Worst Prepared Sooner Team Since 2005 Orange Bowl

[FaninAma]

I have no clue what this team and coaching staff were doing last week.

The main reason Ford may not play more is because his blocking is atrocious.

It looked like last years defense from the WVU game had suited up for this game. ....over-pursuing, arm tackling, wrestling runners to the ground instead of driving through them.

Heupel's in game management has regressed if that is possible.

OU has recruited a 4 star QB each of the past 3 years but we don't have a QB who can throw an accurate ball past 10 yards?

This performance was so bad that I could see this team taking a nose dive for the remainder of the season.

Totally inexplicable effort all around.

And yes I felt it necessary to start yet another thread on the subject.

[Jason White's Third Knee]

I have seen worse tackling over the past couple of years. That's for sure. I agree with about 1/3 of what you said. They just played sloppy. It's a fact. Sloppy!!!

[FaninAma]

I'm sure coming off 2 tough, emotional games played a role in this game but elite teams find a way to scratch out the W.

The Texas team looked very mediocre on Saturday. They will lose at least 3 more games this year. Hopefully the team learns, grows and moves on. It appears we are still one year away.

[Soonerjeepman]

I would like to see the YAH stat....(yards after hit..) I swear to the almighty...it had to be about a 3-4 yrd avg.

[ddub0224]

I'm sure coming off 2 tough, emotional games played a role in this game but elite teams find a way to scratch out the W.



If we can't get "up" for Texas then there is something wrong. Granted this was Texas' superbowl on Saturday but still...

[S.PadreIsl.Sooner]

Our boys brought their "F" game.

[FaninAma]

I would like to see the YAH stat....(yards after hit..) I swear to the almighty...it had to be about a 3-4 yrd avg.
The defense didn't play horribly. They just seemed to be more passive than they have been all year. The main concern from the game was offensive play calling, game management and QB play. I was really shocked at Bell's mental meltdown after he played with such poise at ND and against TCU.

[FaninAma]

If we can't get "up" for Texas then there is something wrong. Granted this was Texas' superbowl on Saturday but still...
I don't disagree but this is a relatively young team and emotionally I am sure the ND game was the one circled as THE game this year. Perhaps if last week's game had been against a weaker team they may have been able to refocus quicker on Texas.

[Soonerjeepman]

FIA, Ti totally agree about the offense, I suppose the D got tired due to our lack of offensive production but the D gave up over 400 yrds, 2 backs got over 100 yrds EACH, FIRST time ever in the game's history. That is not very good D.

If ut wanted or needed a yrd they got it. Only because of play calling did they not get what they needed MOST of the time.

[Soonerjeepman]

Can we finish with the one loss, sure, but we can finish with 3 more as well...it'll be a fun ride!

[FaninAma]

Soonerjeep, I still think this defense is better. There are a lot of new players and they did not bring it emotionally like they have been all year. The team's emotional energy at the start of the Texas game wasn't in the same league as the energy displayed in the TCU and ND games.

I am very concerned at the offensive coaches' ability to manage a game that OU is behind in a way that helps the team get back in the game.

[ddub0224]

This year's defense looks like last year's defense when they spend more time on the field than off. The difference is that last year's offense scored points (often too quickly) when they were on the field. Overall though, I think this year's defense is a little better than last year's...well, at least before the loss of Nelson and Philips.

[aurorasooner]

The Sooner press that cover a BS press conference fit in that category of "worst prepared" as well. They simply rolled over just like our staff and team did on Saturday. No hard questions about the offensive game-plan at all. I guess they all had an appointment with their gynecologist they had to get to. pitiful
Stoops has got to be kicking his heels together and whistling all the way to lunch.
Was Tramel even there? If he was, I didn't hear him ask any questions. Perhaps he wasn't invited because of grade report following the game. Oh well, just sweep it under the rug.

[SoonerKnight]

Can we go on to the next game or shall we talk about the same game over and over again ignoring the rest of the season?

[FaninAma]

Can we go on to the next game or shall we talk about the same game over and over again ignoring the rest of the season?
Hey, it's only Monday. I think how the team played last week is an important dynamic indicating how the rest of the season plays out.

Other teams will try to emulate what Texas did to Bell.

