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*****Game Thread: Baylor Bears @ Texas Longhorns*****

On a side note, shout out to NTG for suggesting avoiding the game thread during the game. Second week in a row to take his advice and it was the second week in a row with a win and an enjoyable game watching experience. Even with throwing my remote at the tv when Ewers sucked on the safety, Karic sucked on the lookout block, the offense sucked on the last drive before halftime, and the entire defense and defensive staff sucked on Baylor's drive before halftime. NEVER run a prevent defense in that situation!!!lol
that is my bone to pick about PK, his soft zone is a prevent and Texas plays it poorly, all these guys dropping in coverage.  and leaving receivers open underneath or lots of blown coverage with guys looking at each other as to who was supposed to pick hm up

 
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I was right there with you on the Ash front. I used his techniques with my DBs and many of his principles as a DC so I was really hoping he would have been retained. I am intrigued by the way the defense continued to progress under coach K. but will withhold some enthusiasm when I see continued growth going forward. We have seen DCs have one good to great season only to suddenly suck again the following year. That said, I do believe that coach K, coach Choate, and coach Bo have things headed in the right direction.?

As for coach Flood and coach Bo, I'm a big fan of their push to recruit large humans. the OL and DL will set Texas up for very good things if they continue to develop. 
Thank you, yes!

The spin down of years gone by really frustrated me!  Big bodies tend to win shoving contests!

Example:  one of the best football players I’ve ever seen in high school was OJ McClintock.   He was a high school version of Vince Young as a HS QB / athlete.  Unstoppable!  He came to a Texas as a WR, was subsequently moved to Safety, then LB and finally he ended his Longhorn career as a backup DE.  I Know speed is important, but not at the expense of size!!

That said, I appreciate the push for large humans…. in the trenches as well as the secondary.  

 
Yes, Strong sucked at recruiting. If you will remember, Strong didn't recruit until the month before signing day. I was impressed that he got Malik. Thats it. I was impressed with a top 10 class that was started a month or so prior to NSD. Let's face it, we could all leave Austin and UT would still recruit a top 10 class just on brand alone.
I see it differently.  I thought Strong was a terrible Head Coach but a decent recruiter.  His timing was suspect and not at all what we were used to under Mack but he did bring in some good players.  
 

"All I've got to say is that if you don't want to go to Texas, don't let (Strong) get on your couch because that man is very persuasive”

 
Thank you, yes!

The spin down of years gone by really frustrated me!  Big bodies tend to win shoving contests!

Example:  one of the best football players I’ve ever seen in high school was OJ McClintock.   He was a high school version of Vince Young as a HS QB / athlete.  Unstoppable!  He came to a Texas as a WR, was subsequently moved to Safety, then LB and finally he ended his Longhorn career as a backup DE.  I Know speed is important, but not at the expense of size!!

That said, I appreciate the push for large humans…. in the trenches as well as the secondary.  
I thought OJ was going to be a stud as a safety or LB. Not sure I was as excited to see a player develop and yet disappointed with how he was wasted except possibly Drew Kelson.?

 
I thought OJ was going to be a stud as a safety or LB. Not sure I was as excited to see a player develop and yet disappointed with how he was wasted except possibly Drew Kelson.?
Played against him in high school and was shocked he eventually ended up on the defensive line.  Like mentioned before, he was a stud QB and even before that, a stud WR.

 
Played against him in high school and was shocked he eventually ended up on the defensive line.  Like mentioned before, he was a stud QB and even before that, a stud WR.
Who did you play for?

watching OJ in HS was something else. 

 
On defense I give Pete credit fof bringing in the two big boys at DE.After Collins and Ojomo entered Baylor's run game slowed down.

