UCFJayBird wrote:Game Thoughts:
-This team has looked incredibly sloppy these first three games, and Tulsa knew how to take advantage. Take away their turnovers in the first quarter and they blow us out badly.
-The penalties need to be resolved. I don't know what is going on, but the offense needs to figure it out. I hate to see Matt Lee getting so much hate online, fans can be irrational jerks, but damn dude. He was messing up a LOT last night. You could make a compelling argument he lost us the game last night, though I think that would be scapegoating. There's plenty of blame to go around.
-Fans calling for Heupel to be fired are a bit overzealous as usual. I do think the lack of discipline on the team is starting to show though. Too much jawing, too many penalties. Maybe they though Tulsa beating them last year was a fluke and thought they were going to walk their way to victory this season but this should be a huge wake up call for them.
-I'm not a fan of Heupel's play calling. Haven't been since he got here. He's a young coach, so hopefully it improves. But it was a wet field and it was basically raining the entire first half, and he was going side to side with jet sweeps and trying to bounce the RBs outside the entire time. Just seemed like really poor judgment on the play calls.
-Players deserve more of the blame for this one though. At the end of the day Heupel isn't the one with 18 penalties.
-The referees were a joke. I know that's the default for any salty fan. But man were they really bad last night. I don't know if i've ever seen offensive targeting called on a WR. I don't know what they said on TV, but let me know if they were just as flabbergasted as we were in the stands. Also, there was a pass interference called on us, I think on 3rd and long, and the ball was WAY uncatchable. It landed on the Tulsa bench 10 yards out of bounds. No clue what the refs were thinking there. Meanwhile I saw numerous plays down the stretch as we were trying to come back where Tulsa was dragging our guys down downfield and getting away with it. One was particularly egregious, and I think it killed the drive. Also while I didn't see this, my friend seated next to me did. It was in the first half, we had the ball back at our own 15-20 yard line. We run the ball and it's going to be pretty close to the line to get. My friend swears he saw the line judge look at the stick, look where the ball is, and MOVE the stick a foot or two so he wouldn't have to deal with a measurement. I saw them numerous times being sloppy with placing the sticks and 100% believe he saw right (and that was in our favor btw).
I watched the whole game.
I saw the targeting call. The TV guys said it was a good call. It's the first time I've ever seen such a call, but I tend to agree. He dropped his helmet and led with it. It was certainly an odd call though.
I saw the pass interference you referenced. That ball was uncatchable. There was no mention of that on the broadcast. The defender was too handsy, but yeah... you couldn't even see where the ball landed on the replay. That's how far off it was.
The officials let the Tulsa DBs get away with too much grabbing all night long. I don't know if it's the play you were referring to, but there was one long throw where the Tulsa DB had the collar of the UCF receiver and was holding and pulling it for a good ten yards or so as the ball was coming in. Gilmore said he thought it was just two guys being physical and a good no call, but I thought it was an obvious pass interference.
As for Lee... his performance was pretty difficult to defend. I've never seen that many penalties from an individual lineman and it's rather uncommon to see penalties against a center at all. He was listed as a tackle from what I saw, so I don't know if he is new to the position, but that was a terrible performance and I don't understand why he wasn't yanked. Centers don't have to be great blockers as they almost always have help. They just have to not **** up. He couldn't stop **** up last night.
"Xatticus has always been, in my humble opinion best poster here. Should write articles or something."
-pepe1991