echeese
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View from the Cheap Seats-West Virginia
Since 2017 We lead the nation in blown 4th quarter leads . . . .it's not an accident.
Holy how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. TEXAS comes out and shows it learned NOTHING from it's loss to Okie Lite. We SQUANDERED(our word of the game) an outstanding offensive performance by the players only to be done in by piss poor coaching/game management at the end and some atrocious defense. Along the way, we blew a great chance to play in the BigXII title game. Now we are forced sit back and cheer for teams to hang another loss on OU or to do what we failed to do, beat WVU. In fact to leap frog WVU, we'll need them to lose twice. , We are in that boat because before a record crowd our DC can't figure out how to make an adjustment or teach his players how to make a simple tackle. Even a loss by the agroids gives us no solace. It's a dark day in Longhorn land with a trip to Lubbock on tap with ISU right behind them. You don't think their OCs are licking their chops to get at our D?
TEXAS has now assumed the #1 position in teams blowing 4th quarter leads in the nation since 2017. Lots of people want to make snide comments about Mack Brown. We remember ABC posting the stat that under Mack/TEXAS lead the nation in having 4th quarter leads turning into wins. CTH might want to call Mack for some advice. This trend is ugly.
And sadly, as poorly as our D was playing, our O was playing lights out. You had not stopped WVU all day, we were driving the ball and only need a FG to win with 2:30 in the 4th. Instead of continuing to drive the ball CTH/Beck say let's show everyone how smart we are and go bombs away. Why in the Wide Wide World of Sports would anyone do that? Worst case you run all the time off the clock and go to overtime even if you miss the FG. Your D had only recorded 2 punts and 1 turnover on downs all day. How poor was our D playing? Even on their final drive with time running down, they had no problem running the ball for 8-12 yards a pop. Why oh why would you call such a dumb play????? You were gashing their D, the only 2 things that beat you are scoring too quick or a turnover.
This was a game were the Gods of Football were clearly on our side. In a wretchedly called football game, we had more bad calls go our way than they did. And trust us, those were some bizarre calls. An example of poor calls was highlighted by the Faux Horse Collar tackle on Grier where instead of getting the ball after a 3rd down incompletition, WVU got 15 yards and a free 1st down. And the one time we fumbled, the ball got knocked out of bounds by them. We thought it was a huge break at the time. We shouldn't try to type this right after the game, the monumental stupidity is physically making us sick.
Not even sure what to say about the defense. How stupid do you have to be to line a true freshman up on David Siles, an All American WR and front runner for the Belitnikoff award? With your best CB standing right next to him. We're sure someone will claim that because we never coached at the D 1 level, we are not allowed to point out a Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious (BGO for short). 2nd half, with Kris Boyd pretty much assigned to Siles every play, 1 reception for 3 yards though it was a 1st down. DBU? Who are we kidding, TT and ISU are licking their chops to get at our D. With the bowl game, 5 losses wouldn't be shocking at this point. PS, props to Kris Boyd who actually showed up to play and the one PI penalty on his was ticky tacky at best and likely another poor call.
TEXAS/Coach Todd's run D is getting gashed, their top 2 RBs averaged 13.4 YPC and 5.5 YPC, at some point do you think about adjusting and going to 4 down linemen? or doing something to get some/any pressure on Grier? After OSU, Coach Todd said they have to work on tackling, guess what, it got worse. Yep, we get it, losing Brandon Jones and Devante Adams hurts. But our defense has gone from a team strength to a major liability. We now have virtually no shot at a BigXII title game appearance. That appearance was firmly in our grasp until our D rolled over the past 2 games. Back to back weeks D has surrendered 500 plus yards and 41 points a game on average. Cheap Seats predicted pre-season this D wouldn't give up 23 to anyone. Wowzer did we miss that call.
And talk about squandering by far the best offensive game we've had under CTH. Even the brain dead call at the 2:30 mark was a great play, just way too early. Sam was money, as usual but the difference between this game and OSU, Sam's WRs caught just about everything thrown their way. Including two heave it up long in Lil Jordan's zip code, both times LJH made spectacular catches to bail us out on 3rd and long. He, Collin and Duvernay were flat balling. 35 wasn't enough last week, 41 not enough this week. Sam and the O have to be looking around thinking what is it going to take?
