Specifics

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Okay, I know folks still have yet to get their frustrations out. Let 'em fly, however you see fit. But not here. No, this thread is for the specifics of WHY a 29 point underdog comes into the greatest stack of bricks in the game of football and walks away with a win.

OMG FIRE BRUNT VORNABLES is not specific.

OMG PUNCH GABE LYNN IN T3H BAWLZ is not specific.

OMG ITS JUST A GAME I HEART BOB is not specific.

FIRE BRIAN BRITT is specific and appropriate, but not on topic.

No, this thread is for something specific you saw in the game that was critical in leading to the end of the longest active home winning streak in college football. Scheme, play style, extraneous factors, et cetera.

[soonercastor]

we have a hard time against spread teams (our D)

Couldn't get any pressure on the QB. (same happened at Mizzou last year), part of it was because he got rid of the ball in a hurry. The middle of the field was open (again just like Mizzou last year). Not sure why this is, but I'll let a guy familiar with Xs and Os and schemes explain this one.

we have a hard time scoring TDs in the red zone

We have an inconsistent kicking game. I really thought this was behind us, but obviously not.

home field advantage wasn't a huge factor, considering the weather.

[BoulderSooner79]

One word: three and outs.

[ccmike9]

First half, Brent pulls the corners back, and throw the safeties to the sidelines, iirc. They run up the middle. Next play, he throws the safeties AND LB's to the edge. Draw up the middle. Next play: Stack the middle, throw down the sideline. Copy this for almost every drive. Venables seemed to be playing the sort of defense were you react, but it's on the sideline after the play. He goes, oh, I see what went wrong, lets do the opposite of what we just did. Meanwhile, TTU is drawing up something new for Venables to think about in another 30 seconds. But I could be entirely wrong

[Killerbees]

Specifics.

Yet again we come go into a game uninspired and not mentally ready to play which results in dropped balls, blown assignments and **** poor execution. We sucked it up in every part of the game.

I think that has a lot to do with it. I think that is probably one of the biggest reasons. We didn't really get into this game until late and after we did everything went much better without any major changes.

Unfortunately for us a few things that led to this are not going to go away even if we are pumped up to play.

Landry needs to be able to drop back and throw the ball with little to no pressure. When he does the happy feet dance thing, I get nervous. When he winds up throwing the ball on the run I have to close my eyes because there is about a 90% chance its not going to go where he wanted it too. He was on the move nearly every snap and ithe result was a truckload of really bad passes. I think everything else given he is a great QB, so don't mistake my angst in this one area as Landry bashing.

Vs defensive scheme generally works great until you run into a team with a good game plan and ready to play some football. When it does blow up it goes with a bang.

Techs D was really bad, we should have torched them all night. We didn't because Landry was off, we couldn't give him the protection he needs and when we did the receiver had about a 50-50 shot at dropping the pass. When they finally just said screw it and started throwing down field every play because we had no choice, you could see just how bad the pass coverage really was.

Settling for FGs (or FG attempts) finally came back to bite us on the ***.

We deserved to lose this game because we played like crap. If your d gets torn up like that and your td % on 1 and G is below 50% then you don't deserve to be a top ranked team. I for one would rather have it happen this way than go to yet another NC game and get embarassed.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Specifics on our D:

1. Linebacker play doomed us. The key to stopping TTech is to make them one dimensional and let your DEs just pin their ears back. However, if your linebackers can't stop the run you have to squeeze with your DEs forcing them into a read/react situation. That pretty much eliminates the chances of pressuring TTech.

1a. We have a lot of injuries at LB so if they were picking on Corey Nelson or Kellen Jones I'd probably just leave it at the above. The problem was that they were once again picking on Travis Lewis. Both Nelson/Jones made some mistakes (as well as some decent plays with Jones stonewalling the blockers on that fake punt), but they weren't the reason our play was so bad.

1b. TTech was able to get 5 yds/carry out of their running backs throughout the night and put themselves in 2nd/short and 3rd/short. Most of these runs were interior delays.

1c. My biggest complaint about Travis Lewis over the years has been that he's a great individual player in a team game. I can't emphasize how much that issue cropped up tonight. In a team game, there are times when you have to do things that won't bring you any pub or glory. Like busting through a block and rallying to the ball to cut off a lane that the running back most likely won't use unless its open. That doesn't show up in the stat sheets but you HAVE to do it. Lewis has never shown any interest in doing things like that. If he can't make the tackle he'll fight with a blocker or jog down the field.

For example, on the 1st TTech TD, the announcers were all over the bad angle that Nelson took. What they forgot to mention was that he was on a blitz and then broke off the blitz to get the ball carrier. Yes, he may have misjudged the angle but he in all reality wasn't even supposed to be in on the tackle because had an alley opened up he would have been too far out of position. So who was supposed to fill that alley? The opposite side backer. And this is where the mentality of individuals always fail -> It's 50 yards away, what are the odds I'm going to make the tackle? So they don't bust their hump to their assigned position (which is supposed to be a low probability path for the WR) and they leave a huge gaping hole in the coverage that a good WR can exploit. If you rewind the play, you can see Lewis 10 yards downfield being blocked by a lineman yet the lineman was 5 yards away when the pass leaves the QBs hands.

