Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

First of all, if no one responds to this I will keep bumping it all day.

So, most around here have been very negative after this game. While this is somewhat understandable given the expectations surrounding this game, there are a lot of positives that we are all overlooking.

(1) Our offense is outstanding. Unbelievable, for the most part. While there were some times that it appeared the pressure of having to carry the game affected the offensive unit, they never gave up and hung 42 on a defense that, while young, is still very, very big and very, very fast.

(2) We have two *feature* backs. This is something that we have known to a certain degree for a while, but it was impressive to see B.J. Lane step in there and not skip a beat when P.J. went down.

(3) Chuckie had an off day. The positive here? Don't expect to EVER see that again!

(4) This team never gives up. No matter what you want to say about how poorly the defense played, the stops in the fourth quarter said a great deal about the quality of athletes that we have playing on that unit. The offense, too, could have very easily given up after the defense gave up three seemingly uncontested touchdowns in the third (and early fourth) quarter. They didn't, and credit this to the leadership of people like Lichtensteiger and Jacobs.

(5) We have A LOT of very good, young players. Partridge looked outstanding - Magneresque, if you will, and Smith was all over the place on pass protection. He also "Bobby Bouchet'ed" Stocco! Look for this team to continue improving year in and year out for the forseeable future.

(6) It's a long season. We have a lot of time for our D to come together and to find a real kicker (I'd be looking at the men's soccer team, and if there is nothing there, the women's soccer team ). The Ball State game will be a great opportunity to rest the guys who need it and get some practice with different defensive sets and stunts before a big game against Boise. Temple will also be another game that we can play around with in order to solidify all of our units.

(6) We'll not see this type of game again until possibly the bowl season. Say what you will about Wisconsin, but they are an impressive team. Often under-rated, they always come up big in big games (and I am no Big11 appologist as you all well know). We all knew going into this that our run defense has never been very good, which is why this loss wasn't *too* much of a suprise to me.

I know there are more that I'm not thinking of right now, but methinks I've had a bit too much beer for breakfast. Seriously, this game ended at like 12:45 here...

Just think about these things before writing off the season as many seem to have already started to. Nothing I've said today has been intended to tear anyone down personally - just to help put some of this admittedly frustrating game in perspective.

Back to the bottle!

I'm not writing off the season. As you outlined there were some great things out there today. I would say our offense is even more potent than last year. We definitely have a team that can, neigh should, win 9-10 games. Hopefully they're the right ones this year.

We know right off the bat how atrocious our defense is, which will prevent anyone from being any further disappointed/surprised if we give up at least 50 points to Boise/Miami/Toledo.

We also know to quit expecting improvements from our coaching staff when it comes to game management.

We are what we are - it does make for exciting football

I forgot to add #7 to my list: we could be in the boat Miami fans are right now. God bless their souls, their team got absolutely smoked by the Aggies. I had almost as high of hopes for them as I did for our Falcons, too. We should be counting our blessings by comparison.

#8: Omar - 30-51, 458 yds.

Our offense will not be held under 35 in any game this year except at Miami. I am chalking up 8 wins easily. BSU is a better team and will run the ball on us much like wisky did. Toledo I feel good about because we're at home, and Miami worries me even though they looked abysmal today from what I've heard.

Not the end of the world, but extremely disappointing.

#9. This could possibly help Omars chances of coming back for another season. I have this feeling in my gut that he is going to come back anyways.

I forgot to add #7 to my list: we could be in the boat Miami fans are right now

or worse, we could be Oklahoma fans.
another positive is that we reached the over by halftime.
Another positive is like what bleeding orange said, not only do we not give up, we are always gonna have a chance to win in the final minutes. they way we executed the last drive of the first half was great, and they way we didn at the final drive, we just ran out of time, shows we can will never be out of the game, which reminds me, why the hell was Wisconsin booing when we used the time outs at the end? Do they usually do that when a team is trying to win a game?

It is pretty much normal for this board to be like this after a loss. Add to that the huge expectations we had and people are going be upset. We will bounce back. Have not lost a MAC game yet.

I think this game is a great wakeup call for our team, coaches, and fans. We can run with anybody on one side of the ball but we are very much a MAC team on the other side.

This is my first post on the game. We were out of town for a funeral, and I actually only saw the last part of the third and the fourth quarter. I may in the future ban myself from AZZ.com until 24 hours after a game. I did think about you all and how it probably was in here.

Hammb, I like your post, and I like the post in the other thread on our style of play.

I have said this often. I would trade both Boise and Wisconsin to win the MAC Championship this year. And I still feel that way. I want us to win at Miami, beat Toledo, win the MAC Championship and play in another bowl. Let's hope we can bring things around.

Case in point: check out the Rockets in out-of-conference play last year. We all thought it was pretty funny...until we saw them playing in the MAC Championship.

I was certainly disappointed in aspects of our game. It was a winnable game. But if we don't win the MAC, that will be a tragic use of talent and four years of great football.