A couple of observations after thinking about it for a day.

Team looked flat as a pancake. Did not seem to be much energy or enthusiasm.

Both lines got pushed around a lot. Seemed to be minimal pass rush which gave Brown all day to setup and throw.
However it did seem to get somewhat better as the game progressed. D was on the field a long time it seemed, sure they were a bit winded by games end.
Secondary looked better than last year.

Running game looked good is spots but mostly had a tough day. Vad did not look good as other posters had noted.

Penalties, what more can be said.

Tackling on D was atrocious. The failure to wrap up and put a player to the turf cost JMU 2 scores when they had the MD player stopped and bottled up
on 4th downs near the goal line. Need to get better here. But tackling football wide is bad in both college and pros.

Even though a couple of posters thought the punting was OK I am concerned. According to the box score (and what I remember) there were two punts longer than 50 yards. One went into the endzone for a touchback and the other was fielded and run back fairly well as the punter out kicked his coverage (low punt but distance). The other 5 or 6 punts all averaged about 30 to 35 yards. While they had great hang time and no return (aside from the two running into the receiver penalties) the distance they carried was 35 yards or less. This could be a problem. If you are punting from the 50 or so a 35 yard punt is OK. If you are kicking (as we did a number of times yesterday)from inside the 30 you are giving the opposition a fairly short field to operate on. This is something that needs watching I think.

All is all a rather disappointing day. MRD's were great, made the UMD band sound like a high school band. Think we need to take a deep breath, realize this is a work in progress, not drop off the deep end and see what the next couple of weeks look like. CAA overall for the most part had a rather bad opening day.

On a somewhat different slant, did anyone else think Byrd Stadium is an absolute dump? I and the family were in section 2 and there were weeds growing in the concrete beneath the seats, there was all kinds of dead leaves, grass and other trash under the seats (place looked like it had not been cleaned in a year) and shortly after the 1st quarter all the bathrooms on that side of the stadium around to the horseshoe were closed due to lack of water. And don't even talk about the troughs in the mens rooms. After "experiencing" Byrd Stadium it makes you appreciate how nice Bridgeforth really is.

Well rant over. Hopefully next week the staff will right the ship and we will see a nice game and a win. Will be there so I hope to see a nice crown in purple.

Go Dukes!!

Brian

(08-30-2014 06:19 PM)bulldogg Wrote:  

(08-30-2014 06:11 PM)Sir Duke Wrote:  

(08-30-2014 05:59 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  Did you ever see a Mickey matthews coached team lose 52-7??

How about 47-0 to VT in 1999?
How about 43-0 to VT in 2003?
How about 45-10 to WVU in 2004? (That was a pretty good year.)
How about 42-10 to UNC in 2011?

Today was disgusting and atrocious but let's not act like Mickey never lost in a blowout. (I realize some of those teams were highly ranked, before anyone jumps on me.)

True! We have sucked before and today we sucked. Are we now all about justifying today's sucking by saying, "Oh, well, we sucked before?"

When are we going to stop justifying sucking?! I don't want us to suck!

Justifying sucking? Hey, I was just replying to the "Mickey never lost a game like this" stuff. We tend to have short memories around here.

I hate losing, especially in a blowout. It's like, I don't know, worse than winning or something. I think we're on the same page there.

(08-31-2014 12:51 PM)Sir Duke Wrote:  

(08-30-2014 06:19 PM)bulldogg Wrote:  

(08-30-2014 06:11 PM)Sir Duke Wrote:  

(08-30-2014 05:59 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  Did you ever see a Mickey matthews coached team lose 52-7??

How about 47-0 to VT in 1999?
How about 43-0 to VT in 2003?
How about 45-10 to WVU in 2004? (That was a pretty good year.)
How about 42-10 to UNC in 2011?

Today was disgusting and atrocious but let's not act like Mickey never lost in a blowout. (I realize some of those teams were highly ranked, before anyone jumps on me.)

True! We have sucked before and today we sucked. Are we now all about justifying today's sucking by saying, "Oh, well, we sucked before?"

When are we going to stop justifying sucking?! I don't want us to suck!

Justifying sucking? Hey, I was just replying to the "Mickey never lost a game like this" stuff. We tend to have short memories around here.

I hate losing, especially in a blowout. It's like, I don't know, worse than winning or something. I think we're on the same page there.

Yeah, no offense intended. I am just really frustrated, not at the loss, but the horrible play. It looked like Maryland let off the gas in the first quarter after that second TD, and were just coasting the rest of the way. It was terrible as it was, but if CJ Brown could throw a pass the score and stats would have been a lot worse.

Regardless of score or FBS / FCS etc it looked like we were not prepared to compete in any game on sat


Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Parent,
I agree with your comments. Yes, it was a dump. Their game-day atmosphere is not good IMO. I hate to admit it, but VT has developed a solid game-day experience and tradition in that regard. Actually, I thought the entire MD campus sucked. Unfortunately I got to know several employees, as I had to stop and get directions due to the lack of signage telling me where lot MV was located. Funny thing is, there was no lot "MV." MV was marked "UV," so I rode past it several times. Everyone kept telling me, "I have never heard of that lot," and they were not even doing that nicely! Thank goodness there were about 3 1/2 hours leading up to kickoff once we got settled or the day would have been an entire wash.

One other thing that I just remembered that made watching the game at Byrd such a chore. The number and length of the freaking TV timeouts. That was simply atrocious. Now I know they have to sell product but in one quarter there were 10 seconds left to go before the end of the quarter, there was a kickoff and a touchback and then went to a TV timeout after just having one for the previous score and 10 seconds before the end of the quarter!!! I think the players spent more time standing around than playing. The first quarter took almost 50 minutes and the second wasn't that much shorter. BTN is a mess. Hate freaking TV games in person.

Its like when people complain about the length of baseball games and what to do about it. Game hasn't changed much over the years. Just every game is now televised and there are 2 to 3 minutes of commercials every half inning. Than is why the games are so long!!

Rant over, for now anyway!!

Brian

(08-31-2014 05:19 PM)jmutoml757 Wrote:  Parent,
I agree with your comments. Yes, it was a dump. Their game-day atmosphere is not good IMO. I hate to admit it, but VT has developed a solid game-day experience and tradition in that regard. Actually, I thought the entire MD campus sucked. Unfortunately I got to know several employees, as I had to stop and get directions due to the lack of signage telling me where lot MV was located. Funny thing is, there was no lot "MV." MV was marked "UV," so I rode past it several times. Everyone kept telling me, "I have never heard of that lot," and they were not even doing that nicely! Thank goodness there were about 3 1/2 hours leading up to kickoff once we got settled or the day would have been an entire wash.

Yeah, all of College Park pretty much sucks. The MD campus is a dump in my opinion. For anybody who has worked on an Army or Navy base, that's what it feels like ... bunch of buildings that haven't been touched since the 60s. Byrd stadium isn't awful but in B1G terms it's in the bottom 3 for sure. Nothing great about that place.

I've now been to unc and seen wvu at FedEx. Considering they are a bcs program, their gameday lacked the atmosphere compared to those other schools.
I guess that's what you get with a more northern state.

(09-01-2014 07:33 PM)Potomac Wrote:  I've now been to unc and seen wvu at FedEx. Considering they are a bcs program, their gameday lacked the atmosphere compared to those other schools.
I guess that's what you get with a more northern state.

More northern state? Not that much different than Virginia and is still a hot area for football. I was in the big MD alumni lots partying with some MD tailgaters and I didn't see any lack of game day atmosphere. It looked pretty much like JMU on game day except bigger.