Saturday, September 24, 2011

Offense MIA as Vandy Falls to South Carolina 21-3

It's hard to know what to say about what just happened.  We'll have more to say in due course, but for now the numbers will suffice to explain the sinking feeling rippling through VSL Nation: 72 yards of total offense, -1 yards rushing, -4 points by the offense (1 field goal plus a fumble returned for a TD).  More penalty yards (80) than total yards (72).  All this in a game where the defense hauled in 4 -- yes, count 'em, FOUR -- interceptions.  Tough to swallow.

Discuss.

13 comments:

VandyImport said...

Simple: we have no O-line, and SC has a very good front seven. Not taking shots downfield - whether we could have is open to debate - let the front seven stay at home and the CBs stay in their lanes, and we just drummed ourselves into a brick wall all night.

That said, the Javon Marshall deflection back to the SC receiver was the mother, father and grandpa of all flukes - that's at least an incompletion if not an INT 99.99% of the time. And don't get me started on getting whored by the officials on the mutual-posession call. That was abyssmal and makes me question the integrity of SEC officiating.

It's a tough one to swallow, because the game wasn't as close as the score makes out, but with Alabama waiting on deck it's going to get worse before it gets better. The question is, will we be able to get up for Army after back-to-back losses?

Andrew Smith said...

1. It was minus seven points by the offense. They got the ball in FG range and advanced it very little. A FG is a special teams play.

2. Larry Smith should never start another football. Not in college. Not in a pick up league years from now. You cannot teach instincts that bad. Nor can you un-teach them, apparently. Here's a hint: If your offensive line can't stop the other team, you can't hold the ball for six seconds every play.

3. No one on the offensive line should even be allowed to watch football, let alone play it. Sadly, this is not an option.

4. The secondary looked good, but the D line did not look nearly as good as in games past. Fine against the run but very little pressure on Garcia and very little sense of when it was being allowed to rush upfield to set up the screen.

Anonymous said...

I suspected we'd lose, and 21 to 3 isn't bad, especially when 7 pts. were on a run back. We'll also lose the next 2 games, and be 3-3. The good news is that we'll beat Army and go to 4-3. Is there any doubt we can beat UK, UT, or Wake? Not saying we will, just that we have a shot.

Anonymous said...

Until the O-line issues are resolved, it will be tough to get to 6 wins. I for one was not expecting to beat SC; I did not expect us to look that bad though. O-line was awful but the entire offense looked like a dear in headlights from opening kickoff. LS is not the problem, but I agree with the above comment that he holds on to the ball too long. Let's keep our heads up...we were not really expecting to win this game. We need to revisit the play-calling and O-line. Also surprised to see our guys lose their composure during the game with foolish penalties. Go Dores !

Anonymous said...

Honestly can someone tell me where the f Warren norman is? He is our best back. How is he possibly on the sideline?

Anonymous said...

I got to say I'm pretty let down... I've been so exited about football this year since we started off so good. I really thought we would have a shot at an upset, or a least score something because coach JF is willing to take chances. It felt like from kick off to the end we were in slow motion. LS is so indecisive!! He need to make a decision or chunk the ball away. The O-line is what are O-line is...They really got man handled. I think are D is still strong as hell! The offense just couldn't get anything going. Well its a wake up call to my expectations. lol I was thinking 7 or 8 wins. Now I will pray for 6 but knowing all the years we had before it will be 5. When we have respectable football years we always come up one fucking game short! Memories of the Jay Cutler years... =(

Vandygal78 said...

That was the ugliest game. Garcia, the refs, and our offense were terrible. I thought our D was great and Lattimore was contained except for a few plays. We knew that our OL was the weakness so no surprise. Those refs should never work another game. What on earth does CJF say to the team now? Luckily we have two weeks to regroup.

KHayes said...

O line didn't show up. Larry Smith takes EXTREMELY too long to decide what to do with the ball. He does NOT need to start @ Bama. I would rather take Jordan Rodgers not completing all of his passes, but making the quick decision than LS again.

Props to our D! They were awesome! I hope CJF takes this next 2 weeks to get our team ready, we've had the good, just went through the bad, 2 weeks its going to be the ugly.

Still a 'Dore! GO VANDY

Anonymous said...

Yes the statistical results of the game were hard to swallow but american idol continues to swallow on a regulat basis.

Anonymous said...

I'm for letting Jordan Rodgers take a shot a Bama if only as an experiment.

I love our D. Without the fluke Javon Marshall sequence they probably only give up one touch down.

Andrew VU '04 said...

In all honesty, I start LS v. Bama, but probably not for the reasons you're thinking of. In the past, games against beastly teams (bama, LSU, Florida on occasion, etc) have resulted in nothing but an exponentially increased disabled list for Vandy. I believe Rodgers is the man going forward, but just as NFL teams will hold a rookie from his first start if they're playing Pittsburgh, Baltimore, NYJ... I'm holding Rodgers out one more week. Let Smith take the beating from Bama's beastly linebackers. He's already jittery.

The key next week is staying healthy, and not getting too despondent over the scoreboard. We've still got a shot at 6 wins (7 if you agree with me that Georgia is eminently beatable). All we have to do is avoid that post-body-bag-game SEC swoon that seems to happen after we play Alabama or LSU.

even more anonymous said...

No question that SC's defensive coordinator had his team extremely well-prepared for the Vandy game. When Larry got rid of the ball in a hurry, those plays didn't work either. To me it means that SC took this game very seriously.

With good reason: even with SC shutting the Commies down totally, this could still have been a 7-3 ball game.

Anonymous said...

At 3-1 after 4 games, I am not down on this team. I did not expect that we would beat SC or Alabama for that matter. We will be very competitive against UGA at home this year as UGA is not as good this season as in years past and CJF will have the team fired-up for this home game. With a 3-1 start, our schedule still gives us a good chance at 6-7 wins and a bowl game. Hopefully, the O-line can not possibly play that bad again. LS or Rogers have no shot at running the offense with the line playing that poorly. CJF and Herb Hand will make some offensive adjustments.