Podcast: Around the SEC Week 10

Another of the nation's few remaining undefeated teams fell last weekend, marking yet another drastic change in the race for the SEC championship. This week features more of the same, important matchups that weight at both the conference and national levels.

Who will add more compelling evidence for their case to make the College Football Playoff, and take another step toward a positive finish?

I can't tell you for sure, but I'll give it my best shot.

Podcast: Auburn vs. South Carolina

Any Auburn fan watching last Saturday's game against South Carolina will understand the frustration I felt while seeing the Tigers' defense struggle to keep the Gamecocks off the field.

But there were a lot of positives to take from this win, such as the reemergence of a dominant running game, and especially the fact that after the win, Auburn is sitting in the top four of the first College Football Playoff rankings.

And believe it or not, this team is still far from perfect, which should be scary for the rest of the nation.

Who Is South Carolina, Really?

South Carolina confuses me. I really can’t get a read on them.

On one hand, they pulled off a thrilling upset over now ninth-ranked Georgia back in September. On the other hand, they were run out of their own stadium by Texas A&M two weeks before.

There have been two South Carolina teams this season: the SEC East contender and a middle-of-the-road SEC East program.

It’s been truly a tale of two teams with Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks this season, and the only certainty that we’ve seen is that this team has not lived up to its potential and definitely not its hype.

South Carolina started the season ranked ninth. By week two, they had tumbled down to 21^st. In week four, they jumped back up to 14^th after the upset over Georgia.

But now, three losses in five weeks later, the Gamecocks find themselves 4-4 and outside of the rankings. They’ve completely lost any chance at winning an uncharacteristically weak SEC East.

Before the season started, they were one of the popular picks to compete for SEC title.

It turns out they weren’t anywhere near the team we thought they were then. But they might still be better than we think they are now.

The only blowout South Carolina has suffered came at the hands of Texas A&M. From start to finish, the Aggies were dominant over the Gamecocks, picking them apart in methodical fashion.

Other than that mishap and a blowout win over Furman, every other South Carolina game this season has been close. In fact, win or loss, none of their other six games have been decided by more than 14 points.

The average margin in those six games (again, win or loss) is seven points. So South Carolina is not a terrible team.

They beat Georgia, played step-by-step with Auburn down to the last play, and took down East Carolina (a win that is looking more and more impressive each week).

We’ve seen their potential hit its peak, particularly against Auburn last weekend, putting up over 500 yards of offense in a road game against a nationally ranked top-five team.

They have the ability to score with anybody, and it’s shown in quite a few of their games.

But they’ve also laid an egg in three too many games. There was the expected loss to Auburn; but outside of that, there was the infamous loss to Texas A&M, a loss to Missouri in which the Gamecocks gave up a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter, and a loss to Kentucky due to a blown 14-point fourth quarter lead.

South Carolina has failed to come up big in all of its games but two, and had some pretty inexcusable losses.

The problem is the defense. From game one, South Carolina’s defensive unit has been playing anti-championship football.

After this past weekend, the Gamecocks defense is currently second-to-last in the SEC in total defense (ahead of Vanderbilt), last in rushing defense, in the bottom four in passing defense (a stat only helped in the Auburn game due to the fact that the Tigers didn’t have to throw the ball), and tied for last in scoring defense with Vanderbilt.

A defense that bad will get you nowhere fast. And if your offense has a bad night along with zero resistance from your defense, it’ll be a long bus ride home.

The only reason South Carolina was able to hang with Auburn was a nearly perfect performance by its offense, especially the passing game.

Just as it has all season, South Carolina’s defense did it no favors.

This was supposed to be the year that Spurrier finally broke through at South Carolina. This team was thought to have the talent, experience, and coaching know-how to make a run of the SEC championship and the College Football Playoff.

But they have tripped themselves up at every major turn lately.

So who is this team?

It turns out tis is a team that has too many glaring weaknesses to be a real contender, although it has the talent to compete with anyone game-to-game.

But until they can turn in a complete performance on both sides of the ball, South Carolina will simply be stuck where it is.

South Carolina will remain who they’ve always been: South Carolina.

James Franklin Changed Vanderbilt Forever

It looks like Vandy is back to being Vandy.

Through seven games, the Commodores are 2-5, winless in the SEC, and nationally rank near the bottom of every major statistical category.

