I don't know what the players were told after the drive where we had 3 15 yard penalties but it seemed our DBs played differently. More concerned with not get another penalty than playing aggressive. The 3rd and 13 play was the killer that drive, missed tackles got them another 15-20 yards on that one.

I have not rewatched to see if there were obvious changes to our scheme that hurt us the last 3 drives or the defense just got tired. We had zero pash rush that last quarter so USC was going to get someone open. Number 8 for them we could not cover, a double team on him appeared it might help.

Canyon Lake Agbu94 said:

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I am of the impression that Reed should have slid at the 3 to take more clock off instead of going in for the touchdown. I haven't rewatched the tape, but am curious to see if they let him score for the sake of the additional time. Knowing that our defense was snakebit.

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I agree, I was hoping we scored with under a minute of clock left. But the play prior to our TD the pass route to Noah has one to score so our coaches were only focused on scoring. So they clearly were not telling any players to milk clock.

SourLakeAg said:

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Yeah we had been great in short yardage situations all year.

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I understand what you are saying. But both defenses were spent with lack of depth. At that specific time it was nothing like going against the South Carolina and Texas full strength defenses.

Well according to Elko, we don't understand the basics of pass defense.


A very honest assessment. Self-indicting (ironically?). But honest.

I believe we had a 2nd and 2 from around the 20 when we passed to Noah that fell incomplete and stopped the clock. That was where we should have run the ball to run more of the clock. We needed to kill at least 30 more seconds on that last drive. And one of the PI penalties on SC drive should not have been called. IMHO

Why wouldn't you pick on Ricks.

You can see a coach that has a winners mentality and you can see a coach that is scared.

This was not first time this season we score late and then defensively played softer. Just too easy.

On last play our DB wasnt even close enough to hold or grab. But also, players need to know situation.

I recall a few years ago we played Bama. Bama gets called for penalty in end zone at end of game so we got one more play. The next play a Bama DB commits an even more egregious PI but it isn't called because refs tend to swallow whistles and dont want to call back to back. You just have to know this and play accordingly. Coaches and players. If i am playing you dont need to tell me this.

agree with the late Reed TD talk… but more concerning to me was the play before, when we're throwing incomplete passes to the endzone.. 1) taking no time off the clock 2) stopping the clock with the incompletion… just get 3-5 more yards, keep the drive going and clocking moving etc… zero awareness of clock mgmt.

I get that and understand that we have been awful. I would have rather taken my chances with trying to score from the three and then kicking a tying field goal to take it to ot, than let usc go against that spent defense. To me, it showcased a lack of situational awareness and experience. I would think that Marcel Reed a year from now would recognize that the d was spent and that the score would give the trojans the last chance of the game.

We were 4 points down. TD was required.

And it's the coaches job on that one as far as making sure the team knew to run clock. They clearly were only focused on scoring a TD.

You absolutely can not allow the receiver to get inside leverage anywhere on or near the goal line.

Zero disruption and oftentimes the DBs allow easy free releases of WR and continue to play the receivers arms and hands as the ball arrives versus ever turning around and playing the ball.

The entire last drive I could not believe how fast our offense was moving and snapping the ball. I had not seen that the entire year. And in this case we had plenty of time. I didn't think we needed to move that fast.

My fears were realized as I figured the defense would not hold. However, I was thinking OT but the D was even far worse than I imagined.

We moved too fast on offense that last drive and should have run the ball more, IMO. But at the end of the day the defense has to be much better.

Okay. Was thinking the final score was 34-31 so a field goal would not have worked. I guess it all worked out like it was supposed to then. Since it is the coaches decision on this one, I have to give Riley some respect for allowing the score with enough time to swiss cheese our defense again, and I am even less confident in our coaching staff moving forward as a result. They have not learned and qb doesn't have to.

gunan01 said:

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Elko calls a timeout when USC is in the red zone with 0:17 left. At that point the BEST case scenario for us is a USC FG attempt to send game to OT (or blocked/missed and we win).

At this point in the game, you HAVE to be COACHING the defense to commit holding/pass interference if it looks like you're gonna get beat for the winning TD on a pass. Worst case scenario is half the distance to goal penalty. BUT time still goes off clock with a penalty and eventually leaves USC with the decision to try and score the winning TD on an untimed down or kick the tying FG.

How can our coaches not understand this? Lanning understood this vs Ohio St and got a purposeful penalty late in that game on defense and eventually the time ran out. I feel like Dan Campbell would have understood the situation and made the right call. I've seen him make the right late game clock management decisions over and over again in Detroit.

Instead Dezz Ricks puts up basically no resistance as they pick on him relentlessly to with game.

SMH……

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Remember the UCLA debacle? That was worse but I understand where you're coming from.

The good part

Hopefully the coaches learned things so they can do better in a game with similar areas that actually matters.

LB12Diamond said:

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The good part

Hopefully the coaches learned things so they can do better in a game with similar areas that actually matters.

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That game mattered to me. In fact I think it was the worst loss of the season. Made me more upset than the Auburn loss.

I was so mad about those 2 losses because I feel A&M was clearly the better team on both of those losses.

No way should we have lost to USC, especially after being up 24-7 in the 2nd half.

Our coaching is not good.

I 100% agree the Ags scored too quick. But I also don't trust Klein and co to be competent enough to melt the clock and score.

Honolulu Blue said:

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Well according to Elko, we don't understand the basics of pass defense.


A very honest assessment. Self-indicting (ironically?). But honest.

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He's been head coach for four awful losses and one wtf loss. It's all on him. Quit trying to explain it.

We did the same thing, different route, against LSU in 2021 when Elko was DC. Should have held rather than get beat. He has to start coaching situational techniques to WIN! Coach to WIN! Sometimes you have ti break the "rules" when the situation demands it. Like it or not, the coach's primary job is to first WIN!
Other coaches have taught their OL tackles to hold our DL. It is working for them.

lagoag said:

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I believe we had a 2nd and 2 from around the 20 when we passed to Noah that fell incomplete and stopped the clock. That was where we should have run the ball to run more of the clock. We needed to kill at least 30 more seconds on that last drive. And one of the PI penalties on SC drive should not have been called. IMHO

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it was first and 10

We don't have good coaches.

Hth

the real telling bit of truth was it has been known since 1st game (and prob prior) as real obvious throughout the season. Why Elko knew 7-1 was a facade (even though he sold it '1st time A&M in 'it') as we were lucky and some teams didn't understand to just shut down our run and make us a passing team as there was no way we were going to stop them(as we can't do that consistently once Moss went down).

Teams torched this defense all yr long...not enough pressure on QB and gave up huge passing yards. Also think why CK's hands were partially tied w running the ball to control the clock per Elko (the old Jimbo play book of keep TOP so the other team can't exploit our porous defense).

Next year will be harder even though facing the same teams (personally, more than 'marginally' more difficult). UF and Mizzou will not be layups, we always struggle with Aub (who is doing well recruiting HS/Portal), LSU is still talented (more talent and always has a top WR room), ND played a lot of freshmen this year, USCe will be top 15 team starting next year, tu has depth (and will be at home), etc. Not sure 7 wins is there (esp w DL doldrums), but we have spring and summer to get feeling 'good' again on Texags.