Edmond Dantes said:

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Why do we punt so much? Like, lead the league in punting?

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I'm not as anti-Mazzone as many on here seem to be, but I don't care what the numbers say - there were several times where the play calling left me scratching my head. Still not sold on him.

Ag4coal said:

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drevans956 said:

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Did the defense fail as well-- OH YES! It is a team game, all facets failed under Sumlin !

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That makes it about time for a contract extension and pay raise for Sumlin !

but.......

Cut the spin. He was exactly what I expected. Mediocre at best.

The defense was a much worse issue than our offense IMO. Pretty much collapsed starting with the Tennessee game. Was as just as bad as the defense in 2014 that got Snyder fired.

I know Chevis gets a pass by some because of his history, but the reality was that we were a terrible defensive team second half of season and if they don't improve on the defensive side of the ball next fall then it will be mostly irrelevant what the offense is doing.

Complaining about the offense and ignoring what happened on defense is like have two kids, one who got a B-/C+ and one who got an F and just criticizing the B-/C+ kid and saying not a word to the kid with the F.

rudder2020 said:

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We are scoring over 7 points more per game than we did last year. Actually, we have not been scoring trash time points due to our lack of a killer instinct. If anything, wOur offense looked great against every team we play except for Bama. We didn't pad our stats in games like UTSA where we only scored 23. e could have done even better.

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Did we watch the same games this season??????????

malenurse said:

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rudder2020 said:

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We are scoring over 7 points more per game than we did last year. Actually, we have not been scoring trash time points due to our lack of a killer instinct. If anything, wOur offense looked great against every team we play except for Bama. We didn't pad our stats in games like UTSA where we only scored 23. e could have done even better.

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Did we watch the same games this season??????????

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I definitely blame the Ole Miss loss, which was the most inexcusable loss IMO, on the defense. 9 point lead with only a few minutes left and just choke like that making that freshman with first ever start look like Johnny Football? Kid who Vandy defense the next week totally shut down? Yeah...Vandy's defense looked significantly better than ours by end of season.

28 points should have been plenty to beat a bad Ole Miss team.

Scheme is bad. When you find out he is running the exact same scheme and calling exact same plays we waited 2 years to get rid of, it amplifies the disgust with him, Sumlin and whatever scheme this is supposed to be.

More of the same in bowl game and next year.

The problem with the offense is not the OC.... it's the HC.

We have more offense coordinators on here & 99% have never call a play outside per wee ball.

ashley said:

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We have more offense coordinators on here & 99% have never call a play outside per wee ball.

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Yep....THAT'S how bad the play calling was.

OP. I'm not sure if you realize that we were simply unable to sustain drives with any consistency. We were the definition of a feast or famine offense. We hit the big play or we punted.

With a 50% comp rate, the offense was insanely inconsistent. You can't stack 3 and outs and expect the defense can play 90 downs a game.

Sumlin continues roll out an offense that puts all of the pressure to win on the QB.

This sums up our simplicity on defense.
If you need a first down :
Run the tight end in the flat and nobody will cover him.
Run slant routes because our inside LB's will be blitzing
Run up the middle

Offensively we cannot run a " timing " out route, curl, corner to get a first down. Something is wrong!

rudder2020 said:

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Noel Mazzone is one of the top three offensive coordinators in the SEC, a league that has the best defenses in the country. Our worst offensive moments this year were when our starting QB and left tackle were injured and therefore not playing. The only offense that is definitively better is Kiffin's offense, and Kiffin's offense is loaded with 5 stars.

Mazzone was third in scoring and yards. We are scoring over a touchdown more a game than we did last year. We broke the 400 yard mark in nine games this year and the 500 yard mark four times this year. Also, our offense was more effective against LSU's defense than any other team that LSU played. We scored 39 on LSU. If our defense shows up at all, we win it. Alabama was close, but the talent gap won. This was our best offensive year since Johnny. For having a really inexperienced offensive line and a grad transfer QB under center, these stats are pretty damn good.

Although we were upset at the time of the hire, Sumlin made the best hire he could have made. Mazzone isn't going anywhere so lets support him! Keep up the good work, coach. Gig'em.

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The only games that really matter are vs Alabama, LSU, and Ole Miss. What did the offense do when those games were on the line?

Oh yeah the LSU game was over at 34-10 mid-3rd qtr. The LSU D coasted after that.

rudder2020 said:

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Noel Mazzone is one of the top three offensive coordinators in the SEC, a league that has the best defenses in the country. Our worst offensive moments this year were when our starting QB and left tackle were injured and therefore not playing. The only offense that is definitively better is Kiffin's offense, and Kiffin's offense is loaded with 5 stars.

Mazzone was third in scoring and yards. We are scoring over a touchdown more a game than we did last year. We broke the 400 yard mark in nine games this year and the 500 yard mark four times this year. Also, our offense was more effective against LSU's defense than any other team that LSU played. We scored 39 on LSU. If our defense shows up at all, we win it. Alabama was close, but the talent gap won. This was our best offensive year since Johnny. For having a really inexperienced offensive line and a grad transfer QB under center, these stats are pretty damn good.

Although we were upset at the time of the hire, Sumlin made the best hire he could have made. Mazzone isn't going anywhere so lets support him! Keep up the good work, coach. Gig'em.

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Hilarity. Our offensive successes were largely chunk plays when coverage broke down on deep passes or Trevor and Traveon would break off big runs.

No consistency in production, not tailoring play calls to take advantage of the skills of the RB currently in the game, insisting on screen passes despite them losing yards the majority of the time. Unable to outscore two bad Mississippi teams with flawed offenses. Oh yeah, Mazzonne is awesome and in no way had Trevor covering up his deficiencies as an OC.