Their average margin of defeat is 21.5 points, including a 37-7 loss to Temple on opening weekend. And those two wins? A three-point margin over Massachusetts, and a one-point victory over Charleston Southern.

And we shouldn’t be surprised by this, should we? This is the same school that failed to have a winning season from 1983 to 2007. Before 2011, they had never been to bowl games in consecutive seasons.

They’ve never won ten games in a season. Ever. Yet we are surprised. Why?

The man to blame is James Franklin. Franklin came to Vanderbilt before the 2011 season, and in three years, made more progress at the SEC’s “smart school” than any other coach in the program’s long history.

Franklin put Vanderbilt in the top 25 of the final AP poll two years in a row, the best two-year stretch in school history. Under his leadership, the Commodores won nine games in consecutive seasons for the first time ever.

He took Vanderbilt to bowl games in consecutive seasons for the first time ever.

James Franklin made Vanderbilt’s football program respectable. He put Vanderbilt on the map.

It didn’t even take him long to make Vanderbilt relevant, more relevant than it had ever been in college football. In his first season, he took the Commodores to a bowl game. And even though they narrowly lost it, the atmosphere around Vanderbilt had already improved.

James Franklin changed Vanderbilt football forever. He created a new standard for success at a school that found winning football to be a pleasant surprise rather than an expectation.

He was calm, cool, and collected. He was innovative, charismatic, and a great recruiter.

He brought a rare brand of toughness and resiliency to the Commodores that had never been seen before.

Over the course of three seasons, Franklin’s Vanderbilt teams lost 15 games. Of those 15 games, eight of them were against ranked opponents. Two of them were against teams unranked at the time, but went on to win the SEC East (Georgia in 2011, Missouri in 2013).

In both cases, the win over Vanderbilt propelled each team into the top 25 the next week.

During Franklin’s tenure, Vanderbilt had an average margin of defeat of 14.6 points. Take away the eight losses to ranked opponents (six of whom were in the top ten at the time), and the remaining seven were lost by an average of 8.6 points.

Even though they weren’t on the clear road to a championship, the Commodores were competitive under Franklin.

And then Penn State came calling. Despite the appalling Jerry Sandusky scandal, Penn State is still considered a traditional power, a storied football program.

It was the next big step that an aspiring head coach would be foolish not to take, especially with the lifting of Penn State’s postseason ban and restoration of all scholarships in 2015.

Even though he was only at Vanderbilt for three seasons, Franklin left rather large shoes to fill for the next man up.

Enter Derek Mason. After two successful seasons as Stanford’s defensive coordinator, including a finish as a Broyles Award finalist, Mason seemed like a great candidate to make the jump from coordinator to head coach at Vanderbilt.

It worked with Franklin, after all. After spending a total of five seasons at Kansas State and Maryland cultivating explosive offenses, he displayed the kind of energy, passion, and creativity to bring Vanderbilt up to national relevancy.

Sadly, Derek Mason has been unable to follow the same script. Through seven games, he has looked completely in over his head, lacking any sort of confidence.

He can’t get any production out of the quarterback position, and despite playing musical chairs with four different signal-callers. His Commodores have committed more turnovers (17) than scored offensive touchdowns (11).

They’ll be lucky to win one more game, following up a 9-4 season with a 3-9 disaster.

And look no further than James Franklin.

Not only did several recruits follow him away from Vanderbilt to Penn State, he took away that energy and confidence Vanderbilt had been lacking for most of its history.

Both Franklin and Mason are clean-cut, well-spoken individuals. Franklin, however, is the one who knows how to get people excited. He believes in his players and they believe in him, and it reflects on the football field.

He seems like the type of guy you’d want to hang out with for a day.

Mason seems more like the type to throw a quiet dinner party. He clearly knows his X’s and O’s, but he just doesn’t bring that same energy and will to win in the constant underdog role that Franklin seems to carry with him everywhere he goes.

For better or worse, James Franklin altered the Vanderbilt football landscape forever.

Vanderbilt fans and Nashville fans were actually upset that Franklin chose to leave for Penn State, for goodness sakes. Five years ago, any Vanderbilt coach would be considered stupid by Vanderbilt fans for not jumping ship for greener pastures.

James Franklin used Vanderbilt just as any other coach would: as a stepping stone. The difference is that he appeared to be turning them into a real national power just as he left.

