I think the "D" looked good today because the "O" was so bad.

Never blame the weather - both teams have to play in it.

FAUFBL said

Never blame the weather - both teams have to play in it.

Thank you!

Fledgling said

You cannot blame the weather on the loss, Michigan State played in the same crap we did.

Michigan State played in the same bad weather, but they are built for playing in bad weather. They have a dominant run game. FAU is far too dependent on the pass. We never really seemed to even try to establish the run even though it had some early success.


Its like bringing a Corvette to race against a 4X4 in the mud. The Corvette just isn't made for the conditions and therefor isn't going to win.


GO OWLS!!!

Weather was a factor even if both teams had to play in it. Bad weather benefits the team with the stronger run game. Obviously MSU has a great running game and the weather and FAU defense highlighted the strength of the MSU team.

GO OWLS!!!

owlfan1 said

Bad weather benefits the team with the stronger run game.

GO OWLS!!!

That's it…that's the game, in summary.

But we could have run more screens, and five out sets…

Why keep going medium to long pass routes on every single throwing down??

Fledgling said

Do you guys really think the defense was that good? MSU averaged 8.3 yards on first downs.  They knew what play was coming each time, which I think helped the defense look "better" to a lot of you.

What is with the bashing of the defense?  Yes, they've been terrible for the first two weeks, but today they kept us in the game.  The defense didn't just look better,  it WAS better.  They gave up a lot of yards on the ground….fine.  But they made a number of key stops.  MSU was forced to punt 10 times.  They had 2 turnovers.  If the offense could have held the ball for any length of time, the MSU rushing stats aren't nearly as high.

Pin this one on the rain and the offense.

The defense did it's job today and it was nice to see.  If we hold opponents to 17 points a game the rest of the year, we'll win every game.

I did question some of the play calling, but the fact is, the players that are usually very dependable - Rusty, Gent, Grant etc… had a terrible time out there & the weather was awful and did contribute to some of the misfortunes today.

Playing Michigan State in good weather is hard enough, playing them in weather like today and you add to the level of difficulty the players had to endure.  It gives them something else to overcome.

We needed to play good solid football in order to give ourselves a chance and this includes error free football - good execution overall.

The defense did pretty good for a while, even allowing some yardage on the ground - the time of possession was in Michigan favor -  37:27 to 22:33.  The defense played a TON on minutes.  When a team gets that many yards, it wear down a defense add the time of possession and you get a tired defense.

Could we have done things differently sure, but you tend to really on your strength when things aren't going well and in difficult conditions and that is our passing game & like some have mentioned the weather just didn't allow for much production in that department - even Michigan State has a good passing game & it struggled all day - they do have a Great back thay can rely on.

I felt we could have run the ball more, but that wasn't the case.

Michigan State had plenty of miscues and we failed to capitalize on them, I think leaving 10pts on the field early in the game hurt our changes to build any confidence & momentum we could have had.  These are the things the players have to learn and you have to do so on the field during game time situation.
These game are still learning experiences for our players, it's not like we have been playing these type of games for a long time - we only have been playing 1-A football for three season.  I think we are starting to show that we can compete, we just need to execute better and that goes for ANY team, including BCS teams.

I think we will be fine.  We continue to build on our experiences.  Michigan State is a pretty good football team, lets not forget that, they also showed the experience we lack, in being able to battle through difficult conditions.  All of this will pay dividend at one point this season when it matters the most.

fauowls44 said

Fledgling said

Do you guys really think the defense was that good? MSU averaged 8.3 yards on first downs.  They knew what play was coming each time, which I think helped the defense look "better" to a lot of you.

What is with the bashing of the defense?  Yes, they've been terrible for the first two weeks, but today they kept us in the game.  The defense didn't just look better,  it WAS better.  They gave up a lot of yards on the ground….fine.  But they made a number of key stops.  MSU was forced to punt 10 times.  They had 2 turnovers.  If the offense could have held the ball for any length of time, the MSU rushing stats aren't nearly as high.

Pin this one on the rain and the offense.

The defense did it's job today and it was nice to see.  If we hold opponents to 17 points a game the rest of the year, we'll win every game.

The defense did its job today? Dude, they let a guy rush for 282 yards.


They made some big plays, I'd agree on that.  But if you're going to say our offense didn't play well because of the rain then you have to admit that our defense played better because of it.  Don't be a homer.  ;)

Fledgling said

fauowls44 said

Fledgling said

Do you guys really think the defense was that good? MSU averaged 8.3 yards on first downs.  They knew what play was coming each time, which I think helped the defense look "better" to a lot of you.

What is with the bashing of the defense?  Yes, they've been terrible for the first two weeks, but today they kept us in the game.  The defense didn't just look better,  it WAS better.  They gave up a lot of yards on the ground….fine.  But they made a number of key stops.  MSU was forced to punt 10 times.  They had 2 turnovers.  If the offense could have held the ball for any length of time, the MSU rushing stats aren't nearly as high.

Pin this one on the rain and the offense.

The defense did it's job today and it was nice to see.  If we hold opponents to 17 points a game the rest of the year, we'll win every game.

The defense did its job today? Dude, they let a guy rush for 282 yards.


They made some big plays, I'd agree on that.  But if you're going to say our offense didn't play well because of the rain then you have to admit that our defense played better because of it.  Don't be a homer.  ;)

I am being objective here.  Did the D keep the team in the game?  Did they give the offense the ball in good field position on numerous occasions?  Did the rain help?  No doubt.  But you have to admit the rain hurt the offense SEVERELY.  Under normal conditions, the Owls control the ball at least 5 minutes longer then they did today and they don't get shutout.

Yes, both teams played in the same rain.  Yes, they gave up 282 yards to one guy.  The bottom line though is that they only gave up 17 points and played well enough to win.  Why can't they get credit for that?

Unlike past games, I was not disappointed by the performance of the defense. I expected MSU to run the ball all game long. Many BIG10 teams will get gashed by the MSU run game as well. The FAU defense did make some big stops and kept us in the game. I really thought that MSU would roll up 35 plus points even with the bad weather. This loss hangs on the shoulders of the offense. The defense still has some things to work on, but the loss isn't their fault.

GO OWLS!!!