A really weird turn of events this season as through the early weeks and 3 quarters of the OU game, our D was very good. Since the 4th quarter of OU where they gave up 21 points, they have allowed 17 points though Baylor was knocking on the door to score the winning points, 38 to OSU and 42 to WVU. This is not a good trend and there appears no change in sight. Frankly our top defenders appear to be dropping like flies.
FURK UPs of the games/plays that killed us
#1 Coming up 6 inches short on 4th and 1 in the shadow of our goal post. Coupled with #3 a 10 point swing in WVU's favor bracketing either side of halftime.
#2 2:30 left in the game, you have driven the ball almost into FG range (their 46), WVU's D is gassed, the score is tied. Kick a FG with 30 seconds or less on the clock and take the win. Coach Mensa and his OC say "hey let's show everyone how smart we are and burn them deep". . . . BRILLIANT Dana Holgerson says thank you very much, I'll take my chances with one of the best QB/WR combos in the game against a D that can't tackle to save their lives. Result, TE and 2 point conversion to win the game with 10 seconds to play.
#3 The Iceman cometh, Coach Mensa ices a missed FG right before half then lets him kick without icing him a second time. If you thought it was a good strategy, don't leave TOs in your pocket and ice him again. As it turned out, the margin of the game.
#4 Pettaway. He carried the ball only 9 times, pick one as he averaged 13.4 yards per tote on his way to 121 yards for the game. Amazing for a guy who came into the game averaging just 5.2, nice but not in the Heisman hunt. Last 2 weeks TEXAS D has made players look Heisman worthy.
#5 Well it's not like we've been burned by QBs running on our, "we don't need no stinking contain from our DEs at TEXAS" all year defense, 1 play from the 2 to win or lose the game. We give up a rushing 2 point conversion to a gimpy QB.
#6 In a play that highlighted our game long poor tacking, 3rd and 4 at their 34, Grier completes a pass to McCoy who's 2-3 yards behind the LOS, PJ Locke comes flying up, easily gets faked out of his jock and dives at McCoy's ankles. 34 yards later McCoy knocked out of bounds. . . .. ..Break down, don't let McCoy gain yards, let teammates fly to help. It's basic HS football. Not to solely pick on PJ, he was hardly the only player who consistently did not make plays. WVU would score a FG on a drive where fundamental football most likely give TEXAS back the ball. Oh yeah, come end of the game, 3 points is all we needed.
Conclusions/Future
This has been a year of tests for CTH. Some he has passed and make no mistake, beating OU was a nice one. Some, he's not doing so well. He failed to have his team ready coming off a bye week. Really good (forget great) coaches come off bye weeks with their teams ready to go. He now has failed the test of letting 1 loss become 2. We shall see if with winning the conference all but gone, CTH can get his team ready to close out the season with just a bowl game to play for. Barring someone upsetting WVU or OU, which we don't see, we've blown a lay up BigXII title shot. Now our best hope is that WVU can beat OU in Morgantown, giving us the tie breaker. Assuming we win out. We have one win ahead of us in putrid Kansas but as mentioned before TT and ISU have to be licking their chops to get at us. So can we win out then be in a position to cheer for WVU?
We also do not understand why our offensive staff has decided to go pass heavy, throwing for more (42) than we rushed (33) which includes Sam's scrambles. After being teased with the chance of title game appearances and New Year's Day bowls, we're back to dreaming of San Antonio or Houston, at best. Yesterday, 8-4 was a barely acceptable floor, today it appears reality. Seriously doubt (and we haven't cracked open the booze yet) we beat both ISU & TT. How can we, we don't play defense. We can pat ourselves on the back about beating what now we realize was 2 weak teams in TCU & USC, but can we win out from here to at least put us in a spot to cheer for WVU against OU. . . . .well truth be told, we'd do that anyway but is it a game that will matter to us?
Coach Mensa's next test, win out, salvage the season and at least give TEXAS a rooting interest in the OU/WVU game.
The path to the BigXII title game has taken an interesting twist. Grier's 2 point conversion run broke ISU's hearts as well. Had we won, ISU would have also controlled it's own path to DFW. Should they win out, a WVU win over OU puts them in the title game. So they will come to Austin in a week with something to play for and TEXAS will face another very good QB.
Cheap Seats will always give you are unvarnished opinion. Some say we are better off now than we were under CFS. Well we certainly hope so. That was the worst era in TEXAS football history. The objective here is being relevant on the National Stage, reaching the playoffs and winning 70% of our games. What we are seeing a team who has not learned to win yet and struggles with the bright lights of being on the top of the pile.
