In a perfect world, we would, but we know how we roll. I can see us carrying them for a half then putting it away after halftime. We haven't had a game under Beamer where we simply blew anyone's doors off before the half. We've had 2 games with very comfortable halftime leads (EIU and SC State, 29-0 and 22-0, respectively). However, both of those teams sucked something awful (EIU was 1-10 that year and SC State was 3-8) so those leads look fairly decent, until you consider the level of the opponent. Otherwise halftime scores in our "creampuff" games were:
Troy: 17-7
Ga State: 12-7
Charlotte: 20-14
Furman: 27-14
Jacksonville State: 21-14
We simply haven't dominated even lesser opponents in the first half. In some of these games, we piled on points in the 2nd half to put it away to make it look better, but putting lesser teams away by the half has not been our M.O. I would be pleased as punch to see us have something like a 35-0 halftime lead with no turnovers and no punts. Don't see any way that happens, but if we only cover the spread in this one, I won't be very impressed. Nobody thinks we're going to be very good, so we need to do more than just cover the spread.
Moreover, we need to look good AND start good. I would love to see us come out and assert ourselves from the outset. But we've been notoriously slow-starters against lesser opponents. Our 29-0 halftime lead against EIU looks alright, but we had 2 punts and a turnover on downs in the first half. Our first drive against an abysmally bad team went 3-and-out with 6 yards. We only had 7 points on offense in the 2nd half. Otherwise:
--Against a woefully bad SC State, we had an interception our first drive and a punt on our 2nd drive.
--We opened with 2 punts against Ga State.
--Against Troy our first 3 drives went FG, punt, punt.
--Opened with a missed FG and then had 2 first half punts against Furman.
--Against JSU, in the first half we went TD, punt, punt, TD, downs, punt, punt, TD.
Four seasons in, this is a trend. Not sure if it's coaching, lack of preparation, lack of focus or what. Ironically, our best first half offensive performance, by far, and there's not really a close 2nd, was against #5 Tennessee, with 5 TDs on 5 possessions.
Of course this all comes with the caveat that ODU isn't a total chump team and could beat us if we aren't careful.
Troy: 17-7
Ga State: 12-7
Charlotte: 20-14
Furman: 27-14
Jacksonville State: 21-14
We simply haven't dominated even lesser opponents in the first half. In some of these games, we piled on points in the 2nd half to put it away to make it look better, but putting lesser teams away by the half has not been our M.O. I would be pleased as punch to see us have something like a 35-0 halftime lead with no turnovers and no punts. Don't see any way that happens, but if we only cover the spread in this one, I won't be very impressed. Nobody thinks we're going to be very good, so we need to do more than just cover the spread.
Moreover, we need to look good AND start good. I would love to see us come out and assert ourselves from the outset. But we've been notoriously slow-starters against lesser opponents. Our 29-0 halftime lead against EIU looks alright, but we had 2 punts and a turnover on downs in the first half. Our first drive against an abysmally bad team went 3-and-out with 6 yards. We only had 7 points on offense in the 2nd half. Otherwise:
--Against a woefully bad SC State, we had an interception our first drive and a punt on our 2nd drive.
--We opened with 2 punts against Ga State.
--Against Troy our first 3 drives went FG, punt, punt.
--Opened with a missed FG and then had 2 first half punts against Furman.
--Against JSU, in the first half we went TD, punt, punt, TD, downs, punt, punt, TD.
Four seasons in, this is a trend. Not sure if it's coaching, lack of preparation, lack of focus or what. Ironically, our best first half offensive performance, by far, and there's not really a close 2nd, was against #5 Tennessee, with 5 TDs on 5 possessions.
Of course this all comes with the caveat that ODU isn't a total chump team and could beat us if we aren't careful.
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that this is a thread.