A Sea Of Red

Since Ballcoach doesn't know how to spell "postmortem," I thought I'd start this thread for him.

Clear talent gap.

Once again refs were influential.

Coaching from my couch, I think we should have run the ball more.

You have to stop the run first. Put the 8th man in the box and make them throw it. Disappointing to see them blow us off the ball play after play.

That said, a lot still to play for, and as said, we have a great class coming. We are still in the first couple of innings of the HF era. The guys need to keep their heads high and keep playing.

This one felt similar to our loss to New Mexico State last year, where I honestly thought we had a better team but we just didn't execute and committed dumb penalties.

3 stats that tell the tale of the game:

1. 9 penalties for 70 yards

2. Rutgers converted on 12 of 16 third down conversions.

3. Rutgers kept the ball for 40:48 compared to LU's 19:12. Part of that can be equated to the 3rd down conversions too.

All in all we did stand toe to toe with a P5 and should've won.

FlamesHighontheTide wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 4:20 pm This one felt similar to our loss to New Mexico State last year, where I honestly thought we had a better team but we just didn't execute and committed dumb penalties.

3 stats that tell the tale of the game:

1. 9 penalties for 70 yards

2. Rutgers converted on 12 of 16 third down conversions.

3. Rutgers kept the ball for 40:48 compared to LU's 19:12. Part of that can be equated to the 3rd down conversions too.

All in all we did stand toe to toe with a P5 and should've won.

The reality is we have an all FCS offensive line that are doing the best they can. Whatever happened to Maisen Knight, a 3 star JUCO OL? The D line is still thin with Lloyd and Green out and Monday probably redshirting. RU certainly had a good game plan by running the QB as the RB added another blocker to the scheme. He seemed to drag guys on his back a number of times. he's a big boy and was extremely accurate passer. We shot ourselves in the foot a number of times and RU seemed to get the calls and the breaks. On AGG 1 handed catch he was held and grabbed the whole way as he was on s few other occasions, and th offsides call on the onside kick was a BAD call. That's it.

This game really could have been something if it wasn't for the Espinoza fumble, the errant offside penalty, and the Rutgers goal-line stand. While I wish it went our way, our team has a bright future and can recover from this. I wasn't expecting a P5 win this year, but maybe we can still eek one out where we aren't getting manhandled at the line.

Chippy wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 4:44 pm

FlamesHighontheTide wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 4:20 pm This one felt similar to our loss to New Mexico State last year, where I honestly thought we had a better team but we just didn't execute and committed dumb penalties.

3 stats that tell the tale of the game:

1. 9 penalties for 70 yards

2. Rutgers converted on 12 of 16 third down conversions.

3. Rutgers kept the ball for 40:48 compared to LU's 19:12. Part of that can be equated to the 3rd down conversions too.

All in all we did stand toe to toe with a P5 and should've won.

The reality is we have an all FCS offensive line that are doing the best they can. Whatever happened to Maisen Knight, a 3 star JUCO OL? The D line is still thin with Lloyd and Green out and Monday probably redshirting. RU certainly had a good game plan by running the QB as the RB added another blocker to the scheme. He seemed to drag guys on his back a number of times. he's a big boy and was extremely accurate passer. We shot ourselves in the foot a number of times and RU seemed to get the calls and the breaks. On AGG 1 handed catch he was held and grabbed the whole way as he was on s few other occasions, and th offsides call on the onside kick was a BAD call. That's it.

Not sure how u can complain about O Line - was worried that would be our weak point and very surprised it was our D Line that got shoved around. We are in for a long two games vs UVA and BYU if that is how our d line plays down the stretch.

We aren't quite there yet.
Very frustrating game.
But I will still be happy If we can stay focused at beat Umass and NM State and sneak into a lower level bowl.

But I still think we're headed in the right direction.

Just try to keep BYU and UVA respectible.

Hats off to Rutgers coaching staff - hit us with the only way they could have beat us. Disappointed we didn’t adjust right away to qb run. Let’s not let one loss create 2 and get some UMass payback from last year.

Tyndal cites all they key elements this time. I thought the o line actually held up great in first half and yes they gave up 3 or 4 clean shots on buck in second half but 2 of those were complete whiffs from the rb in chips and buck still gets that panicked look on those plays.

The front 7 on d got completely chewed up just like auburn and army last year. The top 3 dbs cant stay healthy. Espinoza should not be returning kicks....ever. Thought that was obvious last year. Between fumbles and running right into the teeth every time that should seem obvious. Penalties were the other big killer.

Its just disappointing because that was like watching a high school offense just line up and pound us with the most basic stuff and we were completely helpless. I hope the last 5 schollies all go to juco ol dl and lb.

Just got back from the game a few hours ago. Very disappointing. Offensively, 34 points is clearly enough to win. I could complain about a few false starts, Calvert not putting enough loft on his throws, or not recognizing blitzes or personnel at the line of scrimmage. But I won't. This game falls almost 100% on the defense. No push up the middle. Couldn't get off the field on 3rd down. Bad tackling. The biggest problem I had was the coordinator. If you aren't getting there in a base defense, you have to design more run blitzes and other types of blitzes. Make the QB make a quicker decision. He could have had a picnic back there and Liberty seemed content to stay in very plain, vanilla defenses.

