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FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

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I'm really concerned about what I saw defensively on Saturday. Some may say that the D played better Saturday. I don't see it that way. Here's my thoughts/concerns; In the first 2 games, Texas and UAB had there way with our defense. MSU did as well. Texas ran a mix of running and passing, UAB threw the ball at will, MSU ran the ball at will. My point is, whatever the team we faced strong suit was, they were able to exploit our D at will with it. That's not a good sign. ARK ST, ULM & Troy all are playing better football than we are right now. Forget 11-1, 10-2, we better try to right this D before we enter into conference play. It's time for the D's play to catch up with this teams hype. This is what happens when one begins to believe their press clippings. They figure all they have to do is show up. Not so! Teams are waiting for us and we better start acting like it.  It's time for somebody to figure out what will make this D better  and this O stop with the turnovers or I'm afraid we will be home for the bowl season.
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

We will have more success on defense in conference play. Everyone is caught up on the fact that MSU had big rushing numbers. They are a great running team. At the end of the day they only had 17 points. I like our chances if we can hold teams to 17 points. I am far less concerned about the defense than I was a week ago.

We are 1-2. I think that is really what most people expected from us. If we can sneak by Minnesota next week we go into conference play 2-2 with some real momentum. That is a great position to be in.

GO OWLS!!!

2017 and 2019 Conference USA Champions
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

owlfan1 said

We will have more success on defense in conference play. Everyone is caught up on the fact that MSU had big rushing numbers. They are a great running team. At the end of the day they only had 17 points. I like our chances if we can hold teams to 17 points. I am far less concerned about the defense than I was a week ago.

We are 1-2. I think that is really what most people expected from us. If we can sneak by Minnesota next week we go into conference play 2-2 with some real momentum. That is a great position to be in.

GO OWLS!!!

Realistically - being at 2-2 going into conference play was an achievable goal & still is.
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

The fact that we gave up 300 yds rushing is a concern. I think you guys are missing the point. The point is, we have been unable to stop whatever a team decided to do to us, that's the concern. If a team wants to pass, they pass. If a team wants to run, they run. We have not stopped either. 17 points isn't a lot of points, but it could have been a lot worse if not for their turnovers. I real D has the ability to take something away from a team. We have not shown the ability to stop run or pass. As for 2-2; The hype around this team has not been 2-2. Let's not back away from expectations now. We must fix whats broken if we will be succesful in conference play. Our D is broken.  Remember guys though we won the conference last year, everyone with the exception of FIU played us tough. All the games went into the forth quarter with either team having the possibility of winning.
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

I'm looking at the stats here.

Passing yards:
FAU 143
MSU 88

Passing first downs
FAU 3
MSU 3

# of punts:
FAU 10
MSU 10

Third down conversions:
FAU 2 of 15
MSU 3 of 16

MSU had one thing better: Ringer. He did set a personal yardage record but he also carried the ball a record # of times too. Murroney would have had more than that if he hadn't ben taken out early back in 2005. It stayed a close game most of the game.

I still do not see how Ringer racked up so many yards. He had a few good runs but he was also stopped at the line many times too. Some for a loss.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

Hootyhoot said

The fact that we gave up 300 yds rushing is a concern. I think you guys are missing the point. The point is, we have been unable to stop whatever a team decided to do to us, that's the concern. If a team wants to pass, they pass. If a team wants to run, they run. We have not stopped either. 17 points isn't a lot of points, but it could have been a lot worse if not for their turnovers. I real D has the ability to take something away from a team. We have not shown the ability to stop run or pass. As for 2-2; The hype around this team has not been 2-2. Let's not back away from expectations now. We must fix whats broken if we will be succesful in conference play. Our D is broken.  Remember guys though we won the conference last year, everyone with the exception of FIU played us tough. All the games went into the forth quarter with either team having the possibility of winning.