What changed from last week that caused Bell to become a poor imitation of Landry Jones instead of the confident, decisive QB willing to take off on impromptu scrambles? I think the coaching staff have been haranguing him to stay in the pocket. This means Heupel's is not flexible enough to adapt his game plan to fit the talents if the personnel.

[badger]

The Sooner press that cover a BS press conference fit in that category of "worst prepared" as well. They simply rolled over just like our staff and team did on Saturday. No hard questions about the offensive game-plan at all. I guess they all had an appointment with their gynecologist they had to get to. pitiful
Stoops has got to be kicking his heels together and whistling all the way to lunch.
Was Tramel even there? If he was, I didn't hear him ask any questions. Perhaps he wasn't invited because of grade report following the game. Oh well, just sweep it under the rug.

If I'm not mistaken, the Pokes also have their media day on Mondays now too (used to be Tuesday methinks) so it is possible that with our upcoming opponent being Coach Front Butt and his band of merry (va)Jayjayhawks, they are all in Stillwater focusing instead on... (looking up OSU opponent) TCU? Yeah, I guess so. They played OU hard a few weeks ago, so it'd make sense.

I get that the fans want someone to be the bad guy and yell at the coaches for our undefeated season being lost and since Stoops doesn't do call-ins anymore, the media needs to be that outlet for frustration. Alas, we're playing KU this week, so who gives an eff.

[SoonerKnight]

Unless you were there you do not know. We can speculate all day on whether or not a frog bumps his *** when it jumps but it'll get us no where. We lost. It sucks!!! But you know the losses that sneak up on you hurt the worse. If we can use the Kansas game to get the D settled in I think we'll play better. Baylor is mortal after all and I think Tex blew their wad on us so I think we will win the conference. Let's move on from that game. Let speculate on how Bell will need to improve for the Baylor game. We have a whole lot of games left.

[FaninAma]

SoonerKnight, I reserve my right to speculate and comment on the Texas fiasco. You go ahead and concentrate your thoughts and analysis on the upcoming Kansas game.

Along the lines of speculation I honestly think the offensive coaches tried to force Bell to be more Landry-like for the Texas game because they believed that Texas DBS have a propensity to play soft in coverage further down the field. The problem us that is not Blake's strength and also forced him to think even more about his decisions. Thus made him very hesitant and much less effective. If they continue to do that it will be very detrimental to the team.

[badger]

SoonerKnight, I reserve my right to speculate and comment on the Texas fiasco.

Your only right is to remain silent, sir :P

Hear me out! If only you and everyone else would remain silent, our offense might have been able to get the snap counts and such right and they wouldn't have to Landry-style meerkat-ing down in Dallas.

OK, now I will be silent, lest I mess with Blake's concentration

[cherokeebrewer]

Keith Ford will be getting more touches for the rest of the season, not less...

[Position Limit]

I swear OU could have Adrian Peterson, Billy Simms, and Demarco Murray in the backfield and josh heupel would still only attempt 20-30 rushing attempts per game. Must. Keep. Passing. Ball....I have f'n hated this offense since Demarco Murray left. Remember that? Made it to a national championship game because we ran the damn ball? The only thing that matters to me about that calamity of a game Saturday was abandoning the run game that was working just fine and dandy. As poorly as the the rest of the machine was operating, I'm convinced we still could have won it had we committed to running the ball early and often. Just trade f'n blows with texas all game and we would have come out on top. I don't want us to win another game until josh heupel is ran out of town on a rail. I'm sick of his gimmicks. Just over and over again with this nonsense. Please leave now!!!

[aurorasooner]

This past weekend wasn't just another Big 12 conference game, it wasn't Notre Dame, it wasn't USC, it was the Texas game for Christ sakes. It's for braggin' rights, and more importantly it's for a recruiting edge,an area in which we desperately need to improve.
We were expected by everyone to roll our most hated rival and favored by 2 TDs, and we got hammered, stomped, rolled, and our coaches looked embarrassingly clueless. The whorns were down and ripe for the kill shot, and we coughed it up.
Yeah, let's just forget about it and move on to Kansas. LOL.

