seth: Oh, hey! Another less than fun Chit Chat headed your way. Saturday’s game was a punch to the gut and I mentioned in my Ten Things that I thought the offense was carrying the brunt of the blame for only scoring 2 touchdowns. I’ll start.

40 points goes to Kingsbury for not being able to figure out how to get the offense going for six quarters. He’s a smart guy, he’s supposed to figure out how to force the defense into situations that are uncomfortable.

15 points to the offensive line. They didn’t play bad, but after the game, Kingsbury mentioned that they’ve got to do a better job of moving bodies and creating lanes and space. I thought they did that in the second half, but at best it was inconsistent and uneven over the entirety of the game.

30 points to the quarterback spot where Shimonek is struggling. He’s such a confident guy and so you wonder how that confidence plays n the room. I get the feeling that he’s well-liked, he’s worked hard and he’s paid his dues, but at some point, doing the same thing for the next game won’t be a good look. He’s got to figure some things out.

15 points to the kickers. There’s got to be someone that can kick a danged extra point and a 30 yard field goal. I’m just all sorts of surprised that there’s not someone that can do this.

Oh, and if we all sorta end up with the same answers, we’re going to rank the uniforms thus far this season.

spencer: I’m going to give 50 points to Kingsbury. So much of what’s happening seems to be falling at his feet. As an offensive genius, his offense has become stymied by simple defensive tactics of dropping more guys into coverage than receivers. This never seemed to be a problem until last season. If it’s a play calling issue, if it’s an execution issue, if it’s a preparation issue, or if it’s a talent issue, those all lead back to deficiencies at the head coach. I hesitate to give Shimonek any points here as I feel this falls on his position coach. He’s a 5th year senior that’s been in the program for 3 years and he wasn’t ready to be the starter. He’s got the physical tools to be successful. Also, Kingsbury is still struggling to find a solution to a kicker who was injured more than two months ago.

25 points to the offense in general for looking dead. I don’t mean playing poorly because of the opposition, but they looked disinterested in playing this game. I don’t know what’s going on with the psyche of this team (but there’s certainly plenty of players taking the twitter to defend themselves and their teammates), but they’re soft. Iowa State has broken this team down two years in a row. They’re mentally fragile.

Speaking of mentally fragile, the final 25 points go to the kickers. It baffles me that they can’t find someone to consistently be able to kick extra points. It’s literally the easiest kick in the game and they can’t handle it. They can’t hit make-able field goals and it’s affecting the play calling and putting added pressure on the rest of the team to be perfect. The special teams struggles under Kingsbury have been nothing less than embarrassing and nerve wracking for nearly his entire tenure.

michael: This is bassackwards, but I’d first like to point out who will NOT be receiving any points: the defense. They only allowed three touchdowns and two field goal attempts (one missed). Ten points came from the Tech offense fumbling the ball at their own 34 & 25. Not only that, but they held Iowa State scoreless for the entire second half and grabbed an interception that lead to one of only two Tech touchdowns.

25 points goes to Kingsbury and his insistence on “sticking with the run”, as the announcer said over-and-over, yet only coming up with 3 yards per carry while ISU dropped back 8 for much of the game. There were hardly any passes downfield in the first half, and most of the runs were getting stuffed at the LOS, especially those sweeps that only seem to work 1 out of 10 times (or against Kansas).

25 more points goes to Kingsbury for kicking issues. In the second quarter on 4th & 5 after coming out with the offense on fourth down, he took a timeout, trotted the kicker out there, and he missed. It was not a surprise. Like Spencer said earlier, the kicking situation is on him. Robinson shares some blame in this as he is the special teams coach. It affected the game later on when Tech was forced to go for it on the 9 yard line. A made field goal there would have cut it to a one possession game (24-16). Including the other misses, that score could’ve been 24-20. This field goal/PAT situation is ridiculous. It was a huge factor in the WVU loss. It wasn’t as much of a factor on Saturday as it was in Morgantown, but damn, ya gotta make those.

20 points to the kickers, directly. A sarcastic ring of cheers from your fans when you make a PAT is not a good sign.

30 points to the offense for only putting together one decent drive the entire game in the third quarter.

I would like to point out that criticizing Kingsbury does not mean that I’m ready for him to be gone. I will now hang up and listen.