Op. valid points but winning in the sec comes down to two things; running the football and stopping the run. More specifically doing those two things when everyone in the stadium knows the next play is a run. This is where we still fail and frankly no other stat matters but winning. Agree?

rudder2020 said:

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Noel Mazzone is one of the top three offensive coordinators in the SEC, a league that has the best defenses in the country. Our worst offensive moments this year were when our starting QB and left tackle were injured and therefore not playing. The only offense that is definitively better is Kiffin's offense, and Kiffin's offense is loaded with 5 stars.

Mazzone was third in scoring and yards. We are scoring over a touchdown more a game than we did last year. We broke the 400 yard mark in nine games this year and the 500 yard mark four times this year. Also, our offense was more effective against LSU's defense than any other team that LSU played. We scored 39 on LSU. If our defense shows up at all, we win it. Alabama was close, but the talent gap won. This was our best offensive year since Johnny. For having a really inexperienced offensive line and a grad transfer QB under center, these stats are pretty damn good.

Although we were upset at the time of the hire, Sumlin made the best hire he could have made. Mazzone isn't going anywhere so lets support him! Keep up the good work, coach. Gig'em.

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we rank 41 in third down conversion rate and are tied for 38 in first downs. But that is NOTHING compared to how our offense looks in the TOP battle.

Our TOP average was an abysmal 26 minutes a game. And considering how many OOC cupcakes we played that is horrendous. Our national ranking there is 99. You can't win games if your defensive is on the field most of the game. Luckily toward the end of the year our defense finally figured out how to stay off the field: just let the other team score.

Seriously though in the sec you need your offense to protect your defense. The grinding way the offenses play in the sec beats up the defense, as we have seen year after year and unless you have Bama depth it kills you at the end of the year. The best way to keep the defense healthy is to chew clock and have efficient drives that suck time off the clock. Our offense can't seem to do that. And until they do, the defense is going to suffer and collapse mid year, due to the strain of defending against sec offenses.

I place the blame for our defensive collapse partially on the shoulders of an inept offensive scheme that matches up poorly against a rigorous sec schedule. We would be great in the PAC or the BDF, not so good in the SEC.

rudder2020 said:

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Noel Mazzone is one of the top three offensive coordinators in the SEC, a league that has the best defenses in the country. Our worst offensive moments this year were when our starting QB and left tackle were injured and therefore not playing. The only offense that is definitively better is Kiffin's offense, and Kiffin's offense is loaded with 5 stars.

Mazzone was third in scoring and yards. We are scoring over a touchdown more a game than we did last year. We broke the 400 yard mark in nine games this year and the 500 yard mark four times this year. Also, our offense was more effective against LSU's defense than any other team that LSU played. We scored 39 on LSU. If our defense shows up at all, we win it. Alabama was close, but the talent gap won. This was our best offensive year since Johnny. For having a really inexperienced offensive line and a grad transfer QB under center, these stats are pretty damn good.

Although we were upset at the time of the hire, Sumlin made the best hire he could have made. Mazzone isn't going anywhere so lets support him! Keep up the good work, coach. Gig'em.

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2 words ... just 2

BUBBLE SCREEN!!!!!!!!

I think one could argue that the defense across the board in the SEC is down. (one notable exception)

Mazzone's offense failed to sustain drives and convert 3rd downs. Our defense failed to stop 3rd down conversions. This is a lethal cocktail.

offense was 73rd in 3rd down conversion.
Defense was 63rd in 3rd down


Thus both sucked. But offense was worse.

SARATOGA said:

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I find you people amazing who think that changing coordinators like sweat socks is going to solve the problem.

Jim Turner took a HORRENDOUS offensive line situation, and turned it into something that is "almost serviceable" at its best and very bad at its worst.

On the line this year we had very young, not very talented of players. Mazzone and Turner worked very hard to try and get something that resembles an adequate attempt at offense.

Last year: ZERO BLOCKING ON ANY RUN OR PASS PLAY. TOTAL FAILURE

This year: We're better at run blocking than pass blocking, but still depends on effective zone read action and execution. Pass blocking is only going to last 1.5 to 2 seconds at best, so we do a quick pass, or a quick deep chunk to Reynolds on the sidelines. There is no time for deeper routes to develop that take 3 - 4 seconds of quality blocking.

Mazzone and Turner worked very hard with the tools they had..... But you can't ignore offensive line recruiting for 3 years and then wonder why your offense stinks.....

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Great post.

Mazzone and Turner did reasonably well with what they had.

O Line was too young and QB too inconsistent for the O to be much better.

SeaAg96 said:

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Mazzone's offense failed to sustain drives and convert 3rd downs. Our defense failed to stop 3rd down conversions. This is a lethal cocktail.

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Exactly.

Which explains our November collapse.

CrazyDayDuck said:

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SeaAg96 said:

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Mazzone's offense failed to sustain drives and convert 3rd downs. Our defense failed to stop 3rd down conversions. This is a lethal cocktail.

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Exactly.

Which explains our November collapse.

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Add in the Conner Lanfear injury against Auburn ( he limped his way along until surgery).
Myles injury -no longer put pressure on Qb
Injury at CB - Willis. Then Watts.
Injury at QB.

The 3 positions we were thin, we had injuries. No depth started the problems.

rudder2020 said:

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We could have Urban Myer or Nick Saban as our OC and people on Texags would still be complaining. Especially for a guy in his first year in the SEC, you cannot expect him to be perfect. There are ZERO perfect coaches.

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Not if we win an NC which the above coaches have.

ashley said:

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We have more offense coordinators on here & 99% have never call a play outside per wee ball.

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EEHHRRRRMMAAHHHGGEERRRDDD PPEERRR WWEEERR

Low percentage incomplete passes on first down drove me crazy. I'd like to know where we ranked nationally in second and 10.