Game 9: @ Mississippi State

[InnervisionsUMASS]

4:15pm EDT, SEC Network.

Mississippi Stats is 1-7, their lone win over Eastern Kentucky, an FCS school, in their home opener.


We'll probably still get smacked, but this could be one to steal and make this miserable season feel slightly less miserable.


Discuss.

[dennisdent]

Cowbells. Hopefully none of our players start fighting with each other on the field, aka Ray Thomas-Ishman. If Whip was still here, this would be a win for UMass, now, well I hope it's close. A bad SEC team is still faster than UMass at every position.

[ZooMass84]

4:15pm EDT, SEC Network.

Mississippi Stats is 1-7, their lone win over Eastern Kentucky, an FCS school, in their home opener.


We'll probably still get smacked, but this could be one to steal and make this miserable season feel slightly less miserable.


Discuss.

last year we had KLA, we'd have a chance. We get blown out here.

[umassbaseball]

Not saying this team is as good as the Whipple teams (especially offensively) but in 2016 we lost by 12 at Gillette and then lost by 11 in Starkville in 2017. With Miss State being down we could potentially keep it closer than the ~18 pt spread

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Not saying this team is as good as the Whipple teams (especially offensively) but in 2016 we lost by 12 at Gillette and then lost by 11 in Starkville in 2017. With Miss State being down we could potentially keep it closer than the ~18 pt spread

I personally think that unless they play a near perfect game, they lose by 21ish points. If Mississippi State does anything other than run the ball, they are really a badly coached team.

[umassbaseball]

Not saying this team is as good as the Whipple teams (especially offensively) but in 2016 we lost by 12 at Gillette and then lost by 11 in Starkville in 2017. With Miss State being down we could potentially keep it closer than the ~18 pt spread

I personally think that unless they play a near perfect game, they lose by 21ish points. If Mississippi State does anything other than run the ball, they are really a badly coached team.

I can also see this. Think the key is going to have to be the UMass passing attack. Miss State is 134th (last) in defensive success rate against the dropback. Throw early and often and see if we can pull off some big plays

[minutefanjsf]

Not saying this team is as good as the Whipple teams (especially offensively) but in 2016 we lost by 12 at Gillette and then lost by 11 in Starkville in 2017. With Miss State being down we could potentially keep it closer than the ~18 pt spread

I personally think that unless they play a near perfect game, they lose by 21ish points. If Mississippi State does anything other than run the ball, they are really a badly coached team.

This could/should be a shootout. If we commit to the run it will not be and State will run all over us. Need Puma to be accurate and chuck it all over the field. Hope to win the turnover battle.

[eldonabe]

This could/should be a shootout. If we commit to the run it will not be and State will run all over us. Need Puma to be accurate and chuck it all over the field. Hope to win the turnover battle.

Oh well, that would be a coaching move. I am not overly confident that will happen.

[Floyd]

Not saying this team is as good as the Whipple teams (especially offensively) but in 2016 we lost by 12 at Gillette and then lost by 11 in Starkville in 2017. With Miss State being down we could potentially keep it closer than the ~18 pt spread

I personally think that unless they play a near perfect game, they lose by 21ish points. If Mississippi State does anything other than run the ball, they are really a badly coached team.

This could/should be a shootout. If we commit to the run it will not be and State will run all over us. Need Puma to be accurate and chuck it all over the field. Hope to win the turnover battle.

I'd love to see us throw it alot early, and maybe that will allow us to run it a little later in the game. If Puma struggles tho early, I'd love to see Haston get a shot so we can see what we really have with him. Looks pretty mobile and throws it well from the little we've seen of him

[InnervisionsUMASS]

This could/should be a shootout. If we commit to the run it will not be and State will run all over us. Need Puma to be accurate and chuck it all over the field. Hope to win the turnover battle.

I get why WE would want to throw the ball... but why in the world would Mississippi State want to do so against us? The blueprint is there.... run the ball. Wagner controlled the ball for nearly all of the 3rd quarter doing that, nevermind the game earlier in the season (Miami or NIU..) that essentially ran the whole 2nd half and dominated us by doing so.

[inthescoop]

18 point underdog at a SEC stadium? That’s not bad at all.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!

[dennisdent]

This could/should be a shootout. If we commit to the run it will not be and State will run all over us. Need Puma to be accurate and chuck it all over the field. Hope to win the turnover battle.

I get why WE would want to throw the ball... but why in the world would Mississippi State want to do so against us? The blueprint is there.... run the ball. Wagner controlled the ball for nearly all of the 3rd quarter doing that, nevermind the game earlier in the season (Miami or NIU..) that essentially ran the whole 2nd half and dominated us by doing so.

Great comment and spot on. UMass is so easy to beat. Just run the ball, when UMass goes to its "eight-man front' per Brown, just hit them with a pass for a TD or long gain. UMass is so prone to beating itself that most teams can just wait on UMass to make a mistake (INT/ST/Pen). Pumas isn't mobile enough in the pocket and the O line isn't good enough for him to have time to chuck it around. When he's tries that he gets sacked or throws an INT. Quick passes to the TE or WRs has worked best for Puma.

[Floyd]

I agree, use the TEs and short passing game early to keep moving downfield. IV also has a very good point, I doubt they throw too much early, they'll likely try & establish the run and mix in the passing game. I think we'll have to play mistake free if we want this game, be a nice week to put a good all around game together. Maybe last week gives them a little confidence

[minutefanjsf]

This could/should be a shootout. If we commit to the run it will not be and State will run all over us. Need Puma to be accurate and chuck it all over the field. Hope to win the turnover battle.

I get why WE would want to throw the ball... but why in the world would Mississippi State want to do so against us? The blueprint is there.... run the ball. Wagner controlled the ball for nearly all of the 3rd quarter doing that, nevermind the game earlier in the season (Miami or NIU..) that essentially ran the whole 2nd half and dominated us by doing so.

My point was that State will run all over us no matter what. Our only shot is to chuck it. They will be much more successful running it than Wagner. They will score at will running and our onky shot to keep up is to throw.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

My point was that State will run all over us no matter what. Our only shot is to chuck it. They will be much more successful running it than Wagner. They will score at will running and our onky shot to keep up is to throw.

Our only shot is to play near perfect, running and passing it. If Mississippi State doesn't run all over us, then, as I said, their coaching staff is really bad.


Your comment about a shootout generally insinuates lots of passes, which is why I pushed back on your quote of me. It looks like you simply meant high scoring.