Yet, we won't fire Caponi...

southsideguy · October 20

Is there anyone on the staff who can take over the DC job, just demote until the end of the season.

meaniegreenie · October 20

41 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

So to be clear, you think it's acceptable to score 3 points over the course of 25 minutes of play. Got it.

I'm not saying there should complete blame on the offense but sports are situational. A game is full streaks and during that period of time, our defense took over. Our offense did nothing in return. That’s not going to win games.

I agree that the offense had a long stretch of being poor. Some of it was play calling, some of it was bad blocking, and some of it was their defense playing well.

I'm hesitant to say the defense "took over". They played okay at times, but honestly, Memphis shot themselves in the foot numerous times to end drives.

GreenEggs&Ham™ · October 20

Give Memphis some credit here too. Their RB (Anderson Jr.) is tough to bring down and 4 TDs is hard to deny. Anderson Jr. would likely play even at Georgia or Texas. He is really good.

Xs & Os on defense are not my thing. But it looks like it could be a personnel issue on our defense. It's not like we have a Booger Kennedy and Brad Kassel out there.

But this is the best NT offense that I have seen since I started watching games in 1986. I sure hope there are a few guys coming off injury to boost the talent level a bit on defense. NT looks small out there.

MeanGreen22 · October 20

10 hours ago, DentonLurker said:

Mid-season firings don’t make any sense unless you think it helps you win games now. Anything else can wait until the off-season.

I could see it happening if we were 2-5 rather than 5-2. But as much as this sucks today, you still have a very realistic shot at a AAC title game appearance. Tulane looks vulnerable, Army will be tough but it’s at home, UTSA/Temple should be wins, and ECU just fired their coach. All our goals are still right in front of us. Keep improving, keep fighting.

El Paso Eagle · October 20

48 minutes ago, GreenEggs&Ham™ said:

Give Memphis some credit here too. Their RB (Anderson Jr.) is tough to bring down and 4 TDs is hard to deny. Anderson Jr. would likely play even at Georgia or Texas. He is really good.

This was a career game for him. Prior to this the most yards he ever had in a game was 125, but then again it seems almost weekly a player from the other team has a career offensive game against North Texas.

DentonLurker · October 20

36 minutes ago, MeanGreen22 said:

I could see it happening if we were 2-5 rather than 5-2. But as much as this sucks today, you still have a very realistic shot at a AAC title game appearance. Tulane looks vulnerable, Army will be tough but it’s at home, UTSA/Temple should be wins, and ECU just fired their coach. All our goals are still right in front of us. Keep improving, keep fighting.

More often than not, a mid-season coordinator firing has more to do with a head coach looking for someone to blame when they start feeling the heat personally (see Walters firing GH at Purdue).

GMG_Dallas · October 20

1 hour ago, El Paso Eagle said:

I'm sure you understand the x's and o's better than I do but your logic is basically the more our defense struggled the better our offense has to play to make up for that or it's their fault. Look I understand there's not an easy answer but we're coming up on a stretch for the next two games have teams with offenses similar to and defensive similar to what we face last night and I think it would be hard pressed for someone to truly say they believe our defense can step it up for a full game against any of these teams

If I told you before yesterday's game that we would hold Memphis to 5 consecutive 3-and-outs and 17 total yards over the course of 22 minutes of play but that we'd lose, you wouldn't believe me.

If we do the same in the next 2 games and lose, it's a sign of an inconsistent offense. Explosive? Yes. Consistent? No. Touchdown or nothing. That's the way our drives tend to go. Stop looking at total stats of the game and so on. Look at performance during key moments of the game and it was lacking.

If we could get the offense and defense performing the way they can during the same stretches of play, we'll win the next 2 games.

GMG_Dallas · October 20

1 hour ago, meaniegreenie said:

I agree that the offense had a long stretch of being poor. Some of it was play calling, some of it was bad blocking, and some of it was their defense playing well.

I'm hesitant to say the defense "took over". They played okay at times, but honestly, Memphis shot themselves in the foot numerous times to end drives.

Yes Memphis did shoot themselves in the foot on some occasions with bad passes/drops. I'd give you that if it were a couple drives but not 5. Like I said, 5 carries for 4 total yards. That's not shooting yourself in the foot. By the way, zero flags on either team on those 5 Memphis drives. It's not like they were gaining yards but getting called back with holds are setting themselves back with false starts. Our DBs were on them and did so cleanly and our run defense was as well. The lone sack in that span, as the play-by-play guys said, was a coverage sack. A testament to the DB performance on that play.

I think I'm being mistaken. I'm not liberating Caponi of blame at all. I'm just saying if we can thrash him for terrible stretches of play, we should do the offense the same. You can't be record setting half the game and a mirage the other half.

GMG_Dallas · October 20

46 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

This was a career game for him. Prior to this the most yards he ever had in a game was 125, but then again it seems almost weekly a player from the other team has a career offensive game against North Texas.

Yeah he's just not good. It's not like he had 8 rushing TDs coming into yesterday including a 17 carry 117 yard and 3 TD performance against Navy. That 4th TD is an indictment to how bad our defense is. For perspective, the most any team outside of Memphis has scored against Navy this year is 21. Anderson is responsible for that in their game alone.

