Why isn't Texas dominating in the 2nd half of games at least offensively. I did not look at UTEP, but Texas is running all over teams and scoring like crazy in the 1st half and when this happens the flood gates usually spill wide open in the second half. However, this is not happening (at least in my mind).
I don't know how the O is doing as well as it is. We start a true freshman at the most important position on the offense. And we start a true freshman at the most important position on the offensive line. We have very good backs, and we have decent wide receivers, but not all conference wide outs. As the second half of the season rolls around I expect our second half stats in games will improve. The game will slow down for Shane, and Gilbert will open the playbook more.
Penalties killed us on the first possessions in the 2nd half against Cal. Last week, we had a 3rd and 3 and ran Swoopes who got 2. I thought we should have gone for it on 4th and 1 and kept it moving. That is one difference in Briles and Charlie. Briles didn't care where the ball was on the field. If they overload the box, we're going to have to throw some on 1st down. Also, I can't remember one time going deep last week. I know they were playing off most of the game, but there were times they were in press coverage and I thought we should have thrown deep against it.
Its seems self-evident with a solid o-line and punishing running backs. But with a defense that makes Gary _arnell look like Buddy Ryan and a special teams unit that more closely resembles a special ed unit, our offense doesn't have a chance. When you allow the opposing to score more than sailors on shore leave, a run-oriented offense becomes a liability. A penalty here, a fumble there and we are taken out of our element.
While it certainly is not the most pressing issue, it would be easier to wear down the opposing defense if we didn't take so much time in our hurry up that the defense can make four substitutions before we get set. That was embarrassing. If you are going to take 30 seconds to get the play off, huddle up and make sure that everyone is on the same page. If you want to give the opposing defense a chance to rest, don't disguise the offense as something it isn't.
I hate the hurry-up offense and what it's done to college football. It was designed by and for teams with less talent to try to get some advantage over those teams with greater talent (I know, pretty much the definition of Longhorn football lately, but I digress). College football has evolved over the past 10- 20 years from a pro-style game to flag football. I've always liked the phrase "Be quick but don't hurry". That was something I always taught my pitchers back in my baseball coaching days. Playing hurry-up almost insinuates you're going faster than you should and end up making a mistake because of it. Playing quick means to keep the lags to a minimum, keep things moving. I can't say I'm ready to go back to 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense (like the Michigan-Wisconsin game last Saturday, 14-7) but there has to be a way to run a quick paced offense that doesn't constantly shoot itself in the foot. To get back to the OP's point, I guess it's almost mutually exclusive for a team that runs the hurry-up that they will also have a bad defense. Texas Tech has been the poster child for that type of team of late. The offense either scores quickly or gets off the field with a 3-and-out never giving the defense a chance to rest. We had a drive last week where Foreman and Warren were getting 5 & 10 yards a pop for several plays in a row. We ended up throwing a TD (over the middle to a tight end no less) on that drive but it sure would have been nice to let the defense sit on a 10 play, 5:00 kind of drive. If your defense isn't two or three deep at every position, they are going to wear down over the course of a game.
