I'm starting to get excited about this team....

[stoops the eternal pimp]

I always try and stay reserved about OU's football team ever year...Usually I take a little heat because I don't think every player is gonna go to the NFL, or I point out something like West Virginia's defense before the fiesta bowl and then get pounded with the "But who have they played?" posts.....And I'll continue to be that way...

So when I say this its not from someone who thinks we are gonna win the NC every year...And I acknowledge there are a lot of fine programs out there...

Is this team perfect? IMO no....2nd quarters so far have been very unimpressive..If a team was to come out and stop that first quarter explosion, how would this team respond? not sure..it took 58 carries to get 217 yards against Baylor(3.7 yards a carry).....vanilla or not, you have to win one on one battles up front...and in establishing your run game, I don't know how you define something vanilla when there isn't a lot of scheme in running between the tackles...you either can or can't...Still don't know much about the kicker...

That being said, when I look across the CFB landscape, I think this OU team is by far the best team in the land..Poll's mean nothing to me as I probably watch more football than the guys who actually vote in those things, so I could care less that the AP and Coaches poll have OU there.. Defense plays well,IMO, especially considering the way this offense moves....The special teams played a lot better yesterday and will continue to improve hopefully....There is a load of talent in the offensive backfield....

Right now, I don't see how a team will stop them from scoring...I think thats what makes them difficult to beat...In order for a team to beat them, they are going to have to score a lot of points.... Johnson, Iglesias, Gresham, Broyles, Murray, Brown, Madu....Loads of weapons for Bradford...

I don't think Alabama could score enough to stick with them.

Missouri should be able to on paper, but Venables knows how to defend their O.

LSU, IMO, would be the most difficult to face in the NC game, and they may lose 2 or 3 game and not even get there...

Texas..We'll find out this week..I don't think defensively they can stop OU..

I would put Penn State 2nd behind LSU as far as toughest matchup..They have a lot of playmakers on O and a pretty decent D

So far TT looks not better than any other TT team Leach has fielded..The talk of a better D was just all talk...

USC...nope..

BYU....nope..

Georgia...nope....

[the_ouskull]

See, in my humble, the problem with this team is, we never know which team is going to show up... Will it be the team that scored 24 straight against Cincy, or the team that couldn't run the ball against TCU? I think that we're as or more talented than any team in the country. Our "issues" lie with mental toughness. I think that we have some mentally tough players, but that we don't have a mentally tough team. Until we have a tough team, we're going to count on particular players to step up each game. Bradford one game. Murray the next. Granger another.

When we're a mentally tough team, nobody has to "step up..." Everybody just does their job. So far, we've got that, but, if we DO need someone to step up, who is that player? Do you trust our season in Murray or Brown's hands...? Do you trust our secondary to stop a team driving for the winning score? Can our offensive line dominate and not just be dominant on paper?

Those are the questions that championship teams answer, and I don't feel like this team has answered those questions yet.

This weekend will answer those questions...

the_ouskull

[Jeronimo]

i think this team goes as Sam goes. Sam is worlds better mentally this year than last. When hes calm and focused, I believe everyone else is. The defense feeds off scores. So I say, as Sam goes, OU goes.

just a gut feeling when i watch this team.

[Soonerus]

Looking like a special team...

[Rogue]

Very solid team.
Question marks in my mind:
-Special teams
-Secondary
-Run blocking
-Health over the long haul

[SoFla Sooner]

The reason this team is starting to excite me is because:
1. They seem to be a great deal more mature than last year's team. Last year's team had me constantly worried if they would be "up" for a given game just by the way they presented themselves in interviews, pregame warm-ups. Our QB, God love him, was schizoid on the road.
2. Our defense, particularly the back seven has been much better than advertised. Our linebacking corp has been not the concern we had been led to believe it would be. I think we have the best set of corners since the Strait days.
3. Our offensive line has a chance to be the greatest in Stoops tenure. They are really the only section of the team that has maybe not played to expectation this year (possibly the RB's because I think Demarco isn't 100%). But I think we have to consider that the bar was set very high for them.

Injuries kept to a minimum. We win number 8. Also, I have a feeling that the second best team in the country right now is still USC. They are talented, to say the least. They remind me a bit of OU last year though, and don't quite have "it". Perhaps they will stumble again, those cocky sucker

[meoveryouxinfinity]

You truly think USC is the #2 team in the country? I think you are brain washed by hearing them winning all the time and getting the constant media love. It wasn't a fluke they got beat by Oregon State. Oregon State didn't turn into a world beater that night. Simply put, they lined up, didn't do anything too fancy, and beat USC man for man. Sure, you can say USC had an off day, but they didn't. They would maybe beat Oregon State 7 times out of 10. To me, that's not the #2 team.

