You people, this was a good win. And this game was close to being a blowout win. I’ll be honest; I’m still trying to figure out just how good this Mizzou team is. Their win in Lincoln looked good until the Pokes went up there and shucked the Huskers’ corn. However, it could be said the Pokes are on the rise, or that NU is playing worse each week. I’m not sure what all that means. However good the Mizzou team is, Chase D and his receivers are very solid. Look, two pointless fumbles cost us 14+ points. A take away is one thing, but to fumble when you’re going down and have the ball is pointless. Without those Mizzou is missing two TD’s, plus we likely get at least one more score from the drives those fumbles cost us. We were not far from about 52-17 or something. Of course Mizzou fans will sit there and talk about their turnovers and what could have been, but their turnovers were forced by good Sooner play and loud Sooner fans. That being said, Mizzou is at least a good team, if not really good. They have a real shot at winning the North. It appears that KU and KSU are their biggest obstacles. With KU’s softer South schedule they could lose to Mizzou and still make it to the CCG. Our best scenario would be for the Jayhawks to win out and bring an undefeated, top 10 team to the CCG. We need the quality win for voters and computers too. Let’s look at the offense. We’re all wanting a more consistent running game, but we all recognize defenses are putting about 8 thousand people in the box to stop our run. That opens up the pass and Sam made them pay. Good play calling accommodated this. We kept going back to the run just enough to keep Mizzou honest and pave the way for fourth quarter running success. I’d like to say something about Sam that NOBODY IN AMERICA HAS EVEN THOUGHT! The kid is way too cool headed to be just a freshman. You people, he converted something like 10/14 third downs. Did you see how many times he audibled? Perhaps some of those were fake, or signaled from the sideline, but still, he had to orchestrate. He had maybe one or two bad throws. Everything else was Troy Aikman accurate. It was also good to see Sam tuck it and run a few times. He won’t change the world with his feet, but he’s illusive enough to escape some pressure. And he was very smart about when to run and when to throw. I know we’re all going nuts over Sam, but even so, I suspect we don’t truly appreciate what we have in him. For perspective, imagine our offense without him. The backups might do okay, but would they be this cool headed this consistently? I don’t think so. Murray seemed a little gimpy last night, but still had a big catch and run to down inside the five. AP ran hard but had limited opportunities with Mizzou selling out to stop the run. Brown was the man of the hour in the fourth quarter. His power and illusiveness in traffic were very key. He also had a nice catch or two. I believe it was Ian P that had a huge block on one of our TD runs. Speaking of great blocking, I don’t brag on Brody E often enough. He is a huge key to our run game. JJ does not catch as consistently as Gresham, but is still blocking great and helps provide a lot of the YAC our WR’s are getting. And Gresham has become a huge weapon. We’ve been promised more TE for years and we’re finally getting it. Color me pleased. Dear opposing defenses, please continue to crowd the line so our TE pass game can continue to yield one TD after another. Thank you, Sooner fans. Something tells me Stoops is going to have Iggy baby-sitting a football for a while. I’m sure JI is as frustrated as the rest of us, but man I want those two fumbles back! Kelly is still magic and it puzzles me when I see teams man up on him. Maybe we should have been calling him Captain Hook all this time. Props to MJ for a key third down catch. What about the o-line? They gave up one sack, and that’s with Mizzou blitzing a good bit. The run blocking hasn’t been world beating, but it’s not bad considering the way teams are selling out to stop the run. I don’t know; I can’t shake the feeling we should be running a little better. It seems like sometimes we don’t get as much push as a row of 330 pound men should get. On the other hand, the guys seem to wear down opponents toward game’s end. While about 2/3 of Sooner fans are running around in circles waving their hands in the air wondering about our defense, let me join the