Embrace the healing power of AND.
We had a reasonably rough schedule AND we lost to all the good team and only beat the bottom teams. You are both right.
In my opinion we are in the middle of the conference instead of near the bottom so that’s improvement.

speechless... What an embarrassing deduction to have in the tax code.

The Aggies this year were a superior offensive team but on some occasions a little slow to get started. Sac SSU NA Are examples.
Defense was very weak. It seemed like an anomaly when they forced a punt.
I’m not sure the stats where we won the second half are very meaningful. When you are down multiple touchdowns the other teams defense isn’t focused on run defense. Could we rush for 300 yards that if the score was even? I have doubts.

notice that everyone had a good game rushing. I think it’s like scoring a lot during basketball garbage time.
But in any case Tehran is our most dangerous runner. He will likely get more carries than anyone next year. I don’t know why he was so turned around and falling sideways on his last carry that came up short (or had a bad spot).

I think any explanation for our loss other than our defense in the first half is missing the forest for the trees. Offense can’t be perfect.
I wonder how much of our unprecedented success running the ball in this game was due to their huge lead.

movie lover, the problem in the first half is every one of their drives ended with a score. Our first possession had a pass to Doss and a pass to Preece both incomplete.Around that sac scored two touchdowns.

I don’t know movie, perhaps it was a draw play, Didn’t work, but we don’t have the level of pass protection that allows downfield passing in obvious passing situations like 2nd and 26, against a team with a pass rush.
When we don’t block well for either running plays or passing plays we end up throwing the ball, but are very limited because we don’t have time for some routes. Then we find ourself getting pressure on every play so we end up running a bunch of draws and throwing screens. Very hard to try to fool the defense every play. You have to have some base plays that work, like downfield passing or simple run plays, preferably both. If you don’t have your base plays working you can’t rely on the deceptive plays either because those work because they look like the base plays which have got the defenses attention.

The first quarters of Cal Poly, ISU and some other games were beautiful to watch. Unfortunately when we went up against better defensive teams we couldn’t seem to get things done.
Our offense had a lot more success when we could run the ball some. If you abandon the run entirely things gum up. We didn’t run enough against SU. We had a 3rd and a yard at our 21 and threw an uncatchable floater to Doss on the sideline instead of gettin a first down by running. Then we punt and they get the ball at midfield and when it’s third and long for them they throw what effectively was a punt that stuck us inside the five. Third and a yard get the first down.

Close only counts in horseshoes. We had some close wins as well.

We beat all the teams at the bottom of the conference. And lost to the better teams. Against the weaker defenses our offense looked like a well oiled machine. But against the better defenses that wasn't the case and we became one dimensional and hence predictable; e.g. end zone interception against SU.. And defensively the last quarter of the EWU team showed they could score at will. Makes it hard to pull of an upset when you can't hold a lead.

no insight on injuries or redshirts. My impression is that we haven’t been unusually injured. We lost a starting safety for a good stretch and lost a running back from the rotation and I’m sure there are a others. But pretty lucky overall. With all the freshmen brought in this year I hope we redshirted most of them.

Here we are five point underdogs versus Sac. Not following Sac much I find that surprising, I expected us to show more improvement as the season progressed as the team and coaches got the new system in place. Sac seemed to be stuck in the mud until this year. Most of the disadvantages we face they also face, like lack if facilities publicity etc. Yet there they are, competing better than us at the end of the season. I sure hope we win this week.

This season showed some progress and yet still leaves us disappointed. How disappointed depends on what you expected. I am disappointed we didn’t upset anyone. I’m happy we didn’t lose to any of the bottom teams this year. Glass half empty.

A bunch of terrible decisions in the first half, some player decisions and some coaches. Start the game dropping the kickoff and start at 11. 3rrd and a yard st our 20 yard line , play is a high order of difficulty floater out of bounds. Why not get the easy first down?? This sets SSU at midfield and when we get the interception we're at the five. Then the interception in our endzone on a unforgivable telegraphed pass. Then not going for it on 4th down so we can punt 29 yards? Then the serial misplaying the kickoffs near the goal line and the inability to long snap for punts leading to a safety! Shoot me now!
Defense played OK in first half except not tackling, Offense except for long drive was horrible.

Sac is not at the same level as SUU in regards to reputation. SUU was a playoff team, SUU is 7-2. The California teams in general are kind of viewed as weak sisters. Also we haven’t scored a touchdown against SUU for a few years. So beating SUU would make more of a statement than beating Sac, fairly or not. We are kind of in a situation with Sac after dominating for decades that beating them is kind of viewed as a dog bites man event. Nationally no one is going to go Wow! Davis beat Sac!. Even if they might be the better team.

The fly sweep is typically run with a flanker, like Moore. The basic play is where the flanker crosses between the shotgun QB and the line and either gets a handoff, a shovel pass or is faked to. The guys running it are fast enough. But as noted it has usually been strung out to the sideline or disrupted by penetration. However to see how this works as a system of plays, here is an interesting study of Montana:
http://insidethepylon.com/film-study/film-study-u/offense-film-study-u/2016/06/06/bob-stitts-offense-montanta-fly-sweep-screen-concepts/
The fly motion shifts the formation strength and the D has to react to it. The fly guy can get a toss, a screen pass, be a blocker or run a pattern. So maybe this is actually working for us even though the sweeps haven't gained big yardage.

I think in theory the runner is supposed to occasionally cut back upfield with the linemen influencing the defender to continue movement in the initial direction, and not just get strung out to the sideline. I wonder whether we’ll give it up or get it to work.
Anyway I think the season is a success already but I’ll be twice as happy if we win one of these next two games. Southern Utah because it announces to the league that were back and can beat top tier teams and Sac would be the California sweep. Both will be challenges so I’m not counting chickens yet.

Not sure why the fly offense didn’t work out. It’s not exactly experimental, Montana’s coach is big proponent and it’s worked at all levels of college football. And our assistant head coach is often credited with inventing it. Any thoughts? Not supposed to require overpowering linemen.

Whatever the reason, the defense rankings movielover started this thread with confirm that the defense is weak. Total defense ranked 104. Rushing defense ranked 104.
We don't have problems at just one position, like say North Dakota had at middle linebacker. Its a distributed problem. I don't think we will see many defensive players get league recognition. Answer is recruiting and player development. Going to take awhile.

Well there you have it. One has missed the last three games, and the other is a amazing football player because he emerged as a player in his freshman year ahead of much more heralded lb recruits, but he’s limited in speed. He and others have made valuable contributions, but no one stands out in the defensive stats as having a big year,

Kind of no name on defense this year, no one with a particularly high impact. At least in terms of defensive stats.Not sure what that means but I don’t think it’s good; we need some guy on D to step up and be the analog of Doss, a guy teams factor into their game plans. We dont have that guy