1. Defense was amazingly efficient and impressive start to finish. Not a single team in 14 games scored over 20 points on our D. The average was under 10 ppg.
2. Texas and Penn State were WILDLY overrated. The opener felt like a 1 vs 2 battle. In reality, we were playing a roughly top 15 team and doing so in our own house. I know I'm stating the obvious by calling Texas and PSU overrated, but I think the Texas win gave us too much false sense of eliteness.
3. The O-Line was a disaster all season. We were playing at meager Wisconsin and folks were bashing the O-Line play in real time. It was a liability all season when it came to championship aspirations.
4. Day is a phenomenal coach, but he has some obsessiveness tendencies. At one point years ago it was the sweep to the flats, then it was being "tough", then it was the TE personnel packages. At times it is the run-first mentality. Day is at his best when he throws out all objectives aside from "get the ball in the hands of our best players as fast as I can".
5. Conserving plays has little benefit and may be a detriment. It doesn't matter how many reps are saved over a season if a team is not capable of playing with excellence under urgency or brilliance under tempo. We did not look ready tonight to go into tempo...which makes sense, because we rarely did so all season.
6. Go get a kicker. And a punter. Duh... See most programs ranked 15-50 and ask whether we have the better special teams. (We do not. Most good teams rely on 1-3 FGs vs elite competition)
7. Don't "save" shit when it comes to our best plays. Not sure whether we actually did so or not, but common sentiment after the Big Ten CCG was that maybe we held back plays and intentions for a potential CFP rematch. Nonsense! Bring your best each week! Win any trophy along the way. You never know how quickly the season may end.
8. The byes do hurt. Even at an early Cotton Bowl score of 0-0 I saw a huge difference in focus and energy. The same held true for last year's Rose Bowl game, but in our favor. The byes hurt the teams with the layoffs.
9. Sayin is DAMN good...but not great (yet). The excellence was apparent against lesser competition. But against the elite defenses (Michigan, IU, Miami) you could sense some cracks in the armor and could see not merely the bad INTs, but the confidence drain. Amazing talent and we are blessed! But he was young as originally expected.
10. I would have loved for this year to feel like the year we finally delivered a NC when not an underdog to do so. But the reality is that our flaws were not only apparent but persistent. Teams with great line play win it all - we were not one of those teams. We excelled DESPITE our line play this season, not because of it.
11. Man we are spoiled! We are coming off a NC season and legitimately expected our guys to repeat. I rewatched the 2010 Rose Bowl game this week and forgot how far those later 2000s Tressel teams were from being legitimate NC contenders. Make no mistake, while the dream ended tonight and while this team was flawed...this team did have a chance to win it all.
