re: Has your team ever given up?

I think we basically gave up in the 2008 Egg Bowl. At least that's what it looked like.

John L Smith made all of our asses quit.

Hey... I've been big pro Aggie to the SEC. Hate TeaSippers most of all. Arrogant pricks one and all. But that was the most puzzling thing of all. They weren't even hiding that they didn't want to be on the field by the second quarter. Bama could have hung 130 points on them easily... It will be interesting to see if they can get the team back. LSU did not quit on Auburn or State games. There was still a fight in them though most of us fans had given up... I want the Aggies to be strong. If for no other reason to keep sticking into the shorthorns...

Last weekend against Tennessee our team kept trying to let Tennessee score a touchdown but we eventually got frustrated and gave up

quote:

---

I don't think the team gave up. The coaches gave up. They were completely clueless. There has been a blatant lack of adjustments for 3 straight weeks not to mention some piss poor play calling.

---

What I saw in the Bama game wasn't giving up so much as something akin to shell-shock. I think they came in scared. You had an entire team of decent players -- let's not pretend TAMU talent sucks, even on defense, except relative to SEC defenses -- that had been humbled in the previous two (almost three) games after a hot start to the season. But these are kids used to winning. They were (are) part of one of the hottest programs in the country, and a good number of them chose TAMU over other high-profile offers. Then they had a couple mediocre (not awful, just completely uninspired against teams they couldn't afford to be uninspired against, plus Arkansas) weeks and they're feeling the season slipping away.

Then comes last Saturday. They're looking to bounce back with one of the biggest possible wins on their schedule (no disrespect to the Mississippi schools, who've earned their laurels this season, but a one-loss Bama or LSU or Auburn or Florida is still more of a gold standard in terms of Big Wins than an undefeated non-Big 6 team.) And then...Bama scores on 8 consecutive drives, or something like that, and the TAMU coaches have absolutely zero faith in TAMU's o-line to keep Bama's defenders off Hill. If the play-calling is any evidence, the coaches literally didn't trust the o-line to block a tackling dummy, and didn't trust Hill to extend the play. Every play action call was for short yardage. If there was an exception, I don't recall seeing it. They were playing scared. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, that's on the coaches. I doubt Hill has anywhere near Manziel's carte blanche to call his own audibles. And, despite this, they simply couldn't get anything going. When your entire scheme revolves around dumping the ball quickly to keep the defenders from breaking up the play and you can't even manage that, it's going to frick up your confidence big-time. Until they ran out of gas, all I could see was the TAMU defense stumbling like they'd been punched in the mouth. They barely touched the runners and receivers, let alone had a chance to wrap up. They were playing from further and further behind the whole game, thanks to their offensive woes. This is a team used to their offense being able to bail them out, and when that wasn't happening, the defense had to face the reality that they couldn't contain Bama's offense at all without any safety net.

I didn't see them giving up, as such, until the game was so far out of reach as to be completely demoralizing. Though the offense was poorly called, I'm not even sure what the defense's problem was. It was like someone took the prevent defense and tacked on an extra five yards to every single cushion. They were playing scared from the outset, and even when they had the angles, they seemed too worried about fricking up to commit to the play (see Sims TD run for a perfect example of that.) In other words, they seemed intimidated in a way they didn't look in the previous weeks, which is not a good look for an upper-level Power 5 team. My personal theory is that the coaches and the players were in a terrible position of playing a very talented and athletic Bama on the road in what had to feel like a must-win game. The Bama game came at the worst possible time for this team (the only one comparable would be at Death Valley) and once the bleeding started, the players and coaches panicked something awful. You simply can't afford to panic against a team like Bama. It'll kill you every time because Saban lives to take advantage of any weaknesses, and he has the personnel to do so. That's not the same as giving up, though. Exhaustion is what gave the appearance of that. Granted, they're demoralized now. Nobody can walk away from a game like that without being demoralized. But they have two easy weeks to regroup, and, hopefully, two weeks for the coaches to remember that even without Manziel, they have a helluva talented offense.