GDT: Villanova (12/09/23) ***FCS Championship, Quarter Finals***

[Kemo]

I think Villanova's defense finally got worn down..that had a lot to do with the offiensive success in the second half.

They were selling out against the run all first half and were successful shooting gaps with 8+ in the box, but our size just wore down their speed by the end of the game.

[LetsGoRabbits]

I think Villanova's defense finally got worn down..that had a lot to do with the offiensive success in the second half.

100% agree with this. and believe this is what we saw on our last two drives most of all!! but even our first two drives coming out of half we dominated. first drive moving extremely well and Zach got a bit loose with ball security and we lost the fumble. second drive lots of good runs by Davis capped off with the slant to janke for TD. 3rd drive was looking good with Davis. we tried to give him a break and the drive stalled. not a knock on Amar but he just never got enough carries today to find any rhythm at all

[JackFan96]

EXCELLENT second half by the Jacks!! YES we have had some games where we come out and dominate immediately, But we are DEFINITELY a better second half team. no matter how much some want to question our coaches, i dont think there is ANY staff that makes better half time adjustments!!

can someone say, how much of the offense for the beginning of the game is scripted ahead of time and how much is called as we go? if scripted, obviously hopefully it is scripted fairly close to game time or adjustments are made late when weather conditions are better understood. in the game today it did seem like lot of outside runs and passes outside the numbers to begin, but in the second half it was a lot more run directly at them and passes on seams and in breaking routes. dont know why the game plan was set up for something different early but i am sure they had a reason. that said Grono definitely has the arm for passes to both sidelines and does fine throwing outside, but i have always believed that in his career he is BEST on passes in the middle of the field- seams, slants, ins, drags, etc..

ANYWAY love this team and love the coaches. there is a lot of discussion about the fact the Jacks do not lose players like other teams do. obviously that same loyalty extends to the coaching staff. not in that we never lose coaches, obviously we lose a lot of them!! but we have had and do have a lot of coaches who love this program and school. it is more than just a job or a paycheck

maybe we need to consider a special area, like the smack area, for those who really only want to be critical and have little interest in pointing out anything good the jacks do. i mean this team has won 27 games in a row and a championship and there are literally commenters in this thread who could not make EVEN ONE positive remark? are you serious? 27 wins in a row and a championship- but NOTHING positive to say? you might be working too hard at being unhappy


on to the semis!!! way to go Jacks!! feeling pretty confident that this will be this years HC game- the one game along the way to motivate the fellas to be totally tuned in the rest of the way. that said, AGAIN minus a fumble the offense did basically ANYTHING they wanted the entire second half!!! and yep we did uncharacteristically give up multiple 3rd down conversions on one drive, AND YET very true to form stiffened and showed the number one redzone defense and held Nova (a very good and physical Nova team BTW) to ONLY 3 points in the second half!!!

The offense was pathetic in the first half. If you didn't see that, it's on you. Play-calling and execution were both rotten. That's just a hard fact.

That said, we did make great adjustments at half and that made a massive difference. Good on everybody for that, full credit. But don't act like the first half wasn't a debacle.

We have the depth to wear teams down, too. Another lovely bonus.

[LetsGoRabbits]

The offense was pathetic in the first half. If you didn't see that, it's on you. Play-calling and execution were both rotten. That's just a hard fact.

That said, we did make great adjustments at half and that made a massive difference. Good on everybody for that, full credit. But don't act like the first half wasn't a debacle.