Wow, watching MACK on ESPNu right now, and he looks healthy and 10 years younger. I guess when you're a head coach, completely butt-stomping your biggest rival is the fountain of youth. It's either that or a helluva make up job.

[BoulderSooner79]

Somebody has to play devil's advocate, so I will. (Okay, not a real need, but I will anyway).

I don't think there was anything unusual about the preparation and I'm sure the players were focused all week and ready to go. The biggest problem was that the UT staff was holding more cards and they played them very well in this game. If anyone really watched and analyzed the TCU game the week before, you know that performance by our team on home turf would not have beaten this UT either. We won because TCU's offense is very poor, but the truth was exposed. We can discuss the game plan and play calling and execution all day and sure, optimizing these things could have made the game more competitive. But from the 30,000' level, UT won the big battles and no magic strategy would have fixed that. Their O-line was good enough to win against our thin middle defense. That allowed them to maintain favorable down and distance most the time keeping the playbook open. Their QB hit 2 big passes when they got 1 on 1 coverage as well as hitting a few critical 3rd down conversions. Their D-line was stout enough w/o having to blitz such that we couldn't completely control the game by running. I don't see any magic QB running game with Bell that would have allowed us to drive the field without having to hit a critical pass or 2 along the way to move the sticks. Their man coverage blanketed our guys in the 0-8 yard zone taking away almost all those easy throws. The only way 2 beat the D scheme the horns came in with was to either dominate the line on runs forcing them to bring more guys into the box or have our WR/DB beat them over the top for a few big plays. We were not capable of either. In short, they won in the trenches and that's a very difficult advantage to overcome. Why so different from last year? The biggest reason was UT played much better. Next biggest reason is that their whole scheme on D would not have worked against LJ. His quick release and accuracy on 8-15 yard routes would have forced them out of the tight man coverage out of the gate opening up other things as well. We didn't a QB like Bradford to win this game, but we at least needed one as good as Case McCoy.

[Position Limit]

Somebody has to play devil's advocate, so I will. (Okay, not a real need, but I will anyway).

I don't think there was anything unusual about the preparation and I'm sure the players were focused all week and ready to go. The biggest problem was that the UT staff was holding more cards and they played them very well in this game. If anyone really watched and analyzed the TCU game the week before, you know that performance by our team on home turf would not have beaten this UT either. We won because TCU's offense is very poor, but the truth was exposed. We can discuss the game plan and play calling and execution all day and sure, optimizing these things could have made the game more competitive. But from the 30,000' level, UT won the big battles and no magic strategy would have fixed that. Their O-line was good enough to win against our thin middle defense. That allowed them to maintain favorable down and distance most the time keeping the playbook open. Their QB hit 2 big passes when they got 1 on 1 coverage as well as hitting a few critical 3rd down conversions. Their D-line was stout enough w/o having to blitz such that we couldn't completely control the game by running. I don't see any magic QB running game with Bell that would have allowed us to drive the field without having to hit a critical pass or 2 along the way to move the sticks. Their man coverage blanketed our guys in the 0-8 yard zone taking away almost all those easy throws. The only way 2 beat the D scheme the horns came in with was to either dominate the line on runs forcing them to bring more guys into the box or have our WR/DB beat them over the top for a few big plays. We were not capable of either. In short, they won in the trenches and that's a very difficult advantage to overcome. Why so different from last year? The biggest reason was UT played much better. Next biggest reason is that their whole scheme on D would not have worked against LJ. His quick release and accuracy on 8-15 yard routes would have forced them out of the tight man coverage out of the gate opening up other things as well. We didn't a QB like Bradford to win this game, but we at least needed one as good as Case McCoy.

or at 4 yards per carry, just run the ball. like texas did. it's too simple though. josh heupel needs his big explosive plays that work when 100 elements fall perfectly into place.

[SoonerKnight]

SoonerKnight, I reserve my right to speculate and comment on the Texas fiasco. You go ahead and concentrate your thoughts and analysis on the upcoming Kansas game.

Along the lines of speculation I honestly think the offensive coaches tried to force Bell to be more Landry-like for the Texas game because they believed that Texas DBS have a propensity to play soft in coverage further down the field. The problem us that is not Blake's strength and also forced him to think even more about his decisions. Thus made him very hesitant and much less effective. If they continue to do that it will be very detrimental to the team.

