My apologies for the delay, I did not get to watch or listen to the game. Had other commitments and I just got finished watching it on LHN. Goddamnit, if you guys thought I was an angry ******* when I announced the modifications for the grades during pre-season... Last week it was coverage scheme, this week it was tackling...and coverage scheme...and run fits...and above all, pressure on the QB and lack thereof. Absolutely pathetic effort defensively from the word "go." I've never been more disappointed in a defense in my whole life. This group has surrendered 153 points thus far, 146 of which have been in 3 games which is an average of 49 per contest. I've read on ESPN that apparently Charlie has been informed that if this doesn't change, the defensive staff is gone if he's interested in keeping his job. Look I know there's gonna be at least one person who listened to an incoherent interview of Buddy Ryan or played some ****** video game back in the day, which gives them an imaginary football diploma, who's gonna rant and rave about how Texas lost because of the offense. To quote Chris Rock, "please, cut the fuckin' ****." Like the last game, the offensive performance was adequate enough to win the game (though not as much as in the Cal game), and the defense gave up 5 TD's in the first half (8 possessions total, meaning they scored TD's 63% of the time). Under those conditions, one does not get to argue "oh wah wah wah, the offense is going too fast and wah wah wah it's making the defense tiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrred wah wah wah." One especially does not get to argue that considering that the defense was pitching a 0/20 on this grade sheet until they hit the 5th 3-and-out with two minutes to go and the outcome of the game already decided. That's called "stat padding." The issue with the missed tackles, no pass rush, bad coverage and missed run fits were happening with spectacular frequency even before the offense took the field in the 1st half, so please spare us the pious excuses. This is not the Mack Brown era and no serious person is even going to give pause to someone if they go all Mack-Brown-2010 (when he claimed that the defense had to secure 3 turnovers for them to "have a chance to win"). Just because the defense sucks does not mean we need to accept it and then, in turn, demand that the offense make superhuman efforts every week to "have a chance to win." This isn't Donald Trump's campaign where you just accept that he's an ignorant buffoon and that it's ok if he lies every 5 seconds. When the defense plays like this, the offense does not bear the brunt of responsibility, and one would be dead *** wrong to think they're gonna stand and trade with anyone on that point. Moving on, where as apparently the decree was made that the defense had better get its **** together immediately or else the defensive staff is gone, that needs to happen with the special teams immediately. Texas is averaging a blocked extra point per game. That's fuckin ********, and that needs to change immediately. By title, I see that the man responsible for said fuckin ******** is Jeff Traylor. I'm so ******* mad right now that I'm ending with that.
100% agree. The focus needs to be on special teams and defense. Could the offense be better? Sure, but I think our first year coordinator and freshman QB probably get better. I cannot say I have seen anything to make me feel defense or special teams are getting any better or will get better. If defense and special teams do not get better, it does not matter what the offense does.
Yep, that was surreal, seeing time after time extra points being blocked. That may have been more embarrassing than anything that happened to any power five conference team so far this season.
Great post Slugga!! Been a horn fan since 1960...we've had our share of bad coaching since DKR left. But, I now conclude CS is the worst....yea, even worse that Johnny Mac!! Love the the Trump analogy....Trump only wishes he'll see as much "red" on Election Day!!
there were so many weak plays by the D that it overshadowed any of the good plays they, mostly the front line, made. All I can really remember of the game is missed tackles and OSU players running fee into the endzone. Still have a headache from watching that.
I have to admit that I would never have guessed we even hit 17 check marks on the metrics...I was actually anticipating a chart that was in record-low single-digit territory.
well, have to consider that the O is going to reach double digits pretty much in every game so single digits is not likely to happen. Can't say I was surprised to see a "1" on the D side. I was surprised to see that ST got as high as a "5".
HPS - I noticed you have a "Field all fieldable punts" category for Special Teams. I suggest a new category of "Catching punt inside 10 yard line". We did that at least once yesterday. What ever happened to standing on the 10 then if you have to back up, you let the punt go. I've got to think a ST coach would have mentioned that somewhere along the way (making the assumption said ST coach knows to do this in the first place).
I agree that we are not well coached on ST. I understand that we are hoping for explosive plays from our speed and athleticism, but I think it is unreasonable to expect to "bust one" from six yards deep.
Although the ST is about as pathetic as they can be I don't agree with this. That punt woulda been downed on the 1 or 2 had he let it go. I know I saw at least 2 returners in NFL games today fair catch punts inside the 10 for the same reason. The 7 is a while lot better than the 1 and a safety. HPS, you need to make more mods to the ST section if this team can get a credit for half the criteria. The ST score should be a -100.
The Mack-Diaz and Charlie-Bedford situations are pretty similar. Mack should have booted Diaz after 2012 and Charlie should have booted Bedford after 2015. Both might have been job saving moves. The only difference is, Mack had already booted Diaz after game 2 in 2013 and brought in Robinson who improved the defense but it was not enough. Strong still has Bedford on the sidelines going into game 5 ignoring whatever Strong is telling him over the headphones.
That depends on what direction he'd want to go. If he's committed to this soft zone ********, it doesn't matter if it's Bedford or not. Sure, they might improve on tackling but that's still only part of the problem (albeit the biggest part). If he looks to a whole different direction like he did with the offense, yes I do, provided of course he looks in the right direction (I'd personally piss on him if Carl Reese weaseled his outdated *** back to Austin).
Right or wrong, the perception was that the offense was the weak link of the team. To a large extent it was, but the defense wasn't much better. You don't go 4-8 without a combined suck *** effort from both sides of the ball. Yeah the defense was bad, but anyone with a functioning gray cell who looks at Texas' record and sees a 24-0 loss to Iowa State, they'd understand any pitchforks and torches marching towards the OC's lawn. Basically what I'm saying is that as bad as that defense was, it was far outshined in its suckitude by the offense.
I absolutely agree and posted about it constantly from the day the curtain was pulled back and Watson was named playcaller. However, as much as I, the fans and Strong liked Bedford, Strong should have been able to see how well our defense was doing and made the necessary change to fix both sides of the ball, not to mention special teams.