1d. There is no stat for figuring out what % of the time a player is neutralized on a play by being blocked. But if there were, our linebackers the last 5 years would be alarmingly high.

2. Our DEs had a bad game. Not much more I can go into, part of it was because of the poor play of hte linebackers but not enough to make a difference. FA played like he'd been reading his press clippings, Lewis played tight. The weather didn't help any either as mud is the one true neutralizer of a speedy rush end.

3. Secondary letting guys get behind them. I just don't know what to say, after halftime they seemed to have forgotten their fundamentals.

4. Defensive special teams -> This is traditionally where your young linebacker/secondary talent cuts their teeth. The continuous stream of misses at linebacker continues to be a glaring hole here. Our best ST tacklers are a DE and a fullback.

5. Coaches on the Hotseat because of talent -> BV (Hot)/Shipp (warm) -> Shipp has issues evaluating (meaning the dusty d type guys who are 3 stars and is relying on pulling in 1 TH type every 4 years). BV on the other hand hasn't really done crap since he was promoted to DC on the recruiting trail (remember Lewis was a running back).

[LRoss]

I'm no coach, but I noticed that it seemed we lost contain on the edge pretty consistently, with guys getting sucked in to misdirection etc. The qb's td on 4th down is the one example that sticks out that I can point to, but it seems like this happened pretty regularly. Again, I'm no coach, but seemed like a lack of discipline/over-aggression that Tech did a good job of either creating or exploiting.

More a question than anything, but it seemed often as though we a) had no pressure on the qb, and b) were in man coverage downfield. Again I'm no coach, and haven't "broken down the film" -- but how do you have both of those? Were we blitzing all night and being picked up? And if not, why did it seem like our corners were on islands all night?

[cleller]

Our D seems to be designed not to give up The Big Play, give them some room, then make them punt when the field gets compressed.
The problem is we still give up The Big Play all the time. Why not be more aggressive, and go after them at the line of scrimmage some?

[Killerbees]

Specifics on our D:

1. Linebacker play doomed us.

1a. We have a lot of injuries at LB so if they were picking on Corey Nelson or Kellen Jones I'd probably just leave it at the above. The problem was that they were once again picking on Travis Lewis.

1b. TTech was able to get 5 yds/carry

1c. My biggest complaint about Travis Lewis over the years has been that he's a great individual player in a team game. If he can't make the tackle he'll fight with a blocker or jog down the field.

I agree, I started to say the some of the same but I was going to rewatch parts of the game first before I posted it. I noticed in the last game that our LBs get blocked by OL frequently. That kind of thing is going to happen when its a play side guard cutting off the backside LB but what is happening way too frequently is our LBs getting cut off and blocked by OL lined up head up on them, they can't let that happen. They have got to get better at moving towards the play with the backs instead of relying on speed to close the gap after the fact. I mean sometimes they do that and it shows when they scrape outside and blow up an off tackle or sweep type play then other times its like they are moving the wrong direction (up and in instead of scraping outside or vice versa) or not moving at all.

I am not sure if its the assignments they have or what is causing it. It very well could be more of a scheme/assignment type thing rather than them. I lean towards it being poor play because even on plays between the tackles when it is clearly the LB responsibility to step up and into the hole they are getting blocked 2-3 yards deep instead of meeting the blocker up on the line of scrimmage.

Its seems sometimes they act like its not their job to pursue outside run plays because they are expecting pass or something and are confused when its not.

And pursuit by the backside LB is terrible and that is extremely important to close cut back lanes or plays like that wr screen that scored twice. I know on the last one that one of our LB was blocked in the back but if he would have been actually running instead of jogging he may have actually been in a much better position to make that play instead of 10 yds deep getting blocked by the backside wr.

[cyclonesooner]

Good post killer bees.

[5noubus]

Specifics.

Yet again we come go into a game uninspired and not mentally ready to play which results in dropped balls, blown assignments and **** poor execution. We sucked it up in every part of the game.

I think that has a lot to do with it. I think that is probably one of the biggest reasons. We didn't really get into this game until late and after we did everything went much better without any major changes.

Unfortunately for us a few things that led to this are not going to go away even if we are pumped up to play.

Landry needs to be able to drop back and throw the ball with little to no pressure. When he does the happy feet dance thing, I get nervous. When he winds up throwing the ball on the run I have to close my eyes because there is about a 90% chance its not going to go where he wanted it too. He was on the move nearly every snap and ithe result was a truckload of really bad passes. I think everything else given he is a great QB, so don't mistake my angst in this one area as Landry bashing.

Vs defensive scheme generally works great until you run into a team with a good game plan and ready to play some football. When it does blow up it goes with a bang.

