We choked

[AppHoops]

I think what was most concerning to me was it felt like Southern had way more intensity out of the gate than we did. I really felt that after getting our butts kicked in Statesboro last year (falling out of the rankings, watching them rush the field, etc) we'd want to come out and hit them in the mouth from the start. Like we owed them some payback.

And the exact opposite happened. Really disappointing.

[WataugaMan]

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice and shame on me!!! How do you let that happen again???????? And, in your own house!!

[ViewCrew87]

Maybe Drink now REALLY understands what this rivalry means. To come out of the gate as flat as we did on both sides of the ball at home starts at the top. No more coach-speak.

[ArmantiWaterSafety]

Couple of gripes I had that I don't feel warrant a new thread but I think really affected the energy level:

1) The intro video before the team came out was played at about a 0.01 db level. The crowd was super flat when the team came out because we were all struggling to hear.
2) It was truly a miserable day of weather. I know these guys are elite athletes, but it's hard to catch and throw a ball with that temperature and wind, and unfortunately our run game was terrible for the most part.
3) This is not the reason we lost; I repeat, this is not the reason we lost, but every time we had a decent play there was some sort of penalty and every time we had a play that could have-should have been, there was a no call.
4) In the 4th quarter, the piped in music when the crowd was SUPER hype due to the comeback ranged from what I feel amped up the crowd even more to something that served as a distraction because it was a slower, sing along type song. I swear we need to spend the money on a professional DJ just so they can read the crowd better. Don't play Back in Black on a second down when the crowd is jumping around screaming. Too slow, and literally an energy sucker in that situation.
5) Luckily this was a non-factor, but don't ring the freaking 3rd down bell until the team is ready to run on the field.

[Mjohn1988]

Wow, some of you guys really turn on folks quick, coaches, players and the team in general. It was a very disappointing loss, it cost us our shot at staying ranked and a NY6. With our schedule we had to be perfect to achieve those things and perfect is really hard. Although our D gave up some big plays they did enough to give us a win. Truth is the D won LL and USA for us. When I saw the weather forecast I knew the advantage was GSU and I knew our O line would have to be more physical than they have all year. And unfortunately they did not get that done. True, Zac has had a couple of rough games but that’s the time when our running game has to step up. The dropped pass didn’t help either. Right now my biggest concern is our O line, seems like everybody has decided to stack the box on us and say your not going to run the ball and I get the numbers game but sometimes you just have to be able to be more physical and get it done. I know folks will crap on this but the weather beat us last night. Don’t get me wrong we didn’t play well but take out the crazy wind and we get a W.

[WataugaMan]

Hopefully we'll take last night's failure as a lesson and move forward, pick ourselves up, dust off and not let this crap happen again! Stay focused and play App State Football!

[WarApp]

Last night was amateur hour. Hell, the entire week has been. Can only hope Drink isn't as arrogant and smug as appears to be and learns something from this.

[WataugaMan]

Last night was amateur hour. Hell, the entire week has been. Can only hope Drink isn't as arrogant and smug as appears to be and learns something from this.

He's not arrogant, he took the blame for this loss in his post game interview. Complacent maybe, arrogant not.

[Yosef84]

Last night was amateur hour. Hell, the entire week has been. Can only hope Drink isn't as arrogant and smug as appears to be and learns something from this.

You must be watching someone different from what I'm seeing. I don't see anything "arrogant and smug" about Coach Drink. He's pretty blunt at times and doesn't lack confidence or opinions. I'm pretty sure those are not negatives in a head coach. I've seen him admit mistakes and own his issues (play calling). I'm not sure what you're looking for other than a scapegoat and a chance to complain about something.

[MountaineerChemist10]

We choked. I don’t use that term lightly. I think it’s thrown around a lot and it’s usually not true.

Had we exclusively lost the trenches battle tonight, I could live with the loss.

But I can’t stop thinking about the dropped passes and absolute garbage throws from Zac.

The only explanation I have for that many poorly executed plays is choking.

Zac throws a good pass, it’s dropped. Next play, Zac throws a ball 5 yards in front of a receivers feet. Also, poor handoff execution. So many of our running plays looked stuck in the backfield because of poor fluidity during the handoff. Did we forget how to do that?

We choked.

Are you done? Go back to NDSU where you belong. You're pessimism is really beginning to annoy me, just so you know.

