With the dawn of a new day, I see some convinced we are a better team than they thought we were before the game and some even predicting winning every future game except ''maybe OU will give us some trouble".
The great thing about fandom is that nothing we say can be taken seriously most of the time because we are homers. That's the way it should be. I hoped but didn't really expect to win at VT. But what I feared was a problem was brought home in spades.
The problem was that until yesterday our offense was untested, it was like we played two scout teams and pounded them. I was not confident at all that our passing game was even close to where it was last year with Ganz Swift/Pedersen. It seems that concern was well founded.
11 for 30 with two INTs, is not just bad stats for Zac. It says our OL, our recievers and likely our schemes with the talent we have are lacking at this point. Some fans seem to whistle by the grave yard and discount the terrible performance because of how loud it was in Blacksburg and "it was his first game away from home". This isn't about kids going to summer camp being homesick; this is college football in the big leagues. Can you imagine Devaney or Osborn team's fans whining about how loud it was or how their young qb was shakey on the road? No-we just were terrible in the passing game. It stunk and there is no excuses that are one time fixes. There is a tremendous amout of work to be done. It may be that our passing offense is a weak link against any team with a good defense. Some fans hope and explain away the poor performance by claiming that VT is the only good defense we will see this season. Outside of our next opponent most defenses we face will more resemble VT than the rest of our non con opponents. If we are inept in the passing game against the better teams on our schedule, the results will look similar. So this game either says VT is a collosal defensive team against the pass or our passing game and thus our offense needs help and quick.
On the other side of the ball, things seem better for the most part but that too is something than a question mark; because a case could be made that VT is the worst offensive football team we have played. A good Alabama team only allowed them 155 yards so the fact we contained them is a toss up as to whether our defense can shut a good team down or whether VT is very weak offensively.
A lot has to change before we play OU and TT and MO. All of those teams will score far more points than VT. My guess is that the coaching staff this morning is coming to the conclusion that the passing game is not where it needs to be and major changes are needed prior to the MO game.
The word is out that if you bring pressure on Lee he will make mistakes and you are unlikely to get burned. We will have to prove that not to be the case. We are a young team and unless there is major improvement which means changes in the passing game, we are going to have to manage expectations because nearly every game will be very tough to win. MO will now be the test for how the season will go. With the offense we had at VT we would be in real trouble against MO TT KU OU and Baylor. The good thing is we have most of 3 weeks to get the offensive ship righted.
The great thing about fandom is that nothing we say can be taken seriously most of the time because we are homers. That's the way it should be. I hoped but didn't really expect to win at VT. But what I feared was a problem was brought home in spades.
The problem was that until yesterday our offense was untested, it was like we played two scout teams and pounded them. I was not confident at all that our passing game was even close to where it was last year with Ganz Swift/Pedersen. It seems that concern was well founded.
11 for 30 with two INTs, is not just bad stats for Zac. It says our OL, our recievers and likely our schemes with the talent we have are lacking at this point. Some fans seem to whistle by the grave yard and discount the terrible performance because of how loud it was in Blacksburg and "it was his first game away from home". This isn't about kids going to summer camp being homesick; this is college football in the big leagues. Can you imagine Devaney or Osborn team's fans whining about how loud it was or how their young qb was shakey on the road? No-we just were terrible in the passing game. It stunk and there is no excuses that are one time fixes. There is a tremendous amout of work to be done. It may be that our passing offense is a weak link against any team with a good defense. Some fans hope and explain away the poor performance by claiming that VT is the only good defense we will see this season. Outside of our next opponent most defenses we face will more resemble VT than the rest of our non con opponents. If we are inept in the passing game against the better teams on our schedule, the results will look similar. So this game either says VT is a collosal defensive team against the pass or our passing game and thus our offense needs help and quick.
On the other side of the ball, things seem better for the most part but that too is something than a question mark; because a case could be made that VT is the worst offensive football team we have played. A good Alabama team only allowed them 155 yards so the fact we contained them is a toss up as to whether our defense can shut a good team down or whether VT is very weak offensively.
A lot has to change before we play OU and TT and MO. All of those teams will score far more points than VT. My guess is that the coaching staff this morning is coming to the conclusion that the passing game is not where it needs to be and major changes are needed prior to the MO game.
The word is out that if you bring pressure on Lee he will make mistakes and you are unlikely to get burned. We will have to prove that not to be the case. We are a young team and unless there is major improvement which means changes in the passing game, we are going to have to manage expectations because nearly every game will be very tough to win. MO will now be the test for how the season will go. With the offense we had at VT we would be in real trouble against MO TT KU OU and Baylor. The good thing is we have most of 3 weeks to get the offensive ship righted.