Techs D was really bad, we should have torched them all night. We didn't because Landry was off, we couldn't give him the protection he needs and when we did the receiver had about a 50-50 shot at dropping the pass. When they finally just said screw it and started throwing down field every play because we had no choice, you could see just how bad the pass coverage really was.

Settling for FGs (or FG attempts) finally came back to bite us on the ***.

We deserved to lose this game because we played like crap. If your d gets torn up like that and your td % on 1 and G is below 50% then you don't deserve to be a top ranked team. I for one would rather have it happen this way than go to yet another NC game and get embarassed.
This is on the money. I feel what was said about our d is why it can look like the best or worse defense around.
Having said all that shouldn't vendables be learning by watching film? Here is a nonspecific-No one was prepared.

[jumperstop]

Excellent thread pretty much everything agree with everything.

[rdusooner]

For me, I think it comes down to lack of motivation to play a believed to be inferior team. The team feels entitled, especially at home where they never seem to lose. I don't doubt that if this was a top 10 team visiting, we would have performed well. I think the schemes have proven to work in the past, we have destroyed Tech in Norman numerous times with the same schemes on both sides of the ball. So for me, its lack of attitude/ desire to play this particular game. The idea that we can just out athlete an inferior team. Its an attitude, mental focus thing. By the time we realize we are in a fight, the adjustments were too little too late.

[OUNASH]

For me, I think it comes down to lack of motivation to play a believed to be inferior team. The team feels entitled, especially at home where they never seem to lose. I don't doubt that if this was a top 10 team visiting, we would have performed well. I think the schemes have proven to work in the past, we have destroyed Tech in Norman numerous times with the same schemes on both sides of the ball. So for me, its lack of attitude/ desire to play this particular game. The idea that we can just out athlete an inferior team. Its an attitude, mental focus thing. By the time we realize we are in a fight, the adjustments were too little too late.

The team feels entitled= Dead On, I also would like know how pratice was leading up to the game.

[rdusooner]

The team feels entitled= Dead On, I also would like know how pratice was leading up to the game.

I would suspect it was similar to before the Mizzou game, although I doubt they would admit to it. I may just be being very pessimistic though on that thought. The sad thing is the poor start against KU didn't seem to wake them up.

[the_edge]

This team has 13-0 expectations, but only has 10-3 talent.

[BigDeezy]

I don't know if it is blocking scheme problem or player error, but I have noticed numerous times a lineman has whiffed on a block of the defensive player right in front of him, or let someone run right past him untouched. Defenses are getting lots of penetration which is the problem with our running game. It happened quite a few times last night, but also in several previous games.

[8timechamps]

Specifics on our D:

1. Linebacker play doomed us. The key to stopping TTech is to make them one dimensional and let your DEs just pin their ears back. However, if your linebackers can't stop the run you have to squeeze with your DEs forcing them into a read/react situation. That pretty much eliminates the chances of pressuring TTech.

This is where things started to go wrong on D. I can't help but think missing Tom Wort played a big role in our overall LB play.

1a. We have a lot of injuries at LB so if they were picking on Corey Nelson or Kellen Jones I'd probably just leave it at the above. The problem was that they were once again picking on Travis Lewis. Both Nelson/Jones made some mistakes (as well as some decent plays with Jones stonewalling the blockers on that fake punt), but they weren't the reason our play was so bad.

1b. TTech was able to get 5 yds/carry out of their running backs throughout the night and put themselves in 2nd/short and 3rd/short. Most of these runs were interior delays.

1c. My biggest complaint about Travis Lewis over the years has been that he's a great individual player in a team game. I can't emphasize how much that issue cropped up tonight. In a team game, there are times when you have to do things that won't bring you any pub or glory. Like busting through a block and rallying to the ball to cut off a lane that the running back most likely won't use unless its open. That doesn't show up in the stat sheets but you HAVE to do it. Lewis has never shown any interest in doing things like that. If he can't make the tackle he'll fight with a blocker or jog down the field.



For example, on the 1st TTech TD, the announcers were all over the bad angle that Nelson took. What they forgot to mention was that he was on a blitz and then broke off the blitz to get the ball carrier. Yes, he may have misjudged the angle but he in all reality wasn't even supposed to be in on the tackle because had an alley opened up he would have been too far out of position. So who was supposed to fill that alley? The opposite side backer. And this is where the mentality of individuals always fail -> It's 50 yards away, what are the odds I'm going to make the tackle? So they don't bust their hump to their assigned position (which is supposed to be a low probability path for the WR) and they leave a huge gaping hole in the coverage that a good WR can exploit. If you rewind the play, you can see Lewis 10 yards downfield being blocked by a lineman yet the lineman was 5 yards away when the pass leaves the QBs hands.

