[stupac2]

[quote author=donkey687 link=topic=17909.msg210816#msg210816 date=1509896342]
You guys are so reactionary from week to week.  The WSU game went almost exactly as expected to neutral prognosticators, and we act like the sky is falling. We lost a tight game to a very good team that plays incredibly well at home. There is no shame in that. Going into WSU game, I predicted that the WSU game is the hardest game left on our schedule.  It won't be easy, but I like our chances against UW and Notre Dame and of course Cal.  I think we can win out and then go to Pac 12 Championship game and win that as well.  We aren't leaving the Bay Area until the Fiesta Bowl.

I’ll have what donkey’s having.

I guess all we need to worry about now is somebody beating the Cougs, which will probably happen.

And just to be clear on the rules of engagement here, we should only gripe if we lose as a favorite? So on the 18th and whichever low-level bowl we might get?  Do those rules change if Stanford beats Udub?
[/quote]

For me personally I just want people to look at the team as a whole, rather than hyper-focusing on whatever the latest result is. Like, if we had played like we did against ORST we would've gotten blown out. Had we played like we did against ASU or Oregon we would've won. This team is just inconsistent, but it has been consistently better at home. Saying "WE'RE GONNA LOSE OUT PAWWWWWWL" is just ridiculous, given what we know about this team.

Would I have preferred to win? Yeah, sure. But I've seen no one saying how we could possibly have done that given how badly our OL was manhandled. The main issues I saw with that game are:

1) Shaw is still way too passive on 4th down.
2) We made good defensive adjustments after the half, but WSU countered and we never fixed it.
3) Our OL is somewhere between "okay" and "horrific" on the road.

#1 would be trivial to fix and criticize Shaw all day and twice on Saturdays for it. Maybe eventually he'll figure it out. I don't know what to do about #2, but clearly that's something that could've been solved in-game. #3 is really the issue, though, and I'm not sure what could possibly be done about that on a short-term basis.

I think, though, that freaking out about this loss is a bit silly. At best it was a coin-flip game on the road that we lost by 3. It's just not that surprising, and the outcome was basically in line with what advanced stats said it would be. Would the win have been nice? Yeah, sure, it's frustrating to see all the plays we left on the field. But the sky isn't falling.

[stupac2]

[quote author=donkey687 link=topic=17909.msg210816#msg210816 date=1509896342]
You guys are so reactionary from week to week.  The WSU game went almost exactly as expected to neutral prognosticators, and we act like the sky is falling. We lost a tight game to a very good team that plays incredibly well at home. There is no shame in that. Going into WSU game, I predicted that the WSU game is the hardest game left on our schedule.  It won't be easy, but I like our chances against UW and Notre Dame and of course Cal.  I think we can win out and then go to Pac 12 Championship game and win that as well.  We aren't leaving the Bay Area until the Fiesta Bowl.

I’ll have what donkey’s having.

I guess all we need to worry about now is somebody beating the Cougs, which will probably happen.

And just to be clear on the rules of engagement here, we should only gripe if we lose as a favorite? So on the 18th and whichever low-level bowl we might get?  Do those rules change if Stanford beats Udub?
[/quote]

For me personally I just want people to look at the team as a whole, rather than hyper-focusing on whatever the latest result is. Like, if we had played like we did against ORST we would've gotten blown out. Had we played like we did against ASU or Oregon we would've won. This team is just inconsistent, but it has been consistently better at home. Saying "WE'RE GONNA LOSE OUT PAWWWWWWL" is just ridiculous, given what we know about this team.

Would I have preferred to win? Yeah, sure. But I've seen no one saying how we could possibly have done that given how badly our OL was manhandled. The main issues I saw with that game are:

1) Shaw is still way too passive on 4th down.
2) We made good defensive adjustments after the half, but WSU countered and we never fixed it.
3) Our OL is somewhere between "okay" and "horrific" on the road.

#1 would be trivial to fix and criticize Shaw all day and twice on Saturdays for it. Maybe eventually he'll figure it out. I don't know what to do about #2, but clearly that's something that could've been solved in-game. #3 is really the issue, though, and I'm not sure what could possibly be done about that on a short-term basis.

I think, though, that freaking out about this loss is a bit silly. At best it was a coin-flip game on the road that we lost by 3. It's just not that surprising, and the outcome was basically in line with what advanced stats said it would be. Would the win have been nice? Yeah, sure, it's frustrating to see all the plays we left on the field. But the sky isn't falling.