Offensively: If Greg Davis is the offensive coordinator, Texas is 1-1, Garrett Gilbert played the whole game, and BYU won comfortably. Of course what I just typed is going to cause a hysterical and childish tirade among a certain segment of the HF population, but I’m far beyond the point of caring (just as I am far beyond the point in caring about people who have an obsessive need to be a contrarian for the mere sake of it about this Tom Landry grading thing). Yes, they only scored 17 points; they only gained 289 yards, etc. That’s certainly something to be concerned about. I recall a conversation with a former poster who, when outlining his conception of balance, said “ultimately I do also believe in balance. Not just in run/pass and not just in 21 vs. 10 personnel, but in responsibility. QB dependent offenses are terrific when you have one, but asking one guy to be great 14 games in a row is tough…At some point your QB is going to go 22/40 for 170 and I still want to be able to win that game.” You could run that quote by Bryan Harsin and Major Applewhite and they wouldn’t disagree with a single word of it, which is why they are doing what they’re doing. Gilbert had a horrendous half and was never heard from again. To be partially fair to Gilbert, Texas’ run blocking was rancid in the first half as well. Greg Davis wouldn’t have made such a move. He would have stuck to the original plan and when asked why he did such a stupid thing, he’d say “well they did something we weren’t expecting” or whatever he’d say. Anyways, the Texas offense had precious little contribution from the passing offense (i.e. the 22/40 170 performance in the aforementioned quote) and their young and bright coordinators still wanted to be able to win that game. So they put the ball in the hands of their playmakers in a variety of ways that should have, and did, work and the O ultimately came through. Even great offenses (and this offense is by no means great) are vulnerable to the kind of performance we saw tonight (i.e. Texas vs. Arkansas 1969). But as the old cliché goes, "Old ugly is better than old nothin. " Defensively: Now having said all of what I said about the O, the D clearly won the game. They didn’t look all that great in the first half, but how great can you be when the other team starts possessions on their own 42 and your 37 yard lines? They really only had 2 bad possessions, which of course were the 98-yard TD drive (obviously) and the drive that led to their final FG because of the dumb penalties that extended the drive. They 3-and-outted BYU 5 times, they forced 2 turnovers they held them to even fewer yards than Texas’ offense had, and they only allowed 16 points. Diaz had a great game plan that involved basically removing the BYU TE’s from the passing game and the front got excellent penetration in the run game. I remember a lot of people were fearful that these big bad Cougars were going to run Texas’ DL roughshod (the guys on the radio were in hysterics about it in pregame). They certainly lived up to that hype…by Greg Davis standards, I suppose. What I was also impressed with was Texas’ secondary hustling like mad men in the 4th quarter. That tackle by Adrian Phillips on that quick out was a thing of beauty. Their 4th quarter play is a reflection of the awesomeness that is Bennie Wylie. Special teams: one little kicker prevented a perfect 10/10 by tackling Marquise Goodwin in his first football action since, IIRC, last November 5 yards short of the desired yard line. No mistakes were made, Shipley had a great punt return, Tucker had a solid game, the KO coverage is slowly improving, etc. I have nothing bad to say about this unit except…DON’T GET TACKLED BY A KICKER, MARQUISE!
our special teams are terrible imo. we do have a decent kicker but our kickoff coverage is terrible and our punter is awful. Those 30 yard punts with 2 second hang times are not going to work. keep in mind that this BYU team is awful. I don't hink they could beat anyone in our conference and most of the games would be blowouts. It was a great win but we haved a long way to go, like being able to throw the ball downfield and in a way that make it looks like we didnt draw up the play in the huddle. I havent seen a win this ugly since the great D/Todd Dodge days. But we basically have 2 very green qb's and it will improve. We should beat UCLA because they are terrible too but conference will be ugly if we dont get it together. Our Defense will need to keep us in games for at least the next month.
Thanks for the analysis. I was telling my sons during the game when some of the options being utilized in the first half did not yield any gain to sit tight, that they were to affect the field of play by the defense later in the game. HarsinWhite made me look (to my sons) like the genius THEY are when indeed we passed over the defense that had compressed to stop the options out of that specific formation on the late and critical 3rd down conversion. It is a pleasure to see talent positioned to win. Thanks again for the observations.
Phillips hit on that pass reminded me a hell of a lot of Ross and Huff in that he showed up in a hell of a hurry after the receiver caught it and had bad intentions when he arrived.
To hack a Yogi Berra quote, football is 90% mental, the other half is physical. The first half defense looked basically like last year, when the players just mentally weren't into it because they knew the offense could not produce anything substantial and constantly left the defense in a hole. Second half looked totally different attitude-wise on O and D both. One fed off the other and the qb change seemed to be the catalyst. Feel bad for Gilbert, but that's just the facts. Lots of room for improvement on offense, and that's encouraging. Rough times ahead maybe, but a bright future, and hope to have a full playbook late in the season to send aggy out with a bang. Appreciate the analysis, Slugga.
Thanks for the analysis, slugga. Overall, what did you think of the offensive playcalling? Could you figure out what was coming next? I liked how HarsinWhite set up the Shipley-to-Ash play.
The first half isn't all on Gilbert. The OL was completely ineffective in the first half. Post game interviews of some of the OL guys said they changed up their blocking techniques at the half. This opened up the running game and got the offense moving in the second half which Ash and McCoy were able to exploit. The reason Gilbert was effective in the NC game is he was surrounded by a great team enabling him to make plays. That is no longer consistently the case, and he hasn't shown the exceptional skill to succeed anyway. Few players do, and I'm not sure Ash or McCoy do either. We'll see.
When Gilbert was benched and McCoy/Ash came in there was a real spark on both sides of the ball. The D picked it up and the O looked a lot sharper. Still there is a lot of work to do, and this team is far from championship caliber but last night in the 2nd half, I saw a lot of promise and potential to be a power house once again. Give it time, it is coming. And good writeup on the OP.
Man who taught us how to tackle ! I had hives every time an opponent got a man in space on us last year. This bunch is doin it by the book, breaking down, wrappin up, very little YAC. Hpslug I'm glad you didn't have a stat on missed tackles last year, we would have set an NCAA record. This crew is a breath of fresh air. ince oung
We scored 17 pts in a half. Do that in both halves and this game would have looked great. I think that's a legitimate hope with the changes at QB. I think we'll see more variety out of Ash (both pitching and passing) and more carries for MB. I'm sure we'll have some bad games along the way, but at least I feel we have a legit chance to win some games. With GG neither the fans or the players really believed and that effected everything. You could tell that by the spark when the change was made. Hope allows guys to push that extra bit and you could just feel the hopelessness when GG was in there and we had another 3 and out or TO. I know it sounds silly, but it's true. You gotta have a leader you can believe in and I think the team has finally found him.
Hpslugga - Seen several comments about improved tackling, e.g., ampUT about wrapping up. I remember Muschamp talking about teaching his players never to break down - always keep your feet moving. Curious on your take of Muschamp vs. Diaz on tackling technique and breaking down.
Don't know if you addressed this Slugga but one observation that I had at the game: sometimes the guys on special teams didn't look like they had a lot of speed. On punt returns, I didn't see any guys "fly" to the returner. Is this something to be concerned about or was it that I was just a lil too dehydrated after the tail gating that I missed something?
The only playcalling I questioned was after Goodwin had his 40 yd kick return, the very next play was a end around by Goodwin. Thought he could have used a breather before that end around.
