The Bobcat Nation

Griz came out on fire, and just fell flat on their face. Their D looked like ours when we played them... just nothing left. Congratulations on a great season, I personally thought the Griz could maybe win 1 playoff game, at best. They proved me wrong.

That's a shame (in my best Jerry Sienfeld)

The griz had a nice run-congrats to them. Good luck to Carroll tomorrow.

The griz won't probably agree, but the better team won tonite. JMU just stuffed it down their throats the whole second half. The griz offense played very well, but became pretty one dimensional and finally fell short.

Kudos to Craig Oches. He has played as well as any QB ever for the last 6 weeks or so and continued it tonite. He has finally fulfilled the potential he had as a highly rated high school QB. He also perservered through a lot to get to this point. He amde all the difference for the griz this year-they will definitely miss him.

A big thumbs down to Kerry Mullan. What a cheap shot to the QB's head in the 4th quarter. I was frankly embarassed for um. It also likely cost the griz the game. Third and long and the QB throws it out of the endzone, then Mullan cold cocks him with a fist to the face. So, now 1st and goal and JMU scores to go up by ten. Not sure if Mullan got thrown out of the game, but if not, hauck sure pulled him. Like I said, that assinine play probably cost the game for them.

Even my wife the Griz fan was caling for Kerry Mullen to be thrown out of the game! It was really to bad otherwise it was took very proud programs going after it in a good game.

That was absolutely awful...too bad for the Griz, they still had a great shot to win if they had held JMU to a FG on that drive.

Also, kudos to the NCAA on the fabulous field conditions...the thing looked like a driving range after the first 5 minutes of the game!

also in the finest Seinfeld tradition:

I AM SPEECHLESS! I AM WITHOUT SPEECH!

The field was an absolute joke. The NCAA should be embarassed. Why does 1-AA have to have this game in Chatanooga TN anyway? That field was just the worst I have ever seen anywhere.

Before the griz come up with an excuse, I will for them. After 6 straight games at home on turf, that field could not have helped them much. That must have seemed like a foreign country to their players.

I'm sure a lot of Griz fans will point fingers, Bobby, the Field, Kerry Mullan, Play Calling.

There's only one team I blame for our loss, JMU.

They wanted it more, and played harder, esp in the 2nd half. Och proved he's a stud, but JMU proved that if your defense cannot make a stop, then it's all over. They beat us fair & square and totally deserve the NC!

Exactly right Re/Max...I just checked egriz and it's quite shocking to see some of the things people are saying. From what I saw, JMU was the better team...Griz defense couldn't stop JMU's running game when they had to!

Congrats to JMU and the Griz on great seasons.

Thanks for the honesty, ReMax; when a team runs for 250+ IN A HALF, there's not a whole lot of excuses to be made. I will disagree with the "wanted it more" mentality; I've never liked that comment. I doubt the JMU players were any more or less hungry for an NC than were the Griz; they just played a better game & had a huge advantage on the offensive line.

Re, I take it you didn't go to Nooga; I'm going to be curious to see/hear how many folks feel that being at home for nearly 2 months prior to the NC had anything to do with tonights result. I'm not saying it did, but the mood/feel/atmosphere AT the stadium and the hotel is something hard to gauge on TV...

Gato,

I got a call from a friend who was there after the 3rd qtr Griz fans got a little pissy with him, told him to be quiet and sit down. I'm thinking the flights home are going to be a little quiet

I think being at home for 2 months did affect our play. We finished 2-3 on the road. We also seemed unprepared for the field conditions, and unable to stop a powerful rushing attack.

Our D makes two stops in a row and then allows scores on every following drive, that's a big reason why we lost this game, inability to stop the run.

Last night's game reminded me a lot of our loss at Sac. State. Our QB threw for a bunch of yards, we had no running game, and couldn't stop theirs all night. Same result also, a 10 point loss. I know playing all the home games the griz do helps their record but it sure doesn't help prepare to play a big game away from home. I think that was a factor. Also, how could a NCAA championship game at any level be played on a field like that? That is embarrassing for the NCAA. Even more fuel to move it to another city soon.

WYCAT wrote:Last night's game reminded me a lot of our loss at Sac. State. Our QB threw for a bunch of yards, we had no running game, and couldn't stop theirs all night. Same result also, a 10 point loss. I know playing all the home games the griz do helps their record but it sure doesn't help prepare to play a big game away from home. I think that was a factor. Also, how could a NCAA championship game at any level be played on a field like that? That is embarrassing for the NCAA. Even more fuel to move it to another city soon.

Very good analysis WYCAT. It also reminded me of the MSU/Northern Iowa game last year as well. Same things, decent yards passing, no running game and we couldn't stop their run.

El_Gato wrote:Thanks for the honesty, ReMax; when a team runs for 250+ IN A HALF, there's not a whole lot of excuses to be made. I will disagree with the "wanted it more" mentality; I've never liked that comment. I doubt the JMU players were any more or less hungry for an NC than were the Griz; they just played a better game & had a huge advantage on the offensive line.

Re, I take it you didn't go to Nooga; I'm going to be curious to see/hear how many folks feel that being at home for nearly 2 months prior to the NC had anything to do with tonights result. I'm not saying it did, but the mood/feel/atmosphere AT the stadium and the hotel is something hard to gauge on TV...

I was there and the feeling was actually similar to a home game...16,000+, about 1/2 Griz, it was electric. In reference to your question, I'm not sure what to think. Obviously, playing that far away from home and not on turf didn't help. But, I think JMU was clearly much more physical a team than we had seen this year. They simply punched us in the mouth all game long. 5-6 yards every play was frustrating to watch. The mood was good prior to the game, we thought we would throw the ball all over them and blow them out. In the 2nd quarter we felt the same way, right until Talmage's drop. After that, tons of frustration. The 3rd quarter was good with a TD and recovered fumble and then we thought we would do what we had all season and crush them. They answered with a long TD drive...

In any case, we need to find a way to win on the road in the postseason or out of conference.

Bozgriz wrote:But, I think JMU was clearly much more physical a team than we had seen this year. They simply punched us in the mouth all game long...

That is, until Mullan decided to return the favor!

friz lost and I can't be happier!