DiderotsGhost
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Before the game, I called this a "toss-up." After the game, I'm incredibly frustrated. We outplayed Oklahoma at all but two position groups (QB and O-line). And we still lost in about the most awful fashion possible. True, the refs didn't help us with bad calls (pass interference on an uncatchable ball) and bad non-calls (the false start), but we should've never been in that position to begin with. While it's probably not as bad as it seems right now, this loss HURTS!
Let's start off with the good.
The Defense Played Spectacular. Forget the "31" points beside Oklahoma's name. 14 of those were in overtime. You can make a pretty legit case that another 14 of those in the 2nd half were the offense's fault. This defense played a very difficult opponent and exceeded all expectations.
The Secondary Played Like All-Stars. Before the year, I said I thought the secondary was the biggest strength of the team. Everyone probably thought I was crazy after Bowling Green. This week, the secondary was lights-out.
The D-Line Played Better. I thought our D-line underperformed last week. This week, we saw significant improvement. The D-line still needs to improve to live up to its potential, but it put a lot more pressure on the QB this week, and made it difficult for OU to run.
Linebacker Play is Good, but Not Great. The play at MLB is still looking like the weakness on the defense. I also thought we played better with Curt Maggitt in the game (duh!). But we held up pretty well without him.
The D's Failures were on the O. Seriously. I don't have the exact stats on time of possession, but that 2nd half was ridiculous. It felt like our defense was on the field 80% of the time. In the overall game, OK has the ball 32:30 and we had it for 27:30, but I'd wager to guess the 2nd half ratio was much more lopsided in favor of OK. Don't blame our defense for "getting tired" when they're on the field the entire 2nd half because of offensive futility. It's a miracle they only gave up 14 points given the stress they were put under.
Pass Protection is Horrible. After the BG game, I mentioned that I thought in spite of putting up 59 points, our offense really looked like the weak link, with pass protection being a big potential liability. This game substantiated that hypothesis. The O-line is playing better in the run game, but still looks horrid in pass protection. Dobbs is struggling a bit, as well, but it's no wonder when he's only getting 1 second before a defender is in his face.
Dobbs Still Struggles Passing. While I do think the O-line is the bigger issue, Dobbs still does not look completely comfortable in the role of "passer." Sure, he runs the ball great, but until he can prove he can throw it against top defenses, our opponents are just going to stack the box and dare our offense to throw on them.
Wide Receivers are Excellent. Don't blame the WRs. Not saying they are perfect, but they played well. We just couldn't get the ball to them nearly enough.
What Happened to Kamara? Thought it was a bit weird that we seemed to give up on Kamara so early this game. Maybe the coaches saw something, but didn't seem like the ball was in his hands enough.
The Run Game the Strength. Our run game is obviously the strength of this team. We just need more balance before we can beat top tier opponents like Oklahoma.
DeBord Got Outcoached. I'm not down on DeBord yet, but this was certainly not his best moment. He lived up to the "DeBoring" moniker in the 2nd half. Run, run, pass, punt. Run, run, pass, punt. I'm not putting all the blame on him, because clearly we still have issues on the O-line and that's holding back the passing game. Still, I would've liked to have seen more of an effort to get things going and diversify the offense a bit. Our overtime offense looked much better than our 2nd half offense. Why didn't we play like that earlier? If we had, we could've put the game out of reach for OK. Felt like Debord said "we're up 14 points; let's not take any chances," whereas he should've been thinking "we're up 14 points and this OK team could put up 21 points in a hurry."
Don't Give Up on This Team. This loss was brutal, but remember, the reason it's so bad is because we almost won the d@#$ game! If it were a 27-13 loss and it felt like we weren't in it, we'd probably be unhappy, but we'd be more willing to say "this is just one game." The tendency to be so down right now is more of a reflection that it felt like we should've won. Don't forget that OK destroyed us just one season ago, so we've made huge progress.
Overall. It's difficult to evaluate our team after this game. We played like world beaters in the 1st half. Our offense looked like a stalling El Camino in the 2nd half. The defense played spectacular throughout the game, but just got tired in the 4th Quarter after they didn't get any breaks. We still have a lot of tough opponents. If the passing game and pass protection don't improve, I think we're looking at a 7-5 or 8-4 season at best. While 9-3 is not outside the realm of possibility, I'd consider it a stretch given what we saw today. Both Dobbs and that O-line are going to have play much better for us to win the SEC East. Moreover, Debord is going to have to open up the playbook a bit and find a way to get the ball to our receivers.
