[This post most is mostly very tongue-in-cheek with some “meat”, but warning: most of this is spam - which is still delicious. Also I am very bored in my hotel room waiting for the game to start at 11:30 pm local]
You could possibly attribute the defensive improvement to the OL coach because the OL coach didn’t confuse the crap out of Anthony Thacker’s defense pre-snap like you-know-who. (Fwiw, I think I will refer to Thacker as “Anthony” from now on in honor of our crappy ACCN broadcast team). Instead of thinking he had to do everything, perhaps the OL coach said, “Imma let you guys coach and do what you were hired to do.”
Too often we think of football in a vacuum and ignore nuance and context which, while convenient, doesn’t tell the bigger picture. I realized this after I scored my fourth touchdown in the state championship game for Polk High.
We often throw out phrases like, “That was a dumb play call, period. It didn’t work. FACT.”
Only a Sith deals in absolutes. Or maybe a Sports Center highlight broadcaster.
In the first example, my fourth running TD proved I was a man among children. But if I consider the context of our team being up 52 points, the opponent’s 3rd string defense was in, and every single one of our OL was a 5* who got offers from P5 schools, my world-view suddenly changes. Maybe I’m not really a man among children but a 0* 3rd-string End-Guard-Tackle* who was getting garbage time at the end of a blowout.
* I sat at the end of the bench, guarded the water bucket, and tackled anyone who tried to get a drink before coach said so.
In the second example (the dumb play call) - was it really dumb? Maybe it worked 10 out of 10 times in practice. Maybe all the players had confidence in it and convinced Long to call it during the game. But maybe when it came time to execute the guard missed his block … the receiver slipped … a cheerleader screamed “GIVE THE BALL TO DONTAE!“ and he forgot his assignment. If you’ve played football (or any sport), you’ll know that in the heat of the moment sometimes unintended things happen.
I remember a failed 4th down play against a recent opponent and one of our players was supposed to block downfield. On the replay he literally was chopping his feet, arms out in front of him, ready to block, frantically swiveling his head back and forth looking for someone to block … while 3 defenders ran right past him and tackled the ball carrier. Was it a bad playcall? Maybe. Was it bad because we didn’t prepare him to block the right guy? Maybe. Was that player just bad? Maybe.
The point is, we often don’t know all the details of situations like this and offer opinions or thoughts and present them as undeniable truths. Now I get it - this is a message board and we’re more or less free to post our thoughts/opinions. But the reality is simple: quite often, we just don’t know.
Jim Mora Sr said it best when he went on one of his great tirades:
You guys really don’t know when it’s good or bad when it comes right down to it. You really don’t know. Because you don’t know what we’re trying to do. You guys don’t look at the films, you don’t know what happened, you really don’t know. You think you know, but you don’t know. And you never will. Okay? Sometimes you’ll think it’s good and it isn’t any good. Sometimes you’ll think it’s bad and it was pretty darn good. Sometimes you’ll think it’s bad and it’s bad. But basically you really don’t know. The only people that really know are our coaches. And that goes with run blocking, pass defense, all those things. The public doesn’t know, you guys don’t know.
Just food for thought.
As for Key as permanent HC: I have mixed feelings. But again, we just aren’t privy to all the chaos that’s going on (HC fired, QBs injured, guys leaving, etc.)
For those who aren’t sold on Key here’s a hypothetical: Would you feel better him as HC if he told JBatt, “Here’s my plan. I will lead by example. We will be tough, disciplined, and fight til we can’t fight no ’Mo. I ask that you hire Jamey Chadwell as OC and pay him 1.5 million. And let’s go poach Ron Roberts from Baylor and pay him 1.5 million to be our DC. And he will advance our recruiting into the Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma region. Anthony will stay on as LB coach for continuity and Travares will stay with the DBs.“
I could get on board with that. FACT. [This hypothetical is just me throwing randomness out there and having some fun]