I was very happy with the way the D performed. They stopped ringer, sometimes before the line of scrimmage, they were in the backfield, they protected Rusty all day… did Ringer get through and put up yards? Sure. He had, what, 43 carries and the guy is talented. But he was limited to 17 points.

I'm not totally sold on the defense doing a 180 (let's see what they do against the spread) but against MSU, they did very well.
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

Hootyhoot said

As for 2-2; The hype around this team has not been 2-2. Let's not back away from expectations now.

What expectations? You're delusional if you had hopes of going 4-0 or 3-1 in OOC play. 1-4 (which we've guaranteed already) was the minimum and if we can manage 2-2 going into conference play we're in good shape.
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

Obviously I've missed something through the summer. All I read was, "we had a realistic chance of beating TX if the stars were aligned just right", "we should beat MSU and MIN". The "hype" was that we were ready for the big time. So much for the hype. Well as of now, we better try to get this D in shape to have a realistic chance at winning the conference. Someone listed some stats earlier about 1st downs, passing yds etc… vs MSU. Again the point is, MSU did what they do best, run the ball. UAB did what they do best, throw the ball around and Texas did what ever they wanted and we were unable to stop either. The record aside, the D still has a lot of work to do. Again I remind you, we only beat one conference opponent without a struggle, FIU. I think it would be foolish of us to think none of the other teams improved.
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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

illinoisowl said

I'm looking at the stats here.

Passing yards:
FAU 143
MSU 88

Passing first downs
FAU 3
MSU 3

# of punts:
FAU 10
MSU 10

Third down conversions:
FAU 2 of 15
MSU 3 of 16

MSU had one thing better: Ringer. He did set a personal yardage record but he also carried the ball a record # of times too. Murroney would have had more than that if he hadn't ben taken out early back in 2005. It stayed a close game most of the game.

I still do not see how Ringer racked up so many yards. He had a few good runs but he was also stopped at the line many times too. Some for a loss.

The stats are pretty telling.

Isn't it against NCAA rules to have a "Ringer" on your team? It's funny that MSU had to recruit a "Ringer" to beat the Owls!

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Re: FAU D / O; Still Cause for Concern

Hootyhoot said

Obviously I've missed something through the summer. All I read was, "we had a realistic chance of beating TX if the stars were aligned just right", "we should beat MSU and MIN". The "hype" was that we were ready for the big time. So much for the hype. Well as of now, we better try to get this D in shape to have a realistic chance at winning the conference. Someone listed some stats earlier about 1st downs, passing yds etc… vs MSU. Again the point is, MSU did what they do best, run the ball. UAB did what they do best, throw the ball around and Texas did what ever they wanted and we were unable to stop either. The record aside, the D still has a lot of work to do. Again I remind you, we only beat one conference opponent without a struggle, FIU. I think it would be foolish of us to think none of the other teams improved.

There were a couple of posters here who thought we had a realistic chance of beating Texas.  I was not one of them.  If people were convinced we would walk into Texas and come out with a win when very few teams have over the past, I don't know…100 years, they were fooling themselves.  I thought the game would be slightly closer, but so what?  Against MSU we hung close in bad conditions.  It was the first time we played a close BCS game on the road. I would have loved a win and it was a winnable game, but again, not one that I expected to win…especially since before Saturday we had not ever played a close BCS game on the road.  We beat UAB.  Yes, they gave up too many points…but we won the game.  You have to keep in mind it was the second game of the season, we were without our 2 starting DEs and breaking in 2 new safties.

As for last season…if we win every game by 1 point and win the conference again, I'll be happy.

This team is right where I thought we'd be.  There is certainly room for improvement, but we are only 3 games into the season and played our 2 toughest opponents.  The defense has gotten better in each game and that is a trend I expect to continue.  I expect the offense to bounce back big against Minnesota.  I'll start panicing if we are losing Sun Belt games.  Let's just relax and get a big win over the Gophers on Saturday!

GO OWLS!! 
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