I still expect to lose

[TrueOrange]

Seems like forever waiting to become Bowl eligble with 6th win. Music City Bowl :yuck:

Music City Bowl is the same tier as the Outback, Taxslayer, Belk, Texas, and Liberty Bowls now. It's a pool of bowls where the SEC front offices decide who plays where out of the remaining teams.

 

[wesleydmartin]

I so wanted to have a good year.

I'm sad.

For real, this sums it up...

 

[Behr]

Have you seen them play. This isn't Pinkel's Missouri like we've played the last 4 years. Their defense could build brick walls across the field the night before and they'd still give up 400+ yards of offense and close to 30 points to a team that was just FBS level.

Exaggerate much?

If you don't think that TN team last night cannot lose to Mizz, you're crazy.

 

[Orangeslice13]

Last night I bulldozed a GE lightbulb manufacturing plant.

Thank you.
That really helps

 

[TrueOrange]

Exaggerate much?

If you don't think that TN team last night cannot lose to Mizz, you're crazy.

I actually disagree and must ask if you've watched Missouri in any game outside of the UGA game? This isn't some bravado or fandom pride with picking all wins for my team on my part. I'm in St Louis, and this comes from watching and seeing how much that program has utterly imploded under their new coach.

He brought back almost everyone on a last year top 8 defense, and the result has been one of the worst defenses not just in the SEC, but in the entire country...mostly because for whatever reason, the new HC or DC has decided that the way to play defense in the SEC is with 5 defensive backs on the field at all times, like he did in the Big 12.

They have given up 400+ yards to everyone they've played that wasn't FCS-level Delaware State. LSU's backup looked like Fornette against them while LSU casually put up over 600 yards of offense on them. The Florida offense, which has generally struggled more than not but gets compensated by their better defense, had one of its 2 500 yard games against them in a 40-14 blowout. They gave up 600 total yards and 51 points to MTSU (a team who hadn't beaten an SEC team not named Vanderbilt) in a loss, perhaps in part because even after 300 yards of MTSU rushing their new DC and HC were having difficulty grasping the concept that a constant 5 DB / Nickel defense might have trouble stopping RBs. The HC stepped in feeling he needed to make changes to the defense, and the result was that they gave up almost 600 yards of offense (377 yards rushing) to UK, with 350 yards of it coming in the first half of a 35-21 loss (it was 35-7 until like the last 8 minutes of the game). And that's not even going into the 494 yards given up to WVU and even the 428 yards of offense allowed to woeful Eastern Michigan. They have struggled on defense against every FBS team they've played. And right now we're looking at playing a 116th ranked defense that's almost 90th in points allowed.


And that doesn't begin to touch how woefully inept their offense is, which is in the middle of shuffling QBs around in the hopes of just getting something to work. Their offense has struggled against any defense that's Power 5 conference level or higher. They've been insistent on running an always-no-huddle offense while unable to actually convert 3rd downs in it, and their less 2-minute drives just put their awful defense on the field more and more early in their games without getting any sort of rest. And it's had little to no success outside of an FCS team, 2 mid-majors, and a half against UGA. When their passing game works ok, their rushing game's awful, and when the rushing game figures itself out, their passing game goes right back to struggling.

They were pretty much shut down by WVU until the last two minutes. Once UGA made an adjustment at the half, their offense disappeared for the entirety of the 3rd quarter, putting up 24 total yards and 2 ints on 5 possessions. Against LSU, they didn't even cross 80 total rushing yards or 300 total yards and all the mid majors, FCS, and Miss St teams even managed to score more than the single TD Missouri got in the last 6 minutes of the game. While Florida's defense is certainly it's better half, it's not good enough that an SEC level passing game should be going into a game with them and accomplishing a total of less 100 yards and 3 turnovers - two of which were interceptions returned for TDs in the first half of a 40-14 blowout. And when one would think their offense might finally see some clearing in the woods against a team like UK - a team whose defense ranked in the mid to low 90s in the country in points allowed (with 3 40+ point games and another 2 34+ point games) - the Tigers come in and put up a grand 7 points (and less than 300 in offense) before UK subbed in backups in the last 10 minutes of the game. And that's not even getting into that their offense is so bad, that it's dead last in time of possession amongst all FBS teams in the entire country, meaning that 116th ranked defense is pretty much on the field 2/3 or so of each games, which also averages a total of about 1 sack per game.


Heck, if it wasn't for garbage time points, they would have been outscored 117-14 over their last 3 SEC games.



I get that we're down after the loss, and I understand people are downtrodden and sad. But if anyone realistically thinks we're bad enough to lose to that Missouri, then they might as well also start predicting a Tenn Tech loss as well. They're just too much of a dumpster fire, even considering it's a program that's adjusting to a new HC.