97and03 · October 20

Explosive but not consistent is the best way to describe the offense. They disappear for long stretches and then score lightening quick, giving a tired defense no rest. The tempo thing is arguably great for keeping the opponent off balance (although I feel like we rarely have big gains when we rush to snap the ball) but I am not sure it is an overall positive for the team as a whole. When our defense is struggling, trying to score as fast as possible might be a net negative.
I would add the Morris’ aversion to the run game and very questionable decisions like constantly going for it on fourth down - even in terrible field position situations- doesn’t help the defense much either.

27 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

If I told you before yesterday's game that we would hold Memphis to 5 consecutive 3-and-outs and 17 total yards over the course of 22 minutes of play but that we'd lose, you wouldn't believe me.

If we do the same in the next 2 games and lose, it's a sign of an inconsistent offense. Explosive? Yes. Consistent? No. Touchdown or nothing. That's the way our drives tend to go. Stop looking at total stats of the game and so on. Look at performance during key moments of the game and it was lacking.

If we could get the offense and defense performing the way they can during the same stretches of play, we'll win the next 2 games.

El Paso Eagle · October 20

7 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Yeah he's just not good. It's not like he had 8 rushing TDs coming into yesterday including a 17 carry 117 yard and 3 TD performance against Navy. That 4th TD is an indictment to how bad our defense is. For perspective, the most any team outside of Memphis has scored against Navy this year is 21. Anderson is responsible for that in their game alone.

Again another career day against his defense. Spend it how you want this happens quite often

GMG_Dallas · October 20

8 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Again another career day against his defense. Spend it how you want this happens quite often

I remember when the board freaked out over Wyoming having their best output of the season against us. They've had more yards of offense every single game since then by 100+ each game.

Easy to make your claim now. We can revisit at the end of the season.

BigWillie · October 20

41 minutes ago, GMG_Dallas said:

Yes Memphis did shoot themselves in the foot on some occasions with bad passes/drops. I'd give you that if it were a couple drives but not 5. Like I said, 5 carries for 4 total yards. That's not shooting yourself in the foot. By the way, zero flags on either team on those 5 Memphis drives. It's not like they were gaining yards but getting called back with holds are setting themselves back with false starts. Our DBs were on them and did so cleanly and our run defense was as well. The lone sack in that span, as the play-by-play guys said, was a coverage sack. A testament to the DB performance on that play.

I think I'm being mistaken. I'm not liberating Caponi of blame at all. I'm just saying if we can thrash him for terrible stretches of play, we should do the offense the same. You can't be record setting half the game and a mirage the other half.

I think the point is, you can if you had a defense. One little stretch in a game is not enough to beat teams when you are giving up scores on every other possession. They need to play complementary football overall, not just certain times. If you look at the overall game and stats, you can say the offense did their job. Cannot say the same about the defense.

peanuts104 · October 20

6 hours ago, emmitt01 said:

- At what point during that game did you think to yourself, “Our defense has taken Memphis’ offense out of what they want to do”?

3rd quarter

GMG_Dallas · October 20

1 hour ago, BigWillie said:

I think the point is, you can if you had a defense. One little stretch in a game is not enough to beat teams when you are giving up scores on every other possession. They need to play complementary football overall, not just certain times. If you look at the overall game and stats, you can say the offense did their job. Cannot say the same about the defense.

This bold part is what I'm saying. I'm not pointing all fingers at the offense. I'm just saying it's really a shame our defense held them to 17 total yards and scoreless for 22 minutes but our offense couldn't capitalize. It's a shame we botched a punt and gave them the ball at our 18 yet the defense makes a stand and forces a field goal which they then miss. Our offense did nothing but punt it back 2 minutes later. Edit to add we didn't punt it back, we again turned it over on downs on our side of the field instead of punting and giving the defense a chance. They scored the next play. You can point to potential momentum changing moments where our defense stepped up yet sadly our offense failed in those moments. Same for the defense obviously.

Like you said, we need complimentary football. The deference between good and great right now.

Edited October 20 by GMG_Dallas

BigWillie · October 20

1 hour ago, GMG_Dallas said:

This bold part is what I'm saying. I'm not pointing all fingers at the offense. I'm just saying it's really a shame our defense held them to 17 total yards and scoreless for 22 minutes but our offense couldn't capitalize. It's a shame we botched a punt and gave them the ball at our 18 yet the defense makes a stand and forces a field goal which they then miss. Our offense did nothing but punt it back 2 minutes later. Edit to add we didn't punt it back, we again turned it over on downs on our side of the field instead of punting and giving the defense a chance. They scored the next play. You can point to potential momentum changing moments where our defense stepped up yet sadly our offense failed in those moments. Same for the defense obviously.

Like you said, we need complimentary football. The deference between good and great right now.

When I say that though, I mean in the entire game. Not just a small stretch. To be clearer, the offense played better overall than the defense. It's really that simple, and I believe that's why we lost.

GMG_Dallas · October 20

2 hours ago, BigWillie said:

When I say that though, I mean in the entire game. Not just a small stretch. To be clearer, the offense played better overall than the defense. It's really that simple, and I believe that's why we lost.

Yes, they need to play complimentary football the entire game. Not half the game each and never at the same time.