't hit the panic button over one bad game, but the blocking was suspect today, and the backs had no chance. You can almost never put a poor running performance on the RBs, and today is no different. There was just nowhere for them to run. FAU came out with the intent of stopping the run at all costs, and they did just that. I don't expect every team to focus on the run this much, especially as the passing game continues to improve (hopefully) going forward. So I'm not really too worried about the ground game today...FAU wanted to stop the run more than they wanted to win the game, and they suffer for it now.

3. The defense looked great again. I'm very happy with how the D has played this year. We're forcing a lot of turnovers (and blowing a few opportunities for TOs as well...but at least we're getting in position for them), getting a lot of pressure on the QB and actually getting sacks as a result of that, and we've been pretty good in controlling the run. Last week I complained about tackling, this week I can't really do that, so hopefully the tide has started to turn in regards to that as well.

4. Special teams was much better than last week. Atterbury didn't have his best game, but he's one of the best punters in the country and he is of no concern going forward. Olen absolutely has his confidence back (thank GOD he made that first 47 yarder...he misses that and his head might have never come back), Chancellor was at least a little more aggressive in regards to punt and kick returns, and we didn't allow a return TD. I'm happy with this.

5. The playcalling was suspect again at times, at least in my opinion, but it was also not as bad as last week. I HATE the call to punt on 4th and 1 from the 35 early in this game, especially after Olen just drilled a 47 yarder (it's also 4th and 1...we could just go for it maybe?), but outside of that I can't remember anything specific that angered me about the playcalling, as opposed to last week when I could name a few different occasions that I nearly threw something at the person in front of me out of anger at the coaches.

It wasn't pretty guys, it really wasn't, but it was a win. Maybe FAU IS actually better than we give them credit for (like their fans would like us to believe), but I doubt that they're good enough to warrant this being a 6 point game. I really thought this was a 27-3 kind of game coming in, but we didn't really play all that well and they played better than expected, defensively at least. But, on the bright side, we're 2-3 before heading to play a team that got blown out by Texas State. If we play like we did today, I don't see us winning next week, but our defense is going to give Houston fits and I think we'll be in for a close one. Imagine....there is a chance, a legitimate chance, that after next Saturday, we are 3-3. Three wins, three losses. A .500 record through 6 games. Can one of the elders give us the year that we were last 3-3? Apparently this is the first time since 2005 that we are 2-3, and only the 3rd time in a while or something (2003 and 2005 we were 2-3, apparently).

Things are on the ups guys; this was a painful game to watch at times, but let's not forget where we came from. As someone said in the chat room, if this was a Dodge-era team, the score would have been 56-13 FAU, and while that may have been an exaggeration, it wasn't too much of one.

Go Mean Green!

well, I don't think they wanted to stop the run more than they wanted to win the game..otherwise, you are pretty much on the money from my viewpoint...this was the score with 3 turnovers...if we had not had that, then we wouldn't have won...we are going to have to setup our game (offense) if we want to win more than 6 games this year.