Just wanted to make a few comments about the Nebraska-NMSU football game played last night.
First off, I would like to say that I listened to the game on the radio. OK, now that we got that out of the way, here were my interpretations.
I was not impressed by what I heard from the game and how I interpreted it from afar. Seven points? Folks, we know that the defense is not going to be good. We have said it before: Hold the opposition under 30, and we like this team's chances at winning. So I repeat: Seven points? This is a group that hangs its hat on scoring. To be so unimpressive on offense hurts. The team's best drive was its first one. And it ended with the Aggies unable to run inside the 5-yard line and having a chip-shot field goal blocked. Chase was 15-of-30 with two interceptions, none of the receivers got going. Seven points, to me, was pretty surprising considering what we have become accustom to. Whatever the case has been in the past with the Aggies under Mumme, the team has always, for the most part, been able to score. Not Saturday.
I know it was just one small sequence, but another disturbing tid-bit from the contest was the Aggies' first drive. Again, unable or unwilling - take your pick - to run it close to the Nebraska goal line, the team settles for a field goal. 'Alright,' I thought. 'Seven would be nice but we'll take three.' Wrong. Kick blocked. Lets see. They don't run it and then the kick is stuffed. We've seen this movie before.
Didn't understand the logic of using J.J. McDermott down 14-0 and the Aggies in desperate need of a score early. You're trying to wither Nebraska's momentum at that point. Using your backup sophomore quarterback seemed to do the exact opposite.
Some bright spots? I thought Marquell Colston played well...I liked when the team stopped Nebraska on the Cornhuskers first drive of the game. Nebraska brought on the field goal unit which went on to miss...Julius Fleming caught a long pass, but it was at a completely meaningless juncture of the game. Still, I like Julius' ability and I still like the receiving corps.
Some will say it was the first game against Nebraska. I would agree. Another way to look at it is that it's all the more reason to come out fired up. Defense may have been a smidge better. Maybe. Hard to tell. And the offense did nothing. I know it's early, but I think this week's game at UTEP is bordering on a must-win for Mumme and the Aggies.
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I agree w/ your last comment, Utep is a must win!
It was the slopiest FB since the 0-12 season. Offensively:
Chase played like a true freshman, CW was dropping balls, too many off sides penalties, 1-4 in the RED ZONE?!
Defensively:
No improvement from last year, The "D" gave up over 300 yds rushing, missed assignments, over 500 yds of total offense!!
I know this was Nebraska but, C'mon!
Osia Lewis is going to have a field day next week!
Utep has a VERY good offensively line and will run it down our throats!
I'll be at the Sun Bowl watching but, it could get ugly early.
Teddy, though you did not see the game (as I did) your comments nailed the situation. The defense was poor, and the offense worse...and it's the latter that was surprising. Our so called great receivers did not seem to work hard enough to get open, Holbrook got a lot of pressure, and he missed a couple of receivers when they were open. With Chris Williams wide open across the middle downfield, Holbrook through to a receiver on the sidelines and it was intercepted. I think this made Mumme mad and was the reason for his bringing in McDermott...in some ways, I don't blame him. He was trying to fire up Holbrook. In any case, nothing worked offensively....very disappointing.
You listened on the radio and so did I. I agree with you in most ways. Defense and offense both were very poor. Coaching was poor, why was the backup QB playing so early as well as backup receivers? Williams caught a bunch of early passes and then it seemed that they did not throw to him much after that.It is always more difficult to say what is going on defense from the radio. UTEP game is important for sure. I would add the following comments. I always try my best to avoid listening on the radio because of our announcing crew. Jack Nixon was fair(he sounded like he was in a trash can which was an improvement), Bob the color guy is still the worst in the country and both Jack and Bob were having a lot of errors which is usual for them. Kyle D., however, talked more and he was an improvement. Not the best yet, but compared to his colleagues in the booth,he gives us hope. The sound was horrible because the crowd noise overwhelmed the announcers' voices.
My final point is that if you can't stand listening to them on the radio, you are not going to be a die hard fan who comes to every game no matter what, and we need that to get our attendance up.
Bowl Game?? Our high powered offense scores seven points thanks to a defensive play? In looking at the schedule now with the quality of Fresno State, San Jose St., LA Tech and the improvement at UTEP and UNM, where are those victories coming from. Same old crap, the players and fans and even the coaches talk bowl game before we even play a game and then we can't back it up. I am sick of it!
You hit the nail on the head, Teddy. The O was what all of us were counting on to be the dependable component of our game. It looks as if we may be back to square one on that. At least we are on square one in all three phases of the game now.
First let me say, I watched the game and the defense was great!! I don't know who the "we know" is that the d is not going to be good but if it's you, I sincerely disagree with you.
