The bottom-line reality regarding New Mexico State's 47-7 football slugging taken at the hands of San Jose State: The Aggies looked absolutely horrible.
DeWayne Walker summed it up just fine during his post-game press conference, which can be viewed here, or read about here.
One thing about Walker: You may never meet a more honest head coach. He says how he feels, not what's necessarily politically correct or what will make people happy. By and large, he calls it like it is, and in this case he did so once again.
The Aggies were outplayed in every possible area — minus perhaps punting, which has been the norm this year and perhaps explains why the team stands at 1-9 overall.
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A personal hypothesis, so take it as you will:
One area the Aggies did not perform in Saturday, and assuming part of Walker's comments could be attributed to this fact, was simply in desire plays. In the case of defense, one could point to poor tackling.
Yes, this team looked demoralized and, as we write every week, it brings us back to the offensive side of the ball, which has brought nothing to the table.
Week 11 of the season just ended yet the offense hasn't progressed, meaning it's actually gotten worse as the year's moved along.
The unit continues shooting itself in the foot: Quarterback Andrew Manley leads Austin Franklin — nice throw and catch — into San Jose State territory, only to see a flag on the field following the play: Illegal shift. Bring it back. Such sequences have been weekly occurrences.
There's also no creativity.
San Jose State plays deep coverage in its secondary, predominantly to take away the big passing play. Regardless, the Aggies continue forcing the ball deep, even with backup Travaughn Colwell in.
The point is that NMSU's defense could have given up 14 points on Saturday and the team likely would have lost anyway. That's just tough to take.
The Aggies haven't scored a first-half touchdown in over a month (their last one came Oct. 6 at Idaho). They should have been shutout Saturday if not for Colwell's touchdown pass to Trevor Walls with under a minute remaining in the game.
Again, in this sport, when you're not getting better you're getting worse. And the Aggie offense hasn't gotten better in 2012.
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Going back to Manley: People can point the finger at the sophomore QB and that's fine. He's under-performed this year and was probably over-hyped to begin with.
Andrew still struggles checking down in his progressions and telegraphs passes to intended receivers. But this also goes back to coaching: Either he's not coachable — which I don't believe to be true — or he's received of lack of it at his position.
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A theory about fans: Generally speaking, while wins and losses of course remain important, general followers of teams just want to see a ray of hope. While last year it was present, this season Aggie fans just haven't seen enough of it.
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It's another bye week for the team. And, no, in this case it does not come at a good time.
Not after Saturday's performance. It would be better to take the field again and take some aggression out, not sit around and let the recent play fester.
Now the Aggies will wait two weeks before hosting Brigham Young in the second-to-last game of the year, before traveling to Texas State to close out the season Dec. 1.
Follow me on Twitter @TeddyFeinberg
8 comments:
FIRE Jerry Mcanus!!!
Yes, the entire team didn't show up at all this weekend.
When the NMSU punter has more yards than the entire offense...something gone really bad!
I agree w/ Anon. 1:39.
Time for Jerry Mcmanus and his "3 & Out" offense to pack his bags!!
Jefe
Fire one coach? I say do away with the whole team. If I could ask one question of this team including the coaches it would be: "Don't you get tired of being losers?"
Doug Martin proved something can be done with a weak team.....This is ALL ABOUT COACHING!!! (and conditioning)
I wonder if NMSU dropped to Division I-AA in football for 5-10 years (maybe the Big Sky Conference), if it would be easier to build a competitive program that could then transition back to Division I-A?
It seems we would enable NMSU to have a better environment to build a winning program --which puts fans in the seats, brings more advertisers, and ultimately more money for a cash strapped program.
Anonymous 10:41 AM hits on the head.
Big Sky a great place to fall back to and regroup.
I think NMSU would be walking away from too much state funding if they drop to FCS. Based on Walker's answer to the first question in this week's press conference, he appears to be sticking around. A couple of years as independent until we get picked up by conference realignment. Maybe the "money games" will allow us to ante up for a decent OC or better yet, to buyout Walker and get a valid coaching staff.
when did walker sign a new contract. And why did boston give him one with a losing record. But a coaching change is needed with a new oc for sure and maybe a new dc.
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