ah, freshmen on the road

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

such a wonderful feeling of having no idea how they are going to play. for the first half tony jefferson looked like his shoes were in cement. he made some good plays to open the 2nd half, to the point where the words "holy crap he learns fast" had just come out of my mouth when he lets another receiver get behind him.

wort was horrible, lewis wasn't much better and when linebackers suck, the people who normally pay the price are the safeties. on cue, quentin carter gets toasted. lewis, of course, is a real prize. jogging after plays into the secondary and then screaming at his teammates on the sidelines. honestly i wish they would put ronnell lewis into the spinner role where we could at least get someone who can clog up the middle.

the run blocking was great except for left guard. i think it would be easier to figure out how many blocks that position made tonight than how many they missed. every running down there was a seem and that DT was crossing the formation to tackle the running back in the backfield. it got into murray's head (that and the diving at his legs) and he got more and more tentative. on that screen he had some serious green with a blocker to the outside and he ran it right back into the teeth of the defense.

nelson had one of the best halves for an OU defensive back in recent memory. now do it for 60 minutes and make yourself some bank.

they were talking about how great that running back was doing, but honestly i think someone might have stolen our DL calls. there is no way that you can guess that right on run protections that many times in a game. there were holes that a truck could drive through.

paging jeremy beal. paging jeremy beal. under stoops, one thing i have never understood is how a DE can dominate one season and come back the next year so pedestrian. a lot of our secondary problems can be traced to the lack of production on the edge. it was amazing how when macon and lewis were in there and the quarterback had less than 5 seconds to throw how much better we looked in the secondary. that one long scramble from one sideline to the other was pathetic.

one of the better pass plays i've seen in a while was jones to stills. jones still lacks a sense of urgency when we need to answer another team. its one of the subtle things wrong with our D - that they are always fighting 11 guys with momentum on their side.

TD - 12 plays, 80 yards, TOP 04:09
punt - 5 plays, 13 yards, TOP 02:43
punt - 6 plays, 25 yards, TOP 03:30
INT - 9 plays, 44 yards, TOP 03:10
punt - 3 plays, 2 yards, TOP 01:39

*note - last series not counted

[stoops the eternal pimp]

You and I have been on the same page on T Lewis for a while..yelling on the sidelines for everybody to step it up and when the D gets back on the field, he gets lost and they break a nice run..

I told a couple of others I marked 3 or 4 running plays that were blocked perfectly but all he could get out of them were 4 or 5 yards...and double catching every pass that came his way if he caught them..Murray just doesnt have the jets to catch the screen and roll back into the middle of the field like he tried tonight...

Spot on about macon and lewis..I text collier 11 early in the game and told him we should be concerned if we don't get some sacks from this dline and they weren't doing anything..

I loved what I saw from Stills..I hate that Madu put the ball on the field 3 times last week, because now I think the coaches may hesitate to put the ball in his hands more..

[Okie35]

I agree w/ most points but again the best team we've played the defense played well. We'll see a different defense next week. Hopefully they'll actually call holding next game.

[rawlingsHOH]

The pass rush from the front 4 is a concern. I think the secondary will be more than fine.

[Okie35]

The pass rush from the front 4 is a concern. I think the secondary will be more than fine.

Its not a concern for me. FSU had a veteran line and OUr line ran right through them. We know what they're capable of doing. I mean I can see your concern but honestly the defense will show up next week for sure. Further down the road I have no idea but hopefully they will build on their performance next week.

[GottaHavePride]

The FSU team we played wasn't better than the Cincinnati team we just played. The FSU team WE played looked incompetent.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

when a game goes into a snowball effect like that game did, its hard to base performances off of what you see...FSU just got punched in the face early and couldnt respond..

[rawlingsHOH]

Its not a concern for me. FSU had a veteran line and OUr line ran right through them.

FSU has a good line. But we didn't run thru them. We got some pressure, but it was inconsistent.

[Okie35]

The FSU team we played wasn't better than the Cincinnati team we just played. The FSU team WE played looked incompetent.

Yea it was better and still is. Nobody played out of position in the FSU game. Everyone played one page. I couldn't have said the same earlier tonight.

[Okie35]

FSU has a good line. But we didn't run thru them. We got some pressure, but it was inconsistent.

We won't get pressure every play. Ponder threw 11-28 that was consistent enough.

