I get what you are saying. Martinez could be a great red zone target with his height, but height isn't everything. Also gotta look at QB to WR chemistry, how good are the receivers hands, how athletic are they, ect ect. Doss and Harrell are firmly our top 2 receivers, but Vaughn was also having a good day.

I still can't shake that 4th quarter. I'm happy with the win, but so much went wrong in that quarter it's tough to be excited about the end result. We had the blowout win in our grasps and losing that could have consequences. Let's saying we get a couple more losses this season and are a bubble team for the playoffs. People can look at that win and say "well, they did barely beat a winless Northern Colorado team". Just frustrating that the players didn't seem interested in maintaining the huge lead and that Hawkins didn't react more quickly to stop the bleeding.

I think your giving the committee too much credit for their homework. I think it will come down to ‘how many BSC teams do we take’, and they’ll look st the standings to decide (tiebreaker overall D1 record).

Montana’s loss opens up a lot BUT it’s up to us to win the games we need to. We should be favored the next two weeks but both are hardly gimme’s! Gimmee games ended yesterday.

I missed watching the game due to being out of country and Pluto didn’t work. What I’m curious about is we played numbers on defense before
without things falling apart We only had a traveling squad in this game so I don’t think we played guys who hadn’t played in earlier games. So what’s the reason? Just momentum?

probably elevation and prevent defense (were we running it?) too.

Announcers mentioned that UNC was winning the time of possession battle midway through. If any defenders from the fourth had been playing the whole game they might have been gassed

The wheels came off the cart and rolled down the street. Subs being gassed seems unlikely, esp after a bye. Not hot.

Repetitive big mistakes were just part of the problem. Brock Johnson started well, led a drive, threw a nice TD between at least 2 defenders up high to Martinez.

Problems, not in order ...

- Our return man accidentally touches knee down on the 2 yard line.
- QB / Center muff 1st handoff.
- Possibly on the 3rd play they muff the handoff again, that may have been when we gave up the 2 point conversion.
- Onside kick bounces off our return team, they recover.
- Prevent D? Their receivers seemed wide open.
- I believe they ran a misdirection / fly sweep on one of the 2 pt conversions. Wide open.
- Our tackling became suspect again.
- No TO to regroup / rally the Defense?

They put up as much offense in Q4 as the previous 3 quarters.

Coach Tucker said in the Enterprise something like we brought 28 defensive players, and we played 28. This reminded me of the game Hawk let get away at Colorado. He put a stop to it here.

The Pluto tv announcers said the same thing during the 4th quarter blitz by NC. They said something like, "This is starting to look like the game that got Hawkins fired at Colorado when the Buffaloes lost the game after leading by a big margin in the 4th quarter." Then when Maier came back in the game for the final series they said something like, "Maier is back in the game. Do you think they're serious about what has been happening now?"

no.

Hawk post-game interview: "Obviously, I'd like to finish better but, hey, we're 4-1, got a win on the road, did a lot of good things early and you can't let the last little bit take away from the whole..."

Whole interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfT4QKhLNx0&feature=youtu.be

I understand Hawks sentiment, but I think he's underplaying how disastrous that 4th quarter was. It wasn't just the last little bit, it was an entire quarter of the game and we let a near 40 point lead all but completely dissolve. That's just not acceptable no matter who was on the field.

I understand your point but I think it’s human nature to lose intensity with a big lead. I think it’s correct that the positives early outweigh the negatives later.

I think think of our normally reliable kick returner doesn’t put us at the 2 yard line, this discussion doesn’t happen. I’d trust Johnson and the backups to move the ball (take off some time) with decent field position. Giving them a quick 2, and the ball right back got them rolling and the backup D reeling

I think that's true but I also think Hawk let it go on too long. That's too bad because I'm not sure anyone, players and fans alike, came away from the game feeling good about what took place in that 7 minute stretch of the 4th.

Unfortunately, those few minutes overshadowed, what was up to then, an impressive performance on both sides of the ball for the Aggies. I guess if there is a silver lining in what happened, it might be that it should keep us humble and hungry in the games to come.

Nope

I think it's much better for Hawk to say what he did in the press conference and grill the players in practice. No point calling them out when they won and played fairly well 3/4 of the game. Doesn't mean he's not tweaking the depth defense with the DC though.

I like that we're overreacting a bit on the boards, that's what it's like when we have a good team finally

Amen. We would have loved to have this conversation a couple of years ago. To me the big mistakes were center qb exchanges the kickoff fumble at the 2 and the punt thing (I think Pluto crapped out on me then - I don’t remember seeing it). So big mess ups on special teams and simple stuff. Those gave UNC momentum. Yes the secondary looked like they were sleep walking but multiple fumbling of snaps and the special teams stuff is really inexcusable.

Bob Dunning: Bad beats can strike anywhere

Noted Sports Illustrated, in rating this the No. 1 “Most Excruciating Betting Loss,” “To recap: Three touchdowns, three two-point conversions, two successful attempts on fourth down, one disastrous kickoff return, one onside kick recovery, one safety and one third-and-23 conversion were all needed for this miraculous finish.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-bad-beats-can-strike-anywhere/

Ouch.

I thought I was watching the antithesis of The Miracle Game where we were on the short side of the straw! :groan:

I believe they may have scored more 2 point conversions in 6 minutes than we have in years.