It may have been that play, or a similar one, we were running a stunt on Lewis' side, I noticed that Lewis was still looking to the sideline for the call, and didn't turn back until after the snap. Since he reacted so late, the stunt essentially blocked him out of the play, and Tech was able to get a big run to the outside. That is why I don't like the D constantly looking to the sidelines. I get that it's the way things are now, but it's frustrating.

1d. There is no stat for figuring out what % of the time a player is neutralized on a play by being blocked. But if there were, our linebackers the last 5 years would be alarmingly high.

2. Our DEs had a bad game. Not much more I can go into, part of it was because of the poor play of hte linebackers but not enough to make a difference. FA played like he'd been reading his press clippings, Lewis played tight. The weather didn't help any either as mud is the one true neutralizer of a speedy rush end.

Agreed. The strength of our defense has been our ends, and they both played below the level they had been playing. It was a bad night for both ends to have sub-par performaces.

3. Secondary letting guys get behind them. I just don't know what to say, after halftime they seemed to have forgotten their fundamentals.

4. Defensive special teams -> This is traditionally where your young linebacker/secondary talent cuts their teeth. The continuous stream of misses at linebacker continues to be a glaring hole here. Our best ST tacklers are a DE and a fullback.

5. Coaches on the Hotseat because of talent -> BV (Hot)/Shipp (warm) -> Shipp has issues evaluating (meaning the dusty d type guys who are 3 stars and is relying on pulling in 1 TH type every 4 years). BV on the other hand hasn't really done crap since he was promoted to DC on the recruiting trail (remember Lewis was a running back).

BV was out coached last night. Badly. I'm not one to call for a coaches head, but if nothing else, there needs to be some serious conversations taking place about his future. Shipp is a recruiter. I don't know enough about what he does on gameday to offer my expert opinion, but I agree that he does have some evaluation issues. He can recruit with the best of them, but once he has them, he seems to struggle with what to do. I like Coach Shipp, as long as there is someone else overseeing his work.


Spot on (with my additions, of course! :) )

[8timechamps]

I don't know if it is blocking scheme problem or player error, but I have noticed numerous times a lineman has whiffed on a block of the defensive player right in front of him, or let someone run right past him untouched. Defenses are getting lots of penetration which is the problem with our running game. It happened quite a few times last night, but also in several previous games.

It's effort. Unless the guy you are blocking is half your size, with twice your speed, you should, at least, be able to slow his progress. The failed 4th down conversion in the 4th qtr was an example of "lack of effort".

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

now for the offense...

Brennan Clay makes good decisions and is pretty good at running the ball through the A gap. That being said, he lacks the foot speed to run through any other gap if we leave the opposite side DE unblocked. This seems to be an issue on any outside play where we depend on space to remove a blocker (screens, etc). So on plays in the middle, he tends to average 6-7 ypc, but on anything on the edge that number falls to 0 ypc. This is something that he has to improve on or he'll be relegated to role player.

Jones still goes into a funk after the opponent scores. A lot of complaining about the D, but LJ's inability to flip field position left the defense fighting TTech on a short field most of the night.

Tress Way didn't have a very good game. STs in general were sorely lacking.

Broyles disappeared for almost 2 quarters after the fumble. When he reappeared, Jones overthrew him by 30 feet 3 times. The tendency to dwell on mistakes seems to permeate this team and most likely is a product of our coaching staff. The coaches just don't let stuff go and neither do the players. Its interesting that the 2 players who don't seem as affected by bad play are Stills and Reynolds. Stills has his own issues (lack of effort) but Reynolds seems to be the only steady guy in the receiving corps.

Hot Seat - Patton (hot) - The execution on the OL is atrocious for how much experience there is. I just don't understand how you can have guys whiff on guys 2 yards in front of them.

[Lott's Bandana]

Tech looked exactly like us on offense. Except their QB didn't throw the ball at the ground all night. Landry sometimes had so much time, it seemed to make him nervous and he'd send the ball to the gophers. It was disturbing.

We are going to have to face facts and understand that our fast pace isn't so new anymore and Stillwater, Lubbock and many other schools are copying what we do.

You'd think our D would be highly skilled at stopping this kind of offense. It isn't. We look outstanding against pro sets and some spread variants, but not against offenses that exploit zones, offenses like ours.

[hornswaggled]

Specifically, I think Landry is anxious about getting hit or sacked. When he ran the bootleg around the end in last year's CCG he was spectacular and broke open the game. Last night he danced around and avoided tacklers several times, and when he commited to run he performed well. However, when he has a choice to throw or run he rarely opts to run but would rather throw a hurried pass into coverage or out of bounds. When he does commit to run he usually slides short of the potential gain. It looked to me that when the game was desperate he willing to stay on his feet, run the ball, and take a hit to gain more yards, but by then it was too late.

Landry had good protection most of the time, yet he seemed to hurry his throws or throw the ball away when his primary receiver was covered. He rarely found a secondary, open receiver, or he misplaced the ball when he threw, because he was throwing on the run. A lot of the drops attributed to the receivers were due to poor pass placement as Landry was passing on the run. I think this is because he is often too frantic, wanting to get rid of the ball and thereby avoid a sack.

