What makes this one tough

I've made a lot of progress over the last few years. I used to be a "toss my remote at the wall, go sulk in my bedroom for an hour" guy when we lost. But in the past few years, I've matured and gotten perspective, and I can pretty much go on after an hour or so of feeling down. It doesn't ruin my weekend, and it doesn't cause me to go around irritated all the next week.

But this one's different. And I think the reason is that there's a feeling now that this is our ceiling for this year. We are what we are. I said really early on in this season that our o-line was going to keep us from doing much on offense, and that wasn't going to change this year because we simply don't have the people on campus right now (or at least they're not developed yet). But you hope that at least technique will improve, and maybe you'll start to see guys stepping up and making plays.

Instead, we can't run anything outside without running horizontally for 15 yards, because the end rusher is already three yards into our backfield. We can't run a drop-back passing game that doesn't involve the QB running for his life within 2 seconds. Our downhill runner is still dancing around looking for someplace to go on pretty much every play where he doesn't have a hole ready to run through. Our linemen pretty much look incapable of blocking anything that requires them to move in order to do it. Which means screens don't work against anyone with any athletic ability, and if our WRs aren't "feeling it" that day, they're not going to do any blocking, either. That was pretty hit-or-miss today. Maybe that's why we insist on playing a tight end as a wideout, without the obvious advantages of shifting him in and out of that position to block on runs. Because otherwise it just looks like putting someone who's slow and not dynamic as a receiver out on the edge when you have guys who can score TDs on any play sitting on the bench.

Basically, this is what we'll be doing every week - defense playing its guts out (unless it quits on us, which I hope doesn't happen), and offense puttering around without much of anything that it does consistently. There's not a team in the league that I see us scoring more than 30 points on, and frankly 20 is starting to sound optimistic. We're left with Sam dropping back, dodging someone, rolling out to the right and hoping someone comes open within his line of vision. Frankly the offense was better when he just immediately tucked and ran. That's not going to help him grow as a player, and he needs to not give up on plays, but part of me thinks we should just say "Sam, go back, and when the blocking breaks down, just turn it upfield and run."

"Next year" sounds like an excuse, like a cop-out, even though it's also the truth. But it makes me worry - are these guys simply not developing because they weren't that gifted to begin with? Okafor was supposed to be a stud in high school, and he's playing as poorly as I think I've seen a lineman play since I've been paying attention to linemen. Are we going to be able to develop younger players to where they're at least average linemen? Because right about now average is sounding really good. Average puts us at 5-1 this year.

I feel like we're this close to being a seriously good football team, and doomed to sit there on the other side of the river and wonder what it would be like to wade on across.

 

Okafor is still young so there's still hope. But yeah, right now he looks like a bust. Kerstetter hasn't looked that bad and he looks like he might develop into something special. The rest of the young guys we've tried haven't looked good at all.

 

It’s almost like we have made ourselves afraid to win consistently. We have been down for so long that it’s going to take a whole new outlook on how it’s suppose to be, which is being a winner. We are accepting getting close and as long as we’re being competitive while getting close the players are satisfied. I think TH has his work cut out to change that mind frame. We are good enough to win against anyone on our schedule and should have. But we put ourselves in position to win only to have a break down in coverage leaving a TE wide open, or not securing the football, or just catching a pass right in your hands that would end the game. We just need somebody on the field late in the game to lead and make that play to finish.

 

This team has no identity. The defense has generally played well enough to keep us in games, and today was no exception, but the offense was a hot mess today (only 13 first downs). They ran for an average of 1.3 per carry partially due to Sam's sack that led to 3rd and 44 or whatever that was. I have no idea how this is happening. I mean, sure, the Oline is all messed up, but South Alabama (yes, the Jaguars) managed to put up 1.5 yards per carry against OkState. Pitt did better. So did Baylor. Tulsa...The list goes on.

On the bright side, Micheal Dickson had 560 yards of punting today for an average of 50+ per punt. Eleven punts today...

 

Let's not forget that we should be at least 5-2 considering TH's dubious coaching decisions. It's not all the o-lines fault or our young qbs. If we have to keep TH can we at least trade Beck in for someone else.

 

Sure, if you don't think the coaching carousel of the last 6 years has not at least partially affected our offensive efficiency. Let's just go out and get another guy who will change schemes, terminology, and all that good stuff and go right back to square one. Sounds like a brilliant idea!

 

Our D is pretty much playing lights out. Look at all the scores from the other teams that didn't score a whole lot against us and most of them have put up some points (see ou-KSU, OSU-most others, ISU-ou, TT, etc.). We're holding teams to pretty low scores, we just need our offense to catch up to our defense.

 

Understanding Assignments, a lack of discipline and execution are oline issues, and in particular by the tackles. They lack the quickness and strength to pick up and move their man out of the way or maintain contact. I understand these guys are young and are backups at best, but they are killing us. They aren’t able to open holes for the RBs, they can’t sustain a pocket for the QB in pass pro, and the number of drives stalled by false starts, hands to the face, and holding have cost us too many opportunities for points. Each week there are snaps from center that effectively stop the drive’s momentum and we punt.

There are some individuals putting out the effort on a play by play basis, but consistent play of the unit as a whole is subpar as in deserving a grade of D or even F every game. While other areas on offense show promise, the oline is stagnant and regressing each week. Until this area is addressed, our point production by the O is most likely capped at 17-24 points max.

Yesterday we only scored 10 and still had a shot to win in OT. That was due to the effort of our D, NOT the O. Scoring 10 to 20 points per game will not win many games in the Big 12 or any other conference.

By the way, Baylor at home scored 41 against OU, losing by 8 and 36 against WV and lost by only 2 points. Think about that. Against Baylor in Waco we must have a productive offensive scheme and max effort to win. Our D is playing well, but they can’t win it alone. Even though BU is 0-7, they will bring maximum effort every play and beating us would make their season, like we made KUs season last year. My take, right now this game is a “pick it”, and can go either way.

 

Even though BU is 0-7, they will bring maximum effort every play and beating us would make their season, like beating them was a highlight of ours the last few years. Joe, you are right. BU is very dangerous. We need this win simply to give the guys a shot of confidence in themselves, among many other reasons.

 

Everybody this side of Kansas can beat anyone in this league. Welcome to Big 12 parity 2017. Had we won all those close games, would be 6-1, but really not much better than we are now. And perhaps filled with false beliefs of how good we are. If you want to win another ring we need to be crushing these teams, and that is going to take Herman another year or 2.
Don't be surprised if we beat TCU. --

 

What makes this game and the whole season so far so hard to swallow for me is the realization that we are no closer to turning the corner than we were three years ago when Charlie Strong was losing close ones to ou and osu etc

I had convinced myself then we were close. We weren't close then and we still aren't close. We can punch up and make it close game but we still can't seize the day on any sort of consistent basis.

So different from what I came to know as it football. If we were in a close one, it was likely to be a win. Now you can almost count on the game to get pissed away somehow.

 

I don't agree with you at all. If this team was 6-1 They would be better for it and gaining in confidence each week. Instead we're still lowly 3-4 Texas settling for moral victories and unable to string 2 meaningful wins in a row together because we still don't know what winning looks or feels like

 

I seriously doubt we are going to beat TCU. It may be close for awhile but they will pull away. Perhaps the defenses cancel out but their offense is sharper and more in sync with a better o-line.