More than one way to look at this....

[USFBulls727]

On a positive note: The defense looked good in spots, particularly Hampton (aside from the blunder on the first ECU drive).  Loved the aggressive playcalling on defense later in the game. Got  pressure on the QB on several occasions, and forced some bad throws. 13 points is the lowest opponent point total in nine games. We held their QB to well under 50% completion percentage, and their rushing attack to 3.4 YPC, but season lows for our opponents.

Pessimistic view: The team looked mostly listless for the second straight week, especially on offense. The coaching staff isn't getting the most out of this team right now. It was as if our offense had never seen a blitz before. Really no creativity in the play calling to get things rolling. Running game was mostly getting stuffed all night, and Blake simply didn't have time to find an open receiver on many occasions, and often looked rattled. Coming into the ECU game, Houston was the next game on the schedule that scraed me, but with the way we played tonight, Tulsa is.

While there were bright spots on defense, we gave up more yards to ECU than North Carolina A&T did.

Bottom line: We're 4-0, but what we saw on the field tonight likely gets smoked by Houston and UCF. Strong got another W, and therefore gets a pass here, but this team is under-performing. We've shown signs of a dynamic offense this year when we had to, but it seems we get really vanilla on that side of the ball when the defense is holding up. I'm very high on Barnett, but he's obviously going through some growing pains here at times, which is understandable. I think he will be blitzed heavily after opponents watch tapes of ECU. I can see why some would be down on this team right now, but we are 4-0, and have shown flashes both on offense and defense. I still see us being undefeated going into Houston, but it's getting harder and harder to imagine us getting out of there with a W.

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by USFBulls727

[NewEnglandBull]

Another positive is that we only had three penalties 

[Gat-Rat Bull]

3 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

Another positive is that we only had three penalties 

If that total includes the uncatchable "pass interference", we really only had two. That is definitely a positive.

[CousinRicky]

3 minutes ago, Gat-Rat Bull said:

If that total includes the uncatchable "pass interference", we really only had two. That is definitely a positive.

Don't think they have that rule in college FB but it didn't look like PI in any case.

[USFBulls727]

Really, we were very fortunate that GT coughed it up late in that game when things were on the verge of looking kind of hopeless. We probably got past Illinois because of a blown coverage late in that game. Tonight, another blown coverage on the Salomon TD was huge in getting us by another mediocre team. Hopefully the high-wire act doesn't continue throughout the season like this.

[Bulls On Parade]

We arent a top team for sure had some luck but I have seen the defense improve some over these last few games considering on the field way more than they should be.

Possible also Ecu isnt a horrible team they whipped UNC who just beat Pitt who beat bad Gtech.  

The offense needs to find its identity and what it does well...the o line is avg at best so work on some quicker pass plays.

 

[Orlando Bull]

8 hours ago, Gat-Rat Bull said:

If that total includes the uncatchable "pass interference", we really only had two. That is definitely a positive.

There was a PI on Hampton earlier too that wasn't a PI either. The other that I remember was the roughing the punter and that's on coaching in my opinion. Player discipline seems pretty good.

[Apis Bull]

8 hours ago, USFBulls727 said:

Really, we were very fortunate that GT coughed it up late in that game when things were on the verge of looking kind of hopeless. We probably got past Illinois because of a blown coverage late in that game. Tonight, another blown coverage on the Salomon TD was huge in getting us by another mediocre team. Hopefully the high-wire act doesn't continue throughout the season like this.

Aren't most big plays due to a team taking advantage of a defensive mistake?

[BDYZR]

6 hours ago, Bulls On Parade said:

Possible also Ecu isnt a horrible team they whipped UNC who just beat Pitt who beat bad Gtech.

NC had 13 players suspended for that game.

[ForestBull]

5 minutes ago, BDYZR said:

NC had 13 players suspended for that game.

It was actually 10. Also, was it their 10 best players? I don't think so. Looks like their only real loss was Carney.