Unsolicited Commentary — Special OU/Texas Edition

So as some of you know, I didn’t actually watch the game live. I was playing golf at one of the 345 golf courses in North Scottsdale, Arizona with my father-in-law, NU/ASU lovin’ brother-in-law, and this guy named Truey who was a lot lot lot better at golf than I was. It was a beautiful course. Anyone who has ever played golf in Arizona will attest to this statement — you damn well better keep the ball on or near the fairway, or its going to be a long day. My golf game translated: It was a long day.

I know most of you are tired of hearing about how bad we suck from pundits and fellow daywalking Sooner fans. Here is my take:

We dominated the 1st half, especially prior to the Shipley return. Texas had three big plays in the 1st half that led to 17 points — the aforementioned kick off return and two catches by Cosby when Brian Jackson had great coverage (too good in the 1st instance).

Gerald McCoy was the best player on the field the first 30 minutes. That includes Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy he was doubled nearly every play, and wrecked havoc in the Texas backfield. The defense was flying around the ball. Every time a Texas player caught a pass, they were hammered to the ground. We were the much better team in the 1st half, yet were only up by 1.

Why? Penalties, a bad call, and mistake-free football by Texas. Too many stupid ass penalties by the Sooners. Reminded me of OU from last year. And the 1st of three bad calls prevented a 3rd and long on Texas’ last drive of the half, where they kicked a field goal. Finally, Texas made no mistakes. One or two penalties. No turnovers. No missed tackles. They have one busted coverage, but that was most to the play call from Wilson than it was Texas’ bad defense.

The second half … and the loss of Ryan Reynolds.

At the time Ryan Reynolds when out (it looked like a UT Olineman drove his knee into RR’s knee inadvertently) at a 11:48 mark in the 3rd, Texas had -5 yards rushing and 171 yards passing. Obviously, that loss was huge. Not only has RR been the 3rd best defensive player on the team this year, he is the defense’s quarterback. Brandon Crow made no plays when he was inserted. He was burned by Shipley on that 40+ yard pass play in the 4th. He spent most of his afternoon pancaked by UT lineman.

Just imagine what would have happened had Bradford been knocked out and someone with Keith Nichol’s experience would have been forced to play. Same result, I imagine.

But despite the loss of RR, we continued to get good pressure on Colt with the front four, Texas’ second drive. When we didn’t get pressure, it was due to the Longhorns’ dink and dunk pass game. 3 yards here, 5 yards there. When pressured, Colt would scramble and make great decisions, be it run the ball or dump off passes to running backs and receivers.

On offense, we moved the ball. People have lambasted our offensive line. Their pass blocking was excellent. Sam had all day to throw on damn near every drop-back. Even with blitzes, the line more than held their own throughout the game. I think criticism of the line is misplaced.

The fakes … I know most fans think we should have gone for it at the 6:40 mark down by 3 near mid-field. Completely disagree. Even if Texas gets a couple of 1st downs, we have plenty of time to get the ball back and score. One huge play killed us. We got the ball back twice again before the end of the game even with the big play. Coach made the right decision.

The best team did not win. The team that played the best won. Oklahoma had 2 traditional turnovers and 3 turnover on downs. We had 10 penalties, 2 which led directly to Texas field goals.

Texas? No turnovers. No mistakes on offense. No dropped passes. No bad reads by Colt. Excellent tackling. Superior linebacker play. The recipe for beating a team better than you? Play mistake-free and force turnovers. That is how Texas beat Oklahoma.

Problems

Middle Linebacker. We need to get Robinson or Box on the field. Hell, anyone but Crow. He was awful in coverage and made no plays against the running game. He was good at getting blocked. Maybe move Lewis to the middle and put Box at weakside backer. Or put Robinson in the middle. Or Box. All those guys have talent. One of them has the brain power and understanding to run this defense.

Special Teams. Aside from the one kickoff return, our coverage really wasn’t that bad. However, looking at special teams as a whole? Terrible. Absolutely no excuse. Find some better players and get a special teams coach.

Running Game. Even against UT, we ran the ball fairly well out of the I-formation. OUr shotgun running game? Not. Good. Wilson needs to figure out a a way to run the hurry up with Murray/Brown, Eldridge/Clapp, Gresham and 2 wideouts. Get more guys our there who can block and create some running lanes. Not all the time, but we need to give that look.

Prediction

This is still the best team in college football. Who is better? Texas? Maybe. LSU? No. Alabama? We’ll see. MU? Heh. OSU? No. Tech? No. Penn St.? They are in the Big 10. So no.

We win the rest of our games and play in the NC game. And win.