To have all of that whisked away in a moment and replaced with the atrocity that Vanderbilt football is now must be a new level of unbearable.

James Franklin transformed the attitude of Vanderbilt, helping the fans to become more involved and generate excitement about the program. He brought a new will to win.

And then, just like that, it was gone.

That Was Too Close, Auburn

Five. That’s how many fourth downs South Carolina converted against Auburn on Saturday. Four of them came in the Gamecocks’ own territory.

535. That’s the number of yards the Gamecocks racked up against a statistically improving Auburn defense. 416 of those yards came through the air.

South Carolina threw the ball 52 times. This was an almost scripted game featuring Steve Spurrier and his Fun ‘N Gun offense.

Desperate, fighting for its season and with nothing to lose, South Carolina came into Jordan-Hare Stadium with nothing held back. Early and often, the Gamecocks went to the air, pulled out double reverses, and gave Auburn all it could handle for a full 60 minutes.

Auburn’s defense, a unit appearing to be making great strides since a year ago, showed eerie flashes of what it used to be during a disastrous 2012 season. And Spurrier’s offense could do no wrong.

Everything Dylan Thompson wanted to do on offense, he could do with little resistance.

But it shouldn’t have been that way.

Auburn was clearly the more talented team, piling up 551 yards, including 395 on the ground, while only throwing 15 passes. South Carolina ran 86 plays to Auburn’s 62.

The Tigers could score every possession as well, and do it quicker.

Nick Marshall had his best game of the season, putting up 228 total yards on just 24 touches, along with four touchdowns (three on the ground). Cameron Artis-Payne was dominant from start to finish, barreling through an overwhelmed South Carolina defense with ease for 167 yards and a touchdown.

There was no doubt who the better team was. There was also no doubt which team was desperate, with nothing to lose.

One team scored on six of its eight drives, said six drives coming all in a row. Another team went for it on fourth down six times.

Auburn has come up big in a road win over now 11^th-ranked Kansas State, and blowout wins over Arkansas and LSU. South Carolina has one signature win, a home upset over then sixth-ranked Georgia.

Aside from that rather shocking upset, the Gamecocks were blown out by Texas A&M at home, lost back-to-back games against Missouri and Kentucky, and sleep-walked past Vanderbilt.

At 4-3, South Carolina had all but no shot at making it to Atlanta.

Yes, Spurrier and his team were desperate. Yes, they pulled out all the stops. But there’s still no excuse.

Time after time, the Auburn defense blew an assignment, committed a penalty, and in one case, fumbled at the end of a dazzling punt return to give South Carolina another chance to drive the length of the field.

And drive, they did. Taking out the six occasions in which South Carolina went for it on fourth down, the Gamecocks were an excellent six of eight on the rest of their third downs.

By the fourth quarter, it was almost comical to watch. No matter what play Steve Spurrier called, Auburn could not stop it.

He could have ordered Dylan Thompson to throw the ball backward 20 yards to his right guard, who lateralled the ball to a punter while Thompson went to the hotdog stand, resulting in a triple reverse involving a ball boy, a cameraman, and the fourth-string quarterback that ended in a mutated combination of the Hook and Ladder and the Statue of Liberty.

And it would’ve worked. South Carolina would’ve inexplicably scored two touchdowns, three field goals, gone for two both times, and ended the possession having scored 25 points.

In all sincerity, I want to give Spurrier all the credit in the world for the work his Gamecocks did Saturday night. The Ol’ Ball Coach called an absolutely perfect game.

His team was simply outmatched. They played their best game (offensively) against Auburn, but it just wasn’t enough.

For Auburn, this game should be a warning.

Even though it’s encouraging to see Auburn overcome a nearly flawless performance by an opposing offense, the home stretch for the Tigers certainly gets no easier, and they cannot afford anywhere close to the defensive lapses they suffered against South Carolina.

Consider the rest of Auburn’s schedule. Where is Ole Miss’s strength on offense? In Bo Wallace and his receivers. How many times do you think Texas A&M will throw the ball? At least 50.

Alabama has even taken the air more under Lane Kiffin, shining a spotlight on Amari Cooper, arguably the nation’s best receiver.

It doesn’t matter how desperate and reckless South Carolina was, there is no excuse for inattentive coverage and sloppy tackling.

And those kinds of crucial mistakes could sink Auburn against even a slightly competent defensive team.

