Allow me to Play Devils Advocate...

[TheTaxJacket]

I know everyone is seemingly feeling good about Miami, but I think there is reason to temper expectations. Going back to UT.

UT is a bad football team. UNC is a really really bad football team. Pitt is not good.

I am very much concerned about our defense against athletic playmakers like Marquez Callaway on UT. UT has not been able to score on anybody. Including a bad FCS team. However we allowed them to score 43 on us. Their defense is bad.

The best D we have played is Jax State. Let that sink in.

I have not seen the discipline on offense turning the ball over carelessly multiple times and our defensive stats are skewed because we havent played any offenses with a pulse.

I could easily see us losing to Miami, Clem, VT and UGA. Finishing 7-5 or 6-6. Ill adjust my expectations after Miami but in our only game with much better talent, we made them look good and they have turned out to be a really bad football team.

I look at our only loss and that loss is to a bad team with talent at a few positions and that is very telling against teams coming with talent in a lot more areas.

 

[MountPGT1990]

I agree 100%, if gold colored glasses are removed I think we are in for a rude awakening next Saturday and then having the nations #1 toughest remaining schedule doesn't help for much future success. I think we will know a lot about this football team come next Sat night.....still don't know if we are Pretenders or Contenders?

Since UM beat FSU we will be all but eliminated from the Coastal race if we lose next Saturday. With us having to play Clemson (99% chance we lose that one) that's a minimum of two ACC loses which means UM would have to lose three times for us to move ahead of them to Championship game, not gonna happen. Next weekend is basically do or die to win our division.

Unfortunately if you look at our previous scores under CPJ playing games @ UM, history suggests we are about to crap the bed, in a Bigly way:

2015: UM 38 GT 21
2013: UM 45 GT 30
2011: UM 24 GT 7
2009: UM 33 GT 17

 

[TheTaxJacket]

I think we are "due" to win down there, but I just dont think we have quite the talent to hang in based on the UT loss.

 

[okiemon]

So, once again, it gets backs to recruiting.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Jmonty71]

I think the D had monumental breakdowns against UT. Keep in mind, we owned UT for the 1st half. I think if there is any year for us to make a run at Thug U, VPI and Ugag, its this year.

 

[Boaty1]

I think you guys are reading to much into the scoreboard of the UT game. Sure at the end of the day that is what matters but we outgained them by 300 yards. It was a dominating performance by us everywhere but on the scoreboard. The way I look at it is we have dominated all 4 opponents we have played. I think we are pretty good. We will know more after next week but I fully expect us to be competitive.

 

[Ibeeballin]

So we should write off the ACC darling NC State since they lost to USCcar?

Are we looking at the actually context of those @ Miami “boatrace” loses?

2015- JT was hurt
2013- Up 17-7 early, Butker missed an xtra to tie 24, 2 ints (1 pick 6 Under w/ 5 min to play)
2011- I give you
2009- 3rd gm in 13 days

 

[mj claz]

You are not wrong. I don't think anyone would be clamoring that the defense was back after big wins against UVA, Cuse, and BC. UNC and Pitt sound like better wins, but they may be 3-4 win teams this year. Regardless, we did what we were supposed to do.

If anyone expects us to finish the year as a top 10 defense (as we currently are), this thread is probably for you. While we haven't yet proven we are a really good team due to our schedule, I think we still have a chance to be really good since we did what we had to do against these bad teams.

I am most excited about this team because of the potential to have a really good OL, especially with Marshall returning, and an improved defense. Even if we end the year with a sort of mediocre defense (40-60 range), that will still be an improvement and theoretically help us win some more games than we would have in the past. We can generate a pass rush with our front 4 and the secondary is a pretty solid group.

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

UT was the first game for both of us....be careful when trying to read much into first games. UT has only looked awful vs UGA. They shoulda beat UF who is stout on D and not good on O. The entire SEC, outside of Bama and UGA, is underwhelming.

Miami is a good team, will be a tough game, but they don't scare me. They barely scraped by a still struggling, but dangerous FSU team.

So to summarize, get excited about playing a good opponent that will challenge our guys in all 3 phases. But there is no need for anyone to wet their pants.

 

[MountainBuzzMan]

My take, FWIW.

We look to have the 2nd best offense of the CPJ time. The defense has definitely improved, we used to make bad teams look good. My guess is this could be the best defense since 2008. If we play a mistake free game we win by 14-21.