We have the depth to wear teams down, too. Another lovely bonus.

is there ANYTHING in my post complimenting the offense or play calling in the 1st half? i began the post by saying EXCELLENT second half. and i posed a question about the plays in the first half!! but i can question decisions and still believe that coaches have legitimate reasons for making them. sometimes what seem like well thought out and perfectly justifiable decisions DO NOT work? no?? and i can also question why some ONLY criticize but find NOTHING to celebrate. and i can ask questions on both sides without saying that anyone on either side of either question needs to be personally attacked

that said if you or others believe that coach Lujan or other coaches NEED to be trashed that is obviously your right. just as i have the right to disagree with it. i would guess that those criticizing coach Lujan and Rodgers probably also were part of the crowd that said Eidsness and Eck were not good cooridinators and Stig was not a very good head coach. CRAZZZZZZY how a team that has had so many incompetent coaches has been to the playoffs 12 or 13 consecutive years and 6 times to the semis or beyond in the last 7 years

[JackFan96]

is there ANYTHING in my post complimenting the offense or play calling in the 1st half? i began the post by saying EXCELLENT second half. and i posed a question about the plays in the first half!! but i can question decisions and still believe that coaches have legitimate reasons for making them. sometimes what seem like well thought out and perfectly justifiable decisions DO NOT work? no?? and i can also question why some ONLY criticize but find NOTHING to celebrate. and i can ask questions on both sides without saying that anyone on either side of either question needs to be personally attacked

that said if you or others believe that coach Lujan or other coaches NEED to be trashed that is obviously your right. just as i have the right to disagree with it. i would guess that those criticizing coach Lujan and Rodgers probably also were part of the crowd that said Eidsness and Eck were not good cooridinators and Stig was not a very good head coach. CRAZZZZZZY how a team that has had so many incompetent coaches has been to the playoffs 12 or 13 consecutive years and 6 times to the semis or beyond in the last 7 years

Well, right back at you. I didn't call for anybody to be fired. I didn't trash any coach. I did say the play-calling was bad in the first half. It was. And I said great adjustments were made at half. Also factual .

Stop confusing an accurate observation with calling for coaches to be fired. There's a massive difference. Taking issue with something is not trashing people. I won't ignore reality, and I'm good with that.

All of that said, it's a win. They don't have to be beautiful. It's just less stressful when they are. And even though I have a beef with things in the first half, I'll take this coaching staff every day of the week. They're great.

[LetsGoRabbits]

i believe one HUGE factor in some of the criticism is probably the fact that this team has made SO SO MANY games look easy over the last two years including the championship game and basically all the playoffs last year minus HC. obviously last week was a dominant performance and basically every game this year minus two!!!! (now three, even though we dominated the second half and could have easily scored 2 more TDs in the second half) i am sure our average margin of victory is well over 20 points

do we understand how NOT NORMAL that is? we have beaten 5 or 6 ranked teams this year by over 20 points. anyway, the point is that when a GOOD team actually looks like a good team for even a portion of a game, we are very prone to give the other team ZERO credit and feel like the Jacks are completely underperforming. the fact is that even a team as great as the jacks will have difficulty playing at a totally dominant level for every quarter of every game!!! and also sometimes other teams do make plays- even terrible teams will make some plays, let alone ranked teams and playoff caliber teams!!!

the Jacks are extremely extremely good!! sometimes other teams make plays

[filbert]

i believe one HUGE factor in some of the criticism is probably the fact that this team has made SO SO MANY games look easy over the last two years including the championship game and basically all the playoffs last year minus HC. obviously last week was a dominant performance and basically every game this year minus two!!!! (now three, even though we dominated the second half and could have easily scored 2 more TDs in the second half) i am sure our average margin of victory is well over 20 points

do we understand how NOT NORMAL that is? we have beaten 5 or 6 ranked teams this year by over 20 points. anyway, the point is that when a GOOD team actually looks like a good team for even a portion of a game, we are very prone to give the other team ZERO credit and feel like the Jacks are completely underperforming. the fact is that even a team as great as the jacks will have difficulty playing at a totally dominant level for every quarter of every game!!! and also sometimes other teams do make plays- even terrible teams will make some plays, let alone ranked teams and playoff caliber teams!!!

the Jacks are extremely extremely good!! sometimes other teams make plays

I agree. Villanova was a VERY good football team.