[Rogue]

Lots of football to play yet.

[meoveryouxinfinity]

Oh and I think we are the most complete team I've seen a long time. Well coached, disciplined, and definitely focused. They see their goal and they are determined to reach it. They have the ability, the talent, and the will to win every game by a TD or two or three. The defense is strong from the secondary to the line. Sure, some conference teams will get some yards/points on us, but it's a league full of great offensives. We've also focused on stripping the ball. Teams have driven on us at times but we've gotten it done in the turnover department. To be nit-picky, we could technically grab some of those would-be interceptions that seem to hit us in the chest and fall to the ground. As for Sam and the receivers, I suppose one drop/ overthrow is allowed per quarter :). And for the running game, it's going to happen---I promise. Someday, sometime, we're going to do it all by the ground. Call it DM's health, blame it on the fat O-line, or whatever, but it's so extremely close to being there. It's just that unlucky coat-tail tackle and shoe string tackle that trips us up incessantly. I couldn't count how many times DM, CB, or even Madu was a QUARTER step away from out running the entire defense to the goal line. Whether it be with a spin move, stiff arm, or what have you, we need to find a way to get away from that last desperate defender.

I didn't even really notice the special teams this weekend. I guess that's a good thing. I'm really surprised by our punter. Dude is phe-nom-i-nal. If we don't score, we have a pretty good chance of locking up the opposing offense inside their own twenty. I have to believe kick off coverage will continue to improve. I don't see how it could not. One thing is to be sure--do not kick to Maclin!

[Rogue]

Very solid team.
Question marks in my mind:
-Special teams
-Secondary
-Run blocking
-Health over the long haul

I still have these same questions.

[85Sooner]

I still have these same questions.

Unfortunately the coaches don't seem to have any answers.

[StoopTroup]

Unfortunately the coaches don't seem to have any answers.

That is a concern for me too.

The Special Teams breakdown has hit us more than once and now it's part of us losinig a really big game...

They must address the issue before the next game IMO.

[the_ouskull]

By me, on 10/05/08:

"Do you trust our season in Murray or Brown's hands...? Do you trust our secondary to stop a team driving for the winning score? Can our offensive line dominate and not just be dominant on paper?"



In order...

-- Murray and Brown combined for 35 yards yesterday.
-- We saw the game.
-- As for our offensive line, we only rushed for 1.8 yards per carry, and Bradford "ran" the ball 8 times for a grand total of -5 yards. I'm pretty sure that those stats speak to our offensive line problems.

We are not, nor have we been, a championship-caliber team since Mike Stoops left. We have had some championship-level talent, and, at times, near-championship-level coaching, but we have not consistently had both, in the biggest games, since the week before the 2003 Big 12 Championship. Our problems are related to scheme and player intensity in executing that scheme. THAT, is coaching, not play.

..and that, simply will not do. Not at Oklahoma. It's not the losing that bothers me. We lost, a LOT, while I was a student at OU the first time around. It's the losing when we're the better team; when we're supposed to be the better coached team... Our head coach needs to do what he needs to do, coordinator-wise, and he needs to go from being Big Name Bob, to Big Game Bob again... Nobody is scared of him on the sidelines anymore the way that they used to be. Nobody. Not even Mack.

...and that, also, simply will not do. Not at Oklahoma.

the_ouskull

[FlatheadSooner]

Obviously we're not where we want, or need, to be yet. However, I'll take a game like yesterday, where we played hard (albeit not always smart) and stayed in the game until the end - over the WVU and GOWWDNS any day. At least there was intensity and desire to win shown by the players for the most part of entire game. To me that is a step forward from where we've been in other Big Games.
:O :(

[SbOrOiNaEnR]

We have had some championship-level talent, and, at times, near-championship-level coaching, but we have not consistently had both, in the biggest games, since the week before the 2003 Big 12 Championship.


Is there any way we can combine the 2006 coaching job with the 2008 team?

[the_ouskull]

Yes, it's called the year-to-year consistency that comes from constantly improving your team's abilities as players and your own ability as a coach. This is not our coaching staff's strong suit. Bob Stoops' weakness has always been his inability to make in-game adjustments. If his pre-game gameplan hasn't worked, he's rarely fixed that issue. Now, that has carried over to his coordinators as well. There's no year-to-year improvement, so we're seeing other teams (Texas, Mizzou, et al...) improve around us, and we're staying the same. When our talent level is overwhelmingly higher than that of our opposition, it's not a huge deal. We'll lose games to teams with near equal talent, and win games in which the talent disparity weighs heavily in our favor.

