1. what kind of defense does not have enough pride to stop a team from marching down the field and scoring. even if its in garbage time. why not force a 3 and out and give jarrett lee's knee a workout. Its embarrassing and could factor in why we stayed at 11 and 9 in the polls. It sucks that style points count in NCAA Division 1 football, but they do. 2. I thought this would happen, or be used as an excuse, the whole jet lag thing, but you are right. Pasadena is in the same time zone, but if a bunch of 18-21 year old kids cant handle staying up until 1 in the morning then what is the world coming to. Players can go out to Fred's and party until the wee hours, and get up and go to class the next day, but cant handle the time zone? Maybe we should have put a keg on the sideline, and told them it was Club U Dub.
2. Going to a club and playing a football game are not exactly a fair comparison. I know they were tired, or slugish, but they won.
I wish they showed that type of pride too.. but it was the game plan as Miles has said. An ugly win is still a win.. and 10 ugly wins will put us comfortably in the top-5 :wave: That being said.. I like it when our defense swarm to the ball, forces turnovers, crushes receivers, and plays with fire. But as long as they get the job done.. that is what matters -- you can be cold as ice out there and show no emotion for all I care.. if you get the job done.
Fundamental Flaw number one: It was hard enough to slow down their offense without playing prevent. Preventing the big play was taking priority and that's exactly what they did. Furthermore, rakings mean NOTHING right now. Fundamental Flaw number two: Staying up drinking until 1AM and playing football until 1AM are two completely different things. Edit: I had to wait to finish my post and therefore didn't know it was all covered already.
1)People were in fact stating the score was "really 31-13". No it wasn't, and the fact is, it was a real drive, no fluke lucky plays. They marched it down our defenses throats. I heard what Coach said, and it was typical coachspeak. It's not a big deal to me that they scored at the end. It's the was they did it. Everyone was saying leading up to the game that as long as the offense was ahead of the defense, we're in trouble. Well, that's what it looks like to me so far, but I'm hoping for the best. 2)Teams do it all the time. NY Yankees vs Oakland A's, Patriots vs Chargers, you name it. They were there in time to somewhat adjust, and their sleep patterns were adjusted to compensate. However, I'm sure it had something to do with the lackluster performance. I think you misunderstand my point. I'm not saying none of these things had an affect...just saying that I wish we didn't make excuses every time we don't do well. Bottom line, we played poorly and won. I'm happy we won, and hope we play better as the season progresses. Only time will tell which way we're headed, but I'm confident we'll improve as the season continues.
To be fair, when LSU is playing at 1am vs Washington who is playing 11pm, I'd say the advantage as far as alertness goes is to Washington.
The professional games you cited almost never have a kickoff or first pitch that late, causing them to play when their bodies are getting ready for sleep.
I was very suprised that they let the game be a night game. Maybe they though it was to our advantage. Or we didn't have a choice... I think it would have been easier on our guys if it had been a mid-day game.
