Reality Check

After further review it appears that my preseason forecast for the Longhorns may have been a tad optimistic. More on that later. Why did the Longhorn suffer another ignominious defeat at the hands of Taysom Hill and the rest of his BYU teammates? Here’s my amateur analysis broken down into its component parts.

All I am Saying is Give Swoopes a Chance

I would like to hear a credible explanation from Charlie Strong, Joe Wickline, and Shawn Watson of what their plan was for scoring points. Their plan for the early stages of the game was a good one and Tyrone Swoopes executed it well completing his first eight passes. Those completions were of short and intermediate range. But you can’t sustain drives and score points, unless you’re Peyton Manning, if you don’t throw the ball down field in the 15-18 yard range. After Swoopes went eight for eight you would think the coaches would have had the confidence in him to let him throw down field. That didn’t happen until late in the third quarter long after the issue had been decided. I also expected that Swoopes would be given the opportunity to take at least a couple of deep shots. That also didn’t happen until the third quarter when Swoopes attempted a desperation bomb down the right sideline on third and long from inside the Texas 20-yard line. Lastly, Texas’ conservative run the ball on first down plan left them with too many second and eights and nines.
Strong, Watson, and Wickline are going to have to let Swoopes try and execute a more aggressive game plan and let the chips fall where they may. If Swoopes is failing to make checks and change play calls at the line of scrimmage, he needs to be coached up in a hurry. If he is incapable of making even basic reads, Strong has to bench him in favor of Jerrod Heard. There is absolutely no point in repeating the offensive game plan Texas used against BYU again this season. None.

Defense

I’m not an expert on this but it looked like defensive end Shiro Davis blew his containment responsibility several times letting Taysom Hill get outside for some big games. Hello, Charlie Strong has been preaching lane responsibility on defense, particularly regarding the BYU game, since January. I can’t identify specifically what was going on in the middle of Texas’ defense in the second half without watching the replay. I’m not going to watch the replay. I am fairly certain though, that middle linebacker Steve Edmond didn’t have a good night. At times in the second half, the shoddy tackling that plagued Texas over the past four years reared its ugly head again.
Malcolm Brown had an Outland Trophy performance with 11 total tackles, 5 solo tackles, 5 tackles for loss including 3 sacks. The dude can play.
In defense of the defense, the offense and the special teams failures put them in an untenable position most of the night. The defense just spent way too much time on the field.

Special Teams

Nick Rose was 2 for 2 getting touchbacks on kick-offs. He was 0-1 missing a 43 yard field goal in the first quarter. With points at a premium for this offense he needs to improve on field goals in a big hurry.
William Russ continues to punt very well and has been effective in pinning opponents inside the 15 yard line this year.
Marcus Johnson had a terrible night returning kicks, turning the ball over on a fumble, and getting tackled on the 11 yard line after making an idiotic attempt to get to the sideline on the wide side of the field. In my mind this is close to being the equivalent of a turnover and it occurred after BYU had scored on the first possession of the second half to go up 13-0. It was all downhill for Texas after that. To add insult to injury, Texas was penalized for holding on another kick off and started their second drive of the half down 20-0 on the 7 yard line.
To sum up, kick returns were a disaster for Texas and was a major contributing factor to their defeat. Here’s to hoping, at the very least, this is an area Texas can greatly improve upon.

Optimism

Some of you are probably reading various Texas football blogs and their forecasts for the Longhorns which are quite gloomy. I’m not knowledgeable enough about Xs and Os to agree with or disagree with those forecasts at evidenced by my preseason prediction of 11-1. I do want you to know that I’ve been in optimism therapy for many years now (those of you who have known me for a long time know I needed to be) and that may have contributed to my prediction which now seems likely not come to pass.
Misery Loves Company
On a mostly unrelated note, Skip Bayless predicted last week that the Dallas Cowboys would win the NFC East. Skip, I feel your pain.
Believe it or not I’m looking forward to the UCLA game.
See you Friday.

HooK, ‘Em
W.E.

Over/Under Results

Our man in Amman, Reed Ramlow, flying by instruments, takes home the win this week with eight correct answers. Reed, as usual, also takes home the prize for the best comments of the week.

Al Locascio, Steve Holstead, Mitch Frink, and Greg Swan tied for second with seven correct answers.

I’m conjuring up a really difficult test of your skills for the UCLA over/under so hit the books.

W.E.