3 Things.

[Partial Qualifier]

Lots of credit to Florida. Their defensive coaches & personnel had a great plan and executed well. The balls just didn't bounce our way and although losing (again) sucks, there's nothing to be ashamed about.

Defense played over their heads. What was Florida, 12-for-17 on 3rd downs? Can't do that & expect to be in the game, but there we were. Overall happy with the D,

Four BCS Championship Games ... and not once have we scored over 20 points. With powerhouse offenses most years, mind you. There's something to that. Some of the offensive & general game management calls, I mean DAMN... I'm still scratching my head. The 4th-&-goal quick call.. asking Jimmy F'ing Stevens to try a 49 yard FG... the lack of play action once Brown got going... BizarroLand.

:(

[OU-HSV]

Another post well stated

[Boomer.....]

Yeah the 3rd down defense killed us. You can't fault them for not being able to stop the option shovel pass because I don't think anyone could stop that play. Harvin did have a few big runs which could have been stopped for small gains if we tackled. Overall, the defense played pretty well and gave Florida their lowest point total of the season.

Some of the play calling on offense was questionable but you have to give a lot of credit to the Florida defense. They were quick and made plays when they needed to.

The kickoff coverage was amazing all night. Nice to see them perform so well.

I think the team was greatly prepared and looked head and shoulders better than the last few bowl teams. We had every chance to win that game but it came down to a few bad play calls and bobbled catches.

[OU-HSV]

Yeah the 3rd down defense killed us. You can't fault them for not being able to stop the option shovel pass because I don't think anyone could stop that play. Harvin did have a few big runs which could have been stopped for small gains if we tackled. Overall, the defense played pretty well and gave Florida their lowest point total of the season.

Some of the play calling on offense was questionable but you have to give a lot of credit to the Florida defense. They were quick and made plays when they needed to.

The kickoff coverage was amazing all night. Nice to see them perform so well.

I think the team was greatly prepared and looked head and shoulders better than the last few bowl teams. We had every chance to win that game but it came down to a few bad play calls and bobbled catches.

Some of what you say I agree with, some of it I don't.

The option/shovel pass play was ran or attempted at least 4 times. We seemed to stop it maybe 1 or 2 of those times. To me, it's a play that should be able to be stopped after seeing it more than once. Plus, I can't swear to it, but I bet the Gators game film would/did show BV that they have ran it in other games. We should've been prepared enough for that play to be able to minimize the gains when they called it.
But I agree overall I was proud of the D, the 4th quarter and 3rd down conversions killed us.

Agreed, some of the offensive playcalling hurt bad. Especially that 4th down goal line run.

Kick coverage impressed the hell out of me. I figured James would run 1 back on us, but we contained that stuff very well.

[TripleOption14]

The 3rd down issue was the biggest difference in the game IMO. A team HAS TO find a way to get off the field on 3rd downs PERIOD!! ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY when its 3rd and 7, 3rd and 9, 3rd and 10, 11, 12... my god how do you let teams get those kind of 1st downs????

[OU-HSV]

What I found surprising is the fact that after Brown ripped off several great runs on that one drive...we slowed the pace down when we got in the redzone. I think we had them offguard a little and should've stuck to fast tempo at that point.

[The Maestro]

Lots of great stuff here...should have read before I started my thread.

Mind boggling on what happens to our offense in title games. No excuses, but I think we missed DeMarco...how can you not? The way the line was opening holes I think his speed might have been able to break one.

And I never understand why we slow down in the red zone. To me, the third down play should have been VERY fast cause even if it doesn't work, you've got fourth. Taking forever and basically running the same play was so vanilla and too predictable.

Oh, well...we can bitch and moan, but Florida made plays and we didn't.

[TopDawg]

Four BCS Championship Games ... and not once have we scored over 20 points. With powerhouse offenses most years, mind you. There's something to that.

Defense wins championships. The year we scored the least was the year we won it all. That year we were happy to take a 3 point lead and extend it to 6 later on because we knew that might be enough to win. This year we forced ourselves to go for the endzone twice instead of taking the points because we didn't think our defense (who really did play well until the 4th) could maintain that lead.