 
On defense I give Pete credit fof bringing in the two big boys at DE.After Collins and Ojomo entered Baylor's run game slowed down.
either GP talked him into playing a 4 man front  instead of his usual 3 man base D or the played a 4-2 with 5 DBs in coverage. It was a better scheme than Texas played all year but a couple of DBs (#11) got burned looking into the backfield and guys ran by them for a TD

 
I certainly wouldn’t say that Ewers sucks… hopefully it was obvious I was quoting you - and you were characterizing posts you don’t care for.

That said, I am not nearly as high on Ewers as most on this board.  As a matter of fact, I think he played 5 really good quarters all year (OU, plus 1 against BAMA).  Outside of that, his play hampered the offense. In other words, Sark cannot run his offense how he’d like to because of the play at QB.

Ewers should certainly have been replaced against OSU and TCU in an effort to get a W.  Why he wasn’t is unfathomable IMHO. And also in my opinion - minus five quarters, Card was a better option.  I get Sark wanting a QB who has the tools to better run his system… so I understand his proclivity to keep Ewers as starter.

I’ll conclude with a question - and allow you to answer without a rebuttal.  If Ewers last name was Wright… starting without the HS accolades (10.0 rating, etc…) and you were simply going by what you saw this year, would you feel the same?  Or might you join me in suggesting that maybe he should have been replaced? 
 

I concede the point that Sark knows what he’s doing… certainly knows his players better than you or I… these are the ravings of a fan.  Nothing more or less. 
I never said he shouldn't have been replaced. In fact, I wondered why he wasn't in either of the 2 games you mentioned. I can only assume that Sark chose to stick with Ewers because he thought that was his best option. I even mentioned after one of those games that if Sark didn't replace Ewers with Card then, he's riding the Ewers train for the rest of the season.

As to your point about the publicity Ewers brought, I say it's safe to say we all bought into it some. I don't recall one poster (maybe JD?) who stated something negative when he committed to us. 

I tend to be a positive person. Why dwell in negativity? I'd love Texas to be in the place Bama is in, having a chance for the title every year. I'm hoping that Sark will be the coach to do that just like I hoped Strong and Herman were after Brown. 

As far as the players, every young man on that team is doing something I could only dream about, play football for the Texas Longhorns. So yeah, I'll support them during every game.

BTW, I too enjoy your sports post and I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood.  ?

 
The true bright spot this season is actually seeing player development.  This list is long.  Sorrell, Barron, Ford, Sweat and many more.  The offensive line is very young and should be much improved.  Things are looking very good
#18 on the edge (I’ll butcher his name), went from a big liability last year to a solid starter.  The development was jaw dropping.  

 
I see it differently.  I thought Strong was a terrible Head Coach but a decent recruiter.  His timing was suspect and not at all what we were used to under Mack but he did bring in some good players.  
 

"All I've got to say is that if you don't want to go to Texas, don't let (Strong) get on your couch because that man is very persuasive”
In my fan-life, the only time recruiting was a major problem was right at the end of the Fred Akers era… in the wild, wild (cheating) Southwest Conference.  

 
A poster over on Orangebloods analyzed every Ewers pass play from the Baylor and you can tell that he is more knowledgable than the average fan. I thought it was very interesting and I got permission from him to share the gist of it here. 

Talking about Ewers, he first says this, There are reasons why our passing game has struggled that he's contributed to. He's just not the majority of the problem. It's a much bigger problem than the QB. 

He basically goes through each and every called pass play. Then he added this after the J Whitt fumble. I want to make a note of this moment right here. The garbage narrative that's being spread that Sark took the ball out of Quinn's hands is so bad. I get it, it's heat of the moment reactions based on seeing each play, one time, on TV fueled by what the announcers have to say. Again, I don't care if his name was Ewers, Manning, Card, or Tom Brady. The O-line had been such a mess in pass blocking that it was from this moment on that Sark decided he was going to run the ball or only attempt screen passes, until the sack Fumble. But just watch how that sets itself up as this goes along. Sark didn't abandon Quinn. He abandoned the O-line in pass protection. Quinn had just dropped a dime when the next series of playcalls were made.

