Offensively: Look, too many mistakes and stalled drives. There were obviously some good moments, yes, but we still have to keep in mind what qualifies for a good offense, let alone an elite one. OU's defense is a steaming pile of **** and they're going to be manhandled by Baylor, just like they did by TCU last week. With a defense as ****** as theirs (41st in scoring and 65th in yardage with virtual guarantees of being even worse as the season progresses), Texas should have been able to score more. They certainly should have been able to finish those two drives where Rose kicked FG's with TD's instead. And yes, there was only one turnover but it was one of the most pivotal plays of the game. They had already scored on a kick return. You cannot expect to win the TX-OU game while allowing 2 return TD's. The last time a team had 2 return TD's in the TX-OU game was actually last year when Texas returned a pick and a punt for 6, and of course Texas won comfortably. By the way, I know there are going to be some posters complaining about being too hard on the offense, but here's the deal: this grading system isn't about being better than what you've been. It's about living up to expectations. This game was doubtlessly the offense's best effort, but it's still not enough. Defensively: I absolutely love this unit. The scoreboard says 31, but the reality for them says 17 and I'm fine with that. Allowing 17 to a perennial offensive power in the Big 12 is an accomplishment in itself, let alone in this game. Knight was confused on a lot of passes he didn't throw and most of his completions were simply on pre-snap reads against a fatigued defense. It's unfortunate that Strong has such a wrongheaded approach to his offense because we very well could be sitting here 5-1 (I'm conceding BYU) with impressive wins against ranked teams. They have given up only 20 against UCLA, 21 against Baylor, and 17 against those *************. In today's game, those are satisfactory performances. Special Teams: 3 plays stuck out to me. The first was giving up that damned KO return for a TD. That ball was kicked into the wind, landed on the 9 and hung up in the air for at least 5 seconds. Absolutely no excuse for that, and certainly no excuse for Adrian Colbert to seemingly fall down and watch Ross whiz by him. The second was Jaxon Shipley misjudging that punt so badly that even after calling for a fair catch in a standing position, he suddenly has to backpedal and let the ball go over his head for an extra 15 yards. The last was again Colbert making the dumbest hit I've ever seen. I was glad to see Strong get in his grill about that. Those things simply cannot happen. The KO return and that penalty alone led to 10 Oklahoma points. Overall: What we saw yesterday was a train race on parallel tracks. One was a Silver Bullet, the other was a patchwork Little Engine that Could. The Silver Bullet won, but it was a photo finish and its admirers were more relieved than joyous in victory. Conversely, I was absolutely floored by the scene of virtually all Texas fans staying til the end, belting out the Eyes of Texas and "OU Sucks" even after a loss. In my 23 consecutive trips to the TX-OU game, I've never seen that. I've never seen that because in all those losses, none of them fit the image of a team looking like it was going to be embarrassed and then turning it around to almost pulling off a huge 4th quarter rally. The offense still has its issues to work out on a philosophical level, but this team has teeth, folks.
Thanks HP, I agree with most of your sentiment. I am though getting a bit tired of hearing about our tired defense, not from you but I hear it at some point during every game. Yesterday OU only had the ball for 22 of 60 minutes while our offense controlled the game. The D should have been fresh as a spring daisy till the end especially with the high level of focus on strength and conditioning since CS arrived.
I believe OU ran only 14 plays in the first half. Our D in the 3rd quarter couldn't have been fatigued yet. Since all 4 games against quality opposition have resulted in the team playing worse coming out of halftime, on both offense and defense, I think something other than being tired is the reason.
It was a beautiful site to stand in the north end zone and see and hear the longhorn crowd singing the Eyes, shouting Texas fight, and cheering for what is now a tough team that is improving by the minute. We may have been louder than the Sooner crowd cheering their winning team.
What Texanne said.. We should have won. The Colbert tag the punt returner 3 points The Doyle bad snap gifted 4 points JUST those two boo boos alone were the margin of victory.