Rutgers May be the worst B1G team
Syracuse May be the worst ACC team
Both teams handled LU pretty easily
Can we please stop with the P5 talk now for awhile? LU is going to have to bring something to the table. A history of losing to bottom feeders of the Conference ain’t it. Play a game in Dallas? Child, please. Did you see how many seats were available at this game? Sure it’s Jersey and Jersey sucks but LU didn’t even have a respectable showing of fans. LU is certainly not the worst FBS team, which is a good thing. But they aren’t a competitive P5 team either

The issue with this game came down to being completely dominated in the trenches. We could have NFL caliber skill guys, but you cannot win a game when you have absolutely no control in the trenches. That will come with time. It comes down to recruiting FBS talent at those positions. They are the hardest to fill. Trust the process.

This game would've been totally different without the fumble by Espinoza, the delay of game at the 1 yard line and the blown call on the offsides call that did not happen on our recovering of the onside kick.

Regardless of the loss, we still have yet to play a complete game on both sides of the ball and it will come. I am so hopeful going into next week and even still going into BYU. I think we match-up well with them in comparison to Rutgers or UVA.

Moving on to next week.

We were exposed for what we are.....a lower tier FBS team.....could not hang with arguably the worst P5 team in America.
We have to remember this is our first true year of FBS. We would be a top 5 FCS program.... but we are not ready for serious P5 competition....not even close.
Keep the course..... but, we are decades away from the big time......Ian knows this, and so does Hugh Freeze.
I give Hugh one more year......he’s gone as soon as somebody comes knocking....but he’s good for our program as long as we can keep him.

We ran the ball 18 times in the last 3 quarters . . . . . . . . for 31 yards.

Touchdownmaker wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 9:38 pm We were exposed for what we are.....a lower tier FBS team.....could not hang with arguably the worst P5 team in America.
We have to remember this is our first true year of FBS. We would be a top 5 FCS program.... but we are not ready for serious P5 competition....not even close.
Keep the course..... but, we are decades away from the big time......Ian knows this, and so does Hugh Freeze.
I give Hugh one more year......he’s gone as soon as somebody comes knocking....but he’s good for our program as long as we can keep him.

LU is not currently a top 5 FCS program

Purple Haize wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 10:04 pm

Touchdownmaker wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 9:38 pm We were exposed for what we are.....a lower tier FBS team.....could not hang with arguably the worst P5 team in America.
We have to remember this is our first true year of FBS. We would be a top 5 FCS program.... but we are not ready for serious P5 competition....not even close.
Keep the course..... but, we are decades away from the big time......Ian knows this, and so does Hugh Freeze.
I give Hugh one more year......he’s gone as soon as somebody comes knocking....but he’s good for our program as long as we can keep him.

LU is not currently a top 5 FCS program

Good point, they prolly are not

Touchdownmaker wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 9:38 pm We were exposed for what we are.....a lower tier FBS team.....could not hang with arguably the worst P5 team in America.
We have to remember this is our first true year of FBS. We would be a top 5 FCS program.... but we are not ready for serious P5 competition....not even close.
Keep the course..... but, we are decades away from the big time......Ian knows this, and so does Hugh Freeze.
I give Hugh one more year......he’s gone as soon as somebody comes knocking....but he’s good for our program as long as we can keep him.

So it’s going to take decades to find a couple of d tackles and build up FBS roster depth? I agree that it will take decades if we follow that logic

Regression to the mean.

We lost a game that we originally were supposed to lose. Despite their obvious problems, Rutgers is still a B1G team with P5 players, even if they're bottom of the barrel P5 players. They merely took advantage of their superior size and depth, our D's post bye week funk, and our program's knack for making crappy teams better. But seriously, Freeze earlier pointed out their size and depth, even if he thought like the rest of us that we could beat them. But before the season started we all counted on losing to SU, Rutgers, BYU, UVA and Buffalo or ULALA, and we're still on track to do that. The sky's not falling, we're just who we are- a team wuth mostly FCS talent, size, and depth. We'll be fine this year, and definitely in the future, especially with Freeze & Co. I still think we have an outside shot at knocking off BYU or UVA. Obviously, the D has to return to their pre-Bye week form in order for an upset to happen.

RU was constantly ahead of the chains and dominated the line of scrimmage. They killed us all day with the QB runs. It definitely demonstrated how difficult it is to defend the read option when your QB is an effective runner. (Malik next year)
As far as PH saying "Jersey sucks"- consider the source.

Touchdownmaker wrote: ↑October 26th, 2019, 9:38 pm we are decades away from the big time

With all due respect, define BIG TIME.

Are you talking about making bowl games every year Big Time, or being in the SEC and playing in Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl Big Time?

Less than 5 years.

The Rutgers fans I was sitting with were very impressed with where we are this early in our time in the FBS. Our O-line was exhausted coming off the field late in the game. We all want to think we should be better than bottom P5 teams but we just aren’t. We do have some big time talent, but, like is stated regularly, most of these guys were recruited to play FCS ball. Liberty didn’t have the fan turnout I would have liked, but there were a good number of us there. It will take time, but we are headed in the right direction. Of course for fans, the most difficult part is always patience.