other third in saying our defense played well Saturday evening. Look, an offense like Mizzou is schemed well and has stud players in key positions. They are going to make some plays. GADOCADWI. The OU defense schemed to minimize scoring and big plays. Think of the last drive of the first half. Mizzou had to burn a LOT of clock on shorter pass plays and nearly missed their FG opportunity. That’s because our defense schemes to concede the short play and deny the long play. For the most part the defense executed that scheme well. Take away the two gimmie turnover scores and Mizzou only scored 17. People, that’s not bad. Go back and watch the film. OU mixed formations, coverages, blitzes and disguised it all pretty well. Chase is not exactly a rookie and he was confused a few times. The defensive mix and good execution caused the four turnovers, even the fumbled handoff. Check the postgame quotes. One quote from CD called it a “mix-up”. In another quote I can’t locate now he said something about them not being able to hear what he audibled. The coaches talked about signaling a play but Chase running a different play than everybody else. Evidently the other players couldn’t detect the play change Chase attempted to audible. Add that all up and I see the coaches trying to change a play due to a defensive look and the Mizzou offense being mixed up due to crowd noise. Folks, that is defensive scheming. The front four pressured well. McCoy is becoming a bigger factor with each passing week. English is playing so well that it’s taking attention away from the other guys. I suspect part of his success is due to the attention our interior guys require. Opponents can’t afford to double team English. Lofton had an absolutely huge game in pass coverage, in tackling and of course the fumble/TD. It looked to me like Reynolds didn’t play as much. I know they blitzed him a lot, but maybe they played Baker more in the nick/dime sets. I need to watch the game again to be sure, but I think Reynolds was in on some key pressures. Baker is tackling really well, especially for a smaller LB. I think the DB’s played a good game as well. Tackling after the catch was solid. Pass coverage was tight on some of those Mizzou receptions. We recognize when our WR’s catch in good coverage and that should work both ways. Just because a stud offense completes some passes doesn’t mean our coverage is always bad. I know there are times we’re getting burned, but other than a couple of drives, the coverage against Mizzou was solid. Now to special teams. Let’s just say that Stoops’ post game comments show he sees the same concerns we see. I’m sure they will work on it. If the team doesn’t make progress we will have a tough time winning out. If the team does make significant progress, watch out. I’ve tried to refrain from commenting on the zebras of late, but a couple of things bear mentioning. First, on the reviews, my wife makes quicker decisions shopping for a new purse for crying out loud! You know you’re going to rule against OU and give the ball to Oregon so just do it already and get it over with. It’s not like pretending to actually look at the film is fooling any of the fans. Second, when a ball carrier is laying down on his belly at the 2, then reaches the ball out to barely touch the endzone that is not a touchdown. I guess the game could have ended, Mizzou could have gotten their showers then sent a player out on the field with a ball to touch the endzone and the Big 12 would have helicoptered a zebra in right quick to signal touchdown. In the name of loving your mother why can’t they get a call like that right? I know the game is high speed and good refs will miss some tough calls, even some not so tough. But sometimes it gets pretty silly. Okay, that’s out of our system so let’s all breathe a sigh of relief. We got another tough game behind us and got another W on the record. OU is number 4 in the country right now. If we keep winning, the computers should finally fall in love with us and give us a good BCS ranking as well. Other top 10 teams have some tough games in their future. We have an opportunity to win out and beat a respected North team, whether it’s KSU, KU or MU. It’s a tall order, but it’s doable. If this team catches its stride it’s more than doable, it’s expected. With a little help in other games that could very well land us in a big bowl of sugar. Boomer Sooner!
