Today's game will tell us a lot about our team. Having a break next week will be an opportune time for both the fans and the team to assess what's going on and adjust for the rest of the season.
In our only loss, we forced 17 third downs, which is plenty enough to win most football games. Unfortunately we allowed the opponent's drive to continue in 12 of those 17 situations, with 10/17 being converted on 3rd down and 2/2 on 4th. As bad as these numbers are on the surface, if you dig deeper, they are even worse. Three of those conversions were from 10-15 yards, one of 7 yards, and five from between 2-4 yards. Sometimes teams are going to convert on third and long, it just happens. However, to allow it in the percentages we did is plainly the root cause of our loss. For example, let's say it's reasonable for 1 of the 4 third and longs to be converted. Had that been the case, we walk out of 'Cuse with a victory, and possibly by more than one score.
If there is a repeat of this performance on third down defense today, it will be cause for grave concern. Almost certainly, it would cause another loss, barring multiple turnovers or fortunate breaks of some kind. I will be specifically looking for better play calling and execution in this game situation today. My sense is that we will get it. I have to bee-lieve there will have been a positive self-scouting process going on with the staff and focus placed on it in the film room and on the field in practice.
I am not really worried about the offense. Even an uneven performance like the Syracuse game was still good enough to win, especially if the D got off the field on third downs, giving us more time with the ball.
I think we are in for a tough fight today with plenty of adversity along the way. The result will depend on our defense getting off the field. I say we do just that. L'ville converts about 35-40% on third down, we do our thing on offense, protect the football, and pull out a 6 point or so victory.
GT 33 - L'Ville 27