Friday, September 15, 2006
Tough Week
Well it was a tough Saturday for me, so it took me six days to recover to where I am finally able to refocus and come up with objective thought's on Texas' 24-7 loss to Ohio St. last Saturday night. It was doubly tough as I only went 3-6-1 in my college football picks over the weekend. It was so bad, I'm going to call myself the cooler as far as making picks goes until I get it turned around.
On to the Texas/Ohio St. game... it must be discussed. Several things stood out to me as I watched this game from my season tickets in row 53 of the upper deck. First, I had a bad feeling going into the game when I looked on the sidelines and saw Drew Kelson standing there in street clothes. I'm not one to make excuses, I just knew it would be a tough night for the Texas defense when they were without 3 of their best 11 players for the entire game (Tarell Brown, Drew Kelson, and Sergio Kindle) and without a 4th (Marcus Griffin) for a majority of the game with an ankle injury suffered in the first quarter.
Now onto position breakdowns: At QB, Colt McCoy exceeded expectations in the passing game, going 19-32 for 154 yards with one TD and one interception on a very bad decision/throw. The interception cost Texas 3 points, but McCoy played well enough for Texas to win, and that's all you can ask of a freshman making his second career start in such a big game. The biggest criticism of Colt right now is that he needs to make better decisions on the zone read as to when he should hand the ball off and when he should keep the ball and run it himself. One play that comes to mind is a 3rd and 1 where Colt would have had 8-10 yards had he kept the ball, but instead he handed it off to Charles for a 5 yard loss forcing a punt.
The running backs and offensive line played better than any other position group on the field. The Texas running game was good some of the night, and dominant the rest of the night. Selvin Young played his best game as a Longhorn with the exception of one dropped screen pass, and Jamaal Charles played well, but not spectacular. Neither player fumbled the ball once, which was a good sign.
The WR's/TE's were MIA for most of the night. With a young QB, it's imperative that they step up their level of play against an inexperienced secondary and that did not happen. On more than one occasion, the Texas WR's and TE's had opportunities to make tough, makeable catches but could not get the ball secured. And then there's the Billy Pittman fumble at the 1 yard line, easily the biggest play of the game. Completely inexcusable, and there's really nothing else to say.
On defense, pretty much the only unit that played well was the defensive line. Brian Robison, despite battling a case of pneumonia throughout the week, was the best player on the Texas defense, recording two sacks and a TFL. The Texas run defense was surprisingly solid, only allowing 79 rushing yards on 27 carries. (Note: this is the first loss ever for Mack Brown at Texas when outrushing the opponent after 73 straight wins to begin his career at Texas when this is the case).
The back 7 on defense can all be grouped together if you ask me, because none of them played well at all, with the exception of Marcus Griffin prior to injuring his ankle in the 1st quarter. The pass defense was the worst it has looked since Carl Reese was patrolling the sidelines in 2003. One thing to point out about a game like this is it shows just how valuable a guy like Cedric Griffin was to the defense. The guy was a four year starter who was solid in all aspects of the game, and the 2nd game after he is gone, our secondary has it's worst performance in years. Huff got all the headlines, but Cedric Griffin was just as important to our defensive success last year.
I came up with four plays that could have resulted in a swing of 20 points and allowed Texas to escape with a win (and believe me it would have been a Houdini-like effort to escape with a win):
1. Billy Pittman's fumble at the one yard line - Cost Texas 7 points
2. Aaron Ross failing to bump Ted Ginn on the last play of the half, a 30 yard TD pass to Ginn. If Ross bumps him, it not only disrupts the timing of the play but allows Ross to stay with him step for step AND gives the safety more time to arrive with help over the top - Gave Ohio St. 7 points
3. Colt McCoy's INT at the beginning of the 3rd quarter - Gave Ohio St 3 points
4. Greg Johnson's missed 45-yard FG - Cost Texas 3 points.
So it would have taken pretty much a perfect game with no mistakes to beat Ohio St. They didn't make any mistakes, and Texas made way too many, as the list above shows.
I guess that's about all there is to say. I'm not counting Texas out of the championship race yet. There are 7 teams ahead of Texas right now, with a couple sure to lose this weekend, and so long as 6 of those teams lose by the end of the season, Texas will be right back at the top. This is provided Texas can win the rest of their games, and I still see a loss at Nebraska right now, but at the same time, Texas will be favored in every game they play the rest of the year.
