Texas is #1 during the regular season for the first time since before the dark times of 1984 to 1997. There has been an avalanche of national media coverage praising the Longhorns making it easy to lose Bill in Sinton's requisite focusness. Texas is playing a good Missouri team with a chip on its shoulder and a record of losses to #1 teams which is statistically anomalous. This season's other #1 teams didn't fare too well. Taken together, these factors could spell upset. Some folks seem pretty confident of a big win tomorrow. I figured discussion of a more cautious view might be in order.
What's "statistically anomalous" about a traditionally mediocre program getting beat up by #1 ranked teams?
I don't know, I sort of like this line of thinking from some of the media types in a way. Let all the talking heads go on and on the possibility of a Mizzou upset. I want our guys to stay hungry, and if they feel a little disrespected by all this talk, then all the better. Then again, it's just talk. That's why they play the game on Saturday.
The assumption being that Texas played out of its mind last week. Personally I didn't see them do anything they hadn't been doing all season long - and that includes a couple of busted assignments on defense. So it's not like they played the "perfect game."
Agreed. It looked very similar to the games so far except against a team that had the athletes to make the D pay more for mistakes and to make the O work harder for points. I think one big difference in the two games is that Bradford is damned near unflappable and Daniel is very flappable. Another is that MU's defense doesn't, IMO, compare favorably overall to OU's. Texas needs to limit mistakes more so than play out of their minds to win on Saturday.
Mizzou has some good athletes on defense and their line will be a good challenge for our offensive line. I just don't think our recievers match up well with their secondary. Quan, Ship, and Kirkendoll are burners and Mizzou has no one that will be able to keep up. I want to see a bunch of double moves and misdirection at the line to get some seperation...I'm thinking there are going to be A LOT of big plays tomorrow.
While the destination is the ultimate goal, it's all about the journey. Caution takes all the fun out of it. Maintaining focusness is all that matters.
I plan to get up drunk and early Saturday morning and after 3 hours on the road and 1 in the car, arrive at DKR to watch a damn good game. Horns win at home.
I think there's a statistic that's pretty important here. Mack's record in games following the OU game is 10-0. Of course, some of those games are following a loss to OU and some are following a win over OU, but the constant factor in my opinion is that Mack somehow can get his players to put the OU game behind them and focus on their next opponent. Especially with Major and Muschamp on the staff now, I'm sure that the players have not been allowed to gloat this week and will be focused tomorrow night. I think Mizzou ought to call 911 right now Texas 44-21
