I've cooled off a bit, mostly just because I think we'll win our bowl game no matter who our opponent is and I think this season is just a sign of great things to come. So although I'm sick at how it went down, if it doesn't end here and continues to progress, I'll deal with it.
What I can't get over is the idea that players should always just play through penalties. Early in the game, I can see. That is just a little adversity being thrown at you. Despite all of the bogus calls our guys dealt with yesterday, they still fought through it and had a 12 point lead in the game up 19-7. With a 19-14 lead still in the game but time dwindling down, it is impossible for a team to play through adversity with no time left to react.
That is the part that bothers me. The team didn't get the call against KState on the hit on Kempt, and then turned around and didn't execute on a play to get the first and seal the game, finding themselves on 3rd down. They responded by isolating Lazard and clearly getting a PI that was called, then negated. The players no longer have the ability to play through that, because the officials took it out of the players' hands.
You can remark that the defense could have responded from there, but how many holds went uncalled on KState on the last drive? How many false starts?
It bothers me that TV talking heads and radio morons are so willing to toss this off as something teams just have to deal with, when it is sometimes impossible to deal with. The team did everything they needed to do to win that game. Shoot, the team did everything they needed to do to win that game by a few scores. They still left with a loss. Why? Because people think they needed to be good enough to win that game by 30 points or more in order to seal a single score victory?
I'm not buying that anymore. We need to expect better than that from officials. KState has 10 straight and probably only really outplayed us squarely in 3 of those contests. The other 7 or more were likely decided by close calls and bounces of the ball and KState somehow getting the benefit of each of those every single time. That has to stop. I don't know how, although I think Campbell staying and continuing to get the discipline and execution from the team is a great start, but I'm going to try and figure it out. Even if I have to start officiating myself. This is pathetic.
What I can't get over is the idea that players should always just play through penalties. Early in the game, I can see. That is just a little adversity being thrown at you. Despite all of the bogus calls our guys dealt with yesterday, they still fought through it and had a 12 point lead in the game up 19-7. With a 19-14 lead still in the game but time dwindling down, it is impossible for a team to play through adversity with no time left to react.
That is the part that bothers me. The team didn't get the call against KState on the hit on Kempt, and then turned around and didn't execute on a play to get the first and seal the game, finding themselves on 3rd down. They responded by isolating Lazard and clearly getting a PI that was called, then negated. The players no longer have the ability to play through that, because the officials took it out of the players' hands.
You can remark that the defense could have responded from there, but how many holds went uncalled on KState on the last drive? How many false starts?
It bothers me that TV talking heads and radio morons are so willing to toss this off as something teams just have to deal with, when it is sometimes impossible to deal with. The team did everything they needed to do to win that game. Shoot, the team did everything they needed to do to win that game by a few scores. They still left with a loss. Why? Because people think they needed to be good enough to win that game by 30 points or more in order to seal a single score victory?
I'm not buying that anymore. We need to expect better than that from officials. KState has 10 straight and probably only really outplayed us squarely in 3 of those contests. The other 7 or more were likely decided by close calls and bounces of the ball and KState somehow getting the benefit of each of those every single time. That has to stop. I don't know how, although I think Campbell staying and continuing to get the discipline and execution from the team is a great start, but I'm going to try and figure it out. Even if I have to start officiating myself. This is pathetic.
