Stitt addresses passing on FGs

[Eriul]

I would like to assume that I would score every time and stop them every time...but that isn't how it always plays out.

No shit but what evidence do you have to suggest that we wouldn't be able to score again? I mean obviously hindsight tells us we would but what possible evidence besides "well we had a 3rd stringer!" That 3rd stringer also drove the ball on 2 of the 3 drives up to that point. So there is basically NO reason to suggest we can't score again? Obviously it's a possibility but it's also a possibility a meteor would strike the stadium and everyone would die. Doesn't stop us from playing the game?

 

[grizindabox]

I would like to assume that I would score every time and stop them every time...but that isn't how it always plays out.

No shit but what evidence do you have to suggest that we wouldn't be able to score again? I mean obviously hindsight tells us we would but what possible evidence besides "well we had a 3rd stringer!" That 3rd stringer also drove the ball on 2 of the 3 drives up to that point. So there is basically NO reason to suggest we can't score again? Obviously it's a possibility but it's also a possibility a meteor would strike the stadium and everyone would die. Doesn't stop us from playing the game?

what evidence do you have to suggest that they would score again? Outside of the 95 yard touchdown drive, the Griz offense didn't fair any better than Weber....5 non scoring drives for 119 yards....the 2 drives that ended on downs were 36 and 29 yards....

 

[BisonCardinal]

Was Stitt's success on 4th down conversion's with the Mines any better than the other teams in that conference?

I get the feeling Stitt wants to be known for having exciting offenses. Settling for FG'S probably doesn't help towards that goal.

 

[Eriul]

I would like to assume that I would score every time and stop them every time...but that isn't how it always plays out.

No shit but what evidence do you have to suggest that we wouldn't be able to score again? I mean obviously hindsight tells us we would but what possible evidence besides "well we had a 3rd stringer!" That 3rd stringer also drove the ball on 2 of the 3 drives up to that point. So there is basically NO reason to suggest we can't score again? Obviously it's a possibility but it's also a possibility a meteor would strike the stadium and everyone would die. Doesn't stop us from playing the game?

what evidence do you have to suggest that they would score again? Outside of the 95 yard touchdown drive, the Griz offense didn't fair any better than Weber....5 non scoring drives for 119 yards....

Comparing apples to oranges. Can't really compare the offense in the first half to offense in second half. Adjustments are made, different qbs, etc. Everything in the second half suggests that the offense would keep rolling(and they did, half of their drives in the second half SHOULD have come away with points).

 

[George Ferguson]

Stitt cares about the fans, he cares about Griz Nation. What he does not, and should not care about is the fans advice on how to coach football. He doesn't care if the fans think he should kick a FG or not. And thank christ for that. I would be mortified of any coach who got to this level if they actually did listen to arm chair quarterbacks. Thankfully, he doesn't and just about every other college and NFL football coach in the country doesn't.

 

[grizindabox]

I would like to assume that I would score every time and stop them every time...but that isn't how it always plays out.

No shit but what evidence do you have to suggest that we wouldn't be able to score again? I mean obviously hindsight tells us we would but what possible evidence besides "well we had a 3rd stringer!" That 3rd stringer also drove the ball on 2 of the 3 drives up to that point. So there is basically NO reason to suggest we can't score again? Obviously it's a possibility but it's also a possibility a meteor would strike the stadium and everyone would die. Doesn't stop us from playing the game?

what evidence do you have to suggest that they would score again? Outside of the 95 yard touchdown drive, the Griz offense didn't fair any better than Weber....5 non scoring drives for 119 yards....

Comparing apples to oranges. Can't really compare the offense in the first half to offense in second half. Adjustments are made, different qbs, etc. Everything in the second half suggests that the offense would keep rolling(and they did, half of their drives in the second half SHOULD have come away with points).

I did not note any first half drives....

 

[Eriul]

I did not note any first half drives....

