*****Game Thread - Texas vs. Maryland*****

[okiehorn]

Texas better start focusing on OL, DL, and TE recruiting.  

Texas better start focusing on KEEPING the "commits" they have. I don't believe it's all down hill from

here by no means but if it were to be you can kiss that top 5 recruiting class goodbye

 

[bscooter99]

im not a stat guy and don't care...65% completion...hmm well how many of those completions were bubble screens or throws to the sideline? allllll I'm saying this entire time is Shane isn't your qb...this team is over rated as a whole but my main concern is we haven't found our qb yet still...STILL!

 

[Sirhornsalot]

Buschele...bad game?.....34 out of 52 375 yds passing?...2 TD's 1 int and that int was a hail Mary to end the half....yall call that a bad game?.....anyone takes that all day long.

Had it not been for dumbassed penalties at crucial times in the first half, we go to break with a lead. What game were yall watching?

Fact is, Maryland would beat us again next week. Get pissed at the defense. They cannot stop the run. Simple as that.

There's a lot of blame to go around.

Buchelle lost, so yes, it was a bad game. When you lose, stats don't matter, except with aggy.

He was not alone, but he IS the leader of that offense. If you will remember, from the first time you saw Major Applewhite you saw a QB with a nimble frame (like Buchelle's), average arm (like Buchelle's), and less experience than Buchelle has. But Applewhite had what Buchelle does not or has not shown – moxie. There were times back in the day when you just felt Applewhite was willing his team to victory. I get no sense of that at all with Buchelle. And given the pedigree, I expected that if nothing else.

You can't just put this on the defense. They pitched in a TD after all. You can't pin it on ST, because they scored a couple times. So the offense had three TDs given to them and we still couldn't pull it off.

If there is a positive to take from this, you saw a much better performance in the 2nd half than you did the first half. Adjustments were made, players didn't quit or flip out, it became a game.

I am not surprised to suddenly hear how good Maryland is now. Funny how just hours ago some people would never have said that.

 

[tglick5]

Hey everybody. Longtime horns fan new to the site. Was reading through the thread to see if my post game emotions were matched by others. 

As a Texas fan living in Big 10 country, I knew this game was not going to be a pushover. I personally felt like Maryland was a team that was a year away from challenging the best in the Big 10. After today I think they win 8 games playing a Big 10 East schedule which is not gonna be a small feat. Maryland is NOT the worst team in the Big 10 by any stretch. 

I feel like Maryland had a great defensive game plan that poor offensive line play made look even better. There should not be that much pressure from a 3 or 4 man rush. 8 guys dropping into coverage for most of the game makes it tough to throw the ball. I saw corners starting 8 yards off the line of scrimmage. They were basically saying if you can beat us throwing mid range passes then you will beat us. I felt we capitalized on this at times and got a little greedy at times and tried to force throws down the field when the looks were not there. I don't feel like we ever tried to establish a running game which is something that needs to change going forward. Defensively, the front 7 was in a good position for most of the game, but as it has seemed to always be for the last several years, we seemed to forget how to shed blocks and tackle. Coverage on the back end felt miserable at best.

I did feel that the coaching staff made a few decent adjustments at half time. While more could have done in my opinion, it was at least nice to see SOMETHING happen.

Now that the game is over I feel disappointed and frustrated. But I also feel like I set myself up to feel this way. I bought into the preseason hype even though I know I shouldn't. I somehow convinced myself that, even though it is mostly the same team as last year, we were going to miraculously be better. I also feel like it is way to early to throw in the towel for the year. A whole new coaching staff means a new offensive and defensive scheme that take more than just spring ball and fall camp to get right. You need ACTUAL game time to see what is really gonna work. The coaches got a lot of good film with correctable mistakes to go through in meetings next week. This team can, and hopefully play a lot better as the season goes on.

I still want to think 8 wins can happen this year. It is gonna take a lot of hard work and it might be a stretch, but it is one positive thought that I want to hold on to.