Second:The chip shot f/goal was blocked by a 6'7" dude..kinda hard to get the ball up high enough from such a short distance
Third:"run it close to the Neb. goal line??? Maybe my tv was blurry but I thought 5 yards and 2 yards was pretty darn close to their goal line. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't know what happened to the Offense and I don't know why Coach sent JJ in....but I don't get paid to understand coaching.
Maybe our Aggies will make your week better as the season goes by but for my I think they did a hell of a job with a first game in Nebraska.
I too was disappointed with the seven points. We'll have to see what improvements can be made before the 2nd game. That said,
Every game against utep is a MUST WIN, regardless of the sport. That goes for unm as well.
I think the most important thing to remember in all of this is:
IT WAS THEIR first game of the season!!!
Not only did half of the team have to try and execute a new system, but the other half had to shake off some rust(Poor C-Dub had the most rust to work through). Plus they had to do it in MEMORIAL STADIUM for crying out loud.
Tonight was one hell of a wake up call for the team in the sense that they began their 08 campaign in one of the toughest venues possible, However it provided them with a good checklist for the week (and the season) in preparing for their opponents.
For the better part 8 years Tony Samuels, nor his teams never got the level of haterd that Hal Mumme & players get's on a daliy base from the Sun-News & my ? is WHY?
if you hate NMSU that much then why are u here?
If NMSU Sports is not your cup of tea...You do know you can support another team, there's no law that I know of that says: I must care about NMSU even if I don't want to.
I was at the game, and our offense was every bit as awful as you suggest. Take out the first drive of the game, and you have a complete meltdown. What makes it so difficult to accept is the offensive personel we had returning, and the fact that Nebraska was ranked 106th in pass defense. I figured for sure we would be good for 17-21 points. Instead, we looked like the offense of a first year head coach. Mumme's excuse (our first game, Nebraska's third game) does not fly with me. This is his fourth year and he had ample offensive personnel returning.
As for the defense, they actually played as well as could be expected, and better in some respects. While they gave up a ton of yards, they kept NU from lighting up the scoreboard. I figured NU would be good for 50-60 points, and that did not materialize.
Agree with you on the significance of the UTEP game. We so desperately need a good year from a revenue standpoint, and yesterday was a bad start. But it could have been worse. Good thing our defense stepped up, otherwise we could have seen a 60-7 final score.
-Aggie Glare
Somebody get some WD40, get some grease or some vasaline but, get the damn rust OFF!!
It was a tough game to watch. I hope the team is ready to play against Utep.
Teddy,
I agree with your posting. With Mumme, we come into the season understanding the Aggies' defense will be overmatched, no matter what offense is out there. But only being able to put up 7 points is awful. Plus, our score was not the product of the "fabulous" Holbrook-Williams tandem, rather, it was the product of a fumble recovery to the Nebraska two yard line. Holbrook did not have a good game last night, and since his Sophomore season, he has not exactly been the star QB we all envisioned.
The defense was overpowered up front. That does not bother me too much because we will likely not face an O-line that big again.
The coaching was bad. Down 14-0, we had a chance to make it a game, and Mumme puts in the 2nd string offense. He had to have known we would get blown out. Why not get the backups some of that valuable experience in the 4th Quarter?
Judging on how UNM beat Arizona and hung with A&M, and how UTEP did not fold against UT, I am skeptical with the prospect of the Aggies beating our rivals. The Aggies and UTEP may be equal in talent, but the El Paso crowd will be a huge factor in the game. Our offense has shown over the last few years that it does not deal well under intense crowd pressure.
I believe this team will find its offensive identity. But if it does not, we could be staring down the barrel of another long year.
Any injuries?
We all knew we wouldn't win. I was hoping to be competitive, which we weren't, at all. Our first games, their third game, on the road but enough excuses! We weren't.
I'm still waiting for Holbrook to step up in a big game and do what he's supposed to do. I don't want to see him put up numbers against the lower teams. Step it up Chase.
We'll be ok unless other teams decide to pound our defense on the run, which is what the next few opponents are going to do!
Only game one and I know we'll get going. Let's get out and support Mumme and the guys. Go Aggies!
1-4 in the red zone is in-excusable, even if it is Nebraska.
This is a game we weren't to win but, I did say we had to be 3-1 going into conference in order to go bowling.
Bowling season starts this week. Let's see if NMSU is a bowl team.
The next two weeks are the most important games of the season.
We need to sweep our rivals in order to make sure people show up to the games.
A loss to one or both, will be a serious finacial burden for the Athletic Dept.
The team didn't look good.
Let's hope they are ready to go this Saturday!!
Go Aggies!
i dont know about the rest of you all but it seems like mumme is the problem. i understand he is in one of the toughest places to coach college football but enough is enough. excuses, excuses. he has HIS star QB supposive FAST recievers a pretty good offensive line (i watched the game) and an experienced team. and we still look like the 0-12 team. he doesnt seem to know how to get his team ready. they showed no intensity! with all that being said i will still support the aggies and will be at every home game this year. we need to support them because that is most of the problem. no support! GO AGGIES! mumme please figure it out!
