Why It's Not as Simple as Ws vs Ls

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

In fact, the reason we couldn't put any plays together on offense is because the ones we tried at first (in the 2nd half) failed.

That's the nature of offense. If the stuff you try fails, you don't get another chance to straighten it out, the other offense gets its turn. Conversely, on defense, if the offense converts on first down, all that happens is you get three more downs to stop them on.

Campbell is inaccurate on two passes, we fumble, and what happens? It's midway through the 4th and we are trailing. 21 pt swing.

Eli Manning converts a third down and then what happens? He converts another third down. Then again. And again.

Here's the point: going foward, theres no reason to be concerned about the offense. Campbell's efficency evened out at the end. The defense, its a bit more worrisome. They had like 40 chances to stop Eli in the second half and were successful once (ST's pick).

I do expect our D to rebound against Detroit next week. Detroit won't be able to run on us, so this is going to be a high scoring game. But I like our chances. We are more balanced on offense than they are.

This is a tremendous post and puts some meaning into the cliche that players and coaches always throw out there: "we just couldn't get into a rhythm on offense."

We failed on offense in the 3rd quarter, and didn't get a chance to redeem ourselves until the 4th quarter, because the Giants controlled the ball very well.

That's why I say if we had just made a first down or two in the 3rd quarter, things may have been completely different. We never had much of a chance.

Of course, it's up to the defense to get us the ball back to get more chances on offense. The defense failed in the 2nd half, allowing 3 TDs. Of course, they had no time to rest because the offense couldn't sustain drives, so it's hard to expect much better from them. In the end, this goes to illustrate just how much one play here or there can affect your team. We go 3 and out on a few series in a row, and we tire our defense out, and before you know it we're down by 7 in the 4th quarter. If we make just a few first downs, our defense gets rested, and then who the hell knows what happens.

OK, great, if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass when he hops... we still lost. But are you going to run around with your hair on fire because our offense couldn't connect on two or three key third downs in the 3rd quarter? Seems like an awfully small sample of football plays to draw meaningful conclusions from.

The line between winning and losing is TINY.

Nice post, GTripp.