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GoldAppleCorps

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Everything posted by GoldAppleCorps

  1. OU's defensive priority is pressure from the edges. Texas's OL does their best, but pass protection on the edge isn't their calling card currently. I mention this because while analyzing the TCU game, Sark mentioned that Casey could step up into the pocket more. OU's run stopping DTs aren't their strong suit. Washing them out and stepping into the pocket would open up the QB run lane if the defense overloaded to cover the receivers and Bijan as the escape valve. Casey's long run in the TCU game demonstrates he's got wiggle and speed. This offense has too many weapons to deliberately call the QB's number, but if the defense uses all their players elsewhere (or the Tackles fail to contain OU's very talented Ends), then stealing the yards up front would keep drives alive.
  2. When Zach Evans gashed us for two runs, then TCU promptly fumbled a pointlessly intricate double reverse, I thought, "That's the most Tom Herman thing I can think of!".
  3. Unless you're credentialed in it, I guarantee that no one understands labor law in the United States and agency law. It's really frickin' complicated. Count me as one of the ones who aren't credentialed. However, the Supreme Court in their arguments that lead to NIL, were stark in their assessment that the NCAA could not define amateurism in the way they've historically done so. The justices outright stated that the NCAA was an illegal cartel. In this, the direction could not be more clear to the NLRB that student athletes would meet the definition of "employee" if considered without historical interference by the NCAA. After this, labor and agency law take over, and I'm completely clueless on that. I'm not arguing this is good. I'm stating that the SCOTUS requires it.
  4. I don't want to start calling names because frankly Jamaal Charles and maybe Jordan Shipley are the last two players I recall with speed to house it on a breakaway. Having those players on the field makes a DC hesitant to call zeros. With no layers to a defense, one block or a broken tackle means hearing Texas Fight. They make everybody's job easier.
  5. This gruntles my soul. Too many times I've seen a Texas player break into the clear. He'd give it everything he had before being tracked down by a DB from across the field. I'd be excited by the 25 yard gain, but wonder why he got caught. Texas now has several players across multiple positions that simply outrun the defense. Somebody might be able to catch him eventually, but not over the 100 yards that make up the playing surface.
  6. Please consider that a lot of those defensive metrics are hard-coded numbers. Texas Tech's offense had the ball 13 times (11 not counting end of halves). Obviously I saw the three coverage busts that led to easy points like everyone else, and aren't excusing those. I'm just pointing out that Tech still has a competent offense, and they had lots of sequences with the football. We may have done Tech a favor by making them switch QBs.
  7. If you had to diagram it, you play at home at 11am. Next week, you go on the road to a hostile environment in a smallish stadium at 11am. The week after, you play your Big Game of the season at 11am. By that time, the team simply thinks 11am is when they're supposed to be playing football. I've seen too many instances of Texas trying to crank the engine with 10:00 left in the 2nd quarter to discount this.
  8. You knew he wasn't going to break the record by gaining 4 yards on 2nd and 8.
  9. From an office on the side of Hwy 84, getting up one more time than I've been knocked down... TEXAS!
  10. My point being that you don't really know what a leader can do when everything's working out. When everyone's a step away, overthinking their job, and mistakes are leading to other mistakes, your leaders show up and refocus everyone. They're the ones that are able to seemingly switch the momentum back to their side. In reality, they're doing it because the players calm down and play like they've been trained.
  11. Colt was criticized in his first season for being timid in the huddle. He's a kid standing next to grown-assed men who played for trophies. He's not going to tell Kasey Studdard to pick up the effort. That team had a few leaders, so it wasn't rudderless, but it helps if the QB is authoritative. With experience comes wisdom. Colt obviously learned to stand and command. Card will get there (not necessarily, I think the MNC terror broke Garrett Gilbert mentally), but you can't teach experience. I'm confident the team will respond to Casey Thompson's leadership, at least against Rice. Leaders can only emerge when times get rough, though.
  12. Pretty reasonable to see where a 19 year old kid making his first road start in Fayettnam just freaked out. He wanted to do a good job in an important game, and the weight of the moment made him get into his own head and think about it. He opted for handoffs and give reads when he needed to risk passing. He double checked his windows instead of letting the ball go. By that time, it was too late for a fast moving game. As fans, we're still battered and fragile. We've had our optimism crushed too many times. It's all understandable. Letting him sit and catch up to the pace of the game stands to really help Hudson Card. Casey might fling a couple of turnovers, but it won't be because he lacked confidence. He's going to make Sark pull him back as far as aggression goes.
  13. Card was overwhelmed playing his first road game against a crazy opponent. Understandable, but not forgivable. Casey gets his shot. The OL is the deep voodoo. Your best five OL players don't necessarily make up your best OL. They have to play as a unit. You can't harden that unit (!) in practice when the defense is a known quantity and has an interest in not killing your ball carriers. You only know what you have when you expose them to a hostile defense. If Flood says the team keeps going with the guys currently playing, I can only trust he knows what he's talking about. Hopefully, we won't learn anything new about the team playing Rice. I hope the tape shows that the team learned something after the Arky loss.
