SMU Can Avoid Overconfidence by Simply Finishing
DALLAS — Everyone knows East Carolina isn't having a great start to the season heading into matchup with SMU on Thursday night. Rhett Lashlee has spent most of this week preparing for it by stressing the finish, which is just a polite way of talking about avoiding getting too relaxed as a byproduct of overconfidence.
East Carolina, at 1-4 on the year, is clearly having issues, but that's not the Mustangs' problem. They are playing for an AAC title, which means staying focused to avoid road stumbles. Instead of looking at a poor record and assuming an easy victory, Lashlee needs his players locked in on execution and taking advantage of the Pirates' defencies.
"We have to develop a finishing mentality overall," Lashlee said this week. "Whether it be getting off the field in the second half as a defense, whether it be finishing drives as an offense, whether it be finishing games as a team. If we want to put ourselves in position week-in, week-out to have a chance to win, most conference games are close, most conference games come down to one or two scores, come down to the fourth quarter."
Against Oklahoma and TCU on the road that hasn't worked out. The Ponies couldn't finish what they started and it cost them. Lashlee knows his staff has continue to stress that and not allow his players get overconfident. They haven't shown they are good enough to take their foot off the gas.
"That's something we're going to have to do these next two months," Lashlee said.
After Charlotte turned an impending blowout into a much closer game late, SMU came right back and scored. That put the finishing touches on an conference opening road win. It's not just the offense keeping the throttle on the floor. The defense has to match intensity also.
"Just third-down defense and efficiency, when we get them into those critical situations to get off the field," defensive coordinator Scott Symone said. "The game has changed to where just the amount of fourth down attempts, which I think is a term of respect as far as how many teams go, attempted on fourth down against us just knowing that we have an explosive offense."
The game with the Pirates kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Central time on ESPN. You can hear the game on KLIF-AM 570 in the Dallas area.
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