Lost amongst all the what ifs is this simple question. Is OU better now than they were when they played Texas? I believe the answer is NO. I truly believe that losing Reynolds really hurt their defense. Their offense is the same. Their offense is REALLY good, but their Defense has given up the following totals since the RRS. Kansas 31 KU avg 34.5 ppg at Kansas State 35 KSU avg 35.3 ppg Nebraska 28 NU avg 33.8 ppg at Texas A&M 28 ATM avg 27 ppg Before the RRS (and Before Reynolds injury) Chattanooga 57-2 avg. 12.5 ppg Cincinnati 52-26 avg. 26 ppg @ Washington 55-14 avg. 14.7 ppg TCU 35-10 avg. 34 ppg @ Baylor 49-17 avg. 26.7 ppg I would say that OU has played slightly better teams since TX than they did before TX but I think the stats still show that their Def. was better with Reynolds. Why is this all important? Well Reece Davis said that he thinks when it comes down to Ties and who goes to CCG and who doesn't, you have to look at not only head to head but who is better now than they were before. I think it's hard to argue that OU is better now than they were before due to their defense giving up lots of point to not so good teams. The bad news is that this bodes well for TTU going into Norman. I don't think OU can stop Tech. They better hope to outscore them. We'll see what happens. But for the sake of the OU/Texas argument, nothing has changed since October. Texas was the better team then and is the better team now. OU is still a top 5 team but they are not better than they were in October.
I wouldn't put a lot into that points per game metric. aggy and Nebraska got points when the games were already WAY out of reach, and I think there is a natural tendency to take one's foot off the gas once the lead is large. One thing OU does do better now, and which bodes well for them against Tech, is run the ball. They got all finesse-y against us and mostly forgot to try, but since then both Chris Brown and Demarco Murray have been really productive. I seriously doubt Tech holds them to 80 yards rushing. Certainly OU's defense is not great. Never have been the same since Mike's departure. I would not be frightened if I were the opponent facing them.
I think OU has looked like a steamroller because there is a psychological edge against the bottom teams. They're up 21-0 on aggie before the game even starts because aggie knows they have no chance, and they play scared and lay down right out of the gate. I'm sitting there watching OU against Nebraska and against aggie, and who couldn't be impressed the way they just plow through them? But as I'm watching, I'm saying to myself "Yeah, that looks really good, but they're not going to be able to do that to us." I really believe that. They'll move the ball, and they'll score some points. But they aren't going to plow through us like we're not even on the field the way they did aggie.
Better, NO. Playing with the knowledge that another loss and all hope of a Big12 Championship, BCS game or National Championship is gone has them playing with a little more fire. MAYBE.
Interesting question. Overall the OU offense is probably better and the defense is definitely worse. That said, we're talking about a home game for OU against Tech. There's a clear psychological advantage to sitting at home waiting for a top-ranked team to come to your town. It has the feel of an ambush. The fanbase completely feeds into it. Tech REALLY had this going for them against Texas, while the UT players were probably a bit spent emotionally, playing thier 4th highly-ranked opponent in 4 weeks. Whether they're better or worse overall than they were in Dallas, OU will have a lot of intangibles going for them next week.
Yes, they are better Recent games, many of those opponent's points were scored late in the game, when things were already decided. They're also playing better teams than Chatanooga They are also, as another poster said, running the ball better.
Just an FYI deal - Kansas scored their final TD w 21 seconds left & Neb scored theirs with 58 seconds left. A & M scored w 6:21 left. Not to mention that UCinn scored theirs on the last play of the game and then converted the 2 point with no time left on the game clock. I believe that only against K-State (FG), Baylor (TD) and Chat (TD) have we scored last. We are not running up scores and adding late TD's. We have given up a lot of junk yards and touchdowns at the end of games. Better? Not sure. We are beginning to get Reynoolds replaced as Austin Box looks more comfortable each game and Frank Alexander looks like a star in the making, but we still miss English & Reynolds. I would rather have 3 man DE rotation facing Tech & O-State - but thats football. Our running games APPEARS to be better, but we will have to see.
Better since the 2nd half vs. Texas. Before that didn't really play anyone other than TCU. There was a carousel at MLB since Reynolds went out but it seems like they have stabilized the position to a better spot than it was when Texas got going during the RRS.
yes Last 3 OU games: a) 28-7 with 3:08 left in the 1st quarter, vs. K-State a) 28-0 with 9:27 left in the 1st quarter, vs. Nebraska. c) 28-0 with 14:27 left in the 2nd quarter, vs. Aggy
The only thing I find amusing about this thread is that OU currently has the #1 ranked defense in the Big XII.