I apologize you're right. I didn't think you were referring to the "non scoring" drives of the 2nd half because the two should have been scoring drives. We produced 214 yards in the 2nd half. That's a decent offense. It's actually right in our average THROUGHOUT the season. We average 434 yards a game which is 4th in the BSC. If you want to ommit the 95 yard drive sure, but that's kind of ridiculous as it's 1/6 of our total drives and it wasn't just "one spectacular play." We had two plays prior to the 44 yard touchdown that were 10+ yards.

Summing up: Basically our offense kept rolling with Simis nearly as well as we have been all year. Why again would you think we wouldn't score again?

 

[grizindabox]

I did not note any first half drives....

I apologize you're right. I didn't think you were referring to the "non scoring" drives of the 2nd half because the two should have been scoring drives. We produced 214 yards in the 2nd half. That's a decent offense. It's actually right in our average THROUGHOUT the season. We average 434 yards a game which is 4th in the BSC. If you want to ommit the 95 yard drive sure, but that's kind of ridiculous as it's 1/6 of our total drives and it wasn't just "one spectacular play." We had two plays prior to the 44 yard touchdown that were 10+ yards.

Summing up: Basically our offense kept rolling with Simis nearly as well as we have been all year. Why again would you think we wouldn't score again?

just pointing out that outside of the touchdown drive, the offense didn't have much more luck than Weber. The drives that ended on downs were 29 and 36 yards...the others were 28, 18, and 8...what about those drives really makes you so sure the Griz would score more?

 

[get'em_griz]

Stitt cares about the fans, he cares about Griz Nation. What he does not, and should not care about is the fans advice on how to coach football. He doesn't care if the fans think he should kick a FG or not. And thank christ for that. I would be mortified of any coach who got to this level if they actually did listen to arm chair quarterbacks. Thankfully, he doesn't and just about every other college and NFL football coach in the country doesn't.

I couldn't agree more with what you just said.

 

[Eriul]

I did not note any first half drives....

I apologize you're right. I didn't think you were referring to the "non scoring" drives of the 2nd half because the two should have been scoring drives. We produced 214 yards in the 2nd half. That's a decent offense. It's actually right in our average THROUGHOUT the season. We average 434 yards a game which is 4th in the BSC. If you want to ommit the 95 yard drive sure, but that's kind of ridiculous as it's 1/6 of our total drives and it wasn't just "one spectacular play." We had two plays prior to the 44 yard touchdown that were 10+ yards.

Summing up: Basically our offense kept rolling with Simis nearly as well as we have been all year. Why again would you think we wouldn't score again?

just pointing out that outside of the touchdown drive, the offense didn't have much more luck than Weber. The drives that ended on downs were 29 and 36 yards...the others were 28, 18, and 8...what about those drives really makes you so sure the Griz would score more?

Again, you're ignoring a WHOLE drive. Sure if you wanna be biased and focus solely on our 3 and outs do it. But you're being ignorant just to argue at this point. The average drive is going to be ~30 yards.(It's 31.66 yards in the nfl.) So if you are so demanding we ignore that drive that puts us at an average of about 24 yards a drive. That's obviously slightly under average but by no means is abysmal. 2 NFL teams average less than that.

Now if you want to grow up and use all the data we have we can add all the drives and see we average about 36 yards a drive. That's fairly good, that's about 8th by NFL standards. It's also higher than our average drive in the first half... so yah...

Obviously I'm comparing to the NFL but that's because I don't have NCAA numbers to go off of.

If you want to compare us to Weber by TAKING out the 95 yard drive then our offenses did the same amount of yardage so I guess you're right. If we just kneed it on that possession our offenses would have been the same. Even though they had one entire drive more. :roll:

 

[grizindabox]

So based on the 1 drive, you believe that UM would score again...that the 5 non-scoring drives that were comparable to what Weber generated are non-factors?

