Please indulge me as I add a point that may seem tangential, but to me is direct to the issue.
When a linebacker sets before a play he may read the guard's stance and the fullback's position. Communicating with his teammates he knows that he is responsible to fill a gap - let's call it Gap A. When the ball is snapped he immediately steps into Gap A. However, the ball comes through Gap B, two yards away and he misses the tackle. The folks in the stands (and boy can you hear them) all conclude that the linebacker missed the play. But he didn't; he did his job. It was a different player that missed the play, and he wasn't near the ball.
Another example: When a QB steps back to pass we in the stands are all watching the ball. Of course we are - that's where the play is going to be. The QB looks and looks and then passes long to an open receiver 50 yards downfield with a Cornerback running like mad to catch up with him. People in the stands may conclude (and the loud ones sure do) that the Cornerback missed his coverage. But what if it was the Safety's assignment? The average guy in the stands has no idea. But they pillory the Cornerback anyway.
And just to drive the point home: "That play was stupid" I hear from the stands. Well, there is of course the idea, foreign that it may be to some, that a good decision can have a bad result. Take for example the oft-maligned 3rd down pass play where we need twenty yards and the resultant pass is ten yards with an immediate tackle. Of course the eventual receiver at ten yards may have been the second or third "look" for the QB, and obviously he can run after reception. But you still hear it in the stands - "that play was stupid". Geeze Louise.
So no, I don't buy into simplistic criticism of the Paladins, nor angled questions that have unfounded premises. I enjoy being optimistic.
So how does a team prepare when even the "bad" opposing teams are pretty darn good, and their coaches know what Furman is going to do (more or less), and their desire for victory is every bit as keen as Furman's? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the Finn. And that means possumry, and the resultant mojo.
Didn't think the UFFP would have me back, perhaps. Well, maybe I'm not "the norm". I don't "wear clothes that fit me". I'm not "hygienic" and "pop my white heads with a compass I used in high school".