Not what I wanted tonight, but if you’d told me we’d have one loss in conference play at this point before the season, I’d have laughed. Let’s see how we do from here.
It’s not the loss, it’s the way we lost. Not prepared, especially for a hyped up team. And just continually shooting yourself in the foot with stupid mental mistakes by the players and coaches. The officials made bad calls and non calls but the Horns, if playing disciplined and smart football still could have won. This team doesn’t play that way and still have a superior ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Naw, the boys didn’t “snatch defeat”, they just haven’t figured out how to play on a high. No kid on this team knows how to deal with success, and that’s an important factor in winning. I’m still ok.
To hell with that. If I’d offered a guarantee of 10-2 for $100 in the pre-season, I’d retire after the season and I’m a 40yo state employee.
One play or call seemed to separate a loss from a victory, and there seemed to be a lot of those “one plays” in this game.
We needed to play better defense. That was disappointing. I was in a poker tournament so couldn't watch the entire game. We are 6-2. We can still win the conference. We were not going to be in the playoffs this year. Plenty of football left. Let's see how they rebound at home against WVU.
I said from the beginning that this team isn't there yet, too many areas that still need to be developed. It's coming together, and this year was a little bit of fool's gold with wins over some teams that turned out to not be that good. There is still some areas where talent needs to come up and take center stage. We have to get better on both lines. We have to get better consistent play from the dbacks. Our special teams HAVE to get better - right now our return game is 95 percent liability. I'm trying to remember that this year is the bridge year for what I think we're doing to be next year. But it's disappointing that we've missed chances that we were good enough to take advantage of. I really like what I'm seeing from Sam. He just keeps getting better, and is starting to really make some great plays consistently. Still seems like there's that occasional brain-fart play that just kills our offense, and we still can't just run the ball when we know we need to run the ball.
Our inept punt return game finally did us in. I can't believe the coaches haven't addressed that. Also our defense was so weak tonight. I wouldn't return a punt the rest of the season. Once several of our players were disciplined the result was practically set in stone. Then the penalty on opening kickoff set the tone. I watched their first drive and knew the defense was going to be torched.
So would I have. But also, before the season, I didn't realize that TCU, KSU, and OSU would all look mediocre. It's possible that we've got 3 of the 4 toughest conference games still to come.
We could very well win out, but we could also lose 2 or 3 more games this year. I had hope last night would be our night to separate from our past but it wasnt to be. I was most disappointed how unprepared our defense was for this game. Quite frankly they sucked a$$ and I went to bed at halftime knowing this would be a loss.
IF we were well-coached, we would not have 2 losses.....the penalties, the penalties, THE PENALTIES!!! THE FRICK'N BONEHEADED.....catch the punt on the 10 yard line and and run backwards.....THAT IS COACHING!!! "IF you are standing on the 10, let the ball roll into the endzone….DO NOT CATCH and try and be a hero....DO NOT CATCH!!! THAT ONE THING COST US THE GAME!!!
Jones ran backwards at least 10-12 yards to catch that punt. He should have bailed to the sideline to get out of the way. He had a full two seconds to realize this. Coaching him to make a better decision in this situation would not be hard. Who coaches special teams? He needs to get reamed out along with Jones. One special teams meeting and some drills in practice ought to be able to keep this from happening. We were positioned to win this game when Brandon Jones decided to take matters into his own hands.
Remember, we were down by 3 and 5 minutes left. We went three and out from our two and gave OSU the ball at our 38 after our punt the series after this punt return me and TexnSeattle are ranting about. Brandon Jones and ST Coach gave this W to OSU. Brandon is a fine young man and a great player, I’m more pissed at the lack of preparation.
We should have RUN from the 2 YL on 1st down. Good grief. The conference's (2nd?) worse run defense and we try to throw. woops ... hurried pass because there's no where to go ... 2/10. Now we'll try to run from standing flat footed in our end zone. 3/8 Now we HAVE to throw and we're all of 2 yards farther from the ultimate defender (back of the end zone) than we were. Did I mention OkSt's weak run defense? Down by 3, almost 6 minutes remaining and 2 or 3 TO's remaining. Didn't need to go airball ... but it's in the DNA, I suppose. We simply didn't arrive at Pickens to play. That's the bottom line. Made a valiant effort late, but my goodness.
We were down 31-14 at halftime. While a brain fart of a play I don't think it was the only reason we lost. Shouldn't have been in such a dire situation to begin with.
OSu may have the worst run defense in the B12, maybe in the country, but I tell you when they play us (or we play whomever with the worst ever statistics) it NEVER matters. We always seem to turn them into a top 10 team. Been that way for yeeeears.
That first quarter was awful, they were lucky not to be down 28-7, the fact that team didn't pack it in and quit is encouraging. If you had told me in August this team would be 6-2 through first 8 I would have taken it without a moment's pause. Remember that this was only their second true road game of year since Maryland was at FedEx in DC so this team is not road tough. They were blindsided early and the absolute stupidity of Boyd, Davis and Humphrey in getting suspended for various foolish infractions was devastating because OSU picked on Boyce and Cook right from outset. I am still relatively positive about team and if they can beat WVU they can still get to Big XII title game so they have everything on front of them still. They were never making the playoff so getting that out of the conversation is actually a good thing in my mind. The biggest problem with this team is they make so many mental errors and that is disturbing. One thing that just drives me up a wall with this team is they had yet another freaking delay of game after a kickoff/punt, that has to be about six or seven this year, one is terrible, two is unacceptable the number they have is beyond anything quantifiable.
7-5 to 8-4 is much more likely ... hell I wouldn't say it's impossible to lose to Kansas if we go into that game 6-5.
FWHORN, I'm in total agreement with you. This is the second season of the Herman era, and it was destined to be a building year. I would still be very happy with 9-3, a decent Bowl game (and a win), and a great recruiting outcome. Anything beyond that is gravy.
The players and coaches by now should know that every game will be a dogfight. They all bought into the hype and had another let down. We are good but not good enough to just show up. Just don't get how the same mistakes keep happening.
Yup, the 4 games left will ALL be dogfights. Even KU is playing well and can win if they play a lacksidacile Texas team. TH better prepare the team very well every week and errrbody better show up to play 4 quarters. Just like Okie Lite game - Horns will get everyone's A game.
Bringing the second half kickoff out of the end zone was only one of the things that almost exploded a major blood vessel in my brain.