Landry is the best quarterback we have, and he has a lot of records accreted to his career. I know he has had an historic career at OU, and I would not want another QB to replace him now or inall his snaps. I would not want anyone to think that I am bashing him, but to me he seems to prefer to throw a bad pass rather than to run the ball when he is under pressure.

Even if my perceptions are true I cannot find fault with Landry. The last year that Sam played I thought he was tentative and made poor game-time decisions, especially after his first shoulder injury. I wonder how much Sam's injuries affected Landry's outlook regarding his future and his bodily health. After all, if you expect to live to be 70-80 years old, shouldn't you try to avoid injury in the first quarter of your life?

[toast]

Specifics on our D:

5. Coaches on the Hotseat because of talent -> BV (Hot)...BV on the other hand hasn't really done crap since he was promoted to DC on the recruiting trail (remember Lewis was a running back).

Sincere question: speculation or have you heard something? I like BV and appreciate all he has contributed and meant to OU, but wonder if it's just time for him to make a move.

[TrophyCollector]

As long as Stoops is in charge, BV's seat will never be hot nor cold. With the lack of success of Stoops assistants as HC, I don't see any chance BV is here as long as Bob is. And if BV does leave, promote within and BJW takes over.

[NormanPride]

Yeah, this game was a long time coming, but expected in my eyes (you can ask baj, I saw it coming). LB play hasn't improved, though having Nelson out there instead of Wort probably hurt in missed assignments, but not in fighting through blocks. Injuries on the OL has killed our run execution and the run game is almost a non-factor now. I would give the coaches a pass here on that, but it's just as bad with the remaining starters. We have a terrible coach (Patton) and a recently promoted HS coach (Kittle) coaching the most important position on the team, OL.

Our weakness on the OL forces us to go away from things we could be really good at, i.e downhill running and PA to our TEs. the TEs have to stay in to block since our OL is weak. Our weakness at LB forces us to do certain things on D to protect them. jkm has gone over that in greater depth than I can.

Do we suck? No. Are we national title level? No. Will we win the Big 12? Perhaps. Need to pull our heads out and get some of our injured players back. With Whaley healthy we'd be talking about how our D was exposed but our O was able to cover for us and win the game.

[zeke]

Total lack of focus & poor preparation. Including players and the coaching staff.

You can break it down into X's & O's anyway that you want, but with this team and staff, I beleive the talent and the smarts are there to beat TT....thats if TT is considered a threat, which they were not supposed to be.

[Sooners78]

Run game really hurt us in this game, maybe that can be blamed on the OL injuries, also on absence of Whaley. I think Dom's power running would have broken a few more than Finch was able to. Several dropped passes that should have been caught led to 3 and outs. Specifically I saw Kenny, Jaz, Finch, and Clay all drop passes right in their hands that were at or near 1st downs. Fumble by Ryan was the turning point in my opinion. You can't really blame him because it was a great play by the defender to rip the ball loose. We were moving the ball at that point and only down 14-7. It was a first down to begin what might have been a game-tying TD drive. The fumble led to a tech score which put them up 21-7.

Defensively, there are too many specifics to even mention. Venables seemed to be reacting the entire game. Lack of QB pressure is probably the most glaring problem. If we hit Doege a few more times, his completion % would have gone way down. I'm concerned that BV can't put together a full season of dominant defense. We can dominate Texas and FSU in big games but then have let downs against inferior competition. It happens season after season. The difference in talent on the field Saturday night with that result makes me sick!

[primetime43]

I'll go ahead and say it. I think Travis Lewis is overrated. He was great his freshman year but since then hasn't been good. He has repeatedly showed me he can't get off a block to save his life. He calls out players all the time; i think its time for him to look in the mirror.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Run game really hurt us in this game, maybe that can be blamed on the OL injuries, also on absence of Whaley. I think Dom's power running would have broken a few more than Finch was able to. Several dropped passes that should have been caught led to 3 and outs. Specifically I saw Kenny, Jaz, Finch, and Clay all drop passes right in their hands that were at or near 1st downs. Fumble by Ryan was the turning point in my opinion. You can't really blame him because it was a great play by the defender to rip the ball loose. We were moving the ball at that point and only down 14-7. It was a first down to begin what might have been a game-tying TD drive. The fumble led to a tech score which put them up 21-7.

Defensively, there are too many specifics to even mention. Venables seemed to be reacting the entire game. Lack of QB pressure is probably the most glaring problem. If we hit Doege a few more times, his completion % would have gone way down. I'm concerned that BV can't put together a full season of dominant defense. We can dominate Texas and FSU in big games but then have let downs against inferior competition. It happens season after season. The difference in talent on the field Saturday night with that result makes me sick!