 

[Eriul]

So based on the 1 drive, you believe that UM would score again...that the 5 non-scoring drives that were comparable to what Weber generated are non-factors?

No based on stats I would believe UM would score again.

You're kind of missing the point. If you have an average offense at some point, it's likely you will score. Ours happened to occur on that one drive. We should have scored on 3 of the 6 drives(which is about average btw.)

You saying our offenses were comparable is laughable when they averaged 17 yards a possession to our 36 and 0 points a possession to our(what should have been) 2.

 

[grizindabox]

So based on the 1 drive, you believe that UM would score again...that the 5 non-scoring drives that were comparable to what Weber generated are non-factors?

No based on stats I would believe UM would score again.

You're kind of missing the point. If you have an average offense at some point, it's likely you will score. Ours happened to occur on that one drive. We should have scored on 3 of the 6 drives(which is about average btw.)

What it boils down to, other than the 95 yard drive neither team did much on offense. And even if you have a bad offense at some point you will score. Granted they could have scored on 2 other drives, but that was less to do with a productive offense and more to do with field position, of which the second opportunity was set up by the offenses failure and giving the ball to Weber on the 9.

 

[Eriul]

So based on the 1 drive, you believe that UM would score again...that the 5 non-scoring drives that were comparable to what Weber generated are non-factors?

No based on stats I would believe UM would score again.

You're kind of missing the point. If you have an average offense at some point, it's likely you will score. Ours happened to occur on that one drive. We should have scored on 3 of the 6 drives(which is about average btw.)

What it boils down to, other than the 95 yard drive neither team did much on offense. And even if you have a bad offense at some point you will score. Granted they could have scored on 2 other drives, but that was less to do with a productive offense and more to do with field position, of which the second opportunity was set up by the offenses failure and giving the ball to Weber on the 9.

But again you're ignoring the drive haha. That's like saying, "ignoring the interception by Chad we would have won." Which is technically true but doesn't really reflect the reality of the game.

What this all comes down to is there is exactly 0 statistical evidence to suggest that it is unlikely that we would not have the opportunity to score with 20 minutes and 17 minutes left in the game.

 

[grizindabox]

So based on the 1 drive, you believe that UM would score again...that the 5 non-scoring drives that were comparable to what Weber generated are non-factors?

No based on stats I would believe UM would score again.

You're kind of missing the point. If you have an average offense at some point, it's likely you will score. Ours happened to occur on that one drive. We should have scored on 3 of the 6 drives(which is about average btw.)

What it boils down to, other than the 95 yard drive neither team did much on offense. And even if you have a bad offense at some point you will score. Granted they could have scored on 2 other drives, but that was less to do with a productive offense and more to do with field position, of which the second opportunity was set up by the offenses failure and giving the ball to Weber on the 9.

But again you're ignoring the drive haha. That's like saying, "ignoring the interception by Chad we would have won." Which is technically true but doesn't really reflect the reality of the game.

What this all comes down to is there is exactly 0 statistical evidence to suggest that it is unlikely that we would not have the opportunity to score with 20 minutes and 17 minutes left in the game.

No I am not...I just think the other 5 drives are more on point with what the offense was capable than the 95 yard drive...and for all but 1 drive, the Griz offense did not fair any better than Weber. By all means, if you think that the offense looked good, then great...but what I saw was a struggling offense that hit a couple plays in on the same drive and they capitalized...they certainly didn't do that on any of the other drives.

 

[Eriul]

Then you're obviously ignorant. If you wanna play the eye game then fine. But it holds no weight. If you want to ignore that drive then sure Weber outgained Montana by 1 yard in the 2nd half on 7 drives. That still equates to us having a better offense than them...I kind of don't understand how you don't see this...If you take away that one drive and Stitt's retarded decision making we also score 6 points to their 0. So even if you do take out that drive we actually STILL did better than them as a whole... So if we straight up punted on that drive to begin with we STILL would have done better than them...

