“I didn’t use as much tempo in the fourth quarter because we did have a lead,” he said. “Tempo is a big part of our game, but at that stage I need to be working the clock more than I need to be working tempo. And so we slowed it down and tried to eat the clock a little bit more."
You changed the dynamic of the offense that works and wears teams down. He flat out admitted he did not play to win the game, he played to not lose. He's right...the play calling didn't change and if you watch, TU did throw the ball and did pretty much what TU does on offense. But the tempo is what creates confusion on defense, doesn't let them get set, doesn't allow them to adjust, allows a DB to not quite be on the same page who thinks they're in zone defense but there is no safety help over the top allowing a WR to be wide open. I would say that he should be able to learn from this...but it happened against USF last year and he didn't learn from it. It happened against SMU last year and SMU just ran out of time (2 more minutes and SMU is in a bowl game last year), it happened again against OkState this year and by the time he freaking realized they had taken a big lead, we were out of mo and answers. And then this...win this game and your team believes they are going to win the AAC west. Win this game and your team and fans start thinking you might run the table and be playing for not just a conference championship, but something HUGE. He hasn't learned though and we're stuck lamenting this crap. Players are stuck wondering why they turned into the NY Giants and slow playing everything. The only reason to change what is working is when the other team adjusts and makes it not work. SMU didn't adjust very well for the 2nd half and why we were able to come out and keep moving the ball into plus territory. At the end, Monty adjusted for no reason other than fear. That fear and lack of confidence is going to end up in him getting fired.
Winning formula is 'LEFT LANE, HAMMER DOWN'