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Is New Orleans The Problem? (Our Sometimes Post-Season 'Woes')

RTR91

RTR91

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selmaborntidefan said:
It's off-season so let's delve into amateur psychology. Was talking to my friend the other night. He loves us enough he's been to BDS twice despite living in the confines of Eugene, Oregon (and being disabled)......but he brought up our occasional post-season flops and asked what I thought contributed to them.

And I noted something immediately that he never thought of - that the games in question were played in the Big Easy, New Orleans.

2009 Sugar Bowl vs Utah (New Orleans)
2014 Sugar Bowl vs Oklahoma (New Orleans)
2015 Sugar Bowl vs Ohio State (New Orleans)

I mused aloud whether or not playing in New Orleans with all of its potential distractions contributes to the problem.

We had no problems in Shreveport (2007), where there's no trouble you can get into; the Capitol One Bowl against Michigan St was probably our BEST performance for 2010;
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The Capitol One Bowl was also the first time the team was healthy (with the exception of Barron).

and, of course, we took the measure of both Notre Dame and Clemson in Miami and Phoenix respectively.
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With the exception of Dillon Lee and Ryan Anderson being sent home from Miami, right?

But I would say our two WORST performances in the post-season both have the New Orleans connection in common. Of course, they both have something else in common - there was no title waiting at the end of the year, but that was also true in 2010.

Your thoughts? I'm just spit balling here. It's not that I'm looking for excuses, just wondering if anyone thinks it may contribute to the mental part of concentration here. We all would admit New Orleans has far more distractions than, say, Phoenix.
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Three, five, and three. Those are the number of turnovers in the three games you're discussing. Those turnovers led to 10, 28, and 7 points respectfully. The opposition earns some credit for causing those turnovers. However, spotting the other team a touchdown a game isn't going to help much when playing a team highly ranked.
 
G

GCtidefan

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JD95 said:
Make that three - 1992 Miami as well.

I guess I should have been more specific. The NC's we won in '78 and '92 were classified as a Sugar Bowl victory (8 total), while the BCS win against LSU was not.
Sorry for the confusion. Still, 15 trips and 9 wins in a venue most SEC teams try and fail to reach is pretty dang good!
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B

bamacpa

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Jul 19, 2006
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It's all about matchups on the field. Utah and Oklahoma hit us with pass rushers we couldn't stop, or wouldn't scheme away from. Ohio State had a scrambling QB that converted 3rd downs with his feet and arms. Hat tip to them. Play calling hurt us against the Buckeyes and Sooners - needed more Derrick.


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R

RobK

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As earlier said, I think we can chalk it up to mismatches in motivation rather than the venue. Both of the first two were let-downs coming off disappointing losses where national championship opportunities were lost. And both of those were against teams who had all the motivation in the world: it was probably the biggest game Utah ever played, and Oklahoma was desperately trying to reassert itself among the nation's elite. I think the Ohio State game was also a case of one team viewing it as a stepping stone game vs. another (red-hot) team playing as if they have nothing to lose.
 
M

mittman

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tide96 said:
Utah. We lost our half of our OL and clearly didn't get up for the game. Utah also played well.
Oklahoma. Trevor Knight played out of his mind. Oklahoma was a good team.
Ohio State. Turnovers and Ohio State was a good team.

I think we just played some good teams and lost.
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This, I will add that against Utah I can't remember how many times they snapped the ball while our defense was adjusting, in some cases with a LB almost having his back to the ball. Sure we had some players out, but they did a good coaching number on us too.

Is New Orleans a tough place to keep the player's from getting into trouble? Sure. Are there plenty of distractions? No doubt. I don't know of any evidence that it played into any of those games for us. Just got beat. Now there are plenty of other cases where it appears to have played into the effort of the team facing us.
 
theballguy

theballguy

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TideEngineer08 said:
The Oklahoma game was because we'd just lost the kick six game, a chance at an SEC title and unprecedented third straight NC. While I don't think the team ever laid down and quit, I do think the focus was missing entirely. I take some degree of satisfaction that the exact same scenario happened to OU the next year after Stoops mouthed off about us making excuses and then they promptly got blown out the next season even with the NC on the line.

Finally, we just ran into a buzz saw against Ohio State. They were highly motivated from the HC down to the last walk on to beat the SEC, especially Alabama. It was the perfect storm of motivation.
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I agree New Orleans can be a distraction but the points above in bold I think are the best made so far. As a fan, I cared about us playing Oklahoma and wanted to see us to do well against them. And for the 2014, Ohio State was the better team and simply outplayed us.
 
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hamntn

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Dec 4, 2006
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New Orleans is not the problem. Is Bryant-Denny a bad place to play? Legion Field? The city is not the problem. Sometimes the other team can be more motivated; sometimes we are.
 
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hamntn

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Dec 4, 2006
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More to above. During the years I was honored to attend Alabama, football was terrible. Now,we lead the nation in championships and have 4 in the last 7 years. Bama fans are terrible. Our expectations are unreasonable. Success has spoiled us.

I do not agree there is a PROBLEM.
 
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