I was wondering if someone would raise the talent gap. Football is a team sport and your team is only as good as your weakest player on an island. Venables gameplan had to deal with 3 backups on the field (1 LB, 1 CB, and 1 Nickel). Later in the game, one of his starters started getting abused in Hearst. Tell me exactly how you dial up something that can protect almost 1/2 your defense? As I said above, even with all this adversity we'd have been okay if Travis Lewis could have just once played the run like a linebacker instead of a safety.

[Sooner Among The Pack]

I'll go ahead and say it. I think Travis Lewis is overrated. He was great his freshman year but since then hasn't been good. He has repeatedly showed me he can't get off a block to save his life. He calls out players all the time; i think its time for him to look in the mirror.

Sadly, I am afraid you are spot on here.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Okay, I know folks still have yet to get their frustrations out. Let 'em fly, however you see fit. But not here. No, this thread is for the specifics of WHY a 29 point underdog comes into the greatest stack of bricks in the game of football and walks away with a win.

OMG FIRE BRUNT VORNABLES is not specific.

OMG PUNCH GABE LYNN IN T3H BAWLZ is not specific.

OMG ITS JUST A GAME I HEART BOB is not specific.

FIRE BRIAN BRITT is specific and appropriate, but not on topic.

No, this thread is for something specific you saw in the game that was critical in leading to the end of the longest active home winning streak in college football. Scheme, play style, extraneous factors, et cetera.

No, this thread is for something specific you saw in the game that was critical in leading to the end of the longest active home winning streak in college football. Scheme, play style, extraneous factors, et cetera.[/QUOTE]

SPECIFIC: When you are up 41-10 against Texas in the 3rd quarter, pull your starters out so Casey Walker and Tom Wort don't get hurt. It also gives backup real game experience against a program with elite athletes.

SPECIFIC: When you are up 59-3 against Ball State in the 3rd quarter, pull your starters and get your backups some playing experience. Actually, when you are up 38-6 against Ball State at half, it's probably fine to pull the starters. Waiting until a starter is injured is a bad time for on-the-job training. If you have a big lead in a game, get the backups real game experience.

Example: If a cornerback can't cover a guy, it'd be nice to discover that against Ball State instead of Texas Tech.

SPECIFIC: Sign more than one kicker every four years. It's a dice roll to sign just one guy and hold your breath that he'll hold off walk-ons. Or, to hold your breath that some super, undiscovered walk-on will arrive. It's not working for us...and it hasn't for years.

BONUS: You might, you know, hire a special teams coach who knows what the hell they are doing. Besides the missed field goals, the long kickoff returns that seem to pop up every year. I think the guys in the first few seasons feared Jonathan Hayes. Now, the special teams units don't seem to fear screwing up. Jonathan Hayes would blow a gasket on those guy equal to Venables and Shipp while he was here.

[NormanPride]

Step 1: Get Patton and Kittle other jobs.
Step 2: Hire an OL coach that kicks butt and recruits well
Step 3: Hire a ST coach. It's 1/3 of the damn game.

[SoonerAtKU]

I was wondering if someone would raise the talent gap. Football is a team sport and your team is only as good as your weakest player on an island. Venables gameplan had to deal with 3 backups on the field (1 LB, 1 CB, and 1 Nickel). Later in the game, one of his starters started getting abused in Hearst. Tell me exactly how you dial up something that can protect almost 1/2 your defense? As I said above, even with all this adversity we'd have been okay if Travis Lewis could have just once played the run like a linebacker instead of a safety.

And, the spread concept is to identify a mismatch, then use routing and space to remove that weak link's help or safety valve. It forces you to be sound at every position or to disguise coverages incredibly well and be able to cover ground much faster than the QB can account for.

[Tear Down This Wall]

Also, Stephen Good on the offensive side of the ball. Concussion during Texas game. Blowout win. Get the starters out of there. Adam Shead is not at Good's level yet.

Why is this such a difficult concept for Bob?

[NormanPride]

But Good was playing... it's Evans and Habern that are injured. Ikard to Center, Good and Shead are our guards now.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

The problem with Good is he is not.

[KantoSooner]

I think you're all pretty much 'on' with the X's and O's...and I'm not that much of a technician anyway. So, from a slightly different angle:

1. We had three important injuries: Wort, Flemming and Whaley.

2. It was a weird game with the weather delay. Yes, everyone plays one the same field, but wet turf negates a lot of speed advantage.

3. Receivers had a case of dropsy that defied belief.

4. Landry was 'off', he overthrew or threw behind receivers all night long.

5. No defensive pressure. Were we afraid of Tannehill? Is their line that good? I don't have a good answer but we didn't pressure their backfield at all until late in the third.

6. No offensive line push and not real sterling pass protection either. Landry was forced to run around. A lot.

7. All of that said, the most important point was a lack of enthusiasm. Their first TD? Our guys just stopped running at about the 10. Even our coaching staff seemed tired and disengaged. No fight in the dog this time out.

8. Oh, and our kicking game sucked in general as well.

All in all, we could have soaked up about 5-6 of these and pulled the game out. As it was, the little stuff just kept piling up and we ran out of time to pull our heads out of our butts and get going.

