Arch was set up to fail. Sark preemptively abandoned the running game for this one. You could tell on the first drive. We had a couple of solid runs throughout the game, but every single time we moved on to throwing it several times in a row. I don't have the box score or play by play in front of me, but I would be surprised if we called consecutive running plays more than once or twice last night. On the road. In a close game. And seemingly half of the running plays we did call were Arch keepers that my dead grandmother saw coming.
There's a path to this being a winning team a la 2007 LSU, with a salty defense and an offense that keeps things afloat just enough to get by. But week in and week out, Sark looks at that path and goes off-road instead. It's like he has no idea what this team is and what it's capable of. He continually makes decisions as if he has a functioning offensive line and a QB capable of elevating his teammates like Joe Montana, making correct decisions on every play and marching down the field with precision. Then when that doesn't happen, our defense has to play heroically to keep us in games until special teams gives us good field position or the offense stumblefucks its way into a big play.
The Oklahoma game should have been our signpost for the rest of the season. Quick reads, a reliance on ball control and the running game, and complementary football. Instead we apparently ignored its lessons. Unless Sark fundamentally changes his understanding of the team he has and adjusts accordingly, the rest of our games will look like last night instead.
Fuck.