echeese
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- Nov 22, 2013
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View from the Cheap Seats-Horn Frogs
Let the meltdowns begin.
Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. So stop us if you have heard this before. Game on the line, down by only 3, 2:42 in the game, 3rd and 14 with a young secondary that needs help. Oh yeah, who is TEXAS' QB, Sam "Ice water in his veins" Ehlinger who has zero issue driving the length of the field to win a game. Freeze frame at the snap, every TEXAS player lined up within 6 yards of the LOS. TCU in 5 wide so what D does Coach Todd call? Easy, same D he called vs LSU in the same scenario, rush 6 and play man coverage. INSANITY, nothing but pure insanity. Slow down the replay, 3 of the 5 TCU WRs were BEHIND their men in coverage, all out of position and chasing the play largely unable to see the ball when it's thrown. Summed up the game, Coach Mensa and Coach Todd got PANTSED by Gary Patterson and Sonny Cumbie. They got taken out behind the wood shed and schooled in the art of real coaching.
By now the boards are littered with fans jumping off cliffs. You want to defend the coaches? Let us quote CTH himself, AFTER Kansas no less: "Our fans have a right to criticize, there is a standard at TEXAS, we are not playing to that standard" Hopefully Coach Todd calls Gary P and asks for some coaching advice before his season next year coaching some Texas Middle school. Before an apologist states "Coach Todd knows more about football than you". . . . ..not so fast my friend. Trying to mask a weak secondary riddled with injuries with the game on the line . . .. . you rush 6 and drop 5 in man vs a 5 WR front with every player within 6 yards of the line??????? Sorry, we'll disagree. All you need to do is make a tackle and force a punt. You then give your team a chance to win. Instead, you give up a huge play then let their TRUE FRESHMAN QB WALK into the end zone for a 10 point lead with less than 2 minutes to play. Get your egos out of the way, stop trying to look like a genius and play fundamentally sound football. Is that REALLY so hard (ok, rhetorical question based on the last year and a half of evidence)
In the last 2 years, CTH has the worst 2nd half record in CFB. We can now see why. Against a team with far less talent but well coached and motivated, TEXAS simply lacked the ability to put a dog away. In fact it's worse, in the 2nd half, TEXAS was outscored 24-10. And make no mistake, TCU is a dog that may not go bowling this year. They need 2 wins in a line up where they are likely only favored vs WVU at season's end. The "plan" for the D should have been, play mostly zone to protect the young DBs, stop the run and force them into long sustained drives. 4 TCU chunk plays yielded 51 yards, 24 yards 31 yards and 44 yards. Those 4 plays would be part of drives which resulted in 24 TCU points over the course of the game.
Sam the Man came back down to earth this week. 3 INTs (not counting the very late/didn't matter anyway one) turned into 13 points. D does get credit for bowing up and forcing 2 FGs to at least keep the game close. In the end it wouldn't matter as TEXAS struggled mightly in the red zone. On 5 trips they only recorded 2 TDs. A woeful average and made worse that one of the FG attempts was missed. Not how you "put a dog away". The truth is, this team will only go as far as Sam will take them. And to offer an example of how TCU's 3 star guys are coached up better than our 4 and 5 star players, let's look at Sam's INT thrown on an in route to Jake Smith. TCU DB was with Jake the whole way, had his "eyes" (more on that later) and "feet" properly aligned to jump the route. Jake's route wasn't bad, Sam's throw in the right place but the difference was, the TCU DB was in better position and made the play.
Game sucked, both sides of the ball sucked. Not much else to say. Do want to share the musing of a coach talking about the problems on the team. He said he teaches in steps (and it's clear Gary Patterson does something similar). On D step one is "EYES". Players have to "see the play and their role" 1st and foremost. Step 2 is "feet". Players must be lined up properly to run the called defense. Going to focus on these 2 and point out the problems faced by defenses going up against up tempo offenses. And especially with young players with limited experience and snaps in what even Coach O admits is a fairly complicated defense. Now TCU "only" ran 70 plays so they didn't go up tempo all the time. For comparison, OU ran 75 and Kansas ran 80. But the point is, by having a player having to "think" on the fly, by not clearly "seeing" what his role is and often not having his "feet" set at the snap, it's not really a surprise we play so poorly on D. And face it, this D gives up 31 points a game, good for #98 in the nation and well on their way to being the WORST D in TEXAS history. So when the O only scores 24, it's going to be a VERY LONG 2 weeks
Summation
Going to be a very interesting 2 weeks. If CTH thought he caught flak from fans and media before, he ain't seen nuthin yet. No doubt the boards will be miserable. Could heads roll? Keep in mind, we've stayed away and read nothing as always so don't know. We know a change that needs to be made. If CTH wants Todd to stick around, he might want to call Greg Robinson and get some instructions on making things simpler and teaching some fundamentals. Just a thought from the Cheap Seats. Here's the really wild thing, while TEXAS has lost control of it's destiny, barring Baylor beating OU (which isn't likely. . .but who knows), they can still get to the bigXII title game without herculean help.
Stats that matter
3 Sam INTs
13 TCU points off those INTs
24-10 Margin TEXAS was outscored in the 2nd half.
2-5 Red Zone TD rate for the Horns
7-72 TEXAS is 103rd in the nation in penalties
Next
Off week. Lots of work to do then a red hot KSU team rolls into Austin. Bad news, looks like they hired a fundamentally sound coach too.
Mack Watch
Don't look now but UNC shares the lead in the Coastal division of the ACC after beating Duke. They need to win one more game vs 3 upcoming ACC opponents (UVa, Pitt NCSt); we assume they will beat Mercer, to go bowling for the 1st time since 2016. ESPN has UNC projected to the Military Bowl at Annapolis.
Ranking the BigXII
#1 Baylor. Yep, Rape U rises to #1 on the back going 7-0 to open the season and an OU upset loss. Being projected to the Cotton Bowl already
#2 OU. Land thieves get caught napping, likely dropped out of the playoff race
Clearly 2 top teams. From here, put them in any order, doesn't really matter, they all beat up on each other.
TCU Can they pull an upset (we'll give'em WVU at year end) to go bowling? Jerry Palm says Liberty
OSU Knocks off ISU, projected to the Texas Bowl
TEXAS Vs ND in the "Camping Bowl".
KSU YUGE upset of OU, today projected to the Alamo Bowl,
TT Depends on who you read
ISU Cheez It Bowl in Zona
WVU
Kansas Follows up their near upset of TEXAS with a win over TT,
Playoff Hunt
#1 LSU
#2 tOSU
#3 Clemson
#4 Bama
Just outside
Penn St
OU
Personal note:
Sorry for the delay. Spent the weekend in San Antonio with my Godson/Nephew who will step on the yellow footprints within 24 hours. For those who don't understand, he enlists in the Marine Corps tomorrow and begins basic training. He has a recon slot so he will go to the School of Infantry then he starts recon training with jump school, basic combat SCUBA and others. It will take him almost a year to report to a Recon unit.