Very disappointing showing.

[pphilfran]

Finally...a quality thread...

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

SPECIFIC: Sign more than one kicker every four years. It's a dice roll to sign just one guy and hold your breath that he'll hold off walk-ons. Or, to hold your breath that some super, undiscovered walk-on will arrive. It's not working for us...and it hasn't for years.

We currently have 3 kickers on scholly which is entirely too many with the 85 man limit. Every kicker you sign means less depth at some other position that actually runs a decent injury risk.

[primetime43]

We currently have 3 kickers on scholly which is entirely too many with the 85 man limit. Every kicker you sign means less depth at some other position that actually runs a decent injury risk.

So we have 3 kickers on scholly but our starting tailback can't get one till the end of the year?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

It wouldn't take effect until the spring semester anyway

[SoonerAtKU]

So we have 3 kickers on scholly but our starting tailback can't get one till the end of the year?

So do you want Stoops to pull a scholarship from a player or run them off like Miles and Saban do?

It's the price you pay for failing to evaluate properly. The negative PR from blatantly pulling a scholarship for failure on the field would be a big hit to recruiting for a guy like Stoops who preaches fairness and giving everyone an even shot.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

So we have 3 kickers on scholly but our starting tailback can't get one till the end of the year?

Yes, but that isn't really Stoops' fault. Fall scholarships have to be allocated by July 1 so even if we have one available under the 85 man limit it can't take effect until the next allocation date of Dec 1.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

So do you want Stoops to pull a scholarship from a player or run them off like Miles and Saban do?

It's the price you pay for failing to evaluate properly. The negative PR from blatantly pulling a scholarship for failure on the field would be a big hit to recruiting for a guy like Stoops who preaches fairness and giving everyone an even shot.

The rules are put in place to protect the student athlete from a coach pulling their scholly on a weekly basis. You can only pull them on July 1 or Dec 1

[SoonerAtKU]

Even then, how often do you see a coach pull a scholarship explicitly because the guy isn't good enough? They'll ALWAYS try to couch it in the form of a transfer.

Now, if it's the student's idea, obviously there's no issue there. I think if Stoops was running people off to make room every offseason, we'd hear grumbling about it like we do with the SEC.

[Sooners78]

I think you're all pretty much 'on' with the X's and O's...and I'm not that much of a technician anyway. So, from a slightly different angle:

1. We had three important injuries: Wort, Flemming and Whaley.
2. It was a weird game with the weather delay. Yes, everyone plays one the same field, but wet turf negates a lot of speed advantage.

3. Receivers had a case of dropsy that defied belief.

4. Landry was 'off', he overthrew or threw behind receivers all night long.

5. No defensive pressure. Were we afraid of Tannehill? Is their line that good? I don't have a good answer but we didn't pressure their backfield at all until late in the third.

6. No offensive line push and not real sterling pass protection either. Landry was forced to run around. A lot.

7. All of that said, the most important point was a lack of enthusiasm. Their first TD? Our guys just stopped running at about the 10. Even our coaching staff seemed tired and disengaged. No fight in the dog this time out.

8. Oh, and our kicking game sucked in general as well.

All in all, we could have soaked up about 5-6 of these and pulled the game out. As it was, the little stuff just kept piling up and we ran out of time to pull our heads out of our butts and get going.

Very disappointing showing.

Agree with most of this. Add Evans and Habern to the key injuries.

[Sooners78]

I was wondering if someone would raise the talent gap. Football is a team sport and your team is only as good as your weakest player on an island. Venables gameplan had to deal with 3 backups on the field (1 LB, 1 CB, and 1 Nickel). Later in the game, one of his starters started getting abused in Hearst. Tell me exactly how you dial up something that can protect almost 1/2 your defense? As I said above, even with all this adversity we'd have been okay if Travis Lewis could have just once played the run like a linebacker instead of a safety.

That doesn't explain the line play on both sides of the ball. We are vastly more talented on both lines than Texas Tech, and lost both of those battles.

[cvsooner]

Agree with most of this. Add Evans and Habern to the key injuries.Add Casey Walker to the list. We were missing a key starter at each level of the D. Add in the lousy linebacker play of unnamed parties, and you've got a defense that isn't working. The backups have to play better, but there is, as others have noted, a reason they're backups. Coaching failures to find a better solution amongst the personnel you have is the final straw. And sometimes, it's just not your night.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

That doesn't explain the line play on both sides of the ball. We are vastly more talented on both lines than Texas Tech, and lost both of those battles.

Vastly? I don't agree with this assessment. I think our DEs were better than TTechs OTs (which was why they left the TEs in so much), but the rest of the lines were for all intents and purposes even in talent. If you want to take some torches and pitchforks to Norman about why we were even on the rest of the line well I can join in with you there.