Ranking the BigXII
#1 Land Thieves. Dodged the upset whenTech's starting QB left the game. Still with a dark horse shot at a playoff berth
#2 WVU Win out, they are going to the BigXII title game. Any loss by ISU and they have a game to give.
#3 ISU Needs one win to go bowling, outside shot at a title game invite but they need help.
ISU/TEXAS/OSU/Baylor, all pretty much a toss up and could be ranked in any order.
#4 TEXAS Still with a small glimmer of hope for a BigXII title game invite.
#5 Baylor Needs one win to go bowling. Faces ISU, TT and TCU. We can see them going 3-0 or 1-2 but we think they get a bowl bid.
#6 Okie State. Was it Gundy or Herman's late 4th quarter mistake that was the biggest blunder? Does it matter? Both cost their teams the game. Needs one win to go bowling, faces OU/WVU/TCU. TCU for the bowl bid?
#7 Texas Tech. They had OU on the ropes then lost their QB. Backup QB is weak Another team needing a win to go bowling. TEXAS/KSU/Baylor on deck. Will largely depend on getting their QB back
#8 TCU Won the battle not to be in last place. Needs 2 wins vs WVU/Baylor/OSU to go bowling.
#9 KSU. Beat OSU fairly well then lose to a struggling TCU?. Needs to win out vs KU/TT/ISU to go bowling
#10 Kansas Another team that needs to win out to go bowling. Bad news, they face KSU/OU/TEXAS. Bottom 3 can pretty much be ranked in any order.
PLAYOFF HUNT
#1 Bama LS who?
#2 Clemson Destroyed Louisville
#3 ND FSU & Syracuse at home and USC on the road
#4 Michigan though every 1 loss team in the land will be a buckeye fan when they play.
Potential 1 loss teams with a shot if either ND is upset or tOSU pulls the upset.
#5 Georgia, would need to knock off Bama which then gets really odd
#6 Burglars of dirt
#7 The Pirate and Wazzu
#8 WVU, win out and they are in the mix
#9 tOSU, not sure they can leapfrog the other 1 loss teams
Since 2017 We lead the nation in blown 4th quarter leads . . . .it's not an accident.
Holy how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. TEXAS comes out and shows it learned NOTHING from it's loss to Okie Lite. We SQUANDERED(our word of the game) an outstanding offensive performance by the players only to be done in by piss poor coaching/game management at the end and some atrocious defense. Along the way, we blew a great chance to play in the BigXII title game. Now we are forced sit back and cheer for teams to hang another loss on OU or to do what we failed to do, beat WVU. In fact to leap frog WVU, we'll need them to lose twice. , We are in that boat because before a record crowd our DC can't figure out how to make an adjustment or teach his players how to make a simple tackle. Even a loss by the agroids gives us no solace. It's a dark day in Longhorn land with a trip to Lubbock on tap with ISU right behind them. You don't think their OCs are licking their chops to get at our D?
TEXAS has now assumed the #1 position in teams blowing 4th quarter leads in the nation since 2017. Lots of people want to make snide comments about Mack Brown. We remember ABC posting the stat that under Mack/TEXAS lead the nation in having 4th quarter leads turning into wins. CTH might want to call Mack for some advice. This trend is ugly.
And sadly, as poorly as our D was playing, our O was playing lights out. You had not stopped WVU all day, we were driving the ball and only need a FG to win with 2:30 in the 4th. Instead of continuing to drive the ball CTH/Beck say let's show everyone how smart we are and go bombs away. Why in the Wide Wide World of Sports would anyone do that? Worst case you run all the time off the clock and go to overtime even if you miss the FG. Your D had only recorded 2 punts and 1 turnover on downs all day. How poor was our D playing? Even on their final drive with time running down, they had no problem running the ball for 8-12 yards a pop. Why oh why would you call such a dumb play????? You were gashing their D, the only 2 things that beat you are scoring too quick or a turnover.
This was a game were the Gods of Football were clearly on our side. In a wretchedly called football game, we had more bad calls go our way than they did. And trust us, those were some bizarre calls. An example of poor calls was highlighted by the Faux Horse Collar tackle on Grier where instead of getting the ball after a 3rd down incompletition, WVU got 15 yards and a free 1st down. And the one time we fumbled, the ball got knocked out of bounds by them. We thought it was a huge break at the time. We shouldn't try to type this right after the game, the monumental stupidity is physically making us sick.
