Had Enough

I’m curious how this will play out. We will have won 17% of our games without Ewers. The defense has been outstanding in every game thus far. Other positions have had spotty play at times but also looked great at others. His best games have been the first big game out of the shoot each year. I can’t help but think the gameplan is a part in that. He’s lauded for leading us a Big 12 championship and playoff appearance. Yet he beat neither of our two most difficult Big 12 opponents. OSU was certainly one of the weaker championship opponents recently. We’ve struggled to put teams away in his tenure. He hasn’t led a game winning drive late in the game as best I can recall. I’m not even sure he’s won a game in which our opponent scored 30+ points. Hes good enough to win it all.. our rosters good enough to win it all. I’m not sure our rosters ever been better. So when we win it all, will it be more Trent Dilfer or Patrick Mahomes?

Everyone recruits guys that don’t pan out. Us too. That’s always been the case. Guess that’s a bit of a disconnect. I did not realize that Taaffe last year was a dumbshit in addition to being slow. Now all of a sudden he’s neither. Because the tenor here was that he was not talented with little to no implication of football IQ for those that were vocal. The 4 most impactful secondary players this year played a lot last year. Williams too. It’s just a bit disingenuous that the implication is that dudes who played on two top 10 defenses per DFEI did not have talent.

Crawfords issue was not talent though. It was more football acumen. He’s also playing reasonably well this year. Why the difference? I don’t know. My biggest deal is that we play hard. Hill, Simmons, Moore. Those dudes just get after it. Big fan of Barron. Big win that he returned obviously.

Its that preconceived notion that you had that Taaffe should never, ever see the field. Not “talented” enough. He still has that same “talent.” Brooks and Watts were both Ohio State recruits, no? You think they recruit those lacking in talent? We may get more talented guys, but it’s not that significant a difference. If you simply want to view traits, Watts had a pretty elite vertical at the combine. Good agility marks too. Not high end speed though. There’s a difference in production and talent. Our biggest production gains are Barron and Taaffe. We are year 4. It makes sense that we get a bit better in the scheme, in experience, in talent. That’s where we are.

He’s faster and quicker. More so than Crawford I don’t know. If Mukuba was all that, he’s in the NFL now. His coverage outweighs his run support. Michigan, UF we were up before he touched the field. We played without him versus Vandy. Complete non-factor versus OU, UTSA, CSU. His best game was UGA. That’s ok as the more important games are yet to come. You did say a myriad of factors. I said likely true and added to it. The improved health and experience of Barron is a big factor of the improvement. Taafes experience is a big reason for the improvement.

Likely true, but you failed to mention that the offensive talent/experience/schemes of our opponents are hammered dogshit. A healthy Barron, a healthier Guilbeau and a more experienced Taaffe aren’t necessarily a more talented bunch. Their experience has been helpful. Our depth is off the charts. We may have just played around a bit against UF cause dudes that hadn’t played that much made 1st half showings.

It’s only fair to make others feel as though they have a chance before declaring Texas the winner.

There is a bit of a flaw in your theory here. Mar, himself, likely did not call all the penalties. He also was not the only one who failed to call penalties against OSU or Baylor. He was merely the most visible. I’m not sure how it’s clear that he hated Texas more than any other official in that game. The SEC has some games historically that looked shady. I have little doubt they protect their golden geese when needed. It is time to organize officials nationally rather than by conference.

Correct. It was mentioned that Banks was pissed on the strip sack too, thinking maybe QB needed to step up. Either way it’s something we can adjust.

Yes, this it. Unfortunately, Golden is open for a big play in spite of the poor blocking. It was likely miscommunication between the two, but it wasn’t a stunt. It was straight up a crappy job. Both RT and RG did have hands on him. Arch easily escaped and could have thrown away. These two plays were easily the worst sequence. I wouldn’t call that a free rusher. He falls at Arch’s feet because Campbell has contact. If Arch rolls left, it’s likely a huge play in our favor. The crosser and the check down were on the left, the spy on the right. My overall point is clean pockets aren’t always there and that QBs can evade 1 man pressure fairly easily. Generally we are very good at both. Certainly not our best game and something we hope not to repeat.

He came off the edge and not from the DT spot. He just flat out won. I was responding to the unblocked DT comment. This may have been the only game in the past two years that we lost many 1 v 1 battles. We for certain want better. I think the silver lining is that we’re better off for the remainder of the season.

Yep. In several ways, my best memories are against the Aggies. You used to not even have to check the schedule as to when you played them. That only happens in rivalries.

The NFL has made strides with this. This is one simple improvement. Do away with conference officials would help. And no need for the ref to gallop to the sideline for review. Let the booth call down and explain the end result.

So you watch a Florida and Georgia against us and think they get that performance every week? Not exactly the way it works. Ole Miss sacked Beck 5 times. I’ve watched enough football to know every team, every player has ups and downs so the best judgment is over time and in totality rather than individual plays or games. By the way, UF had 4 pressures versus us. 4. That’s a pretty low number and at a percentage per throw that would rank amongst the very best in the country. Out of 29 dropbacks. We had 11 pressures on 27 drops not to mention two deflections that were picked. I’ll take our performance over theirs even if we allowed a free rusher to get a sack that once. The only free rusher that I recall versus Georgia was the CB blitz. I don’t think a DT for any of UGa, UF, or Vandy registered a sack. Hell, you can take it to the NFL. Watching the Rams last night, they didn’t block for shit. I remember 3 guys running free at #9 on one play. We may screw up a stunt, but it’s very uncommon for us to have 3 guys running clean to the QB. I’ll take a free rusher on 2-3% of plays than straight up whipped 35-40% of the time. I realize you watch the hell out of the Horns. I don’t know that you do everyone else.

Back in the 80, the trips were to the Abilene area but never against El Paso schools from what recall. That’s a tough haul and seems odd they play at a lower classification school this week. Kinda crazy.