Game 4—@Troy Trojans

[zippy5]

Troy looked like absolute crap last night. We looked worse. That game was right there for the taking and we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. You have to win those games.

[Zipgrad01]

26 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Serious question  ZG01 and Keener - will there ever be a loss where you don't think the world is on fire? Not that I think last night was a "good" loss. So spare me with the excuse bullshit because I am not making any. Get blown out by NFP contender? World is on fire. Lose to ISU? World is on fire. Lose to Michigan closely? They weren't that good. Lose to Troy closely? They weren't that good.

 

Is any team that we play closely and lose to going to automatically be assumed to be "not that good" simply due to the fact that we played them close?

 

We haven't beaten a D1 opponent since October 22, 2016. Since then we got throttled by a horrendous buffalo team. We then turned around and got hammered by Toledo. Then we get beat by one of the worst teams in the MAC at home against BGSU. It gets so ridiculous that we have to throw in a high school quarterback to go get beat at Ohio. I know... I know... injuries. Excuses excuses

 

I understand losing to PSU, but come on.... we didn't even have a pulse! They could have beaten us by 100 if they wanted and penn state hasn't exactly been blowing people out since that game.

 

iowa state isn't very good. That isn't my opinion. That is fact. Last year they beat a 4 win San Jose state team, a horrendous Kansas team and a powerhouse 5 win Texas tech team. That's it. This year they struggled to beat their D-1AA opponent far more than they struggled with us. 

 

Troy is the best "loss" we have this year. Congrats. 

[LZIp]

5 minutes ago, Zipgrad01 said:

We haven't beaten a D1 opponent since October 22, 2016. Since then we got throttled by a horrendous buffalo team. We then turned around and got hammered by Toledo. Then we get beat by one of the worst teams in the MAC at home against BGSU. It gets so ridiculous that we have to throw in a high school quarterback to go get beat at Ohio. I know... I know... injuries. Excuses excuses

 

I understand losing to PSU, but come on.... we didn't even have a pulse! They could have beaten us by 100 if they wanted and penn state hasn't exactly been blowing people out since that game.

 

iowa state isn't very good. That isn't my opinion. That is fact. Last year they beat a 4 win San Jose state team, a horrendous Kansas team and a powerhouse 5 win Texas tech team. That's it. This year they struggled to beat their D-1AA opponent far more than they struggled with us. 

 

Troy is the best "loss" we have this year. Congrats. 

That doesn't answer my question. You're using last year as a basis to say ISU isn't very good. Fine. I can't use last year as a basis to say Troy is a good G5 program?

[Zipgrad01]

3 minutes ago, LZIp said:

That doesn't answer my question. You're using last year as a basis to say ISU isn't very good. Fine. I can't use last year as a basis to say Troy is a good G5 program?

I was at the Iowa State game. I have watched a lot of football and that is a top 4 MAC team at best. 

 

I am just frustrated as $hit!! I am sick of losing and nobody seems to be as pissed off as I am about it. I want results now. I am sick of waiting and watching bad football while I wait. 

[K92]

LZ, you still give Bowden & Co. the benefit of the doubt.  I don't.  I look at these games through a totally different lens than someone does that is still in camp.  I'm AWOL. The staff and their ways of conducting football business are totally unsavory to me.  I will not be happy until they are gone.

 

You can say and think whatever you want.  It's America.  That hasn't been taken away yet.  But the fluffing of the Zips has become farcical.  Bowden has complete ownership of the team and to blame its floundering on anyone but him comes across as quite Hillary-esque.  They haven't beaten anybody.  The nail you hang your hat on is the Black Friday win vs. Toledo.  That is the only team the Zips have beaten with a winning record.  In five years, Bowden has beaten exactly one team with a winning record.  I believe, if I'm not badly mistaken, one evening in the JAR, Bowden said the Zips were gonna do "some winnin' and when I say winnin', I mean WINNIN'!"

 

Still waiting and until that happens every loss is a bad loss.

[LZIp]

8 minutes ago, K92 said:

LZ, you still give Bowden & Co. the benefit of the doubt. 

 

Still waiting and until that happens every loss is a bad loss.

Huh? Where am I giving them any benefit of the doubt? I've said I think the team does have talent to compete in the MAC and a lot of the issues in the ISU and Troy game seem to me come from a result of poor coaching. I don't think either of those teams were superior in talent to us. I just posted if we lose to BG we should leave them there.

 

The goal is to always win,  but you're taking away from your credibility if think winning every game is in anyway realistic. We root for one of the worst programs in D1 history and a G5 program at that. This isn't Ohio State or Alabama.

[zipsoutsider]

7 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Huh? Where am I giving them any benefit of the doubt? I've said I think the team does have talent to compete in the MAC and a lot of the issues in the ISU and Troy game seem to me come from a result of poor coaching. I don't think either of those teams were superior in talent to us. I just posted if we lose to BG we should leave them there.