Yes, we messed up. Shiza happens. Good learning experience for Coach Drink & Thomas. Best we can do now is use this as motivation in beating SC, Georgia State, Troy & Texas State with a vengeance & pray GSUck let their guard down & lose.

Go Apps!

[ah59396]

Wow, some of you guys really turn on folks quick, coaches, players and the team in general. It was a very disappointing loss, it cost us our shot at staying ranked and a NY6. With our schedule we had to be perfect to achieve those things and perfect is really hard. Although our D gave up some big plays they did enough to give us a win. Truth is the D won LL and USA for us. When I saw the weather forecast I knew the advantage was GSU and I knew our O line would have to be more physical than they have all year. And unfortunately they did not get that done. True, Zac has had a couple of rough games but that’s the time when our running game has to step up. The dropped pass didn’t help either. Right now my biggest concern is our O line, seems like everybody has decided to stack the box on us and say your not going to run the ball and I get the numbers game but sometimes you just have to be able to be more physical and get it done. I know folks will crap on this but the weather beat us last night. Don’t get me wrong we didn’t play well but take out the crazy wind and we get a W.

That’s not completely fair. I don’t know that we are “turning” on the team. I’m not.

I’d say this:

It’s okay to be disappointed.
It’s okay to want to be great and expect greatness.
It’s okay to acknowledge that yes, we choked last night.

It’s not cool to question the passion or desire of the team. I’m certain no one wanted it more than they did.
It’s not cool to jump off the ship. I’ll be yelling at my tv for them again next weekend.

We lost the big game against our rival at home on ESPN that we really needed to win. And we did it in a fashion, in terms of pure execution, that was not up to par with the expectations of Appalachian State. Which meets the definition of choking - for me at least.

If we wanna be great, if we wanna be more than Arkansas State was 5 years ago, we gotta be great. Every game. That’s the nature of FBS football in the Sunbelt. No one said it was gonna be easy.

[ah59396]

We choked. I don’t use that term lightly. I think it’s thrown around a lot and it’s usually not true.

Had we exclusively lost the trenches battle tonight, I could live with the loss.

But I can’t stop thinking about the dropped passes and absolute garbage throws from Zac.

The only explanation I have for that many poorly executed plays is choking.

Zac throws a good pass, it’s dropped. Next play, Zac throws a ball 5 yards in front of a receivers feet. Also, poor handoff execution. So many of our running plays looked stuck in the backfield because of poor fluidity during the handoff. Did we forget how to do that?

We choked.

Are you done? Go back to NDSU where you belong. You're pessimism is really beginning to annoy me, just so you know.

Yes, we messed up. Shiza happens. Good learning experience for Coach Drink & Thomas. Best we can do now is use this as motivation in beating SC, Georgia State, Troy & Texas State with a vengeance & pray GSUck let their guard down & lose.

Go Apps!

Haha wow dude. Feel free to ignore me.

[rbarthle17]

I am going to guess the near 40mph (according to ESPN) swirling winds had some to do with more than a few of those bad passes. It was frustrating to see but nobody should have expected crisp on target throws all night in those conditions. Every team has a bad game, some manage to sneak out wins in spite of it. We almost did that. All this "choking" and "the sky is falling" talk is laughable. These are kids playing a game. It's going to happen. Still have 11-1, two P5 wins, another conference title, and another bowl game win to play for. The world hasn't ended.

[NavyApp]

The title of the thread is 100% accurate. We have the better team unquestionably. Thing is we got punched in the mouth and took way too long to punch back. Offensive play calling was terrible, it's been addressed as such by the play caller himself so let's move forward from that. The body language from the guys was just off to me, seemed like a lot of indifference from our guys while Southern was JACKED the whole game. Things won't always break your way and it's how you respond to adversity that defines your character. I have been waiting for us to lose a game like this because I want to see how we respond. The effort and spirit our guys play with next week will go a long way in determining the success of our coaching staff.

[ah59396]

The title of the thread is 100% accurate. We have the better team unquestionably. Thing is we got punched in the mouth and took way too long to punch back. Offensive play calling was terrible, it's been addressed as such by the play caller himself so let's move forward from that. The body language from the guys was just off to me, seemed like a lot of indifference from our guys while Southern was JACKED the whole game. Things won't always break your way and it's how you respond to adversity that defines your character. I have been waiting for us to lose a game like this because I want to see how we respond. The effort and spirit our guys play with next week will go a long way in determining the success of our coaching staff.