Isn't the "Air Raid" suppose to fly? Looked pretty grounded to me!
Wow, that Defense only gave up over 500 yds! New and improved? NOT!
My Miners are going to embarrass NMSU!
You guys will have 50,000 fans screaming and will crack under pressure!
The win last year was a fluke! We will feast on your carcass!
UTEPER
I think that most were disappointed with the offensive effort and are accepting of the defensive effort (tho not totally pleased). If you look back at the game we were able to quasi-move the ball. But we were not able to convert on the few opportunities that we did have. One thing that is overlooked is the fact that the Aggies do a lot of shotgun setups. With a noisy place like Nebraska Memorial Stadium, this makes hearing the snap count difficult. While the Aggies supposedly having a good method of communicating this, this is still bound to have an effect on timing. The first drive of the game, we were moving fairly decent and this quieted the Nebraska crowd; we just bogged down at the end (maybe due to noise) and didnt deliver on the field goal attempt. The Aggies from then on out did not have great luck as they neared the red zone. They need to improve on this, especially since our next game is on the road, and UTEP will feel like this is their chance to break their losing streak and may still have a big crowd.
Like I said before GET A CLUE NMSU! Mumme is just clueless. It will be the same old excuses as the previous years. Can't score, can't kick, can't defend. What does it take to get rid of this guy? This is not high school or JC, this is Div 1 football!
I don't think people are negative but, the expectations are pretty high this year.
People are tired of losing. Combine that with high expectations and a sloppy performance, and you get people getting a little down on the team.
The only remedy is to get a win the next two weeks! Winning is fun!
Hooray for Alcorn State, I can hardly wait until Oct 4!
NMSU will beat UTEP, the team will play 1000X better this week.
To All you haters:
If NMSU FB is not your cup of tea...You do know you can support another team, there's no law that I know of that says: I must care about NMSU even if I don't want to.
Yo Theodore!
Get Chase some press on this O'Brien award stuff.
We need everyone voting in Cruces.
Run a story how he's 5 votes out of third place!
www.voteobrien.org/register.asp
Register yourself, vote once a day
Enough already.
Nebraska is improving, and they have the bodies - size speed, strength and numbers - to reach the top quickly. Bet they contend for the Big 12 North and go to a major bowl.
Let's put the Nebraska game behind us and focus on the eleven chances to get the wins needed to play in a bowl game. There were some signs the defense may be improved. UTEP will give us a look at what they do when the bodies are more like ours.
We need confidence, and fans who are positive help to build that confidence. Small things can make a big difference.
OMFG, NMSU played Nebraska at Lincoln, Nebraska at Memorial Stadium. Nebraska is a damn good football team. You can not judge NMSU on this game. Nevada lost 69-17 against Missouri. Does that mean NEvada sucks? NMSU played a horrible game. NMSU fans should know our offense is way better, so I am not worried. I was at the game, and I thought Hal Mumme didn't want to show much on film.
Anyone who watches the Aggies should know total offense (i.e Nebraska putting a ton of yards up) doesn't mean squat. Our D was a lot stiffer than last year, and them keeping the huskers out of the endzone on fourth down is just a small example of why this defense is much better.
Some people don't understand football at all. Of course the offense was out of sync. It was their first game while it was Nebraska's 3rd. Nebraska is already more talented at most positions and you add in that they have already played 2 games then winning is a tall order.
NMSU was expected to lose to Nebraska. NMSU won't go in and beat one of the most storied programs on their home field. All you people jumping off the bandwagon let me guess. You expect them to beat Ohio State next year huh?
They say the biggest improvement is from week 1 to week 2. UTEP is not Nebraska. The offense will have no trouble moving the ball on a bad UTEP defense. The question now is can the defense keep up their good performance?
Then all you fans who jumped off the bandwagon after the Nebraska game can jump right back on after the UTEP game.
The Aggies got beat by bigger, more physically dominate team with top tier D-1 talent. Think about that. Nebraska was playing it's third game. We were playing with a new defense and were rotating in about 15 guys on D. Our players were physically over-matched and out numbered. Holbrook told it like it was...he played like a freshmen.
What the heck did you expect?
This is no game to gauge how good you will be or how good you are.
Anon 7:16 AM,
No one here expected us to beat Nebraska. We are not disappointed that we lost, but that we looked so anemic in doing so. I don't know what others expected, but I expected us to repeat what our conference mate SJSU did at Nebraska the week before -- scare the hell out of them and make it a friggin game. Mumme is in his 4th year now, he is out of excuses. This team should have been ready to at least do what SJSU did.
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