Not even sure what to say about the defense. How stupid do you have to be to line a true freshman up on David Siles, an All American WR and front runner for the Belitnikoff award? With your best CB standing right next to him. We're sure someone will claim that because we never coached at the D 1 level, we are not allowed to point out a Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious (BGO for short). 2nd half, with Kris Boyd pretty much assigned to Siles every play, 1 reception for 3 yards though it was a 1st down. DBU? Who are we kidding, TT and ISU are licking their chops to get at our D. With the bowl game, 5 losses wouldn't be shocking at this point. PS, props to Kris Boyd who actually showed up to play and the one PI penalty on his was ticky tacky at best and likely another poor call.
TEXAS/Coach Todd's run D is getting gashed, their top 2 RBs averaged 13.4 YPC and 5.5 YPC, at some point do you think about adjusting and going to 4 down linemen? or doing something to get some/any pressure on Grier? After OSU, Coach Todd said they have to work on tackling, guess what, it got worse. Yep, we get it, losing Brandon Jones and Devante Adams hurts. But our defense has gone from a team strength to a major liability. We now have virtually no shot at a BigXII title game appearance. That appearance was firmly in our grasp until our D rolled over the past 2 games. Back to back weeks D has surrendered 500 plus yards and 41 points a game on average. Cheap Seats predicted pre-season this D wouldn't give up 23 to anyone. Wowzer did we miss that call.
And talk about squandering by far the best offensive game we've had under CTH. Even the brain dead call at the 2:30 mark was a great play, just way too early. Sam was money, as usual but the difference between this game and OSU, Sam's WRs caught just about everything thrown their way. Including two heave it up long in Lil Jordan's zip code, both times LJH made spectacular catches to bail us out on 3rd and long. He, Collin and Duvernay were flat balling. 35 wasn't enough last week, 41 not enough this week. Sam and the O have to be looking around thinking what is it going to take?
A really weird turn of events this season as through the early weeks and 3 quarters of the OU game, our D was very good. Since the 4th quarter of OU where they gave up 21 points, they have allowed 17 points though Baylor was knocking on the door to score the winning points, 38 to OSU and 42 to WVU. This is not a good trend and there appears no change in sight. Frankly our top defenders appear to be dropping like flies.
FURK UPs of the games/plays that killed us
#1 Coming up 6 inches short on 4th and 1 in the shadow of our goal post. Coupled with #3 a 10 point swing in WVU's favor bracketing either side of halftime.
#2 2:30 left in the game, you have driven the ball almost into FG range (their 46), WVU's D is gassed, the score is tied. Kick a FG with 30 seconds or less on the clock and take the win. Coach Mensa and his OC say "hey let's show everyone how smart we are and burn them deep". . . . BRILLIANT Dana Holgerson says thank you very much, I'll take my chances with one of the best QB/WR combos in the game against a D that can't tackle to save their lives. Result, TE and 2 point conversion to win the game with 10 seconds to play.
#3 The Iceman cometh, Coach Mensa ices a missed FG right before half then lets him kick without icing him a second time. If you thought it was a good strategy, don't leave TOs in your pocket and ice him again. As it turned out, the margin of the game.
#4 Pettaway. He carried the ball only 9 times, pick one as he averaged 13.4 yards per tote on his way to 121 yards for the game. Amazing for a guy who came into the game averaging just 5.2, nice but not in the Heisman hunt. Last 2 weeks TEXAS D has made players look Heisman worthy.
#5 Well it's not like we've been burned by QBs running on our, "we don't need no stinking contain from our DEs at TEXAS" all year defense, 1 play from the 2 to win or lose the game. We give up a rushing 2 point conversion to a gimpy QB.
#6 In a play that highlighted our game long poor tacking, 3rd and 4 at their 34, Grier completes a pass to McCoy who's 2-3 yards behind the LOS, PJ Locke comes flying up, easily gets faked out of his jock and dives at McCoy's ankles. 34 yards later McCoy knocked out of bounds. . . .. ..Break down, don't let McCoy gain yards, let teammates fly to help. It's basic HS football. Not to solely pick on PJ, he was hardly the only player who consistently did not make plays. WVU would score a FG on a drive where fundamental football most likely give TEXAS back the ball. Oh yeah, come end of the game, 3 points is all we needed.
