The Long Game

[bbsplitter]

Many of us, myself included, question Pete's seemingly unending loyalty to some players and coaches. He has his philosophy and sticks to it, and generally as long as your a player that buys into it, you're here for the long run and you know Pete is going to have you back.

This can cause problems, which many of us point out from time to time as situations (typically justified) call for it. However, I believe it is important that we point out the situations where this loyalty pays dividends, and this game is one of those examples.

Make no mistake, we won this game because in the midst of criticism, Carroll came out and announced "Jason Meyers is our kicker." Kicking is a 99% mental game, and without that confidence, we lose this game. A lot of us are very snake-bit when it comes to kickers, and honestly the majority of us would have believed it would be warranted if they would have let Meyers go after his last performance. Who knows what will happen for the rest of the season, maybe it won't work out in our favor.

For sure though, this high pressure situation and the confidence built by PC's loyalty and commitment to the "Long Game" (sometimes over-committed, admittedly) won us this game today, and shows good signs for the future.

 

[olyfan63]

Many of us, myself included, question Pete's seemingly unending loyalty to some players and coaches. He has his philosophy and sticks to it, and generally as long as your a player that buys into it, you're here for the long run and you know Pete is going to have you back.

This can cause problems, which many of us point out from time to time as situations (typically justified) call for it. However, I believe it is important that we point out the situations where this loyalty pays dividends, and this game is one of those examples.

Make no mistake, we won this game because in the midst of criticism, Carroll came out and announced "Jason Meyers is our kicker." Kicking is a 99% mental game, and without that confidence, we lose this game. A lot of us are very snake-bit when it comes to kickers, and honestly the majority of us would have believed it would be warranted if they would have let Meyers go after his last performance. Who knows what will happen for the rest of the season, maybe it won't work out in our favor.

For sure though, this high pressure situation and the confidence built by PC's loyalty and commitment to the "Long Game" (sometimes over-committed, admittedly) won us this game today, and shows good signs for the future.

Absolutely. It would have been really stupid of Carroll to handle it any other way, and Pete is nobody's fool.
I felt like Myers was either injured or sick last week, his stroke, mechanics, whatever, were just really wacky. When I saw his first couple PAT kicks, I knew we had "Good Myers" back for this game.

May as well apply this to Ken Norton Jr. as well. I was contemplating posting, in honor of Darrell Bevell, a "Weekly Fire Norton!" thread. This game made it pretty well moot.

Pete is a development-oriented coach, and that is his great strength, and that's why he has the strong record in November and December games. I'm expecting to see more and more young guys step up as we go forward; maybe Cody Barton, Maybe rookie Guard Phil Haynes, more Jamarco Jones, and maybe our young DBs "magically improve" with a player like Diggs holding up the "ET III" back end of the defense better.