Coogs the safe pick

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We’ve come a long way in the past few weeks from being picked to finish 3rd in our division to almost favorites to win the conference. Guess the oddsmakers finally woke up to what happened to us this offseason?

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I have never seen that happen before…

I have been watching Cougar football for a long time. Based on my experience, this year has the feel of a very special year. We are flying under the radar but all the pieces are there. If D-King can perform like I think he can, this very well could be one of our great years in our history (Yes I think we can end up in the top 5).

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Maybe top 5 in AP or Coaches poll after an undefeated year, conference title, and a convincing NY6 victory, but the CFP will not put us there, at least not this year.

I agree we won’t be in the playoffs but an undefeated season ending with a top 5 ranking is feasible. There is no one on our schedule we can’t beat (or shouldn’t beat).

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I want all this to come to pass but I’m still sketchy on D’Onofrio. Prove me wrong Mark!

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The Navy game put my mind to ease with our D-Coordinator.

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2nd half of the 2017 Navy game was as good a job of shutting down their triple option as I have seen in a good while. It’s all about staying home until you’re sure the ball is not coming your way.

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Sorry, but I still have images of Memphis driving up and down the field on us last year in the second half. I want you to be right!

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That was as much about Memphis as it was about us. The offense played like crap and the defense played like crap in the 2nd half, and Memphis started executing.

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That’s why I put money on the coogs to make the final 4 and Ed Oliver for heisman!!

That second half defense was brutal. 6 consecutive touchdowns.

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Two of those were not on the D, kickoff return and fumble recovery deep. We were up by 10 with 6 min to go. Ferguson executed, the D couldn’t stop them, and the O couldn’t convert first downs to eat up the clock. It sucked as a fan watching it. Ferguson was clinical with the passes over the middle.

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If it makes you feel any better, the WR that piled up 178 yards on 10 catches was drafted in the second round. He also had 9 catches for 185 yards against UCLA and 14 catches for 195 yards against UCF. It still doesn’t excuse one of their running backs having a career high 91 yards receiving though.

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One was a kickoff return for a TD. The other TD drives were 64, 62, 64, 77, and 80. That’s 347 yards in 5 drives. The offense scored 3 TDs in the second half too. While they had their struggles late, they did enough to win that game.

I just rewatched the ECU game and the defensive scheme made me squirm the whole time. ECU was terrible but they had well over 450 passing yards, mainly off little screen passes and dink-and-dunk stuff over the middle. We played such soft coverage. I’m hoping for better things this year too!

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We started out with a 21 to 0 lead in the first quarter. The defense forced 3 turnovers including getting a pick 6. If the end result is 52 - 27, I wouldn’t mind if ECU had 1000 yards passing off of dinks and dunks.

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CMD went soft with big lead after Winchester got beat in man coverage on back to back plays …2nd a TD. He was supposed be our best CB. Minishew the QB is at Washington State this year as grad transfer

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The only problem is allowing better QBs the same freedom. That’s a concern because while ECU didn’t score a lot, better offenses with better talent will. I think most have confidence in us beating the ECUs and Temples of the world, but we should all be sweating when(if) we play Memphis, UCF, USF, and P-5 out of conference teams.

1 Like