OU is better. Tech won't be as good playing in a hostile environment. Tech would not have beaten the Horns in Austin or at a Nuetral site. OU wins easily.
I would think they are somewhat better. Most teams get better or more comfortable as the season progresses. New players emerge or show up. With the quality of the competition it is just so hard to say however. OU's defense is pretty damn good overall. The line does a good job against the run and gets pressure on the QB most of the time. The secondary doesn't finish what the line starts all too often. They give up to many big plays and they do it fairly often. But for their misgivings they are also a big reason why OU gets up 21-0 or 28-0 early on. They force lots of turnovers. While they are bad in one area they really shine in others. I think the OU offense will be the key to this game. If they continue to play as they have OU should win. If they come out flat like Texas did they are in trouble as Tech will score some points on OU. I haven't decided how good I think Tech's D really is. Texas didn't play it's game most of the game and it makes it hard to tell. I just don't believe OSU is anywhere near as good as everyone thinks so that makes it hard to tell. Techs Defensive schemes are without a doubt better than they have had in the past. They may actually be really good. On paper they certainly pretty darn good to me. I haven't had the heart to watch the entire Texas/Tech game but I am sure I will before Tech arrives in Norman. I do believe the Tech Offense is everything everyone says it is. In fact I think it is probably somewhat better than we have seen. I watched the OSU game in detail and Leach barely mixed it up. He just dared them to stop the baby step plays and they couldn't. He kicked their *** with page 1 of the playbook. You gotta love that.
This match is not between sooners and pirates. It's between Leach and Stoops. Stoops is a better coach than Leach. Stoops has home field. Stoops has better talent. Stoops has been there done that. Tech's cherry gets popped in Norman.
The o is better in the run game. Stoops got after the ol and that seems to have made a difference. Also Demarco Murray has just started to look like he did before his knee injury. Defensively, they are a lot better than that defense after Ryan Reynolds left the game, but not as good yet as they were with Ryan.
OU isn't better, They give up around 30 a game. If the 3 way tie happens, and OU gets the nod to go to the Big 12 championship. It would be the worst sports day of my life and likely many others, because it's obvious OU doesn't deserve it over Texas. OU, now go beat Tech because you have a BCS at large bowl berth on the line.
Interesting stats thrown out here. In conference games tech is number 1 in total D and OU is 6th. This is without having played either Tech or OSU while Tech has played both UT and OSU/ TOTAL DEFENSE G Rush Pass Plys Yards Avg TD Yds/G --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Texas Tech.......... 6 674 1456 394 2130 5.4 18 355.0 2. Texas............... 6 650 1666 387 2316 6.0 20 386.0 3. Missouri............ 6 856 1506 441 2362 5.4 21 393.7 4. Nebraska............ 6 970 1411 352 2381 6.8 28 396.8 5. Colorado............ 6 903 1486 424 2389 5.6 23 398.2 6. Oklahoma............ 6 783 1661 436 2444 5.6 22 407.3 7. Oklahoma State...... 6 638 1917 431 2555 5.9 22 425.8 8. Kansas.............. 6 785 1893 464 2678 5.8 30 446.3 9. Baylor.............. 6 1025 1764 469 2789 5.9 25 464.8 10.Texas A&M........... 6 1236 1794 448 3030 6.8 30 505.0 11.Kansas State........ 6 1282 1749 468 3031 6.5 33 505.2 12.Iowa State.......... 6 1023 2009 431 3032 7.0 33 505.3
There are four different OU teams - much like the seasons. The team that was taking names and kicking arse in the Cotton Bowl (except for kick off returns) and had UT with negative rushing yards, the post-Ryan Reynolds injury team that had a hole in it the size of fat bastard, the current team that is improving on the defensive side of the ball and playing pretty good defense, and the team that will be the OU team in the 2nd half of the OSU game after Austin Box has had all of this time to get his head caught up with his body. He's improved vastly in the last two weeks and I expect that trend to continue. I'm unclear on how a UT-OU-TTech tie (not a given as OU has two tough games left) is automatically giving the nod to UT. IF IT HAPPENS, I'd think OU might have the edge as they've fought back from a significant injury and put together a string of wins that is more impressive than any of the other three. Sometimes losing early is the best prescription to get to the BCS Championship game. I'll, of course, admit to bias on the issue.