[rawlingsHOH]

We won't get pressure every play.
Fair enough. I think our DL has been subpar for OU standards, this season.

[Okie35]

Fair enough. I think our DL has been subpar for OU stadards, this season.

I can agree w/ that. I feel really confident in the line next week for some reason.

[GottaHavePride]

Yea it was better and still is. Nobody played out of position in the FSU game. Everyone played one page. I couldn't have said the same earlier tonight.


I'm just saying, Cincinatti gave us a game like they were last year's 12-1 Big East champs. FSU gave us a game like they were last year's 7-6 FSU squad.

[Collier11]

We had the chance to put away every team this year and outside of FSU, we havent done it. Stoops has to get this fixed, as I told STEP earlier, if we cant run the ball against ut their secondary will toast our WRs and then we lose

[btb916]

I can agree w/ that. I feel really confident in the line next week for some reason.

I don't understand your confidence. Our d line couldn't get consistent pressure against a terrible Cincy o line. That is distressing to me and does not engender any confidence at all.

[mehip]

I am concerned about the D but I love seeing all of these underclassmen play. This may not be our year but I sure like the future with all these kids on the field.

I hope this is a new trend with coach Stoops.

[VA Sooner]

We had the chance to put away every team this year and outside of FSU, we havent done it. Stoops has to get this fixed, as I told STEP earlier, if we cant run the ball against ut their secondary will toast our WRs and then we lose



UCLA showed us you can run against the number 1 rushing defense. Need to study the game film... didn't get it here on the East Coast. :(

[rawlingsHOH]

UCLA showed us you can run against the number 1 rushing defense. Need to study the game film... didn't get it here on the East Coast. :(

They went north and south out of a pistol formation. They couldn't throw at all, didn't matter.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

UCLA showed us you can run against the number 1 rushing defense. Need to study the game film... didn't get it here on the East Coast. :(

Yes it can be done...With the limited running plays OU has and style of RBs OU leans on, its going to be tough..

[Blue]

Bump for the way threads should be.

Great thread.

[BoulderSooner79]

We had the chance to put away every team this year and outside of FSU, we havent done it. Stoops has to get this fixed, as I told STEP earlier, if we cant run the ball against ut their secondary will toast our WRs and then we lose

Then we will probably lose. If we average over 3.5 yds/carry next week, I'll be shocked. LJ needs to be sharp and all the receivers need to step up and help out Broyles who will get plenty of attention.

[HBick]

and nothing about colvin? I thought he played pretty good getting sent in for flemming in the 2qtr was it? overall I fairly happy with the way he was playing, and did Wort get yanked in the 2nd? i saw Byrd in there

[Harry Beanbag]

Wort is not good. Beal has been almost invisible this year, he was especially absent last week. Next year we should be an excellent football team and have a chance to go all the way. Doesn't look like it's in the cards this season.

Weird offensive play calling this game, second half especially.

[swardboy]

I'm so glad we're back home in Dallas this week.

[S.PadreIsl.Sooner]

I think our running game goes for 150 this week and we win going away. I believe the guys get it clicking this week on both sides and things go well.

[OU-HSV]

I think our running game goes for 150 this week and we win going away. I believe the guys get it clicking this week on both sides and things go well.

I sure hope you're correct

[RacerX]

Did Beal get bigger?

Is he slower now?

[badger]

He was getting chipped by a RB on almost every pass play I saw. He's not quick enough to get out of that.

[44BluesExplosion]

I'm not very good at giving negative assessments as I am so damned bias. That said, I don't really understand what's up with the defense.

Against Utah State, they looked young and inexperienced.

Against Florida State, they looked challenged and appreciative.

Against Air Force, they looked confused.

Against Cincinnati, they looked uninspired at times and confused at others.

I think it starts with the edge and the linebackers. The edge is soft and the linebackers aren't aggressive. Ironically, we have looked most consistent at corner if you ignore the Utah State game.

I'm glad I'm not a coach as I would hate to make sense of all of this.

[cvsooner]

Most of Cincy's running yards came in the second half. Some kind of dramatic adjustment there, somewhere. And once the run game took off, the passing game improved.

We really had them on the ropes at 14-3 and then let them get back into the game. Good thing they missed the PAT and Stevens made the last one...

Much to be improved on our defense. It's not there yet by a long shot.