Of course, I am over the moon that we won, but it seems surreal because it looked like a different team from the one that lost to TCU. Mature, focused, avoiding the stupid mistakes, well-prepared, enthusiastic, with more than competent play from the offensive line and great defensive schemes. What happened in the short space of a week?
After the game, after Craig Way and others were finished with their post-game stuff, Erin Hogan and others came on The Horn (KOKE, other apps) and talked about the game. They kept pointing out the freshmen that played. In particular Holton Hill playing the whole game and never challenged. That part of the field taken away from Baker Mayfield. Said the same thing about the other corner, and that would have been I think Davis. Would that be correct? I wish I had a sheet of the starters for the game, or was able to keep up with it throughout the game. Believe they elaborated on 7 true freshman starting and playing most of the game, That would be 4 on defense and 3 on offense. I would say the swarming of Mayfield was due to coverage that was not able to be imposed on a team like TCU. That would be supported by better pass rush and better wrap-up tackling. Only answer I can come up with on this question is that by this game, the defensive coaches got players in who can make plays and played them most of the game, and by the sixth game they were able to finally put it together, know where to be on the field and how to play at game speed. Also, the jr and sr players played as hard as they can, as did the other classes, and they finally wielded together as a unit. Otherwise I'm as baffled as anyone.
If you have seen the progress being made in the losses and stop listening to the naysayers, it would not have been baffling. Also, we are breaking in a new QB and OC. Too bad we didn't start in the Fall, but that is water under the bridge.
The 2 teams that have killed us both have mobile QBs. In fact very very mobile QBs. Mayfield folds under pressure. Saw it all game. He either ducks and takes the sack, or tucks it and runs. He's a tough kid, but he sure took a lot of hits. Tech, KState, WV all have QBs I think we can get pressure on. Gives me some hope in those games. We did pretty well against OSU with the same type of QB.
That KState QB I saw last night is a beast. We will need to bring the same level of focusness and intensityness as we did yesterday to win.
Although admittedly I had all but given up, based on what we observed yesterday, logic suggests that it was just a matter of time. Now again, I was a massive skeptic but, we all saw what we saw yesterday. Which make me think that, if not for a freakish missed PAT against Cal and a biased officiating crew versus OSU, by all rights we are looking at a 4-2 team. That, after an enormous change was made less than 48 hours after ND, and in consideration of the unprecedented emphasis on youth. While we need validation (which, hopefully will come in two weeks), there is reason to believe that the team may be coming together. They certainly did in a big way, in Big D.
Simplify the scheme, run the ball and play aggressive physical defense, if your going to go down go down swinging. That is what I saw.
OU may very well be OVER-RATED CLAP CLAP CLAPCLAPCLAP, but still, to come out with that fire and pound them on both sides of the ball was impressive.
you can talk about fire and motivation and what not, but what i saw this game was that OU got badly outschemed. norvell coached his *** off...the play calling (aside from a puzzling few minutes in the fourth where he asked heard to air it out) was really really solid and took advantage of the fact that the only defensive threat OU had was at DE. defensively charlie and vance confused the hell out of baker mayfield with all sorts of exotic blitzes. baker never knew where duke thomas was coming from and it had him hearing footsteps. if you're getting pressure from the front four and bringing blitzes there's no way a first year starter at QB survives. i heard later in a press conference that OU hadnt 1) expected heard to run the ball as much as he did and 2) hadnt prepared at all for swoopes to run it in short yardage. both of those things seem absolutely ridiculous to me. but like i said...you can talk intangibles all day long, but the coaches schemed their asses off and players executed to their abilities. good win for you guys. i'm happy for charlie.
Great Win!!! Let's take a day or two off, heal. Then start preparing for KState. I truly believe that OU was highly over rated this season. Less experience than us on that O-Line, no scary WR's and on defense what besides Striker do they have to stop the run?
THANK YOU for saying that! The naysayers just don't want to accept what you have said. This team is getting better with the fundamentals of the game and the Sooners were outcoached by Texas on both sides of the ball. These young guys tackled better, covered better and the line play made great progress. They will lose again, but they will also be a better team yet at the end of the year. They need positive fans, not the warm weather variety.
#2 is supported by Stoops & Stoops having to TWICE take a timeout just because Swoopes came into the game on 3rd & short.
When I read things like that, it makes me wonder if Bob has gotten so confident against Texas that he no longer bothers to scout them. This is the third year in a row where it just doesn't seem like they came with a plan. To answer the initial question, I think some guys adjusted their attitudes a little bit this week and put in more work. They were clearly more focused, they didn't make mental mistakes, they played like they knew what they were supposed to be doing. Now, let's be real - they didn't necessarily play that well in some areas. But they played well enough, and they didn't put themselves in bad situations, and that will help you win a lot of games. This quote from MJ said a lot to me, and was the most positive thing I read out of the whole weekend: "“We (freshman class) came here to play for him (Strong),” Jefferson said. “Those old guys, I don’t know what happened, but they must of had a talk behind our backs or something. They were amped up. They were telling me what to do. I was having fun with that.” If that's true, then that's huge.
This one is supposed to be showing how the left side of the OL does well with their initial assignments, but none of them make it to the second level to take out the LBs But I found it hard not to watch Vahe destroying his man over and over
Man, people complaining about J gray need to watch that video a few dozen times. When your center's playing matador like that it's kind of tough to get a lot of traction...
You can say that again! And Man is he going to be fun to watch for at least the next two years! Anyone know how his cousin is doing at LSU, the one that got away?
I have watched him in a number of games so far this season - this is common for him to stay after his guy until he pancakes him to the ground! Just NASTY and I love it.
