Life without Whaley and Broyles

[BoulderSooner79]

We know what it's like now. I was very nervous to see what we looked like without both those guys and unfortunately, it really showed. The running game isn't going to scare anyone and it was clear that LJ had problems finding anyone open tonight. Sure we still should have won and Baylor lucked out big time on that deflected pass TD. But we just were not that much better than Baylor even if we had won the game. You just don't plug in replacements for your best players these days.

[SoonerMarkVA]

Broyles is the really big loss. Finch has looked pretty solid, and the Belldozer has almost magically solved years of short-yardage power-running woes. Without Broyles to take the heat, though, it seemed pretty apparent there is a dropoff in the rest of the receivers' production. We also lose our biggest clutch performer on those 3rd and longs.

Of course, none of that has to do with swiss-cheese pass defense. When 38 ain't enough to win, you've got real problems on the defensive side of the ball.

[Okie35]

We didn't lose because of the offense. Screw that "its a team loss" BS. This was on the defense.

[BoulderSooner79]

My point is that we are not elite without those guys. And yes, I believe we were with them. We don't have an over-powering defense, but it is good enough when the offense is dominant and we play with a lead. The offense is hurtin' now and that brings the defense down to average. It is what it is, but I still like the character of this team. They are fighters.

[toast]

I'm more concerned about having other teams' wide receivers open all over the place and our d continuing to get gashed over and over. Both of our losses we scored 38 points (although the offense struggled/bogged down in the 1st half of each game) and it should have been enough to win.

[MamaMia]

We lost because we suck at being able to win in the face of adversity. Champions find a way to win no matter what. Stoops has NEVER been able to do that on a consistent enough basis to win a National Championship with what he himself put together. All we hear are nothing but excuses. Every single year. the excuses change, but we never completely gel. Even the games we have won have been won in SPITE of ongoing problems that don't get fixed.

[Okie35]

We lost because we suck at being able to win in the face of adversity. Champions find a way to win no matter what. Stoops has NEVER been able to do that on a consistent enough basis to win a National Championship with what he himself put together. All we hear are nothing but excuses. Every single year. the excuses change, but we never completely gel. Even the games we have won have been won in SPITE of ongoing problems that don't get fixed.

Adversity and health issues. I mean I thought we were supposed to have depth. We usually gel at the end of the year but this year was an exception.

[landrun]

Boulder, this loss and the Tech loss had NOTHING to do with the offense.

This is a defensive problem and I can't believe anyone would post a thread talking about the offense. Landry threw for 400+ yards.
Our defense just gave up more passing yards to Baylor than any other team they have EVER played...
To say the defense isn't dominate is an understatement. They suck. They're giving up 500+ yard every other game. They're horrible. And have been for YEARS.

I can't believe anyone would even mention the offense. I love Whaley and Broyles. But their absence was irrelevant. The offense scored enough points to allow any decent defense to bring home a win. The D gave up about 3-5 passes of 50 yards or more and a 80 yard TD drive with 40 seconds to go - which was perfectly predictable!

IT ISN'T THE OFFENSE!!!

[soonercastor]

Didn't know these 2 played on defense

[BoulderSooner79]

I'm not saying the defense was good. I'm just saying we are not an elite team without those guys and it's a shame. We were not preseason #1 because writers thought we would be dominant on defense. They voted us number #1 because they thought we would put up video game numbers on offense and have a decent defense. We are very similar to OSU in that respect. And when we had those guys, it was pretty much working that way. Without those guys, we don't jump out to leads and put the other teams offenses under pressure and force mistakes. i'm not complaining or calling out coaches - I just think with the players we have available, this is how good this team is right now. Still pretty good and we still have a shot to win the conference, but not title worthy.