re: WOW !!! I hope this is accurate - Mike Detillier on Dandy this morning

quote:

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Chavis defended the spread pretty well. Aggies, Ole Miss....better than anyone else in the conf did anyway.

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No one can deny that Chavis had the Aggies nailed three years in a row. However, the OM argument doesn't hold water at all. They absolute killed our defense two years in a row using the spread and running Wallace. This year, they had no run game at all and Wallace was dinged up coming into the matchup, which limited his ability to run. They played a much more conservative offensive gameplan against us, and struggled mightily because of it. That's not to say the defense didn't play very well, but the situation definitely favored us this year.

Speaking of the Ole Miss game, your comment on our 3rd down ranking this year (we were the top 3rd down defense in the league) comes to mind. Those of us who know the game don't discount this statistic. Not at all. However, you can't throw the baby out with the bath water and say that the end of game issues with our defense don't exist because of it. If anything, the exact opposite is true. The 3rd and 4th down issues brought on by the end of game/half prevent and soft zone are underlined in bright red ink BECAUSE of the excellent 3rd down performance the rest of the game. That's why the letdowns stand out so much.

The Ole Miss game is a perfect example. We held their offense down until the last drive and kept them to 3 points, but suddenly they march quickly down the field, only to be undone by their idiot QB. If he had run the play he was given, they would have had a chip shot FG for OT and, like Bama going into OT with us, all the momentum.

The term "3rd and Chavis" gets tossed around loosely, but if you ask fans specifically what stands out to them, it isn't usually random 3rd downs through the first 3 quarters (except maybe the bowl game). It is the end of game philosophy shifts that they are referring to. Don't get hung up on the semantics. Look at the results. Going from being one of the best 3rd down Ds in the FBS to letting 4 teams (Florida, Ole Miss, Bama, ND) make late drives to affect the outcome of the game with multiple 3rd and 4th down conversions is too much to ignore. It is a constantly repeating pattern.