Elephant in the room? Haven't seen anyone mention the defense

Giving up 400 yards?
Giving up big plays?
Missed assignments, missed tackles?

Is anyone concerned as I am? Will Travis make up the difference?

Dang it! I was looking for perfection!!!

 

The defense seemed to play well. Harris messed up on two big plays. Hell we held this good Tulsa team to 14 points, I give the defense a lot of credit.

 

I recall 2 blown assignments that account for 100 of those yards and one score. Coaches about blew a gasket from what I saw.

 

Tulsa was a ten win team last year(exactly twice the wins the whorns had) and is no patsy.
We did have some glaring busts but by and large it was an impressive effort by the the D and the team as a whole. For a first game is was impressively mistake and penalty free.
I did not see another team yesterday who we could not have beaten.
It's early in the season but I think we are deserving of our #1 ranking.
Great effort by our players and coaches!

 

Lol.. they only gave up 14 points to a solid team. They had a few busted plays, but it was game one, so that's not insane. The defense looked really good.. like 2 picks, sacks, hurried the QB etc..

To hold Tulsa to 14 points was very impressive!!!

 

Tulsa was one of the best offensive teams in the nation last year and they have many of the key offensive personnel back this season including Kinne. They moved the ball on everyone last season, other than some blown assignments which resulted in the scores the defensive played an overall good first game.

 

Did you watch the Utah State game last year? This defense is way ahead of where we were a year ago and they improved throughout the season. The defense is physical, athletic, the defensive line (supposedly a weak point) played really well, and Tony Jefferson is the best open field tackler since Roy Williams. The blown assignments are a correctable issue through two weeks of encouragement on the practice field.

 

It's really hard to imagine we gave up that many yards, but all that matters is that we kept out of the endzone for the most part. Hopefully Harris can fix whatever problem it was last night.

 

Some people are clueless.

 

this

 

Fire Venables!!!

 

I repeat

 

True that, but they were without their 2nd team AA wide receiver / kick returner and they were breaking in a new coaching staff.

At this point, we are not a championship defense. A coverage bust in a big game can be the difference between a W and a L, the difference between winning a BCS title and winning a BCS bowl game. We had two on the same wheel route and there was another that caused a big gain.

All in all, the D played good, but they still show the cabability of giving up big plays. Hopefully, they will continue to improve and grow into the type of defense needed to win a MNC.

BOOMER

 

No one gets perfection in the first game. You could at least wait till Lewis gets back to have ridiculous expectations.

 

It was the first game of the year against a passing team..

 

And they had Kinne the C-USA offensive player of 2011 that made some good throws, and can take off at will.
It's just first game rust, no huge concerns.

 

I'm more concerned about kicking field goals. We may lose a game because our kickers smell

 

Tulsa's NCAA ranks for total offense and scoring offense the past 4 years:

2010 #5 total offense (505.62 ypg) & #6 scoring offense (41.38 ppg)
2009 #35 (410.08) & #44 (29.25)
2008 #1 (569.86) & #2 (47.21)
2007 #1 (543.93) & #6 (41.14)

Tulsa's offense has been (and will be again this season) very good. Alot of Tulsa's yardage came after OU had a 30 point lead and came on a few plays. Last year TU was 10-3 and scored 28 or more points in 12 out of their 13 games. They scored more than 40 points 7 times. Our defense played pretty well, all things considered.

 

Jefferson stood out like crazy. Very excited about this kids ability. He has 1st or 2nd round written all over him for sure.

 

miscommunications will be fixed during these two weeks.