Had we trusted in our defense more and kicked FGs on both of those drives to take a 13-7 lead into halftime (or even just a 10-7 lead), I think it would've totally changed the game. Sure, we're only adding 6 points to a game we lost by 10, but an extra 6 points in the first half would've changed everything. It might've allowed us to stick with the most successful part of our offense...the running game...longer.

[SOONER STEAKER]

When teams have 4-5 weeks to prepare for our Offense they have the upper advantage. The only thing I saw that we did different was when Sam ran the option, other than that one play, our offense was PLAIN JANE.

IF, we make the 2 catches that were intercepted, today we would be celebrating instead of finding excuses about why we lost.

I am happy that we played well, we just didn't play well enough.

PROUD SOONER FAN!!

[TopDawg]

Plus, I can't swear to it, but I bet the Gators game film would/did show BV that they have ran it in other games.

I think it was the play they used to score their go-ahead TD in the SEC CG. It was clearly their favorite go-to play on 3rd and less than 5.

[BoulderSooner79]

I disagree about 3rd downs. For the most part, we forced UF to earn them with great play and they were good enough to do that. Also, the stops we did get were critical and gave our offense more than ample chances. Finally, turnovers are much bigger than stops and we handed our offense 2 of those and got no points out of it. Florida is a great team and you can't leave points on the field like that.

[wishbonesooner]

I think the thing that is so strange to me, is during these great stretches of games, we have a look on offense that changes very little game to game. Then, in the bowl game, we take on a look that barely resembles what we did in the regular season.

[OU-HSV]

I think it was the play they used to score their go-ahead TD in the SEC CG. It was clearly their favorite go-to play on 3rd and less than 5.

That may be correct.
And hell, I may be mistaken, but it worked against us on 3rd and long right? Even after we'd seen it ran a couple times prior

[ouleaf]

Agreed.

3rd downs were killer. I was screaming for Sam to just do a QB keeper on that first Goal line stand that we didn't convert on. The long FG attempt was also questionable considering Stevens really is an unproven kicker.

Florida made the most of their opportunities and we didn't plain and simple. I think we can all agree that they were two pretty evenly matched teams, Florida just made a few more plays.

[TopDawg]

The long FG attempt was also questionable considering Stevens really is an unproven kicker.

If we're ahead in the game at that point (which we would've been had we taken the points earlier) and playing with the frame of mind we played with in 2000, we quick kick it there and flip the field.

Of course, in 2000 we would've just had Tim Duncan nail another 45+ yarder.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

The option/shovel pass play was ran or attempted at least 4 times. We seemed to stop it maybe 1 or 2 of those times. To me, it's a play that should be able to be stopped after seeing it more than once. Plus, I can't swear to it, but I bet the Gators game film would/did show BV that they have ran it in other games. We should've been prepared enough for that play to be able to minimize the gains when they called it.
But I agree overall I was proud of the D, the 4th quarter and 3rd down conversions killed us.

they ran it at alexander (a freshman) and balogun (2nd start). the problem was that both acted like they had QB. in that case it probably should have been balogun who had the shovel, but i couldn't tell who had what assignment.

[OU-HSV]

they ran it at alexander (a freshman) and balogun (2nd start). the problem was that both acted like they had QB. in that case it probably should have been balogun who had the shovel, but i couldn't tell who had what assignment.

I too noticed that at least one of the times they ran that play, both defenders were sticking to the QB. I agree with that

[Partial Qualifier]

Defense wins championships. The year we scored the least was the year we won it all. That year we were happy to take a 3 point lead and extend it to 6 later on because we knew that might be enough to win. This year we forced ourselves to go for the endzone twice instead of taking the points because we didn't think our defense (who really did play well until the 4th) could maintain that lead.



I politely request to differ on this point.

Yes in general D wins championships but expecting to hold FSU scoreless, I promise you, wasn't part of the game plan in 2000 -- that's just how it played out. Plus we didn't have any 4th-and-goal-from-the-one decisions to make in that 2000 game.

Our D held Florida to 24 points, and 7 of those points came off a turnover. Despite the dismal job on 3rd downs, our D played well enough to win... even in the fourth. We should be able to expect our offense can score more than 14 frickin points.