 

The goal is to always win,  but you're taking away from your credibility if think winning every game is in anyway realistic. We root for one of the worst programs in D1 history and a G5 program at that. This isn't Ohio State or Alabama.

Thus us a healthy dose of realism. Cheer for what you have, not what you wish you had. 

 

We madea lot of mistakes and managed to almost pull off a W against a solid G5 team. We have the talent to win in the MAC, if we can find some receivers.

[K92]

I never said the Zips should win every game.  As a matter of fact, if you will look at my posts, I said I wished the Zips could compete like an upper level FCS team.  That is not too much to ask for.

 

I guess the difference between me and ZG01 and the rest of the board is that y'all can take a modicum of solace in a loss.  We can't.  Losing sucks.  Period.

[Zipgrad01]

11 minutes ago, K92 said:

I never said the Zips should win every game.  As a matter of fact, if you will look at my posts, I said I wished the Zips could compete like an upper level FCS team.  That is not too much to ask for.

 

I guess the difference between me and ZG01 and the rest of the board is that y'all can take a modicum of solace in a loss.  We can't.  Losing sucks.  Period.

I hate losing at anything. It irks my soul. I don't expect to win every game either, but I would love to see the fans and this staff DEMAND some urgency. At least act like you give a f@ck. 

[dre22era]

3 hours ago, BigZip said:

The Zips played a pathetic first half, but didn't look to bad in the second half.  You can't go into the red zone all the time and come away with 3 or no points. To me, Austin Wolf is their best receiver when he's in there, but I don't know if he's 100% health wise. K Smith has also improved a lot from last year.  The Zips defensive line has a inept pass rush and is less than average against the run.  They're are definitely not going to reach 6 wins this year. I don't even know when or if they will win against an FBS school.  I think it might be time to start looking at some strong DII head coaches to come in and shake things up.  The current staff does not seem to be getting any better and there doesn't seem to be any indication that they will.  I have watched better play calling in my 8yr olds football games.  I don't think any Zips  fans have any expectations or confidence in the current staff.  They're just not getting any better.  It's time to move on. 

What you said is exactly where I am out of all this. 

Based on what the Zips coaching staff is getting paid they are a joke. 

We should be on par with Ohio U and Western Michigan but we are no where close 

[Lee Adams]

Umm. Interesting to see the different reactions from people to the same circumstances. Not just referring to the Troy game but all previous games. Didn't see the Troy game. Checked the post game stats thoroughly. I saw a Troy team taht was able to pick up a lot of yards against the Akron defense. Even though they also had trouble scoring earlier in the second half Troy made THE long drive it had to in order to win the game in the 4th Q. Akron's defense could not prevent that again. 

I saw 2 teams that made lots of mistakes. Hundred yard + in penalties both ways. Again,an Akron trademark. Don't know about Troy.

I saw an Akron RB who had a 100 yard game! Ya might think that would spell a win at least. But the QB had a -37 yards on the ground(I know sacks are counted there). Can he not run or won't run anymore? Honestly don't know.

I saw that Wolf had 70 or so yards receiving. Thats a + as he was their best WR coming back.

I saw a QB who only completed 50% of his passes(20-40) and threw 2 interceptions. Much different on the Troy side. And on and on..

I think the frustration is that there appears to be little or very limited growth of the program in general and at specific and very noticeable positions on the field year in and year out.

 

1-11 has not been a legitimate yardstick for a number of seasons now. The so called point 'spread' never has been a legitimate yardstick by which to measure the progress of a program.

What is legit is to measure performance against your closest peers. Here that is teams in the MAC. And if the program is truly progressing it should be measuring itself against the best teams in the MAC and we know who they are: NIU,Toledo,WMU,OU,BGSU. You don't measure progress against the perennial 'bottom feeders'. Finally,you measure progress by looking back to see what the program has done. Is it winning the MAC Championship in 2005? Is it a bowl win a couple of seasons ago? Choose what you will the question remains is the program now performing at those levels?

 

 

 

[Ham]

Troy is not that good.  We were pathetic in the first half!  I would give our D a C- at best.  Their penalties helped bail us out.  Our OC needs to go now; not at the end of the season.  There is no imagination.  People know what we are going to do(even before the staff gets the play in from the sideline).  Surely they would have a check off when a LB lines up in the hole. Bowden needs to set this team and staff down and read them the riot act.  He needs to demand better from all of them.  Don't feed them "you played hard the whole game".  I do believe our Jimmy's & Joe's have the talent to win 4 or maybe 5 more games, but will the staff put them in position to succeed?

[TheAmericanDream]

You guys are killing my program. Cmon fellas.