Hook 'Em and lets go take out some frustration on San Jose State next week.

 

[DMAC]

Texas better start focusing on KEEPING the "commits" they have. I don't believe it's all down hill from

here by no means but if it were to be you can kiss that top 5 recruiting class goodbye

This class has 2 OL and 1 DL.  Everyone keeps talking about the skill players like Waddle, Eagles etc.

My point is they need better players in trenches.  Everyone is infatuated with Slots and WR's.  Our OL and DL sucks.  We got man handled today by Maryland

 

[83Dee]

And last 2-3 years of Mack.

However, I'm still going to have some faith that he's the right guy for Texas.

My faith took a near death blow today.  Greg Robinson came in twice.... once mid-season and had a tremendous and immediate impact!  Orlando had all year - and piles of game film (which they say they did not watch - which, if true, baffles me), and we saw a steady diet of the same garbage we have seen for a long time. 

One of the analysts on Fox said something like this, "Poor lane assignments, poor pursuit angles.... I saw the same mistakes as last year being made by many of the same players." 

 

[83Dee]

Texas doesn't have a feature back to cover up deficiencies and the OL had a lackluster day  at the office. Recipe for disaster. 

I think Warren is a feature back when healthy (my opinion).  Of  course it's tough to perform as a feature back when you are backing up and get a hand full of carries. 

 

[DMAC]

My faith took a near death blow today.  Greg Robinson came in twice.... once mid-season and had a tremendous and immediate impact!  Orlando had all year - and piles of game film (which they say they did not watch - which, if true, baffles me), and we saw a steady diet of the same garbage we have seen for a long time. 

One of the analysts on Fox said something like this, "Poor lane assignments, poor pursuit angles.... I saw the same mistakes as last year being made by many of the same players." 

Yup.  Herman may be proud of Locke and I'm sure he is a great kid but he took himself out of so many plays by simply taking bad angles.  Same shit different year

 

[Daniel Seahorn]

I'll never, ever understand why a "spread" team can't line up in a Power-I for short yardage and/or goal line plays.

It shouldn't be that complicated, but I'm not a Mensa member. Hell, at least line up Humphrey or Heard at QB for more Wildcat action.

Just the way the game has evolved. But I'm with you on the Humphrey wildcat package. Worked pretty good and then we never saw it again. 

 

[Daniel Seahorn]

im not a stat guy and don't care...65% completion...hmm well how many of those completions were bubble screens or throws to the sideline? allllll I'm saying this entire time is Shane isn't your qb...this team is over rated as a whole but my main concern is we haven't found our qb yet still...STILL!

Then we don't really have much to discuss because you don't really want to have an honest conversation. 

 

[DMAC]

Just the way the game has evolved. But I'm with you on the Humphrey wildcat package. Worked pretty good and then we never saw it again. 

Didnt we do this already with the 18 wheeler package?  It always works well at first then they realize its still a one dimensional package.  

Maybe Heard would work but LIl Jordan one pass didnt looks so good.

We nee a dual threat QB for this offense.

 

[83Dee]

Does History repeat itself on the 40 Acres? 

Akers = Brown - Great Coach, great W/L record, a few flaws, run out of town
McWilliams = Strong - Great coordinator, great person, poor head coach
Macovick = Herman - Highly intelligent, arrogant demeanor at times, offensive coach, fails to motivate, poor defense

Come on.... we're having fun here, no?

 

[Daniel Seahorn]

I think Warren is a feature back when healthy (my opinion).  Of  course it's tough to perform as a feature back when you are backing up and get a hand full of carries. 

Warren hasn't won me over yet. He's a 250 back who tip toes too much and he doesn't punish tacklers like he should for a guy his size. He's going to have to prove to me he can be the man because there isn't much competition and he is still splitting carries. 

 

[Daniel Seahorn]

Didnt we do this already with the 18 wheeler package?  It always works well at first then they realize its still a one dimensional package.  

