Coug90 said:

That’s sort of been the game plan since Grinch. Be aggressive, get in the backfield, cause negative plays and turnovers and live with the occasional 80 yard house call. In general I think it’s a good plan when you’re outmanned and can’t line up in a base defense and win.

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CougPatrol said:

The UCLA game is what I was referring to. Doba made the adjustment after 1 week and it worked. We know our defense is weak, and we know the New Mexico is run heavy. Why in the world did we stay in the 4-3 with the linebackers 5 yards off the LOS?

I hope you're not comparing Bill Doba to our current defensive coaches.

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dgibbons said:

I don't know what Dickert wants this defense to look like, other than that he wants to generate turnovers. That sounds like bend but don't break to me, with turnovers to mask the deficiencies. Given where WSU is, the expansion back to 105 scholarship players, and a $0.00 NIL budget, this at least in a broad sense is what we're going to see. It does not take any genius level intellect to see that speed, size, strength and athletic ability have been declining since Leach left. Durant's replacement, if there actually is someone better will be the same guy or marginally better. Just like Lockett's replacement was the same guy or marginally better.

With that said, we should be able to line up and if necessary call an audible ten games into the season. The defense has been glacially slow in that regard. Whatever system they are using to communicate needs to fixed like 9 games ago, or jettisoned in the offseason. I get that we're sticking new guys in all over the line up and will continue as long as there is a portal, but **** me it's pathetic to watch blown assignments game after game.

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CougPatrol said:

I thought the scheme was atrocious yesterday. We sat in the same ineffective 4-3 defense the entire 2nd half. Bill Doba would have never allowed them to keep gutting us with the same 3 plays. He would have changed to a 5-man front and said FU, run something else.

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CougPatrol said:

The UCLA game is what I was referring to. Doba made the adjustment after 1 week and it worked. We know our defense is weak, and we know the New Mexico is run heavy. Why in the world did we stay in the 4-3 with the linebackers 5 yards off the LOS?

I hope you're not comparing Bill Doba to our current defensive coaches.

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CougPatrol said:

Mateer is gone.

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CougEd said:

Are you serious . Oregon in 2001 had two backs over 200 yards for a total of 446. He made no adjustments and because the wind was so strong Harrington couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

It was one week later we played UCLA and the leading rusher in the country in Foster. He finally made an adjustment where he went to 5 down lineman .

So I know people look way better over time, but they all seem slow to adjust.

And before you claim it is New Mexico, they run such an unconventional offense i would think people would understand it is a horrible match up on top of the DE not holding an edge.

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dgibbons said:

Road games have been flat. Home games have been generally fine. SJSU appears be one of the better teams in the MWC.

It is worth remembering that we have a sophomore QB in his first season as starter. Parker is a true freshman. Pulalasi is a RS freshman. Schlenbaker is a RS sophomore. Consistency can be elusive. Keeping Mateer, the OL and RB units as intact is the key to next season, IMO. Pole is the only senior on the OL.

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ttowncoug said:

Maybe not, but the fact is:
1. Team was up and defense played great vs. UW.
2. Team has been flat the post Apple Cup and to me it's consistency and discipline.

The Mike Leach reference was he'd be on his kids weekly to treat every game like a championship game. Same mentality that went into the Apple Cup win, goes into the New Mexico second half.

As for the offensive strategy, it wasn't until late in the 4th until they started to take what the defense was giving them. It was the quick hitters and taking "chunk yards." If we do that earlier in the 3rd, we are up by 7 points to win the game.

That said, our defense just isn't getting it done. Jake is a defensive coach. Same players that beat UW. What is different? Lines up with mentality, discipline and coaching style.

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Coug90 said:

Jakes a defensive coach but he has a defensive coordinator on his staff to coordinate and call the defense. I would expect after that game he will make a change in the offseason. This is not Dickerts defense and I’m sure he’s more disgusted with the plan and execution than anyone here is.

Ultimately it falls on him so it will be up to him to find the right coaches to get back on track. There’s clearly a talent issue as well. Durant is a perfect example. How many times has he been caught flat footed and had receivers blow by him. You can scheme all you want, if your players look like that they shouldn’t be playing.

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CougEd said:

Bronco Mendenhall is considered a very very good coach. New Mexico winning under him does not surprise me. Football is a game of matchups....

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longtimecoug said:

Losing when we play solid hard nosed football doesnt bother me, i dont like it but there is no shame in putting out your best effort and losing to a better team. That didnt happen tonight

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BiggsCoug said:

They cant do it. They aren’t strong enough to play knock back, physical football. Yelling and shaming won’t help them. They need coaches that can scheme it up.

They dont have those coaches.

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CougInSpain said:

That jet sweep killed us time and time again. Our LB's never did run up on the line to contain the edge. That and the run option they ran made our defense look like peewee football out there.

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95coug said:

I seriously question what we did in film study this week. NM kept running the same play, and we couldn’t recognize it. I could see it coming from my couch, but they couldn’t on the field.

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ttowncoug said:

Maybe not, but the fact is:
1. Team was up and defense played great vs. UW.
2. Team has been flat the post Apple Cup and to me it's consistency and discipline.

The Mike Leach reference was he'd be on his kids weekly to treat every game like a championship game. Same mentality that went into the Apple Cup win, goes into the New Mexico second half.

As for the offensive strategy, it wasn't until late in the 4th until they started to take what the defense was giving them. It was the quick hitters and taking "chunk yards." If we do that earlier in the 3rd, we are up by 7 points to win the game.

That said, our defense just isn't getting it done. Jake is a defensive coach. Same players that beat UW. What is different? Lines up with mentality, discipline and coaching style.

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Loyal Coug1 said:

Not sure that using the Apple Cup and Mike Leach is a good analogy........

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ttowncoug said:

This what is clearly lacking. We are good at times but we lack consistency. This is on Jake and how they coach. Too emotional on the good wins. See Apple cup. Doesn’t leave me thinking performances like SDSU are not acceptable.

Leach was much better in this area

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ATACFD said:

Palouse Pussies? That's sadly appropriate. Honestly, someone needs to post that in the locker room and let everyone on D stare at it for 10 minutes. The coordinators for 30 minutes. Maybe that will make a difference. Of course, I'm older and come from a time where a coach could use shame as a motivator for improvement.....

As for the timeout debate there is no general rule. It's very situation specific. You have to take into account all factors. I agree with 90 and others that given that the defense was shiite, and odds were high NM would score, we need to have as much time left as possible. If we have a minute left there's a good chance we score. One factor that hasn't been mentioned is that NM still had 2 time outs themselves under a minute if I recall correctly. So us NOT calling a time out with the hopes that they would run out of time is just dumb. There's other nuances to that but I don't feel like writing a longer novel....

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UberCougars said:

Great teams win. This team lost.

Cinderella has left the stadium.

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