And he finished with this right after the sack fumble. That was the last time Sark trusted the offensive line to call a pass play. And he decided that well before this last play call because the only passes he called, were screens. 4 of them to be exact since having to use 8 blockers to get an intermediate pass off. It's not like Quinn had been wildly inaccurate or made terrible downfield decisions throwing the ball in to double and triple coverage. 

More interesiting stuff in a 2nd post. 

 
The poster then followed by posting Ewers stats from PFF on various throws by distance and zeroed in with some comments about the longest downfield throws. 

20+ Yards 

Total - 15/44 363 yards, 3TD, 2INT

Here were his comments that I found interesting. 

There's a common misconception that Card was significantly better than Ewers in passes 20+ yards down the field. He wasn't. It was nearly identical as far as completion %, TD's and INT's. Card was 9/25 289yards 3TD's 1INT. Card was better in the intermediate passing game 10-20 yards but only attempted it there 12 times in 3 games. Ewers went to the Intermediate pass about 8.4 times a game. There were things Card did better like scrambling and short game passing. He was sacked at nearly twice the rate Quinn was and 3 times the rate heading in to Baylor. Starting to get deep in the weeds on evaluations when we get here. Quinn got the ball out better whereas Card would be more likely to get sacked when there was defensive pressure. IMHO we are (8-4) no matter who the starter is. The upside weighed heavily in Quinn's favor.


 



 
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I do recall some pretty good chunk completions to JT Sanders in the game which showcased Quinn's arm. 

But I also recall the bad safety he took and the fumble which wasn't entirely his fault, but it would have been nice if he could have sensed the pressure coming and threw the ball away.

Hopefully the can progress this offseason, and if not, let the best man win the job.

 
I'm not a fan of a play calling for the QB roll to left side if he is right-handed (and vise versa). Ewers didn't look comfortable the few times they called that play. I guess the pass rush may have dictated that direction, but he seemed awkward doing it.

 
A poster over on Orangebloods analyzed every Ewers pass play from the Baylor and you can tell that he is more knowledgable than the average fan. I thought it was very interesting and I got permission from him to share the gist of it here. 

Talking about Ewers, he first says this, There are reasons why our passing game has struggled that he's contributed to. He's just not the majority of the problem. It's a much bigger problem than the QB. 

He basically goes through each and every called pass play. Then he added this after the J Whitt fumble. I want to make a note of this moment right here. The garbage narrative that's being spread that Sark took the ball out of Quinn's hands is so bad. I get it, it's heat of the moment reactions based on seeing each play, one time, on TV fueled by what the announcers have to say. Again, I don't care if his name was Ewers, Manning, Card, or Tom Brady. The O-line had been such a mess in pass blocking that it was from this moment on that Sark decided he was going to run the ball or only attempt screen passes, until the sack Fumble. But just watch how that sets itself up as this goes along. Sark didn't abandon Quinn. He abandoned the O-line in pass protection. Quinn had just dropped a dime when the next series of playcalls were made.

And he finished with this right after the sack fumble. That was the last time Sark trusted the offensive line to call a pass play. And he decided that well before this last play call because the only passes he called, were screens. 4 of them to be exact since having to use 8 blockers to get an intermediate pass off. It's not like Quinn had been wildly inaccurate or made terrible downfield decisions throwing the ball in to double and triple coverage. 

More interesiting stuff in a 2nd post. 
Wait, I thought Sark couldn't adapt in the 2nd half? 

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that is my bone to pick about PK, his soft zone is a prevent and Texas plays it poorly, all these guys dropping in coverage.  and leaving receivers open underneath or lots of blown coverage with guys looking at each other as to who was supposed to pick hm up
I don't like the soft zone they play either but I'm not sure they have the DBs to play man consistently and effectively. Zone can work if you can pressure the QB, but if he has time, a decent QB will shred the Defense.

Considering the Offense gave Baylor 9 points, I'd say the D played good. Kept them under 20.

 
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