Sound logic..On the football board..my computer just shut down.. I think if TT can continue to win and we beat them at their house, that will gather us a better position as well
Good analysis as always, David Earl. I guaran-damn-tee you this. I'd have that poor young man running so many hamburger drills and strip tunnels he'd turn even Schmitty's guts with the volume of puke. It's not that dang complicated to get both hands on the football in traffic. It's even less complicated to get your elbow in and keep the ball inside in traffic. It's even LESS complicated to take a long hard look at the byproduct of getting the ball away from your body, as Juaquin learned last night. That's just fundamentals, and an easy mistake to make when your head's on daylight and your eyes are downfield. But it's also an easy mistake to correct. I had some clown sitting behind me barking this all night. Sad thing is, from my perspective, that defense played honest to the set. Saw some cover two nickel, saw a TON of over/under on Malcolm Kelly from the X, and some plain ol' zone nickel. Some plain ol' base 4-3. The thing is, the Mizzou defense played the set they saw. What press I saw made sense, as in when we'd go double or triple tight or wing, sucking the corners and SS up in reaction to the set. We're gonna see a lot of that as long as we keep running those overloaded sets for the running game. It doesn't quite qualify as "loading the box" explicitly to stop the run, though. That's where the coverage needs to set because the formation is just that dang tight. You'd be fired on the spot as a D-Coordinator to roll two safeties back if you saw that. Give me some single tight twins to pull those DBs and the gutshot lead and the zone read goes for days. Truth. I'm back on the Venables bandwagon after this one after some headscratching I did at Colorado with some questions I had. Fine work. Let's just hope he remembers a three man front with a DE peeling off for the flat that DOESN'T exist as a part of a zone blitz will equal a pretty good quarterback having decades to throw, which in turn will equal consistent receptions. Glad he addressed it in the postgame, and I appreciate his logic with all the 4 and 5 receiver sets Mizzou threw at us. Just another angle to mix it up. That particular angle bit us right in the ***, but yet another angle to throw. Once he went back to 4 man nickel and dime, the ship righted itself and we were back in the hunt. Fine job getting away from something that's not working. Wish you would've done that in Boulder, but fine job nonetheless. And lastly... They might want to revise that decision. Damn, that boy has a motor. All. Over. The. Field. Makes me more moist than Mike Douglas.
If teams start doubling on English our DT's or an outside blitzer will kill them. It's a catch 22 for them.
Man, that one where English chased Daniel down from the wrong side of the field to collar him from behind? Jeebus that was a sweet play.
English and Granger make a formidable duo up there. The defense did well and won this game for us. I agree that our O-line is wearing teams out in teh 4th quarter when we eat some clock on offense. I saw some definite progress this week. Sam's mobility is there when we need it. Like DE said, he's not going to set the world afire with his feet, but for a big ol' boy he can scoot around back there and has a quick sidestep. Defensively this looked more like the defenses a couple years ago with disguised schemes, unpredictable pressure, and rattling a good QB. Iggy is an enigma to me. He can make a helluva catch one play, then whiff a block or fumble the next. Loadholt is not very sneaky still. He likes to get a head start once per game. Other than that, our line looks very well coached and disciplined. We have an amazing amount of talent all over the field and this young team is getting better each week. I still can't tell you how good they are, or how good their opponents have been. I am not impressed with the 2007 version of Texas. I think Tech will prove to be our toughest opponent this year. Mike Leach is running the ball and left some speed and talent on the defensive side for a change. Good review DE.
DE I have only 1 disagreement with any of your post.Samis NOT Aikman accurate,he is White-Heupel accurate.To be Aikman acurrate he would have to lmit all throws to 10 yards and whine a lot.
I think what fans seemed to forget last night that those two fumbles by Iglesias basically gave them 14 points and a very short field. Take away the fumbles and our D gives up 17 points which is fabulous against an offense like this. I thought that the D played very well last night but can still improve on tackling.
I can't agree with some one who can't spell elusive correctly. Just kidding. Gotta disagree with you. I saw numerous times where they tried to "bump tackle". One receiver almost scored from ten yards out after the db (I believe it was Smith) just hit him and didn't even try to wrap up. It happened too many times to count last night.
Agree. That was the only part of DE's post I was going to disagree with as well. Running into the ball carrier <> tackling. Also, I noticed that DE avoided talking about the not-so-special teams. They continue to be horrible. Why is Reggie still "returning" punts? We would have better field position if we didn't put anyone back and just let the punt roll into the endzone. And, as asked in another thread, what's up with Hartley? Finally, after JI's antics last week and a fumble this week, I'd be fine with someone else back on kick offs.
Stoop Dawg, I avoided saying too much about special teams because I don't bashing or sounding too negative. I'll make a few mild criticisms, but that's about it. I do think Hartley's problem centers around a nagging injury. I know there may be other problems and some of it may have gotten into his head, but the injury is a legit deal.