I want more for us.

the_ouskull

[BetterSoonerThanLater]

why does it seem that all our losses over the past couple years resulted in records being broken, or huge dissappointments? it just seems like we have made our opponents look so good.

i don't really know how to convey what i'm thinking, and it's not coming out right, but i feel that their isn't a game --exception being the GOWWDNS- that we didn't have the greater talent. we should not have lost many of those games, but somehow, we allow teams to have these huge unexpected victories when we all know what the outcome should have been. it's so frustrating.

However, I know that it is upsetting to us as fans, but i have to tell myself to think about it from the players perspective. think about how they feel. i know they played as hard as they could, but things just didni't go our way, and there were jsut too many errors made. i still believe we have a great football team and have no doubt that we will finish the season strong! here's to hoping that the proper adjustments are made, and that we learn from our mistakes.

on to Kansas for a little jayhawk ***-whoopin!


Boomer!!

[kevpks]

i'm just tired of games in which our opponent has the "game of their lives" or instant calssics when we lose. it seems like all our losses in the past 5 years have resulted in records being broken, huge upsets that have people doubting us, and so on. take the games we have lost in the past 5 years and tell me we didn't have the talent. excpet with the GOWWDNS

It is better than breaking the kinds of records and streaks that Nebraska and Michigan have been breaking lately. At least beating us still has an impact nationally.

[BetterSoonerThanLater]

It is better than breaking the kinds of records and streaks that Nebraska and Michigan have been breaking lately. At least beating us still has an impact nationally.

true true.

and hats off to texas. they didn't quit and played on hell of a game. this was definately one for the books. people that i work with, who are not fans of either team, said it was the best football game they have watched in as long as they can remember! ( although they all agreed we got the short end of the stick with the refs)


lots of football left! lets hope the team makes the best of it!

[westcoast_sooner]

Going into yesterday's game, I thought our guys had really turned the corner. After watching them play every game except the Chattanooga game (not on TV), and getting to see them destroy Washington in person, I thought our attitude had adjusted. These guys really were playing with a chip on their shoulders, able to move the ball either on the ground or in the air, and "Built Road Tough"

What we saw against TCU confirmed that that idea was only half right. Our O-Line has trouble against a good defensive front and we become one-dimensional. The senior line does a great job of keeping Sam upright, in the pocket looking downfield. But it does a mediocre to poor job of opening holes for our RBs. I'm not sure if this is an indictment of our run blocking schemes or simply that our guys can't handle what they're asked to do. Perhaps some of both.

For the most part, the no huddle worked. We scored 35 on a very good Texas defense. But there were times we took more time at the line than we could/should have, and gave Texas time to adjust their alignments when we could have kept them on their heels.

Our defense is good - not great. Injuries have taken their toll, and we expected to have to reload there. We're also young here and not deep. We likely won't be until the 2010 season, as our 09 class is defense heavy.

I'm still pretty excited about what I've seen so far this year. But our coaching staff has it's work cut out for them the rest of the season. They need to find a way to run the ball, and need to find a way to cover our defensive liabilities.

[ruf/nekdad]

true true.

and hats off to texas. they didn't quit

Texas didn't quit. The pukes didn't quit. However we looked like a completely different team the second half. This game reminded me of last year.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

someone bumped a thread of mine...allsome

[Curly Bill]

someone bumped a thread of mine...allsome

They probably wanted to point out how you jinxed us with this thread of yours! :mad:




ya bastage!!! :D

[stoops the eternal pimp]

you know I said I was starting to get excited about this team when most had already crowned them(cue Denny Green)...Honestly, I m not all in shock or anything about yesterday..In fact I m surprisingly not that upset....

[Curly Bill]

you know I said I was starting to get excited about this team when most had already crowned them(cue Denny Green)...Honestly, I m not all in shock or anything about yesterday..In fact I m surprisingly not that upset....

I was pissed yesterday, still am a little, not so much that we lost, but that we lost by following much the same script we've been following the past few years: simplistic running scheme, and the same meltdown by the D in a big game.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

Kinda why Im not upset...Its the same old same old.......

After the way the last few seasons have ended, I m not gonna get too excited until they are holding a trophy in their hand

[Curly Bill]

Kinda why Im not upset...Its the same old same old.......

After the way the last few seasons have ended, I m not gonna get too excited until they are holding a trophy in their hand

yup

[okiewaker]

Kinda why Im not upset...Its the same old same old.......

After the way the last few seasons have ended, I m not gonna get too excited until they are holding a trophy in their hand


I agree with it all, but what more can they do? The only thing I can come up with, besides gadget plays, is to start playing better. Hell, I don't know