I think it’s a fallacy perpetuated by many sports fans and even some coaches that you can be your “best” week in and week out. You can’t. That’s the goal, but it’s extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.
You can put in the effort and the prep and still have mental lapses and ups and downs. Really good teams don’t “avoid” these let downs, but they more often survive them. They are talented enough to overcome or stay close, and experienced enough to focus when the opportunity presents.
We’re rebuilding. We aren’t talented enough to overcome lapses against decent football teams. We’re not experienced enough to regroup / refocus on the fly. Granted, we seem to be the most “Jekyll & Hyde” team in CFB this year because our highs are pretty darned high, but I like the highs… it shows the level at which we are capable of competing. Problem is, when we’re off, we’re susceptible to loss to just about anyone too. Its magnified for us right now, but we’ve always been a team that relies heavily on execution more so than raw talent / physical traits so we see bigger swings when execution is not there.