Ok. Not disagreeing with you. However, the way I remember it we tied it at 3-3 then Blake got his Bell rung! (HA!) throwing a pick 6. We were down 3-10 and went 3 and out and they scored again now we are down even more and what you want to do is play ball control. Now, the running plays to the middle was stupid. we should have opened up the run game to the edge and tried to force them to cover the field. Again though our D was not stopping their draw plays up the ****ing middle. The O this year is good at ball control and we can control the clock but the D has to make the stops.

We failed to run Bell effectively this is true. However, I would have put Knight in there in order to get the pace going. We know Knight is gonna throw like crap but he can out run a defender he has proven that. He also may be getting a little better at throwing who knows we won't give him the chance. Bell made the comment after the WV game that he likes not having to run it up the middle in the Belldozer package. Something to that effect.

My guess is that Bell being 6'6" has back issues like most really tall folks and that crap is painful on ones back. For all we klnow Bell may have tweaked his back and that is why they did not run him. I am 6'5" and I can tell you most people that size have back issues. How is that for speculating?

[BoulderSooner79]

or at 4 yards per carry, just run the ball. like texas did. it's too simple though. josh heupel needs his big explosive plays that work when 100 elements fall perfectly into place.

I disagree. The horns 4 yards/carry was not going to drive the field w/o passing support either. Note they didn't score TDs in the redzone. But they got the passing support they needed to go with a strong run game. If we had similar passing success, it would have been a tight game decided by who makes the last big play.

[Position Limit]

I disagree. The horns 4 yards/carry was not going to drive the field w/o passing support either. Note they didn't score TDs in the redzone. But they got the passing support they needed to go with a strong run game. If we had similar passing success, it would have been a tight game decided by who makes the last big play.

I'm not implying that we should run the balll non stop. But jesus run it a bunch, set up the play action. Settle the the players down. Control the game some. A few screen passes but mostly run it. Texas ****ing sucks and this would have beat them. But hellz no. Lets keep throwing it over and over and over. **** off josh heupel. And his comments about the game I find very disturbing on many levels. Its sad because we have potential for a great running team. You know, one of the things that win nc

[SoonerorLater]

I disagree. The horns 4 yards/carry was not going to drive the field w/o passing support either. Note they didn't score TDs in the redzone. But they got the passing support they needed to go with a strong run game. If we had similar passing success, it would have been a tight game decided by who makes the last big play.

We averaged about 6 yards per rush when you look at true running plays by our RBs

[cvsooner]

Bell made a great throw to Clay in the endzone on the first drive and it was dropped. The big problem there was it was on 3rd and 4 and we went for six from 20 yards out...dumb. Made worse by the incompletion. Clay would have had to make a really good catch but that is one of his strengths.

The next pass attempt--or maybe the second one -- was the interception and that was just a poor throw due to pressure. Bell was rattled after that and it only got worse.

[sooneron]

I'm sure coming off 2 tough, emotional games played a role in this game but elite teams find a way to scratch out the W.



Really? You thought coming into the season this team was elite? I want whatever it is that you have prescribed for yourself. :rolleyes:

[OklahomaRed]

Hey, it's only Monday. I think how the team played last week is an important dynamic indicating how the rest of the season plays out.

Other teams will try to emulate what Texas did to Bell.

What changed from last week that caused Bell to become a poor imitation of Landry Jones instead of the confident, decisive QB willing to take off on impromptu scrambles? I think the coaching staff have been haranguing him to stay in the pocket. This means Heupel's is not flexible enough to adapt his game plan to fit the talents if the personnel.

Agreed. Too one dimensional, and not enough effort to adapt to the circumstances presented.

[Johnny Utah]

I'm not implying that we should run the balll non stop. But jesus run it a bunch, set up the play action. Settle the the players down. Control the game some. A few screen passes but mostly run it. Texas ****ing sucks and this would have beat them. But hellz no. Lets keep throwing it over and over and over. **** off josh heupel. And his comments about the game I find very disturbing on many levels. Its sad because we have potential for a great running team. You know, one of the things that win nc

What were his (JH's) comments you found so disturbing?