ROAD RAGE

Texas A&M 33 Oklahoma 19

Wow. That was bad on so many levels that I am almost speechless. Almost.

IN THE BEGINNING

Start (stärt): to begin an activity or a movement; set out; to have a beginning; commence; to be in the initial line-up; to score first when you play at home against OU

The average time it takes to perform an instrumental version of the Star-Spangled Banner is roughly 1 minute and 15 seconds. It takes right at 2 minutes, give or take a caneck, for the Fighting Texas Aggie Band to play the extended dance version of the Aggie War Hymn. “There’s a Spirit”…the 2010 Texas A&M pre-game video…will take you on a journey from Kimbrough, Crow and The Bear in Junction to Sherrill, Bucky and Coryatt in Cotton…in exactly 3 minutes and 33 seconds.

The amount of time it took for the Sooners to fall behind against Texas A&M last Saturday night? 11 seconds. That’s right….11 seconds…which is pretty impressive considering it took 14 seconds to fall into a deficit at Missouri two weeks ago.

Seriously…how the hell do you run back a kickoff, commit a personal foul penalty and airmail the football out of the back of your own end-zone in only 11 seconds? Seriously…how the hell did Kevin Wilson not find a way to include a screen pass in that duration? Hell, the Sooners were down a deuce before I even had a chance to mix a drink and realized that it was the 82,000 Aggie fans who were swaying back and forth and not me.

Throw in the fact that the Aggies returned the second half kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown…and it makes you start to seriously wonder about the mental preparation process going on in the locker room. Whatever ‘Win This Away Game for the Gipper’ speech Stoops is using these day’s needs to be filed away with his pre-game BSC Bowl Game speech and his two point conversion chart.

THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
     Reporter: “How do you feel about the execution of your offense?”
     “I’m in favor of it” – John McKay / Head Coach / Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Let’s face it…the Sooners were simply awful Saturday night. That is not opinion…it is fact…even the coaches and players have acknowledged as much. The first half was one of the worst, if not the worst I have seen OU play in years. I will acknowledge that the Sooners played hard in the second half and never gave up…but as the Sooners found out…tardy effort is not always going to be enough to overcome a double digit deficit on the road.

OFFENSE “The Longest Yard”

OC Kevin Wilson:
Clearly, Coach Wilson lives by the motto: “if at first you don’t succeed…try it 11 more times”. The play calling was horrible…everyone knows it…and even Wilson has admitted as much. There is probably nothing more here I can say that hasn’t already been said…so I won’t pile on…much.

This won’t be popular, but I will somewhat defend Wilson…but only a little. While I get tired of the WR screens and swing passes to DeMarco Murray as much as everyone else…what it tells me…is that Wilson doesn’t have enough confidence in the offensive line to straight out run the football. Throwing those screens is, in effect, the Sooners version of a running game. If they have success throwing those screens, the defense has to adjust…and that usually means spreading out more…which allows the Sooners to better match up inside and THEN they can and usually do try to run the ball.

But the Sooners had little to no success with the screens last Saturday night and were getting physically dominated on the line of scrimmage…so in effect…there was no ‘running game’ of any shape or form. Add the fact that OU was out of timeouts and needed to preserve clock…and it makes it impossible to defend Wilson’s choice of running the football, time and time again, inside the 5 yard line.

The one thing the short screens do set up…as witnessed by Broyles torching Colorado for 2 completions of over 65 yards the week before…and did set up perfectly Saturday night…is the hitch and go….but…

QB Landry Jones
OU fans have been completely spoiled when it comes to the QB position. Sam Bradford, as he is once again proving at the next level…was/is a freak of nature. His success as a red-shirt freshman, then winning the Heisman his sophomore year…completely screwed up the reasonable levels of expectations we have at the QB position. Landry is only a red-shirt sophomore and has played well and even great at times…but that being said…the coaches have to be getting a little concerned about the way he is handling adversity outside of Cleveland County Oklahoma.

If seems like if Landry gets the least bit out of rhythm, it really shoots his wheels off….and then things start to go bad everywhere. The Sooners get behind, then I start to drink more and scream louder…pretty soon the dog gets scared and pisses the floor…then the next thing you know…nobody will watch a game with me anymore until I get counseling.

No one expects any player to be perfect…but there are certain situations when failure to execute is going to be more critical and obvious than others…especially at the QB position. The overthrow to Kenny Stills is a mistake that a QB with Landry’s experience, shouldn’t still be making. When you have a play that is set up that well…and the intended receiver doesn’t have a defender within 20 yards…you HAVE to give him a chance to catch the ball. Even if Stills has to come to a complete stop and fair catch the damn thing…fine…just don’t over throw him. That play changed the total complexion of the first half and probably the game….just like Hanna’s drop…effectively ended all the momentum the Sooners had garnered in the second half.

Offensive Line
The Sooner offensive line is just not very physical...period. They got dominated. Von Miller might have had 10 sacks if he would have drunk a glass of water during the week.

Evidently it is tiring to not block someone…so OU rotated Stephenson and Jones in at left tackle. At least they had fresh legs when they whiffed.

DEFENSE

Defensive Backs:
Look, I know that the reason they are defensive backs in the first place is because they can’t catch…but seriously, by my count at least three (and four if you’re an optimist) different INT’s for TD’s were dropped. SOMEONE be a hero.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Gray’s Anatomy
Until Ronnell Lewis returns from injury….why don’t we just kick it out of bounds?

Perfectly Imperfect
Since I was so critical of the near disastrous fake field goal attempt against Texas….I want to give full credit where credit is due on the attempted fake against A&M. Even after OU had actually made a field goal…I was surprised to see that the Aggies would actually be fooled by the Sooners attempted fake…but it was a great call….and John Nimmo’s pass was about as perfect as it gets. It is obvious that Stoops has confidence in JM…and Nimmo proved that confidence to be well founded with his strike to Hanna…if only.


Just the Opinion of One Mildly Interested Guy
The Overweight Armchair Sooner

Buddy Putty