However, the ST play will probably cost us 7 of that margin and a fumble will cost us another 7. Any more mistakes and we don't have a chance unless Miami is matching those mistakes.
Here is to hoping the by week allowed us to clean-up the rest of our issues and we win by 10

 

[gtg936g]

This may be the first game we play that we have our starting offensive line healthy, which I think is huge for us. Miami will be the best team we have faced, and will be a huge challenge for us. Whether we win or not is up to us.

I think the fact that there is a heavy imphasis on special teams play in practice is telling. CPJ knows what he has on offense, if it was his primary concern that is what he would be focusing on. I would rather have special teams be the biggest question mark going into the Miami game than the offense.

 

[knoxjacket]

UT was the first game for both of us....be careful when trying to read much into first games. UT has only looked awful vs UGA. They shoulda beat UF who is stout on D and not good on O. The entire SEC, outside of Bama and UGA, is underwhelming.

Miami is a good team, will be a tough game, but they don't scare me. They barely scraped by a still struggling, but dangerous FSU team.

So to summarize, get excited about playing a good opponent that will challenge our guys in all 3 phases. But there is no need for anyone to wet their pants.

I’m not sure how anyone makes the statement that UT should’ve beaten UF when they never had a lead. Florida tried to blow that game.

UT barely escaped UMASS. Their coach will be fired in the next two weeks, either after losing to South Carolina in front of 70-80k at home or after Bama names a score against them.

 

[MikeJackets1967]

If GT wins in Miami I think a 9-2 season is a possibility with the only loss being to Clemson in Death Valley. I think a 9-3 GT team after the ACCCG has a possibility of playing 10-2 Auburn in the Citrus Bowl or against Kansas State in the Camping World Bowl.

 

[DCSS]

If

 

[MWBATL]

I agree that we must not forget the UT game. Not so much the scoreboard as the fact that our defense played poorly in the 2nd half against a weak offense, showing the weaknesses we do have.

I do think our offense can run on Miami. The FSU O line is one of the worst in the ACC and they ran on Miami, so I suspect we will have some success there. But I also expect them to boatrace our D. We simply have not faced the speed and ability their athletes have on offense. They beat NFL caliber defenders are FSU and we have no reason tot think our guys (who have played heroically thus far) will do better.

We can compete, I think, if we play a clean game on offense. I believe the key will be red zone TD's. We MUST finish our drives with TD's, or we lose this game.

If we continue to have turnovers, we lose this game by double digits (unless Miami matches us there).

 

[MWBATL]

If GT wins in Miami I think a 10-1 season is a possibility with the only loss being to Clemson in Death Valley. I think a 10-2 GT team after the ACCCG would play 10-2 Auburn in the Citrus Bowl.

I think you must mean 9-2 (unless you are planning to appeal to the NCAA to overturn the UT loss).

 

[MikeJackets1967]

I think you must mean 9-2 (unless you are planning to appeal to the NCAA to overturn the UT loss).

Fixed it I'm blind and got a bad memory LOL

 

[Ibeeballin]

I agree that we must not forget the UT game. Not so much the scoreboard as the fact that our defense played poorly in the 2nd half against a weak offense, showing the weaknesses we do have.

I do think our offense can run on Miami. The FSU O line is one of the worst in the ACC and they ran on Miami, so I suspect we will have some success there. But I also expect them to boatrace our D. We simply have not faced the speed and ability their athletes have on offense. They beat NFL caliber defenders are FSU and we have no reason tot think our guys (who have played heroically thus far) will do better.

We can compete, I think, if we play a clean game on offense. I believe the key will be red zone TD's. We MUST finish our drives with TD's, or we lose this game.

If we continue to have turnovers, we lose this game by double digits (unless Miami matches us there).

That’s not true. We are talking like this is pickup game. We have guys that have seen this Miami speed 3x and **whispering** we have speed too. I know I’m coming off defensive( of course I would), but I’m baffled that we annually have one toe in with our own team!

 

[BobintheATL99]

That’s not true. We are talking like this is pickup game. We have guys that have this Miami speed 3x and **whispering** we have speed too. I know I’m coming off defensive( of course I would), but I’m baffled that we are annually have one toe in with our own team!

PREACH!

 

[JorgeJonas]

Stop citing the Tennessee game as a reason why we will lose (or win) for the rest of the year. If we hit a 35 yard field goal, the result would have changed, but nothing about how the game was played would. We dominated that game, and every other we’ve played. It’s reasonable to say that the teams we’ve played have not been very good, but we did to them what a good team is supposed to do. What that portends for the Miami game is anyone’s guess.