Did I have coffee with you this AM, ladyhawke? We were just talking about this at the coffee shop, how the only way to explain the level of disappointment we're seeing after a 33-point blowout win is that the expectations of those disappointed simply weren't met. People expected something other than what they saw, therefore the result - no matter how positive - becomes a negative.
There's a whole branch of psychology that deals with unrealized expectations. You'll find a lot of this kind of discussion in marriage counseling, where neither party is really doing anything wrong, they're just not doing what the disaffected partner(s) expect(s).
I walked into this game expecting to see a ragged offensive performance. I expected to see trouble in the kicking game, and a strong showing by the defense. My expectations were met by the offense (mostly), I was blown away by Maher's ability to vastly exceed my expectations, and overall the defense met my expectations based on Dennard's injury and what I've seen of them the last couple of years under Bo. The fact that I'm not reacting negatively to the game is probably best explained by looking at those expectations.
Nail on the head. I was surprised so many people expected our offense to run like a well-oiled machine the first day out with a new offense, new coordinator, new position coaches, new system of calling plays, 4 new starters on the offensive line, a handful of kids who were in high school a few months ago, ect.
I got about what I expected across the board. Maher exceeded expectations. I was glad ball security and penalties seemed improved. There were still fumbles, but none of them were because of the way the ball was being carried. I expected a better showing out of the offensive line, I expected a better showing from BK and Stien also. Definately lots of things to clean up on all three phases of the game, but that's pretty much what I expected.
