Was very unfortunately unable to watch the game live being in Europe. Then got up and proceeded to jump through hoops for hours to get in touch with the county sheriffs office to get my stranded family off a barrier island completely decimated by the storm surge on the west coast.
Now finally able to de-stress by watching the game and talking ball.
Hot take: We did ******* good gents.
And I say this as someone who thought we win by 2+ touchdowns and was initially shocked at the score.
But this is college football. This is why this **** is so much better than the NFL. It’s crazy. It’s unpredictable. **** happens.
The **** that happened:
- Our secondary was exposed. Yikes. This was the biggest problem.
- Guys are banged up and we are missing them. Depth is not quite there yet.
- Cam had a bad day. And still willed us to victory.
We had bad breaks between the TOs and bogus zebra calls (surprise). That meant we were never allowed to get into a rhythm. Basically everything was breaking the other way. As has been said, any of the Canes teams in the last 20 years lose this game. Easy.
And we still found a way to win.
That takes ******* talent. It takes leadership, grit, and the pure effort of Arroyo the ******* cyborg sprinting back across the whole field like a cyborg terminator cheetah. Seriously that dudes combine is going to be insane.
What does that mean for my crazy insane Natty aspirations down the stretch? They have been tempered a bit, but not by much. Sue me. The big positives:
- It was good that the secondary was exposed now rather than much later. This is the best QB they will probably face all regular season in my opinion. They have time to have a come to Ed Reed moment and step up. They have to.
- Cam is Cam. Even on a bad day, that man has got it. We’re in every game thanks to him.
- We’re developing our depth as we speak. It’s cringe in the moment and too close for comfort, but again, better now than late in a long season.
- Team took a big dose of humility, and reaped the heart relief of benefits of grinding it out even in the middle of the suck. They are building resilience and grit and don’t need pure momentum to win games.
Any team in the last 20 years experience a game similar to this, I would say they are flawed. We are running on luck. In fact that’s largely what happened to the cardiac canes of 2017, not to dismiss the hard work and great moments those guys had. But this team, I have every bit of confidence will take this game and improve from it and only get better, health permitting.
Go Canes.
