Mallers Game 8/4

I have LOTS of notes about what I saw in this game.

First of all, we won the toss and deferred. Brilliant! I dont know why any coach wouldnt want to have the ball to start the second half. It doesnt make sense to me to recieve the kickoff to start a game.
On the first drive that Syracuse had, they went for a fourth down pass, and it was incomplete. Albany then had a 3 and out. We were taking so long to not only break the huddle, but to get to the huddle. The offense showed no urgency in the huddle, and it showed on the field. On their second drive, the Shock scored. It happens, the defense hung their heads, but it happens. The offense ran a few more plays, and the quarter ended. The Shock added another score making it 14-0. We retaliated with a 29 yard strike to Issmail Green. The Shock scored right before the half on what is the most confusing sequence I have ever seen in football. A player was made to leave the field with 29 seconds left because he was wearing a dark visor. In that time, the Refferee stopped the clock for no reason. The reasoning he gave was that there was a penalty. The penalty was the play after the clock had stopped. After the touchdown, we were told it was because he wasnt sure if it was a first down. The clock is only to stop for a first down if the chains are brought out to measure, which they were not, and then the clock starts of the ref's whistle. Which isnt at all what happened. The penalty was for offsides, even though the ball had been snapped by the center. This allowed Syracuse to score right before the end of the half. This was all set up because of a botched snap on what should have been a punt. WE NEED TO PRACTICE SPECIAL TEAMS MORE!!!
The Second half saw a renewed sense of urgency for the Mallers. The Mallers scored and the score was 20-14. Then, the Shock broke off an 89 yard toss for a touchdown. On that, I saw some great blocking which took 3 players out of the play (2 linebackers, 1 member of the secondary). Im not taking anything away from MA because he is a great player, and is an athlete, but in my opinion, if the opposite side defensive end is the closest player to the running back on that play, I feel we have a problem. I also saw a bunch of undisciplined penalties (some of which I honestly blame on the ref's for not knowing the rules). The mallers fought back and brought the game back to 26-26. Then, the Shock regained momentum when they returned a kickoff 92 yards back to the Mallers 3. They scored with just under 2 minutes left. The mallers made their way down the field, but couldnt make anything out of it.

The key things I noticed:
The team doesnt believe in itsself. When things are going well, its all me, me, me. When things are going poorly, its all them, them, them.

The players dont believe in the coaches

There is way too much arguing going on on the sidelines


The huddle needs more control

we rely too much on one player

The refs dont know all of the rules, and fail to enforce them

Players need to show up to practices

Practice hard: I hate to use examples, but if everybody practiced like Ace does, wed be all set

Finally, Keep a positive attitude. I hate hearing "you guys won" when were down by 6 points with 5 minutes left