Instanalysis - Game 3 vs UCLA

[Matt Cotcher]

From the press box, here's how the UCLA game looked - INSTANALYSIS

 

[echeese]

Steve E's strip was great for sure but overall he's not much better than last year, still struggles to shed blocks takes bad angles and too many missed tackles.   He is a less talented Sergio Kindle.  

BTW, it was Hicks bad arm tackle that turned Perkins loose for 48 yards

Neither played "great games" in my mind.

Colbert failing to stuff Jack in the backfield on 4th and 1, just poor.

Duke Thomas isn't capable of playing man coverage, noticed that last year too.   We are no longer DBU. . Akina had fallen off badly the past several years.   OTOH, Jason Hall has some Kenny Vaccaro in him. . .both the good and the bad of Kenny.

 

[North Texas Golfer]

Steve E's strip was great for sure but overall he's not much better than last year, still struggles to shed blocks takes bad angles and too many missed tackles.   He is a less talented Sergio Kindle.  

BTW, it was Hicks bad arm tackle that turned Perkins loose for 48 yards

Neither played "great games" in my mind.

Colbert failing to stuff Jack in the backfield on 4th and 1, just poor.

Duke Thomas isn't capable of playing man coverage, noticed that last year too.   We are no longer DBU. . Akina had fallen off badly the past several years.   OTOH, Jason Hall has some Kenny Vaccaro in him. . .both the good and the bad of Kenny.

I'm with echeese. Neither Edmond nor Hicks played a "great game".

 

[GBT]

We are not a good football team, and I am not sold on our coordinators putting us in a position to win if we ever do get the talent to be relevant again.  Watson seems to be like Greg Davis ( conservative to a fault when he should be anything but ). Bedford reminds me of a former DC with his LB mugging crap I saw last night. Also LBs in no man's land half the time on pass plays. Any time a team needs 10 yards just swing a back or TE into the flats ( Its uncovered ). Our 4-3 is a sieve.

Charlie should have kept Greg Robinson as DC, and I am afraid Watson is another Greg Davis who goes in a shell way to often. I think Charlie gets us respectable again, but I see no titles with these coordinators. 

This was UCLA without their starting QB. God help us against Baylor and OU. I had to laugh thinking about Mack Brown saying our front seven may be the best in the country during his chatter on ABC yesterday. M. Brown is a beast, but the other 6....Uh I don't think so Mack.

 

[Duke C #11]

It's true that UCLA was without their starting QB for 90% of the game. However, UT was without Ash for 100% of the game. I would never say the linebackers had a great game if the opposition averages 4.6 YPC. Too many wrong gaps and too many missed tackles.

 

[Aaron Carrara]

The botched coin toss/ possession is still a head-scratcher. Apparently the ref turned the mic off to ask the Texas players if they were sure they wanted to do what they were doing.

The Texas d-line was Jeckyl and Hyde last night. At times they looked brilliant and other times they looked like they couldn't stop the run no matter what adjustments were made.

The Texas O-line played well as a whole. Kent Perkins was overmatched and it was noticeable.

Swoopes looked like a passing qb last night. He used his wheels when he needed to but didn't have much success on designed draw plays.

 

[drgilbert]

I realize the coin toss was botched. In spite of that we had the ball with the lead and couldn't run out the clock or score again to give us some breathing room. They take the lead, we get the ball and can't go score. So in spite of the coin toss we had two chances at the end to win and we didn't. I think in the end the coin toss was irrelevant

 

[Matt Cotcher]

UCLA's OL was better than I expected them to be.

I know the play of the LB's was frustrating, but they were better last night than the BYU game, IMO. They made a lot of plays when the DL was eating up blocks. Losing Tank hurt the Horns run defense.

 

[drgilbert]

Was Tank playing at the beginning of the third when they had that long run?

 

[Donald Boyles]

I just don't understand this team.. The Defense??

 

[echeese]

UCLA's OL was better than I expected them to be.

I know the play of the LB's was frustrating, but they were better last night than the BYU game, IMO. They made a lot of plays when the DL was eating up blocks. Losing Tank hurt the Horns run defense.

UCLA's OL was at times flat out impressive. . . .

As for the LBs, being better than BYU does not equal great play, it equals improved play.

Losing Tanks is going to hurt though I have been impressed with Ridgeway.

 

[Lukus Alderman]

What people don't realize about the coin toss was that it didn't end up costing us a thing. We should have received the ball in the first half, but UCLA did and ended up punting. UCLA would have received the ball in the second half anyways.

Regardless, it was stupid.

 

[Juan]

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

 

[HornSports Staff]

It will be interesting to see how Tank's ankle does this week. Great timing for a bye week.

 

[echeese]

What people don't realize about the coin toss was that it didn't end up costing us a thing. We should have received the ball in the first half, but UCLA did and ended up punting. UCLA would have received the ball in the second half anyways.

Regardless, it was stupid.

Actually not true. . .it cost us a possession in the 1st half. . .we only had 4, would have given us 5. . . . 

It wasn't a huge mistake but it did cost us. . . .

 

[Lukus Alderman]

Actually not true. . .it cost us a possession in the 1st half. . .we only had 4, would have given us 5. . . .

It wasn't a huge mistake but it did cost us. . . .

You are correct...I shouldn't have said it didn't cost us a thing, rather it didn't Cody us sent points. But it did cost UCLA their QB.

 

[Shannon Kelley]

For whatever it's worth, what many people are really clamoring for is spectacular QB play. Swoopes can develop into a very good QB imo.. He is very young mature wise, but all in all, the kid definatley has talent. So many of us that were so happy over a good stretch during the Mack Brown era. We were fortunate to have had 2 superstar QB's that hid a lot of what your seeing today.

We had Vince that could take a 5yd loss and turn it into an 80 yd TD because of his athletic ability, and he is a very rare find. One good enough to get you a ring! Vince could hide poor blocking(although we had a fine line that year) because of his escapablity, he could find open receivers (regardless of how well he read or even understood coverage), because he could buy so much time. He developed into a true duel threat QB, that puts an immense amount of pressure on defenses. I will admit, during Vince's time, we had plenty of thoroughbreds that were all over the field, arguably the best college football team of all time (2005). That being said, VY won several games because of his superior QB play. I don't think we win that Kansas game without VY, probably wouldn't have beat Ohio State at the beginning of that year, and good LORD, the USC game...well, he dressed in a phone both that night! Bottomline, even as good as we were in 2005, it STILL took superior QB play to do what we did.

Then comes Colt. Took his lumps early, but man did he develop into something special. Colt hid more mediocrity than many QB's actually can. We basically had no run game, but he was able to hide that because he was so good with the quick passing game. He was a very heady QB that could make plays throwing as well with his feet. I'll never forget his run vs aggy for about 50. They ran a sweep read, and he kept it and darted up the field. He made play after play that won so many games for us, and had we not had him, we would have seen the cracks in the dyke much earlier.

Point being made, we just aren't there yet at QB. We have to give Swoopes a minute to develop. Once that takes hold, you can get away with not having the best play out of every other position in order to win. Yes, QB play is that important. You just can't have a manager anymore because offenses these days put way too many points on the board. When that happens, you have to be able to counter. Young QB play, will NOT, week after week, give you the points consistently to win games you probably should have lost. I know, I know, there is always a few anomalies. But I am not talking about anomalies. I am talking about statistical percentages in or out of your favor.

Let's hang in there and give this kid a chance to grow up. You have to see the game from his eyes many times over before we all can decide whether or not he either gets it, or he doesn't. I think he can be a good one, but he needs much more seat time before that will play out. Thx