Before I go into tomorrow's game against NMSU I wanted to say that the article the Fresno Bee did on Marcus McCauely and his struggles this season is a better one than most the Bee gives the public to read. McCauley blames himself for all of the struggles that he has endured during this season and does not point the finger at anyone else. I understand that McCauley's play has been less than inspiring for the past season but at least he is man enough to take the blame for what has happened. I respect Marcus for this and think when giving the shot in the NFL he is going to be a truly amazing player just as Richard Marshall is becoming in Carolina.
The Fresno State-New Mexico State game was one I pencilled in as a definite win to start the season. NMSU went 0-12 last season and has only defeated two division 1AA teams in the past two years. I would have never thought a Fresno State team could be the first division 1A win in two years for a team such as NMSU. Right now I feel the Bulldogs are at a decided disadvantage in this game and have very little chance to win. The Bulldogs cannot stop the passing attack of anyone right now and have a team coming to town that throws the ball more than anyone aside Hawaii. Chase Holbrook completes 68% of his passes and will be throwing the ball every single play because of the weaknesses in the Bulldogs defense. Unlike NMSU, Fresno State will not attack NMSU's weaknesses because that is just something Hill has apparantly abandoned with respect to the gameplan. We will run the ball up the middle early and often and probably allow Brandstater to throw the ball 20 times in this game. Honestly although I support Sean Norton I do not necessarily care who plays QB because neither has a chance to succeed in this offense. I think the third string QB would have the same amount of success that the first and second string would right now for the Bulldogs. With Pat Hill trying to control the clock like he awlays wants to this Bulldog team is always going to be a run first team. Will this work for the rest of the season? I do not think so as I have gone on record as saying the Dogs will finish 1-11.
I know that my attitude is going to come off as pessimistic right now, but if you go back and read the blog I tried to hold onto hope for this team as long as I possibly could. I continually expected our coach to open up the offense because there was no way the running game was doing anything positive anymore. Maybe Dwayne Wright will rush for 200 yards tomorrow and the Dogs will control the clock, but they still can lose to a team like NMSU even if they have the ball for 35 minutes. Last weekend Hawaii scored 68 points on Utah State but never held the ball for more than three minutes the entire game. NMSU is the same type of scoring team and if the Dogs hold the ball for the majority of the game NMSU can still score 40 points on our weak defensive secondary. With that being said I honestly feel like NMSU will score somewhere between 35-40 points. I think the final score will be in the arena of:
NMSU 40
Fresno State 28
Our offense just isn't clicking and although Pat Hill is adamant about Brandstater being a different QB this time around, in this offensive system it would not matter how good he does. We have no creativity on offense and I am sure tomorrow I will be able to call at least 50% of our offensive plays before they happen. I know the rest of the Bulldogs fans will be able to do so as well. I know in time there is no where for this team to go but up. However, I have to say that I do not feel like this is going to be one down year. With the offensive and defensive schemes the Bulldogs run I don't feel like this team will get better until it parts ways with some of the personnel that are currently working under Pat Hill. I don't believe Pat Hill will fire any of the coordinators because somehow in his warped frame of mind he does not believe it is a scheme problem. He feels like Boise State is a far superior team because the players come to play every night. All of us here in Fresno know that the problem does not lay with the players but instead the coaching. How can receivers catch the ball if we don't throw it? How can the offense score if the other team's defense stacks nine in the box and we run anyway? We just can't do anything on offense and until Hill realizes that you have to make adjustment's to attack the other team's weaknesses 1-11 is going to get much worse next year.
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