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Toledo didn't stop us on the ground all night. Yet, in the pivital third quarter, Pope running the ball was not an option for us. Why?

I don't understand when Omar was struggling a little bit, we didn't hammer them with Pope? That would have opened up some passing opportunities for us.

We go brain-dead in the third quarter and it cost us the game. That was not a game we should have lost!

Running the ball gives us control of the clock & gives the defense time to rest. We were moving the ball with the running game. Why stop?

Going to Pope in the shotgun was the best thing we did in the third quarter. They knew he was going to run and they could not stop it. I don't get why we ever changed from that. There are many things about this game I simply do not understand.

Brandon coached in awful 2nd half. After Toledo scored the first touchdown in the 2nd half we should have came out and ran the ball. We gave the momentum to them and they ran with it.

Could not agree more.

BGDrew wrote:Brandon coached in awful 2nd half. After Toledo scored the first touchdown in the 2nd half we should have came out and ran the ball. We gave the momentum to them and they ran with it.

Coaches Brandon and Studrawa coached an awful first half too. They had a chance to end the game, but the playcalling was dreadful. Also, when we got the ball with 1:05 in the second quarter with 1 timeout on the 20, we should have been going for the kill. That was the ultimate mistake by the coaches tonight in my opinion.

Yeah that was pretty sad at the end of the first half. Against Western and Marshall we held nothing back in the first half. In this game we should have been just as aggressive if not more knowing that we weren't getting the ball first in the second half.

The two bright spots I saw in tonights game were P.J. Pope, an all around solid game. and the O-Line... only gave up two sacks, protection was there most of the game and Pope-Train had room to run!

Game notes on the web indicate that Omar threw 60 passes, which is a school record. I know we were trying to catch up, but it shows how often we ran--not enough.

That is the only question I want answered after tonight. Why didnt we run the ball in the 3rd quarter. There is something about ESPN and our coaches play calling. I just dont get it.

I don't think it has anything to do with ESPN and everything to do with playing big conference games on the road. We won three times on ESPN last year-- NIU, UT, and at the MCB.

I really, really don't understand why we didn't go for the kill at the end of the first. Every other game in our "streak" we were leading bigtime before the half put were still going for broke when we got the ball back with under two minutes left. Heck, we even called timeouts when they had the ball so it would ensure we got the ball back!

It could have been looked at as running up the score, but I rationalized it as practicing clock management and the two minute drill. Guess that rational got thrown out the window tonight....if we would have gotten another TD before the half there would have been an exodus of Rocket fans and we would have been playing at Doyt Perry North.