JohnStOnge wrote:You do realize it was already 34-21 when Bell got hurt? I do agree the only thing that matters is what actually happens.
What I said is that they moved the ball well until Bell got hurt. When I look at the whole game it looked pretty even physically but Sam Houston State made more mistakes.
This is the thing with Bell: Sam Houston State had 400 yards of offense in the game. They had 200 yards rushing and Bell had 112 of them. They had 212 of their 400 total yards at halftime and at the point that Bell got hurt with a little over 10 minutes to go in the game they had 123 yards of offense in the second half. There was no "drop off" in their offensive production in terms of ability to move the ball between first half and second half when Bell was in there. They did make mistakes. The guy dropped a wide open TD pass. A few plays later Bell made a mistake in throwing that ball on that little swing pass as it was covered and there was no way that was going to work. And he made a mistake in throwing it where the guy in front of him could get it.
They also blew a coverage and gave up a 62 yard TD pass early in the second half. Southeastern Louisiana blew a coverage too that would've been a TD for Sam Houston but the guy dropped the ball so they didn't pay for it.
That sort of thing. In any game both teams make mistakes and it it's an evenly matched games who makes more, I think, determines who wins a lot of the time. And I think Sam Houston State made more. The final total yards were 400 yards for Sam Houston State and 413 for Southeastern Louisiana even though Sam Houston State played a little more than the last 10 minutes without a starting quarterback who was obviously very important to themin that game. It was not a physical mismatch by any means. Losing by 13 isn't all that remarkable when you're -3 in the turnover stat as Sam Houston State was in that game. And that doesn't count dropping a wide open TD pass a couple of plays prior to one of the turnovers.
Nobody said it was a physical mismatch, but we controlled the game physically, especially in the second half ... as far as mistakes, we left, at bare minimum, six points on the field, and quite possibly as many as 17. We drove 85 yards on our second possession of the game, had a first and goal, and came away with zero points - including a couple of cracks from the two. On the following possession, we had another first and goal and got a holding penalty, which stalled the drive - we had to settle for a FG. In the second half, we had a punt return for a TD called back, and passed over a makeable FG opportunity to go for it on 4th down near the red zone ... we dropped what should have been an easy first down throw. Furthermore, we went conservative once we went up 31-21 ... we ran the ball on three straight downs after Corbett's INT and settled for a FG to go up 34-21 ... had they scored on the following possession when Bell got hurt, I can guarantee you we would have pushed the ball aggressively back down the field ... we didn't have to after that. And finally, we had six QB sacks to their zero - that should tell you something about up front play.
I have no idea how the rematch will play out, but if we play well and don't come out stale after the bye week, I really like our chances.
... looks like they'll have a nice contingent there for a pregame party. Gotta love playoff football! Brings out the true fan in all of us!