And yes we didn't capitalize on our other drives, THAT IS WHY WE ARE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION.

 

[grizindabox]

Then you're obviously ignorant. If you wanna play the eye game then fine. But it holds no weight. If you want to ignore that drive then sure Weber outgained Montana by 1 yard in the 2nd half on 7 drives. That still equates to us having a better offense than them...I kind of don't understand how you don't see this...If you take away that one drive and Stitt's retarded decision making we also score 6 points to their 0. So even if you do take out that drive we actually STILL did better than them as a whole... So if we straight up punted on that drive to begin with we STILL would have done better than them...

And yes we didn't capitalize on our other drives, THAT IS WHY WE ARE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION.

I am not ignoring that drive...what I said was the other 5 drives were more representative of how the offense was performing...

it is like a baseball player striking out 5 times and hitting a home run on the 6th...sure he could hit another home run....

and the failed 4th down attempts to end short drives re-enforce the notion that the offense was struggling.

 

[billingsgriz]

Eriul, you are correct. Down by 7, everyone including Coach Stitt knew we needed at least 2 scores (TD,FG, 2 TD's, or 3 FG's) to go in front, unless we were going to try a two-point conversion on a TD, not a smart move playing at home, generally speaking.

And our D was playing well--no points before our 2 failed 4th down conversions, and that isn't hindsight it is what happened up to that point in the game--and no points surrendered to Weber after our failed 4th down conversion attempts in regulation, and yes, that is hindsight but the way our D was playing, an excellent bet that we would continue to give up 0 or few points to Weber for the remainder of the game.

So we had to chip away at the lead, and when we had the chance to, we didn't. Two trips into the red zone in the second half + two failed 4th down conversions = 0 points and a Griz loss.

Thus, we lost a game we should have won !!!

People have the right to be wrong, Eriul, and I am glad that the defenders of Coach Stitt's decision making last Saturday are taking full advantage of their right to be wrong !!! :thumb:

 

[Eriul]

I just have a hard time with people who are wrong in the face of blatant statistics and logic. Box is just trying to argue to argue. Oh wells. I'm gonna go study now. Done trying to show numbers to people ignoring them

 

[HookedonGriz]

Grizindabox = winning. And again folks are saying Stitt should have known that the Griz would have another opportunity to score. So if you think like that then by deductive reasoning alone one also has to believe that Weber would have another opportunity to score. Stitt assumed he needed TDs bc he assumed that Weber would also score sometime. Whether is assumption was right or wrong it was reasonable for sure, especially with Weber gnashing us in the run game

Except they weren't "gnashing" us. Yes the defense wasn't AMAZING in the first half, allowing 205 yards(which is about average yardage expected.) But the second half we held them to under 150 yards(that's really good btw.)

Obviously there are chances for Weber to score but at that point in the game it was clear that our defense was going to hold them better than their defense was holding ours. (by the time of the 2nd field goal the yardage was 93-16 on 3 drives a peice.)

I don't get this belief that Weber was just "crushing" us on offense when we held them to 330 yards in regular time. 330 yards allowed a game is a very good defense...I don't know if you know that :?

I am fully aware of what a good defense is and what good defensive stats are. Weber put up 345 yards on the Griz. Prior to our game, Weber was averaging only 302 yards per game and 18 points. This means they improved both averages against the vaunted Griz defense. I think It was more than fair for Stitt to assume that Weber would put up at least another TD in the second half, regardless of what the Griz defense was doing. With that in mind, he got aggressive and went for TD instead of a FG. The right play was called and if executed leads to a first down. All of Griz nation celebrates his move as a genius. When it doesn't work everyone is mad and says woulda-shoulda. He then passes in another FG after not getting the first one. Again, right play called and Simis forces pass to Ellis instead of checking to wide open Roberts who was 6 yards from him and at the sticks. If executed another first down and another genius coaching move in the eyes of Griz nation. Instead it fails and people get their pitchforks out. Funny.