I am an optimist and I believe in Auburn, but I highly doubt that the Tigers can average almost nine yards a play against Ole Miss and Alabama. If they do, go ahead and reserve them a spot in the playoff.

I don’t doubt that Auburn could win a shootout with anyone in the nation, but is that really something you want to bank on?

I know I said that a win is a win for Auburn this year, and I meant it. But the defense absolutely has to step up its game, or Auburn will find itself in a hole too deep to dig itself out of (remember the Mississippi State game?).

Nick Marshall and the offense were dynamic, and appear to be back on track, but that was against the SEC’s worst defense.

Like I said, I am optimist, and I believe in Auburn. I also believe in Gus Malzahn’s unyielding quest for constant improvement. He and his staff will take what they saw on Saturday and use to make the necessary adjustments going forward.

Believe in Malzhan, and believe in Auburn. I like to think (and I hope) that the defense won’t play that bad of a game the rest of the season.

Five of six on fourth down accurately tells the story of how the Auburn-South Carolina game went.

It was a duel between two brilliant coaches, one with the talent to compete for a national championship, the other struggling to get his team to live up to its potential.

It was a fight between a team trying to keep its playoff hopes alive and a team fighting for a last gasp of breath in an already disappointing season.

In the end, the better team won, although the other squad gave it everything they possibly could have and left nothing on the table.

I cannot emphasize this enough: Auburn is a very good football team.

But Saturday night was too close. You should be able to stop a team on fourth down more than once.

Cornballer Bad Hands Play of the Week

This Cornballer Bad Hands Play of the Week goes to the entire Pitt offense.

The Panthers tied the NCAA record for fumbles in a quarter, coughing up the rock an unbelievable five times in the first period.

Not only did they all occur in the same quarter, four of the fumbles came in six snaps.

The first one came at the end of a first down run by Pitt quarterback Chad Voytik. Ever heard of a slippery slope?



Pitt looked to be back on track its next drive, when tailback James Conner was a foot away from putting a 75-yard touchdown on the board. But the ball was popped out just before the goal line.

Football really is a game of inches.



Tailback Isaac Bennett was already in trouble on Pitt's fifth offensive play, having already lost seven yards on this run. There was nothing worse he could have done than lose control of the ball.



The fourth fumble, stripped away from Pitt receiver Tyler Boyd after an 11-yard reception, was not captured on the internet in glorious GIFinity.

But trust me, that fumble was just as egregious as the rest.

The fifth one, however, is readily available for our viewing pleasure. At the end of Pitt's first sustained drive, a snap was botched in Georgia Tech territory. When it rains, it pours.



As a result, Pitt found itself in an early 28-0 hole against Georgia Tech halfway through the first quarter.

That's an offensive implosion if I've ever seen one. But even more startling than the historically bad start is the fact that Pitt was still able to make the game interesting for a while, even pulling to within 14 points at the end of the third quarter.

But they were never able to overcome their multitude errors, arguably the worst five minutes ever in football.

They even coughed up another fumble before it was all said and done!

Sorry, Pitt. You're going in the record books for the wrong reason.

Podcast: Around the SEC Week 9

Auburn and Mississippi State are back in action after a bye week, Alabama and Ole Miss look to continue their recent dominance on the road against upset-minded Tennessee and LSU, while Missouri will try using its offense to score points this time around.

Who will the winners and losers be? Will the unbeatens remain intact, or will the race for the SEC championship get even more muddled up?

That's why they play the games, ladies and gents. It's time for Around the SEC.

Sometimes First Opinions Really Are Valid

Before the 2014 season started, I thought that Texas A&M would struggle to find itself again.

After the parade of media attention following Johnny Manziel’s every ill-conceived decision finally left town, I wondered how the Aggies would fare without such a dynamic playmaker and his favorite receiver.

Surely not better, I thought.

Then 52-28 happened. Ranked 21^st in the preseason polls, Texas A&M looked like national championship contenders as they thrashed ninth-ranked South Carolina in Columbia.

Sophomore Kenny Hill became an immediate Heisman candidate with his record-breaking 511 yards in his first game as a starter, and the Aggies’ offense looked unstoppable, rolling up 680 total yards and a whopping 39 first downs.

They leap-frogged all the way to the top ten, replacing South Carolina as the nation’s ninth-best team. A couple of voters even gave A&M the nod as the number one team.

Texas A&M looked like they were going to be just fine with Johnny Football.