 

The Trojans haven't played well to start the year, but we are 3-1. Yea, we won 10 games a year ago. We were pretty good then. I think we are ok now.

 

Neither team played well Saturday. I was impressed by the hard running of your RBs. However, the game shouldn't have been as close as it was. Troy couldn't finish drives in the second half to put the game out of reach. You guys made enough plays to stay in it and then took advantage of our inefficiencies. We were able to get our ish together for one final AMAZING drive at the end.

 

[zippy5]

11 minutes ago, TheAmericanDream said:

You guys are killing my program. Cmon fellas.

 

The Trojans haven't played well to start the year, but we are 3-1. Yea, we won 10 games a year ago. We were pretty good then. I think we are ok now.

 

Neither team played well Saturday. I was impressed by the hard running of your RBs. However, the game shouldn't have been as close as it was. Troy couldn't finish drives in the second half to put the game out of reach. You guys made enough plays to stay in it and then took advantage of our inefficiencies. We were able to get our ish together for one final AMAZING drive at the end.

 

Do you feel good about your SB chances after Saturday? I am curious how well the Sun Belt is supposed to be this year - OOC wasn't very friendly to them at like a .360 win percentage. I think Troy would go about 5-3 on the MAC depending on who they drew. 

[Captain Kangaroo]

On 9/24/2017 at 11:00 AM, zipsoutsider said:

We made a lot of mistakes and managed to almost pull off a W against a solid G5 team. We have the talent to win in the MAC, if we can find some receivers.

One team knew how to win, and the other didn't. Plays like lobbing that 2nd qtr end zone INT into triple coverage or missing a 34 yard field goal just aren't want winning teams do.

 

To allow the opponent to go 97 yards for a TD at the game's end shows you don't know how to close it out.

 

Our offense had time to drive down the field and win the game. Not a ton of time...but getting possession with 1 minute to go was enough time to work with. TW tossed a quick INT. 

 

It reminded me of the end to last year's App State game. We made a nice comeback (down 31-14). We had 2 minutes remaining to tie, or win it, and ...and sack-sack-sack. Their defense knew how to close a game out. 

 

The Zips really needed that win. And gave it away. The margin for error on a bowl-eligible season is now razor-thin, with WMU and Toledo looking like losses.

 

I hope the team and staff figures it out. There's no way the Zips can afford a loss this week. They need to pull off a convincing, statement-making win. Make it fun to be a Zips fan...for the first time in...in way too long.

[TheAmericanDream]

3 hours ago, zippy5 said:

Do you feel good about your SB chances after Saturday? I am curious how well the Sun Belt is supposed to be this year - OOC wasn't very friendly to them at like a .360 win percentage. I think Troy would go about 5-3 on the MAC depending on who they drew. 

The Sun Belt is App State's to lose this year.

 

Due to our strange scheduling, App somehow managed to avoid the other top 2 (perceived) teams in the league. (Arkansas State, Troy). However, no Sun Belt team looks especially good so far. I still think Troy's chances at a league title are very good. However, unless we clean up the kicking game and penalties, all of my prognostication will be for not.

[zippy5]

1 hour ago, TheAmericanDream said:

The Sun Belt is App State's to lose this year.

 

Due to our strange scheduling, App somehow managed to avoid the other top 2 (perceived) teams in the league. (Arkansas State, Troy). However, no Sun Belt team looks especially good so far. I still think Troy's chances at a league title are very good. However, unless we clean up the kicking game and penalties, all of my prognostication will be for not.

Thanks.. Good luck!

[Let'sGoZips94]

[Captain Kangaroo]

Bowden reflects on the game

[Dr Z]

35 minutes ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

Bowden reflects on the game

 

This is where I miss MTB. ?

 

Akron ran 44 of its 75 offensive plays in the second half, when it had the ball nearly 20 minutes. The Zips gained 232 offensive yards after halftime. Bowden knew what did his team in. Akron was just 2 for 5 on scores in the red zone, just 1 of 5 with a touchdown. “How many times were we in the red zone and didn’t kick a field goal, didn’t score?” he asked. “Over and over and over again in the red zone and didn’t score. We didn’t play a real good football game, but the kids played hard.

[LZIp]

Bump. That sucky Troy team is going to beat LSU

[Zipgrad01]

7 minutes ago, LZIp said:

Bump. That sucky Troy team is going to beat LSU

Stop. We eff'n suck. Stop trying to make us look better than we are. 

[LZIp]

3 minutes ago, Zipgrad01 said:

Stop. We eff'n suck. Stop trying to make us look better than we are. 

We won. Learn to enjoy yourself for once.

[Zipgrad01]

3 minutes ago, LZIp said:

We won. Learn to enjoy yourself for once.

I enjoy it, but I don't look back on losses and try to justify them 

[Zipgrad01]

And lsu is storming back