Conclusions/Future
This has been a year of tests for CTH. Some he has passed and make no mistake, beating OU was a nice one. Some, he's not doing so well. He failed to have his team ready coming off a bye week. Really good (forget great) coaches come off bye weeks with their teams ready to go. He now has failed the test of letting 1 loss become 2. We shall see if with winning the conference all but gone, CTH can get his team ready to close out the season with just a bowl game to play for. Barring someone upsetting WVU or OU, which we don't see, we've blown a lay up BigXII title shot. Now our best hope is that WVU can beat OU in Morgantown, giving us the tie breaker. Assuming we win out. We have one win ahead of us in putrid Kansas but as mentioned before TT and ISU have to be licking their chops to get at us. So can we win out then be in a position to cheer for WVU?
We also do not understand why our offensive staff has decided to go pass heavy, throwing for more (42) than we rushed (33) which includes Sam's scrambles. After being teased with the chance of title game appearances and New Year's Day bowls, we're back to dreaming of San Antonio or Houston, at best. Yesterday, 8-4 was a barely acceptable floor, today it appears reality. Seriously doubt (and we haven't cracked open the booze yet) we beat both ISU & TT. How can we, we don't play defense. We can pat ourselves on the back about beating what now we realize was 2 weak teams in TCU & USC, but can we win out from here to at least put us in a spot to cheer for WVU against OU. . . . .well truth be told, we'd do that anyway but is it a game that will matter to us?
Coach Mensa's next test, win out, salvage the season and at least give TEXAS a rooting interest in the OU/WVU game.
The path to the BigXII title game has taken an interesting twist. Grier's 2 point conversion run broke ISU's hearts as well. Had we won, ISU would have also controlled it's own path to DFW. Should they win out, a WVU win over OU puts them in the title game. So they will come to Austin in a week with something to play for and TEXAS will face another very good QB.
Cheap Seats will always give you are unvarnished opinion. Some say we are better off now than we were under CFS. Well we certainly hope so. That was the worst era in TEXAS football history. The objective here is being relevant on the National Stage, reaching the playoffs and winning 70% of our games. What we are seeing a team who has not learned to win yet and struggles with the bright lights of being on the top of the pile.
Ranking the BigXII
#1 Land Thieves. Dodged the upset whenTech's starting QB left the game. Still with a dark horse shot at a playoff berth
#2 WVU Win out, they are going to the BigXII title game. Any loss by ISU and they have a game to give.
#3 ISU Needs one win to go bowling, outside shot at a title game invite but they need help.
ISU/TEXAS/OSU/Baylor, all pretty much a toss up and could be ranked in any order.
#4 TEXAS Still with a small glimmer of hope for a BigXII title game invite.
#5 Baylor Needs one win to go bowling. Faces ISU, TT and TCU. We can see them going 3-0 or 1-2 but we think they get a bowl bid.
#6 Okie State. Was it Gundy or Herman's late 4th quarter mistake that was the biggest blunder? Does it matter? Both cost their teams the game. Needs one win to go bowling, faces OU/WVU/TCU. TCU for the bowl bid?
#7 Texas Tech. They had OU on the ropes then lost their QB. Backup QB is weak Another team needing a win to go bowling. TEXAS/KSU/Baylor on deck. Will largely depend on getting their QB back
#8 TCU Won the battle not to be in last place. Needs 2 wins vs WVU/Baylor/OSU to go bowling.
#9 KSU. Beat OSU fairly well then lose to a struggling TCU?. Needs to win out vs KU/TT/ISU to go bowling
#10 Kansas Another team that needs to win out to go bowling. Bad news, they face KSU/OU/TEXAS. Bottom 3 can pretty much be ranked in any order.
PLAYOFF HUNT
#1 Bama LS who?
#2 Clemson Destroyed Louisville
#3 ND FSU & Syracuse at home and USC on the road
#4 Michigan though every 1 loss team in the land will be a buckeye fan when they play.
Potential 1 loss teams with a shot if either ND is upset or tOSU pulls the upset.
#5 Georgia, would need to knock off Bama which then gets really odd
#6 Burglars of dirt
#7 The Pirate and Wazzu
#8 WVU, win out and they are in the mix
#9 tOSU, not sure they can leapfrog the other 1 loss teams