And then the SEC West happened. We discovered along with Kevin Sumlin that not only can you not judge a book by its cover, but you can’t judge it by its first page either.

You have to let the rest of the story unfold.

Unfold it has, and here we are in week nine, with Texas A&M out of the top 25 for the first time in two years.

A brutal three-game SEC West stretch spun A&M into a nosedive that culminated in a 59-0 obliteration at the hands of an angry Alabama team, and sent the Aggies home licking their wounds and searching for answers.

In three straight games against division opponents, Texas A&M has been dominated on both sides of the ball. The offense from week one that was comparable to the best college football has ever seen wasn’t able to save the Aggies from its awful defense.

Against both Mississippi schools, A&M put up good numbers (526 yards against Mississippi State, 455 against Ole Miss), but they were deceiving. Most of the yards came in the fourth quarter, when each game was already well in hand.

In those two games, Kenny Hill threw five interceptions to go along with his six touchdowns. He and the offense could just never get it going until it was too late.

Then in Tuscaloosa, the wheels fell off. Coming off of those back-to-back bruising losses, getting beaten up on both fronts, Texas A&M never had a chance against an Alabama team that was ready to reinsert itself back in the playoff discussion.

The Aggies mustered only 172 total yards, gave up 602 to Alabama, and allowed the Crimson Tide to score on every one of its seven first half possessions while crossing the 50-yard line themselves on twice the entire game.

Texas A&M looked completely overwhelmed and outclassed in every way by Alabama, and their pitiful performance raised the question as to how good the Aggies really are.

It’s not time to press the panic in College Station, yet. But there are some things about this team that need to be cleared up.

Understand, Texas A&M is still a very talented football team. Kevin Sumlin has been dominating the recruiting trail in Texas, and has reeled in tons of top recruits and future stars.

But this just wasn’t the year to lose a Heisman-winning quarterback.

With the sudden emergence Mississippi’s twin towers to compete with already powerful Alabama and Auburn, Texas A&M could’ve used the potent ability of Johnny Football.

Arkansas is on the rise, and LSU has appeared lost at times, but is still as talented as any team in the country. They could be the only other West team the Aggies beat this season.

But in this year’s SEC West, no win is guaranteed. In fact, they’re far from it.

Kenny Hill will have to curb his struggles against the aggression of SEC West defenses. In his four games against division competition, Hill has thrown at least one interception, multiple picks in two of them.

When it has mattered most, Hill has been unable to replicate his success against South Carolina.

It turns out those of us who thought that A&M would take a step back after losing Manziel are looking slightly smarter now than we were seven weeks ago.

And I don’t think we were unjustified in our thinking back then, either.

In 2013, Texas A&M fielded the SEC’s worst defense, giving up 476 total yards and 32 points per game, good for last in the conference in both categories.

If it wasn’t for Johnny Manziel and Kevin Sumlin’s explosive offense, the Aggies could very well have finished with only six wins the past two seasons. Their ability to outscore anyone in the country outweighed their crippling inability to stop any offense.

It was like holding up a tissue to stop a rock that’s flying toward your face. Good luck with that.

And as it was, Sumlin and his staff didn’t appear to have made any drastic coaching or personnel changes to that same defense; in fact, they lost a couple of key contributors who were difficult to replace.

So that same defense that nearly lost the Aggies quite a few games was returning exactly the same or slightly undermanned, and the offense would have to replace a player that accounted for 70% of its offense over the past two seasons, and the receiver who accounted for 25% of his total yards.

That’s not what most would call a recipe for success.

But the thing that A&M is missing the most from Johnny Manziel is not his arms, but his legs. Through two seasons with the Aggies, Manziel rolled up over 2000 rushing yards, showcasing his ability to scramble and make something out of nothing.

He didn’t “stay in the system” as much as Hill does now, but while his tendency to recklessly take off too soon extended more plays than ruined them.

Kenny Hill doesn’t add that same element to Sumlin’s offense. Through eight games, he has 156 rushing yards, and no touchdowns on the ground. He just can’t extend plays with his legs the same way Manziel did.

And when your receivers are blanketed by cornerbacks or a blitz is right in your face, there’s no shame in tucking the rock and picking up yards with your legs.

It was inevitable that Texas A&M would be losing a lot this season, and it’s truly started to show.

And for that reason, Texas A&M’s season-opening blowout of South Carolina deceived us all.

