bigsky33 said:
mthoopsfan said:
My view is that the Cat o-line was grossly overrated this season, as I had thought all along. I assume they will be overrated next year too. When are Cat fans going to wake up and realize that their team was essentially an okay 8-4 team in a. Good conference. Nothing better. O-line was fine. QB’s were good, but one dimensional and Mellott is too injury- prone to be used like he was most of the time. None of your other position groups were strong, but had some good players. Maybe TE’s were good, but they were always hurt. It’s hard to compare d-lines due to the different base defenses, but Griz from 6 was better than Cat front 7. Griz secondary, receivers and running backs were better too. And Griz ST’s were better.
With all the Cats going to Portal, will you be able to field a team next year? I wonder if your program is in shambles.
I have to laugh every time I see Cat fans spewing their delusions. We’ll see how good the Griz are. But they are much better than the Cats.
Hoops, I think the offensive statistics say otherwise about the Cats OL. You don’t compile statistics like that without a good OL. The previous season was the same.
Three of the four losses were by a combined total of 8 points. I look at that than better than an okay team. Just my opinion.
The offensive stats are not as meaningful, as watching teams, games, and o-lines. The most important stat is whether games were won against good teams. MSU has had a good running scheme, very good QB play (especially running), pretty good running backs, good TE's, and a pretty good o-line (very good for running the scheme). MSU racks up big stats against weaker teams.
3d down, and maybe 4th down, conversion percentage is an important stat. In the Cat losses, Cats were 13/42 on 3d down conversions. Terrible. On 4th, 2/7. Cats couldn't run, or pass, to pick up 3d downs.
Cat QB's usually had good running stats, because they were very good runners, Mellott is very fast, the plus one scheme for running was very good, and the o-line blocked well for that part of the schemes. The Cat RB's didn't run for much yardage, especially in the losses. Under 100 against NDSU, 122 against UM, 128 against Idaho, and 76 against SDSU.
Cats' season rushing was 292.5. The Cat qb's and rb's generally had good average per carry overall, but not always in the tougher games.
This doesn't support a great o-line, in my view. And, I watched some of the games, including the last 2, and I didn't think the Cat o-line was anything special at all.
Good and top teams win close games. The Cats couldn't win those close games. Just like then Griz the prior year.
You are welcome to your o-line. Good, but not great. Good for the scheme, except when the opponent has a good D and D scheme against it, like UM and NDSU (sort of) did. MSU had some good o-line. They are moving on.