[Prairiehaas]

Villanova is a well coached, quick and disciplined team, if not a bit chippy. Their game plan was to stack the box on defense and utilize their option plays on offense. Their defense managed to keep the Jackrabbit offense on it's back foot most of the 1st half. That was helped by the officiating crew allowing DBs on both to teams actively mug the receivers. The second half adjustments and the Jackrabbits depth and conditioning swung the game. Villanova could not answer.

Villanova is a very good team. I would add that their performance, and performance in the other afternoon game, puts certain seeding decision in a poor light.

Happy with the win and looking forward to Friday. Hoping the wind is much milder.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Villanova is a well coached, quick and disciplined team, if not a bit chippy. Their game plan was to stack the box on defense and utilize their option plays on offense. Their defense managed to keep the Jackrabbit offense on it's back foot most of the 1st half. That was helped by the officiating crew allowing DBs on both to teams actively mug the receivers. The second half adjustments and the Jackrabbits depth and conditioning swung the game. Villanova could not answer.

Villanova is a very good team. I would add that their performance, and performance in the other afternoon game, puts certain seeding decision in a poor light.

Happy with the win and looking forward to Friday. Hoping the wind is much milder.

excellent point !
we might have wanted some PI calls throughout the game but the other side definitely wanted them too and would have been equally deserving. perhaps sadly potentially bad officiating that is equally wrong in both directions has pretty much become my definition of great officiating))) haha

to be clear i dont think i would call the officials today bad!!! thought they were actually pretty good. i probably disagree with the personal fouls on both O Brian and Christensen but overall, thought they were pretty good. just saying that i barely care if they are terrible any longer as long as they are terrible in both directions))

[WTFJACK]

Jimmy Rodgers with some terrible clock management

jimmy was exposed today by his poor game management experience but I’m sure the lil fella will learn and improve. Lujan always starts slow but pulls through. Enjoy the run and let’s hope no one gets hurt. O-line backups aren’t going to go far and I wish all the best to chase when mark leaves for the arena league next season.

[jakejc795]

jimmy was exposed today by his poor game management experience but I’m sure the lil fella will learn and improve. Lujan always starts slow but pulls through. Enjoy the run and let’s hope no one gets hurt. O-line backups aren’t going to go far and I wish all the best to chase when mark leaves for the arena league next season.

Someone's elf on a shelf must've dropped trou and left some elf droppings in his/her Mint Chocolate Chip SDSU ice cream

[bigticket1]

Someone's elf on a shelf must've dropped trou and left some elf droppings in his/her Mint Chocolate Chip SDSU ice cream

Got coal in his stocking.

[trueblue]

"Bad" play calls are sometimes poor execution or poor reads by players. As one example from first half Heins wide open but pass is thrown to one of the Jankes underneath who was well-covered. Comment on the ESPN broadcast was "Heins would still be running"

[73alum]

is there ANYTHING in my post complimenting the offense or play calling in the 1st half? i began the post by saying EXCELLENT second half. and i posed a question about the plays in the first half!! but i can question decisions and still believe that coaches have legitimate reasons for making them. sometimes what seem like well thought out and perfectly justifiable decisions DO NOT work? no?? and i can also question why some ONLY criticize but find NOTHING to celebrate. and i can ask questions on both sides without saying that anyone on either side of either question needs to be personally attacked

that said if you or others believe that coach Lujan or other coaches NEED to be trashed that is obviously your right. just as i have the right to disagree with it. i would guess that those criticizing coach Lujan and Rodgers probably also were part of the crowd that said Eidsness and Eck were not good cooridinators and Stig was not a very good head coach. CRAZZZZZZY how a team that has had so many incompetent coaches has been to the playoffs 12 or 13 consecutive years and 6 times to the semis or beyond in the last 7 years

It would be nice to win every game 40-0 no matter what the other teams national ranking is so that the coaches don’t get called ****heads or something similar but that’s not going to happen!!!

[ringthebells]

We are on a 26? game win streak, in the semi-finals and favored to win a second National Championship , yet some of you are still bitching. Unbelievable.