The problem is that sometimes "Vastly" more talented players get stymied by players who are inferior to them. It happened to Michael Jordan, its happened to Blake Griffin, its happened to innumerable football players that have rolled through here. For whatever reason, it wasn't FA or RL's night to dominate though they played well.

[NormanPride]

I think the injuries to our center and two guards along with Walker on the DL affected our play more than anything else.

[DCsooner22]

In all the threads since Saturday night (and no, I have not read ALL of them), but has anyone given Tech any credit for actually exploiting our weaknesses effectively? Pretty much all I have read is how this person was out, missed field goal, lack of enthusiasm, yadda, yadda, yadda...

Doesn't Tech deserve any credit for having a game plan that worked and executing it - with or without "superior" talent? We were both playing on the same wet field almost 2 hours late....

[NormanPride]

No, **** them.

[cvsooner]

Oh, absolutely. Tech had a great gameplan and it executed it well. I don't how quickly or easily they knew about Fleming being out, but we've been soft in the middle on both runs and passes and our linebackers' weak spot of being easily occupied or turned in to the middle and rendered ineffective is well known and documented. I would say most of our offense's problems were more self-inflicted than anything. We got into a shootout and didn't keep up. When we finally caught fire, Tech was playing soft. Admittedly at that point they were protecting a lead and the clock was our biggest problem.

I could actually see a scenario late in the game that a couple of Tuberville's 'gutsy' calls would wind up being part of the post-mortem of how Tech had a lead and played too aggressively and lost. Unfortunately that's not how it worked out.

Tech came in really ready to play and Doege was nearly flawless. His line gave him great time (though imho there was a lot of jersey grabbing and whatnot going on), his receivers caught the ball and made yards after catches. We missed tackles, we missed reads, we missed catches, we missed field goals...and we still nearly pulled it out.

Tech wasn't as overmatched as some may have thought. I mean, c'mon, they did blow big leads at home to KSU (still undefeated) and to A & M (with only two losses to an unbeaten OSewe and a once-beaten Arkansas). Not too shabby. By all the stats we should have/could have rolled Tech (the 110th rated run defense and we can't run on them? Seriously?), but I really did figure it for a shootout. We just never really got it together.

[KantoSooner]

Agree with most of this. Add Evans and Habern to the key injuries.

You're right. I guess I was thinking of guys who were out 'suddenly' like since last week. Hell, any one of those guys plays and we quite possibly pull out an ugly victory.

[Tear Down This Wall]

We currently have 3 kickers on scholly which is entirely too many with the 85 man limit. Every kicker you sign means less depth at some other position that actually runs a decent injury risk.

Okay...so which is it? I another thread, someone told me Hunnicut was a walk-on, so he couldn't be blamed. I know O'Hara was a walk-on. Jimmy Stevens, I thought, was the only guy who was given a scholie out of high school.

Or...maybe the bottom line is, no one on our coaching staff can tell a kicker from a hole in the ground. I mean, it was pretty crazy to me that we were praising Hunnicut a couple of weeks ago after he missed one from inside 40 and had another one shank off the post and go in. I mean, we were supposed to be more confident about that than Stevens' wounded duck kicks? Both are bad! Equally bad.

Hell, didn't the O'Hara kid hit a few that first season he was here? At this point, if they're all going to suck equally, just line them up and let them take turns. Don't just let one suck all game long. Spread the suck around.

For f*ck sake, ya'll...go get one of the girl soccer players and dress her up like a Katie Hnida Starter Kit. At least then if a kick is missed we can say, "Well, hell, it's a girl. Give her an A for effort."

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Okay...so which is it? I another thread, someone told me Hunnicut was a walk-on, so he couldn't be blamed. I know O'Hara was a walk-on. Jimmy Stevens, I thought, was the only guy who was given a scholie out of high school.

Or...maybe the bottom line is, no one on our coaching staff can tell a kicker from a hole in the ground. I mean, it was pretty crazy to me that we were praising Hunnicut a couple of weeks ago after he missed one from inside 40 and had another one shank off the post and go in. I mean, we were supposed to be more confident about that than Stevens' wounded duck kicks? Both are bad! Equally bad.

Hell, didn't the O'Hara kid hit a few that first season he was here? At this point, if they're all going to suck equally, just line them up and let them take turns. Don't just let one suck all game long. Spread the suck around.

For f*ck sake, ya'll...go get one of the girl soccer players and dress her up like a Katie Hnida Starter Kit. At least then if a kick is missed we can say, "Well, hell, it's a girl. Give her an A for effort."

Both Hunnicut and O'hara were given schollies after they got here.

Seriously, Stoops and Co had an incredibly lucky run on kickers for the last 10 years so a couple of down years were expected at some point. Heck, Trey Dicarlo fell into our lap when we almost had no kickers on the team.

[101sooner]

So we have 3 kickers on scholly but our starting tailback can't get one till the end of the year?

Whaley doesn't need a scholarship. He's using his mother's GI Bill which pays all tuition and books and also gives him about $1,000 a month in housing allowances.