Thoughts on Stony Brook - A win is a win?

I've had almost a week to sit on it and there are two things that are more prominent in my thinking about this weekends game.

The first is that the players had every reason to fold like a cheap chair but they battled back. In spite of curious calls on offense and a very lack luster regulation when the rubber hit the road the players fought back and looked more passionate in the overtime frame than any other point in the game.

They got a gut check and they responded, that's what winners do.

No it wasn't pretty but they did finally start to show some urgency, they did come together as a team and won in spite of the coaching. What was a flat performance by the players turned around at the time when it absolutely had to happen. If they come out with that kind of energy in the first half on offense we maybe go into the half with 20 points.

On the defensive side I don't know what to think. On the one hand they gave up just 10 points in regulation, that's a respectable number against the #13 FCS team in the nation. Even if Stony Brook's kicker does not have an epically bad afternoon the most they give up 16.

But on the other hand UB's secondary got gashed by Stony Brook. The Sea Wolves moved the ball around, way too much, but their coaches put in a fine game the Sea Wolves were always trying to attack a weakness in our defense rather than just assume Coker would run all over us if they kept pushing it.

At the end of the day despite the 400+ yards of offense they scored 10 regulation points. That's a decent day for your defense. We all wanted the Khalil Mack show and were hoping our weak secondary was a product of playing two top 25 teams. Sadly it was not, UB proved once again to be way to vulnerable to the big play but not facing Baylor speed meant those big plays went 30 yards and not 80.

So am I happy where UB football is? No, not by a long shot but the season is not over yet and there have been glimpses of a team that can win at least five more games. It's going to require the coaches to play to the players straight and for the student leaders on the field to keep all of the troops motivated.

I like Jeff Quinn's philosophy of "Every down" but I think for that to happen the teams leaders need to step up in place of the coaches. The talent to win seven games it there. Hell the talent to win the MAC is there but it's not going to happen with the energy or game planning we saw in quarters 1-4 of last weeks game.