Maybe Heard would work but LIl Jordan one pass didnt looks so good.

We nee a dual threat QB for this offense.

Not going to hold that double pass against LJ. But he looked like he was capable of going and getting the first in short yardage. Could be something to tinker with. 

 

[RunRickyRun]

Gotta get Warren the ball more if he gets hurt he gets hurt but to not give him the ball more was a mistake.

 

[java]

Thank you.

Did it seem like old bad habits reasserted themselves when things got tough?  In the early going, they seemed solid enough. 

 

[Adferrum]

Ok guys, long time reader, but just signed up to get a few thoughts off my chest. Obviously, this game was pretty disappointing and felt a lot like last year. 

Couple of things that particularly struck out to me:

- Poor tackling: With all that talk about intensity and hitting I really thought we wouldn't see as many missed tackles as last year, but didn't change much. Also that we couldn't close the gaps and stop the inside runs was pretty bad. Even as the secondary wasn't tested that much, they got beat on a couple of deep balls... overall, defensive performance didn't seem improved at all

- Trenches: After all that praise about our guys in the trenches on both sides of the ball, today's performance was well below what I anticipated. Neither the offensive line could constantly protect the pocket (even Connor got beat a couple of times especially late with those 2 penalties) nor establish the run, nor the defensive line stop the run. Maryland didn't dial up crazy play calls, there most effective run working 100% of the time was inside zone straight up the middle. We should be able to stop that

- Special teams: Again a blocked FG and a missed one, sounds too familiar. Couple of sparks with the PR and the blocked FG, but our Kick returns should learn how to catch a kick...

- Play calling: Really hoped this would be an area where we would improve greatly. Didn't look like it. The calls on 4th down (I don't mind going for it on the 4th and goal but different play please) were at least questionable, and dropping back to pass on 90% of the time made us one dimensional. 

The thing is, if just one of those areas would have been a little bit better we would've escaped today's game. Too much of the things felt like a year ago and I'm pretty disappointed right now. But there is still a lot of football to be played and I remain pessimistically optimistic that we're going to see some improvement this year....

P.s. I don't think Boo is the problem. Sure he didn't have his best game. But he zero help from the running game (i.e. compared to last year when our opponents crowded the box and helped create space for the deep ball) and a OL that wasn't able to protect him properly. He isn't the big mobile QB but when he ran, he ran with determination today. 

 

[oldhorn2]

I did not see anything from Warren that inspired me to want to give him more touches. In fact, to me he looked slow and tentitive. I only saw one run where he kept churning after contact. In fact after today I am curious what Young looks like.

The O-line was simply not good today. Yall can rag on Shane all you want, but he was running for his life on nearly every play until Maryland started only sending 3 guys, which still caved in our pocket. Our D-line maybe didnt get off the bus. At first we were persuing and tackling crisply....then the whole D just up and quit. Malik made one good tackle early and spent the rest of the game standing around. Many a play I just watched Malik to see what he did.....He never did much.

 

[oldhorn2]

im not a stat guy and don't care...65% completion...hmm well how many of those completions were bubble screens or throws to the sideline? allllll I'm saying this entire time is Shane isn't your qb...this team is over rated as a whole but my main concern is we haven't found our qb yet still...STILL!

It is easy to see you are not a stat guy. Perhaps football analysis is not your forte'......How many were on the money completions deep in Maryland territory that got called back for offensive pass interference?...Boo is not the problem.

 

[Adferrum]

I did not see anything from Warren that inspired me to want to give him more touches. In fact, to me he looked slow and tentitive. I only saw one run where he kept churning after contact. In fact after today I am curious what Young looks like.

Only had 6 carries, so not much to see there honestly. But his average is still double that of Porter (5.2 to 2.6) who had 8 carries.

But frankly, I think it's hard to assess RB performance based on only a couple carries with an OL simple wasn't able to give a push which is even worse given MD gave up 200+ YPG rushing last year...