I’m certainly worried about a let down against USC. This should be a good test for Drink to see how he can rally the guys after a back breaking loss.

I don’t think a loss to the Gamecocks would even constitute a let down, I just wanna see us execute. If we play well but go down, I can live with that.

Alternatively maybe we respond really well and come out firing. Kirk Cousins has been on fire recently after taking a TON of heat for poor performances. Some guys just rise up under pressure. I’d like to see a big rebound performance from Zac and the receivers (aside from Sutton who is always stellar).

[Boonegoon]

Frustrating game to watch for sure. I thought that even though we were down at half, that we had weathered the storm and had momentum on our side. GS first drive in 3rd quarter was pivotal and had we stopped them then.... alas. I think just one adjustment would have changed the game immensely for us. Zac needed to take off and run. They were bringing 3 to 4 and he had plenty of time and they dared him to throw. Huge lanes were open for 4-5 yards plus, move the chains. Make the LBs come up and open up passing lanes.

Sutton was huge last night, and had Zac not underthrown him on that flea flicker , he had 6 more. Tough throw in those conditions though and probably not a wise call.

[WataugaMan]

"I have been waiting for us to lose a game like this because I want to see how we respond."

The fact this loss was against The Stink (at home) coupled with last year's result makes the loss 100+ times rougher than losing to anyone else. Thus, it will be very interesting to see how we respond indeed!

[NavyApp]

I’m certainly worried about a let down against USC. This should be a good test for Drink to see how he can rally the guys after a back breaking loss.

I don’t think a loss to the Gamecocks would even constitute a let down, I just wanna see us execute. If we play well but go down, I can live with that.

Alternatively maybe we respond really well and come out firing. Kirk Cousins has been on fire recently after taking a TON of heat for poor performances. Some guys just rise up under pressure. I’d like to see a big rebound performance from Zac and the receivers (aside from Sutton who is always stellar).

Win, lose or draw against SC is not what I am concerned with. I will be watching to see if the effort and spirit that I have become accustomed to seeing is there. It wasn't there for the full game last night. Can this coaching staff take this letdown and adversity and relight that fire or is this who we are? That's the answer I am looking for.

[ah59396]

I’m certainly worried about a let down against USC. This should be a good test for Drink to see how he can rally the guys after a back breaking loss.

I don’t think a loss to the Gamecocks would even constitute a let down, I just wanna see us execute. If we play well but go down, I can live with that.

Alternatively maybe we respond really well and come out firing. Kirk Cousins has been on fire recently after taking a TON of heat for poor performances. Some guys just rise up under pressure. I’d like to see a big rebound performance from Zac and the receivers (aside from Sutton who is always stellar).

Win, lose or draw against SC is not what I am concerned with. I will be watching to see if the effort and spirit that I have become accustomed to seeing is there. It wasn't there for the full game last night. Can this coaching staff take this letdown and adversity and relight that fire or is this who we are? That's the answer I am looking for.

You definitely could tell something wasn’t clicking last night. When Zac hit (I think Malik Williams) on the hands in the flat on that last drive and he dropped it. Zac three his head back in a very human “WTF” moment. I could feel that frustration of “we just can’t catch a break”.

From my own sports days, I used to hate that feeling. Because you could legitimately feel it and see it on your teammates faces. And each guy “contributed” by making a mistake, which obviously over the course of entire game led to disaster. So frustrating and often, you’re unsure what to do about it in the moment.

Sports, man.

[The Rock]

The title of the thread is 100% accurate. We have the better team unquestionably. Thing is we got punched in the mouth and took way too long to punch back. Offensive play calling was terrible, it's been addressed as such by the play caller himself so let's move forward from that. The body language from the guys was just off to me, seemed like a lot of indifference from our guys while Southern was JACKED the whole game. Things won't always break your way and it's how you respond to adversity that defines your character. I have been waiting for us to lose a game like this because I want to see how we respond. The effort and spirit our guys play with next week will go a long way in determining the success of our coaching staff.

Has it? I have heard Drink say that at least 3 times now. Realistically, what has been done to change it?
I like that Drink owns it and says its on him and will be fixed, but I just haven’t seen it yet.