  14. What gruntled me along those lines is that PK's defense kept working even when we subbed in the bench. Orlando's defense was brilliantly designed. It had Swiss watch complexity. When all the pieces did exactly what they were supposed to do, it was beautiful. However, when a guy got hurt or subbed out, his replacement didn't quite get the memo. The entire defense would be wrecked. PK has his guys playing a complex defense that conceptually simple. Every player seemed to grasp his role. Even the late TD run had 3 Texas defenders ready to make the play (but failed to execute tackles - I'm sure that point came up this week). This defense took away the easy stuff and made ULL execute the hard stuff. It's clear that there's more to come.
  15. So I die on Wednesday instead of Thursday! Who gives a shit?
  16. Heh. True. However, your model has to agree with reality, otherwise you get things like "everyone in the world has 3/10 of a testicle".
  17. 32 points is a weird configuration. Not sure how we land there, but I'd accept that if it means an inspired effort by the Cajun defense made Texas earn their points on long, time consuming drives. I'm hoping for better than 26 honest points against PK's defense. We've written a lot about our offensive weapons and production, but I believe this defense can be special. I also believe it will be really hard to tell what's going on. That's not a bug. It's a feature. The opposing QB won't likely be able to figure it out, either.
  18. If the running game is getting 5 yards per carry, football becomes a very easy game. I'm continually amazed at how many offensive coordinators want to play that 4-D chess match and outfox the DC by getting away from an easy play that's working. Make them stop it first. Breece Hall certainly isn't a tomato can, but playing defense by keeping Bijan Robinson in front of you seems like a recipe for hearing the fight song.
  19. ULaLa can only play 11 players on defense like everybody else. Sark's offense has a home run built into every play. The reason why these two thing are related is because it limits the amount of "patient" drives we have (in a good way). Now, as much as I'd like Bijan scoring on every scamper, that shit ain't realistic. Certainly, if he's grabbing 10+ yards, let him roll. Since I don't think ULaLa's defensive coaches are morons, they'll certainly want to adjust. That's when things get fun. Picture "trips right" - three receivers to the wide, field side of the OL. Customarily, these receivers run at different "levels" in the defense: shallow (cross), medium (curl or hook), and deep (fly or post). It's almost impossible to cover receivers 1 on 1 for any length of time. Unless they've found 4 "shutdown" corners, there's going to have to be some rotation and help. Our receivers are taught to play routes and concepts instead of positions. You may be lined up inside, but you're still the "deep" route. This prevents the defense from aligning based on formation. They're going to have to play the routes as they develop. As the game moves and the RPO forces more attention to the LOS, the chances are the receivers will encounter misaligned coverage. When the shallow or mid-level guy gets it, that's a nice 8-15 yard gain. Eventually, the "misalignment" will happen to the deep guy. The NB looked into the backfield to see what Bijan was doing. His receiver got 2 steps on him. Now, the receiver encounters the deep safety. That safety will now ALWAYS be wrong. If he attacks inside to the field, the receiver bends his route to the pylon. If he tries to leverage the sideline to help, the route gets bent inside to the goalposts. Either way, the safety will be outside the shoulder of the receiver. The QB just leads him to daylight. The safety is on tape looking like he blew it big-time, but the reality is that pressure from other options put him in an unwinnable situation. Sark stresses seeing the deep route first. If it's covered, fine. Move on to other progressions. However, if the defense is properly respecting a non-predictable offense (!), the deep route will open at some point during every series.
  20. We won't see a finished product on Saturday. I'm sure there will be plenty of things of film that Card (and likely Thompson too) will be asked to improve on the following week. Remember that Sark just put Mac Jones in the league - in the first round. I know we haven't had anything to do for 8 months, but it's time to stop over thinking this. One of the best (if not the best) quarterback teachers in the business picked Hudson Card. He had a choice, and could have picked the guy who tossed 4 TD passes in essentially one half of a football bowl game. Casey Thompson comes highly recommended - and Sark thinks Card is better than that. He didn't pick Card for a mind game. He did it because playing Husdon Card at QB gives the team the best chance to win the game on Saturday. The unknown is always scary, but a highly rated QB was chosen by a credentialed QB guru to play behind an OL selected and trained by a coach (and colleague of the OC) whose previous unit was recognized as the best in college ball. At that QB's side will be one of the most electrifying backs in the game. We won't see the finished product on Saturday, but there's a reason why donors with a ton of cash paid 8 figures to dismiss the previous staff. There's an outrageous amount of talent on this team, and they weren't using it. Sark got the best in the business (yes, most of them came from Alabama) to manage this talent. Rather than trying to analyze from 4 levels deep, we're going to see true development that we've been missing for 15 years.
  21. <trigger alert - no bitcha to me> Kai kinda reminds me that Jordy Nelson kid that wasn't overly fast or super athletic. He just seemed to materialize all by himself 8 yards down field on 3rd and 7. Everyone in the stands would just yell, "Why won't someone cover that little fucker?".
  22. Is Ricky Powell - photographer ref: Car Thief from "Paul's Boutique"
  23. Charlie played his guts out for Baylor, but he's one hard sneeze away from concussion protocol.
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