The Weirdest Win You'll Ever See

Let me set up a scenario for you. A football team goes on the road one weekend; they’re playing in a hostile environment notorious for disrupting the normal functions of its opponents.

This particular football team marches into that stadium, and falls flat on its face. The offense only tallies 119 yards of total offense, including only 20 through the air, gains only seven first downs, and gets penalized 11 times.

How do you think they fared? Barring a worse performance than that (somehow) from the home team, common sense would tell you that this poor team was probably blown out.

What if I told you that everything I just described to you really happened? And that it happened just this past weekend, to the Missouri Tigers, on the road against Florida?

Now, what if I told you that they won the game? And won it 42-13?

Let that sink in for a second. It’s fine, I’ll wait.

If you don’t believe me, go check the score. Missouri 42, Florida 13. 119 yards of offense, which is just one part of the equation of weirdness going on here.

How does any team win with only 119 yards of offense? And how on earth do they roll up 42 points?

It started with the opening kickoff. Marcus Murphy of Missouri raced 96 yards for the game’s first points, and ten seconds into the game, the Tigers were up by seven.

The strangest victory you’d ever see had begun. But the real madness didn’t begin until the third quarter.

Already up by 20, Missouri tacked on another touchdown in the form of a Marcus Murphy punt return. 28-0, Tigers, after the two-point conversion. Five minutes later, Gators quarterback Jeff Driskel is sacked and fumbles the ball, which is recovered by Missouri and returned for a touchdown. 35-0.

Next drive, the embattled quarterback was picked off for the second time that afternoon, and after it was returned for the score that put Missouri up 42-0, Muschamp pulled him.

Freshman Treon Harris didn’t fare much better, although he did account for two touchdowns to help the Gators avoid the shutout.

But still the question remains: how has Florida become so incompetent that it can lose by 29 points despite holding its opponent to 119 yards?

Six turnovers doesn’t help, especially when two of them account directly for touchdowns. You also can’t give up touchdowns on kickoff and punt returns in the same game.

Those are the second and third variables to the equation of weirdness, by the way: defense and special teams. Where Missouri was completely helpless on offense, it more than made up for in spectacular defensive and special teams play.

And Florida could do nothing to turn themselves around. All they did was shoot themselves in the foot, an increasingly common occurrence under Muschamp’s leadership the past three years.

While Missouri’s offense was statistically horrendous (six of 18 for 20 yards and a pick, really Maty Mauk?), Florida’s was somehow worse.

If you want an exaggerated, dramatized, but true representation of how the past two years of Florida football have been, look no further than this loss.

I still have no idea what kind of team Missouri is, and I’m not sure they do either, but this game shows us everything we need to know about the Gators, all neatly placed in one corner.

Just as they have in every big test they’ve encountered lately, Florida gave this game away more than Missouri won it. I’m talking about six turnovers and a failed fourth down attempt early in the first quarter.

I’m talking about the lack of leadership on the Florida sideline. I’m talking about the lack of energy, the lack of real passion.

Everyone in Gainesville now knows without a doubt that Muschamp’s time is up. It’s just a matter of when and where he’s ushered out of office.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: Missouri is not the team they were last season.

Yes, they are talented, and yes, they still a chance to win the dumpster fire we’re calling the SEC East. But they are nowhere close to elite, and would probably be last in the SEC West.

And that’s why this win was the weirdest win ever. From the opening kickoff, Florida was reeling. Even though they more than doubled Missouri’s offensive output, they were somehow playing from behind the entire game.

In a game where the players should have been fighting for their season and their coach’s job in front of their home crowd, the Florida Gators fell flat on their faces.

Missouri was giving Florida every chance to get a big win. Their longest drive was 55 yards. The second longest? 24.

In a game that any team in the SEC West would have won by at least 35, Florida got blown out.

And it’s because the Gators can’t get out of their own way. It doesn’t matter who their quarterback is. It doesn’t matter how good their defense is.

Sometime between the 2012 and 2013 seasons, this team lost its true belief that it can win.

That’s the only reason that a team fighting for its life in its division gives up touchdowns on a kick return, punt return, interception, and fumble all in one game.

It’s the only reason a home team loses 42-13 to a squad that scored one offensive touchdown.

This truly was the weirdest win I’ve ever seen in my life. In a way, it didn’t seem like anybody really won.