My major disappointment was not necessarily that the Ol was over matched against an insane nfl defensive front. And I was not disappointed in Sam at all. He had way to much pressure to be effective. I was more upset with Helton.
I knew the osu d was great as I have read their nfl pre draft reports. They have so much talent on d. I was more frustrated and upset that helton did not really try to win in the 4th. He just tried to make the score a little closer to save face.
Helton did not want to risk the score getting worse so he ran slower ball controlled drives and just tried to add a score or 2 to make it look close. He did not try to win by passing for 10 to 15 yards a clip and running more hurry up. He wants to keep his job and did not want a huge blowout on his hands. We could easily have added a field goal or 2 or a td very late and then it would have looked really close. In this way he would be able to say that we came back, almost won, showed progress, only lost because of turnovers and mistakes in the first half, etc.
Clay knew it would very hard to win so he just gave up and tried to make it look like we had a chance to win. I was very unhappy that with 9 or 10 minutes to go, he did not go into total hurry up mode on every play and every drive. We should have looked like chip kelly's oregons team for the last 10 minutes of the game. That was the only way to win.
And I have seen teams score 17 in the 4th before. Many times. I have seen teams score 35 in the 4th. It can happen. With sam it can certainly happen. But not with these little 5 yard check downs and short plays on every other play. A true competitor would have tried a lot harder to win. Yes, it would have most likely made the score a little worse. But that is not the point. The point is that try to and win. There was plenty of time. We did not need a hail mary on every play. Just a couple of two to 3 minute drives, maybe a trick play or 2, maybe an onside kick, a 4th down conversion or two etc. Things like that. We needed 10 yards or more on every play that stops the clock with a first down or an incompletion every time. cay knew that was the only formula that would win. he he how much time was left. He chose to lose the game in his own way.
Next, I think our OL was actually pretty good this year, but over matched against an nfl defense last night. And I am not sold on Calloway because we should have still been a little better and maybe only given up more like 3 or 4 sacks. Not 8 or 9. The OL had some good games and they ran the ball fairly well at times. Minus the sacks, we were able to run the ball some of the time. There were times when I even wanted to run it more as rojo would get 5 yards on some first downs. And then we would just pass the ball. So I did not love how tee was calling the plays. But I am just not sold on calloway, bradford, baxter for a myriad of reason. Calloway showed me nothing last night. Maybe he is just an sec type guy is who is pretty good at running the ball, but cant handle pass pro. But something is missing from these 3 coaches. I am not sure what it is.
Love clancy. I dont even think our defense has as much talent as our offense and yet when our d is healthy, Clancy puts together great game plans. I think he is a very good dc.
But still as a team, we out physicalled and out hit in some games this year. OSU, ND and bama beat us up. That is a problem.That was coaching not talent.
Overall a good season. I stand by what I said all year. I think our talent is top 5, no doubt. We recruit tons of national recruits at every position, every year. We even had a no class in 2015 with 27 or 29 total players because of blue shirts. That is full starting team in one class. We have the number 2 star average so far this year. Other top programs recruited our players heavily. Come on guys, we have plenty of great players. Just ask the nfl.
But I just don't know if Helton has the killer instinct to be a great coach. Maybe he is a good coach. but just not a great one. I really like the guy. But after what i saw from him yesterday, I still have do not any reason to believe anything has really changed.
Finally, I love the back and forth with you guys. Nothing personal at all. I love debating with everyone here. Have a happy new year and fight on!