Let's start off with the good.
The Defense Played Spectacular. Forget the "31" points beside Oklahoma's name. 14 of those were in overtime. You can make a pretty legit case that another 14 of those in the 2nd half were the offense's fault. This defense played a very difficult opponent and exceeded all expectations.
The Secondary Played Like All-Stars. Before the year, I said I thought the secondary was the biggest strength of the team. Everyone probably thought I was crazy after Bowling Green. This week, the secondary was lights-out.
The D-Line Played Better. I thought our D-line underperformed last week. This week, we saw significant improvement. The D-line still needs to improve to live up to its potential, but it put a lot more pressure on the QB this week, and made it difficult for OU to run.
Linebacker Play is Good, but Not Great. The play at MLB is still looking like the weakness on the defense. I also thought we played better with Curt Maggitt in the game (duh!). But we held up pretty well without him.
The D's Failures were on the O. Seriously. I don't have the exact stats on time of possession, but that 2nd half was ridiculous. It felt like our defense was on the field 80% of the time. In the overall game, OK has the ball 32:30 and we had it for 27:30, but I'd wager to guess the 2nd half ratio was much more lopsided in favor of OK. Don't blame our defense for "getting tired" when they're on the field the entire 2nd half because of offensive futility. It's a miracle they only gave up 14 points given the stress they were put under.
Pass Protection is Horrible. After the BG game, I mentioned that I thought in spite of putting up 59 points, our offense really looked like the weak link, with pass protection being a big potential liability. This game substantiated that hypothesis. The O-line is playing better in the run game, but still looks horrid in pass protection. Dobbs is struggling a bit, as well, but it's no wonder when he's only getting 1 second before a defender is in his face.
Dobbs Still Struggles Passing. While I do think the O-line is the bigger issue, Dobbs still does not look completely comfortable in the role of "passer." Sure, he runs the ball great, but until he can prove he can throw it against top defenses, our opponents are just going to stack the box and dare our offense to throw on them.
Wide Receivers are Excellent. Don't blame the WRs. Not saying they are perfect, but they played well. We just couldn't get the ball to them nearly enough.
What Happened to Kamara? Thought it was a bit weird that we seemed to give up on Kamara so early this game. Maybe the coaches saw something, but didn't seem like the ball was in his hands enough.
The Run Game the Strength. Our run game is obviously the strength of this team. We just need more balance before we can beat top tier opponents like Oklahoma.
DeBord Got Outcoached. I'm not down on DeBord yet, but this was certainly not his best moment. He lived up to the "DeBoring" moniker in the 2nd half. Run, run, pass, punt. Run, run, pass, punt. I'm not putting all the blame on him, because clearly we still have issues on the O-line and that's holding back the passing game. Still, I would've liked to have seen more of an effort to get things going and diversify the offense a bit. Our overtime offense looked much better than our 2nd half offense. Why didn't we play like that earlier? If we had, we could've put the game out of reach for OK. Felt like Debord said "we're up 14 points; let's not take any chances," whereas he should've been thinking "we're up 14 points and this OK team could put up 21 points in a hurry."
Don't Give Up on This Team. This loss was brutal, but remember, the reason it's so bad is because we almost won the d@#$ game! If it were a 27-13 loss and it felt like we weren't in it, we'd probably be unhappy, but we'd be more willing to say "this is just one game." The tendency to be so down right now is more of a reflection that it felt like we should've won. Don't forget that OK destroyed us just one season ago, so we've made huge progress.
Overall. It's difficult to evaluate our team after this game. We played like world beaters in the 1st half. Our offense looked like a stalling El Camino in the 2nd half. The defense played spectacular throughout the game, but just got tired in the 4th Quarter after they didn't get any breaks. We still have a lot of tough opponents. If the passing game and pass protection don't improve, I think we're looking at a 7-5 or 8-4 season at best. While 9-3 is not outside the realm of possibility, I'd consider it a stretch given what we saw today. Both Dobbs and that O-line are going to have play much better for us to win the SEC East. Moreover, Debord is going to have to open up the playbook a bit and find a way to get the ball to our receivers.
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