Being "10 points away"

bobongo

Helluva Engineer
Messages
7,549
Granted, coaching might have put our DB's in the position they were in (again, might have) but was it coaching that caused several on Chat Saturday to say STTE "that MF'er TE outran our entire secondary"? Did they mention it was a TE that did that to our DB's on that 77 TD run after the catch?
It did look like in the last couple of games there was some quit out there.
 

lv20gt

Helluva Engineer
Messages
5,580
IMO point differential isn't a great way to look at things because it's too easy for a big change in point differential to not have a corresponding change in win % or a very small change net a couple of games improvement because of distribution.

From a figurative standpoint I think 10 points is about a good representation of how far we are from a bowl team. If a team loses by 10 points (with no but what ifs) it's not a fluke. They didn't deserve to win but there were likely reasonable opportunities that were within reach to have won that they didn't capitalize on. We weren't a bowl team this year. We didn't deserve a bowl game but we had reasonable opportunities that were within reach to have made a bowl that we didn't capitalize on.

Now the big question is how likely is it we can "find the 10 points". Whether we will or not is a different question but to me there are "easy points" to be had in improving the DBs from god awful to just normally bad much less to anything better. I think there are also "points" to be had with a relatively better QB situation compared to our competition next year as many of the others are leaving and ours should, hopefully, return in better health than we had this year. I think there is also the factor that if we can have one WR step up and be a true #1 target that it will make a huge difference. There is also the "easy points" in better coaching if we can make good OC and DC hires.

I think getting back to a bowl game is reasonably obtainable next year even if somewhat unlikely, so describing that as "needing to find 10 points" is about accurate.
 
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