Louisville did a great job pre-snap of taking away things we like to do. They were well prepared and still only with the help of our own individual mistakes, Watson missing wide open targets whether rushed or just a bad throw, throwing INTs when throwing to wrong guy in the first place, players missing blocks, an incredible individual effort by their kick returner...... All that and they still lose. We were 10 points better than them on a horrible night for us.
Back to the first point. They did a great job of taking away the perimeter. After we realized that we started attacking the middle with Watson runs. They were GIVING us that and we kept it simple and took it. People say it is conservative but that is what they were giving us and we moved the chains as a result. It was easy pickings and we took it. We didn't force our gameplan. Remember SC a few years ago. We tried to force our gameplan when they were unable to stop us running the ball. This staff keeps in simple in the moment. Not arrogant, not perfect but damn sure more common sense. We lost our deep threat and couldn't protect long enough to take too many deep shots. This offensive's staff ability to keep it simple is only appreciated when you remember the days of us trying to be too cute and blowing it.
Individual mistakes hurt us in this case much more than coaching. Those mistakes can be corrected. Louisville was very fortunate to have Watson missing targets like he did. Those third down calls were wide open. Go back and look at the game. Those misses were huge. Great play calls though. Much easier correcting player mistakes than changing a grown man and his playcalling abilities or lack thereof. We will be fine.
Back to the first point. They did a great job of taking away the perimeter. After we realized that we started attacking the middle with Watson runs. They were GIVING us that and we kept it simple and took it. People say it is conservative but that is what they were giving us and we moved the chains as a result. It was easy pickings and we took it. We didn't force our gameplan. Remember SC a few years ago. We tried to force our gameplan when they were unable to stop us running the ball. This staff keeps in simple in the moment. Not arrogant, not perfect but damn sure more common sense. We lost our deep threat and couldn't protect long enough to take too many deep shots. This offensive's staff ability to keep it simple is only appreciated when you remember the days of us trying to be too cute and blowing it.
Individual mistakes hurt us in this case much more than coaching. Those mistakes can be corrected. Louisville was very fortunate to have Watson missing targets like he did. Those third down calls were wide open. Go back and look at the game. Those misses were huge. Great play calls though. Much easier correcting player mistakes than changing a grown man and his playcalling abilities or lack thereof. We will be fine.
