echeese
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View from the Cheap Seats-Iowa State
Defense appears for real
Cheap Seats warned some before the game that Ames is a scary place to play especially on a Thursday night. Coach Tom moved to 2-2 for his career at TEXAS behind the 3rd week in a row of outstanding defense. Coach Tom also wins his 1st BigXII conference game. And make no mistake; ISU’s offense came into the game averaging 40 points a game and over 500 yards. TEXAS’ D stepped up, held ISU to about half their yardage average and only 7 points. And it stood up to several short fields where the offense or special teams left them hanging due to turnovers or a shanked punt. Perhaps our biggest take away from the game, the way the defense kept getting put in bad positions and kept making plays. USC was not a fluke.
Talking heads wanted to spin that ISU’s O did not have a good game, think the constant pressure the D put on ISU had much to do with ISU’s lack of success. TEXAS’ D Line won the battle of the trenches and shut down ISU’s best weapon, RB Greg Montgomery who was never a factor in the game. Cyclone’s QB
Flipping to the other side of the ball, we saw a tale of two halves with the 1st half being significantly more successful than the second. TEXAS would gain 312 yards on the night, 200 of that in the 1st half where they scored 2 TDs on 2 pretty good looking drives but would grind to almost a halt in the 2nd half, gaining less than 100 yards and generally looking anemic. Two biggest problems were badly losing the field position battle in the 2nd half, frequently starting well behind their own 20 then shooting themselves in the foot with mistakes at the worst possible time. Now it should be pointed out, TEXAS OL featured our former right tackle now being forced to replace All American Conner Williams at left tackle. Replacing Nickelson at right tackle was a true freshman who frankly played like a true freshman. True Freshman OL & QBs should redshirt. Face it, not many of them show up to play like Connor Williams. There were 19 scholarship OLs when CTH arrived, down to 14 when the season started and of those, at least 4 unavailable due to injury. No offense looks good without decent OL play.
In the good news department, Toniel Carter looks to be the real deal on limited carries. One of his best runs reversed by a foolish holding penalty which effectively killed a 2nd half drive. But Carter’s biggest play was a very well designed RB seam route for a 22 yard TD. And it was a hell of a pass given that Shane stood in the pocket and was hit hard as he released the ball. Like most of the O, Shane was excellent passing in the 1st half and leading the team to success on 3rd down with timely runs, only to see ISU make adjustments we failed counter. ISU choose to rush 3, drop 8 and play zone, forcing the TEXAS WRs in front of them.
In the bad news department, Warren and Porter were both largely ineffective splitting almost 30 carries though Warren did have an excellent 11 yard TD run set up by a great reception and run from Lil Jordan Humphrey. Shane rushed 13 times and was responsible for 4 or 5 3rd down conversions with his legs. This offense never got in a rhythm after halftime and still shows no sign of finding a clear identity. It still feels like CTH/Beck are trying to force their offense onto players who don’t fit instead of building the offense off the strengths of what they have to work with. Going to be interesting to see how TEXAS responds as we face KSU, OU OSU then Baylor in the month of October.
Just a word about special teams. And over all, wasn't good. Foreman made several mistakes in the return game each leading to TEXAS starting drives pinned very deep in it’s own end. Our Aussie punter was doing a phenomenal just flipping the field with booming punts but he shanked one at the worst time setting up ISU’s lone TD
In the plus dept, our new FG kicker gets huge props for a key 49 (career best) yarder to keep the game out of reach.
In summation, exciting to see our defense playing at a championship level. DeShaun Elliott followed up a great night in LA with two more INTs and more excellent play. Overall, Kris Boyd had a really nice night, frequently going mano y mano with an excellent big WR and an INT. Malik Jefferson continues to come into his own as a LB. El Machio commented earlier Thursday that we might not have a championship level QB on campus. Yes that will drive Team Shane and Team Sam wild, but it maybe reality. Hard to tell, without better OL play, our WR strength maybe squandered.
Sorry, been Debbie Downer mostly. It was a win and when ISU made it close, TEXAS made plays to take a 10 point lead then went on a 7 and a half minute 13 play drive to close out the game. Not all negative and one can certainly not fault Shane’s grit in the game. Kid played his heart out.
Will re-rank the conference on Sunday after we see how everything shakes out though after last week, there are changes coming.