That late INT killed us. We were down by 3 at the time, and driving. Nail. In. The. Coffin.

[OklahomaTuba]

It was a good game plan I thought. Its obvious they wanted the points because they expected our D to be spent by the 4th. Considering the way the texass game panned out, it wasn't a bad strategy IMO.

[TopDawg]

I politely request to differ on this point.

Yes in general D wins championships but expecting to hold FSU scoreless, I promise you, wasn't part of the game plan in 2000 -- that's just how it played out. Plus we didn't have any 4th-and-goal-from-the-one decisions to make in that 2000 game.

And I'll politely request the same. I remember Stoops being extremely confident that our defense was going to answer the bell against FSU. But I may have I misspoken when I said that Stoops thought 6 would be enough to win. What I was trying to express is that he acted like we could win the game by kicking FGs. I don't think he felt the same way this year.

Now, I do agree with you about the decisions stuff. It's a painful irony that two plays that seemed to be positive for us ended up being negative. Chris Brown picks up 3 yards on 2nd down to get us to the 1. If he doesn't, we probably kick a FG there. Later, Gresham makes a good move to pick up the first down with 10 seconds left. If he doesn't, we probably kick a FG there too. In 2000, Stoops didn't have to make those decisions because our 4th down plays were more obvious. (In fact, we did have a redzone turnover in that game too, so it's not like we played it extremely close to the vest in the redzone then either...as if we were just playing for the FG).

I wasn't trying to say our defense played poorly or question the decisions in the redzone...I was just pointing out two things:

1) Our defense has played well in all 3 BCS title games of which we still speak. In the game we won, our defense made more big plays than the other team's. In the two games we lost, the other team's defense made more big plays than we did. I feel like the defense (ours or there's) was the deciding factor in all three of those games. In those three games, there were a total of 5 high-powered offenses and NONE of them lit it up.

2) The game may have turned out a lot differently if we would have expected such a good defensive performance last night (like I think we did in 2000). Stoops may have kicked a FG on 4th down if he would've trusted our defense to hold Florida scoreless for the rest of the 2nd quarter. The INT on the goalline was just a stroke of bad luck. Good play call, but incredible play (and a little luck) by Florida.

I think the INT late in the game was the closing of the coffin lid. The nail was the score after that. If we could've held them to a FG, I felt good about our chances to come back down and score.

[BoulderSooner79]

I think the INT late in the game was the closing of the coffin lid. The nail was the score after that. If we could've held them to a FG, I felt good about our chances to come back down and score.

The INT by itself wasn't the end. But it was a huge momentum swing at a time it looked to be going our way. It also forced our D to gamble and crowd the line against the run because of the clock. The big play was the long pass against man coverage - and it was very good coverage. So many coaches would have gone conservative there, but Meyer mixed it up and his team made the plays. It's the way I would want my team to play.

[TopDawg]

Yeah. The momentum definitely shifted. But we still had several 3rd downs to try to get off the field and couldn't. Like jkm pointed out, Florida did a great job of using their strengths against our weaknesses in that drive.

I think the biggest difference in "positional performance" last night was the difference between their WRs and our WRs. Their guys made some incredible catches against good man coverage. Ours dropped those passes.

[Partial Qualifier]

I think the INT late in the game was the closing of the coffin lid. The nail was the score after that. If we could've held them to a FG, I felt good about our chances to come back down and score.

zNCrMEOqHpc

:D

[gotpoi73]

[QUOTE Now, I do agree with you about the decisions stuff. It's a painful irony that two plays that seemed to be positive for us ended up being negative. Chris Brown picks up 3 yards on 2nd down to get us to the 1. If he doesn't, we probably kick a FG there. Later, Gresham makes a good move to pick up the first down with 10 seconds left. If he doesn't, we probably kick a FG there too. In 2000, Stoops didn't have to make those decisions because our 4th down plays were more obvious. (In fact, we did have a redzone turnover in that game too, so it's not like we played it extremely close to the vest in the redzone then either...as if we were just playing for the FG).
.[/QUOTE]

having the lead at half time instead of being tied would have definitely gotten the boys way more fired up for the 2nd half. might have changed the game