Time to rebound with my picks for week 3. It's a very exciting week in college football, and I will have my HD DVR working overtime to record as many games as possible while I travel to Houston with my brother and wife to attend the Texas-Rice football game with my sister, the Rice grad.
Game
Texas (-31)/RICE: Texas (sorry Laura, it's a blowout)
army/TEXAS A&M (-27): Texas A&M (buzz-cut alert in San Antonio tomorrow)
lsu/AUBURN (-3.5): Auburn (Lester Miles the difference)
Michigan/NOTRE DAME (-6): Michigan (Man I hope Michigan wins this game outright)
ou/OREGON (-4.5): Oregon (OU still sucks)
miami/LOUISVILLE (-4): Miami (undefeated in 6 straight games as the underdog)
texas tech (-1.5)/TCU: TCU (good run game usually beats Tech, wrong team favored)
nebraska/USC (-18.5): Nebraska (USC more worried about covering Bush payments than this spread)
florida (-3)/TENNESSEE: Florida (Tennessee missing 2 def. starters just like Texas last week)
clemson/FSU (-4.5): FSU (both teams might be unranked by the end of the year)
Here's to all hell breaking loose in college fooball and everyone ending the year with 2 or more losses.
On to the Texas/Ohio St. game... it must be discussed. Several things stood out to me as I watched this game from my season tickets in row 53 of the upper deck. First, I had a bad feeling going into the game when I looked on the sidelines and saw Drew Kelson standing there in street clothes. I'm not one to make excuses, I just knew it would be a tough night for the Texas defense when they were without 3 of their best 11 players for the entire game (Tarell Brown, Drew Kelson, and Sergio Kindle) and without a 4th (Marcus Griffin) for a majority of the game with an ankle injury suffered in the first quarter.
Now onto position breakdowns: At QB, Colt McCoy exceeded expectations in the passing game, going 19-32 for 154 yards with one TD and one interception on a very bad decision/throw. The interception cost Texas 3 points, but McCoy played well enough for Texas to win, and that's all you can ask of a freshman making his second career start in such a big game. The biggest criticism of Colt right now is that he needs to make better decisions on the zone read as to when he should hand the ball off and when he should keep the ball and run it himself. One play that comes to mind is a 3rd and 1 where Colt would have had 8-10 yards had he kept the ball, but instead he handed it off to Charles for a 5 yard loss forcing a punt.
The running backs and offensive line played better than any other position group on the field. The Texas running game was good some of the night, and dominant the rest of the night. Selvin Young played his best game as a Longhorn with the exception of one dropped screen pass, and Jamaal Charles played well, but not spectacular. Neither player fumbled the ball once, which was a good sign.
The WR's/TE's were MIA for most of the night. With a young QB, it's imperative that they step up their level of play against an inexperienced secondary and that did not happen. On more than one occasion, the Texas WR's and TE's had opportunities to make tough, makeable catches but could not get the ball secured. And then there's the Billy Pittman fumble at the 1 yard line, easily the biggest play of the game. Completely inexcusable, and there's really nothing else to say.
On defense, pretty much the only unit that played well was the defensive line. Brian Robison, despite battling a case of pneumonia throughout the week, was the best player on the Texas defense, recording two sacks and a TFL. The Texas run defense was surprisingly solid, only allowing 79 rushing yards on 27 carries. (Note: this is the first loss ever for Mack Brown at Texas when outrushing the opponent after 73 straight wins to begin his career at Texas when this is the case).
The back 7 on defense can all be grouped together if you ask me, because none of them played well at all, with the exception of Marcus Griffin prior to injuring his ankle in the 1st quarter. The pass defense was the worst it has looked since Carl Reese was patrolling the sidelines in 2003. One thing to point out about a game like this is it shows just how valuable a guy like Cedric Griffin was to the defense. The guy was a four year starter who was solid in all aspects of the game, and the 2nd game after he is gone, our secondary has it's worst performance in years. Huff got all the headlines, but Cedric Griffin was just as important to our defensive success last year.
I came up with four plays that could have resulted in a swing of 20 points and allowed Texas to escape with a win (and believe me it would have been a Houdini-like effort to escape with a win):
1. Billy Pittman's fumble at the one yard line - Cost Texas 7 points
2. Aaron Ross failing to bump Ted Ginn on the last play of the half, a 30 yard TD pass to Ginn. If Ross bumps him, it not only disrupts the timing of the play but allows Ross to stay with him step for step AND gives the safety more time to arrive with help over the top - Gave Ohio St. 7 points
3. Colt McCoy's INT at the beginning of the 3rd quarter - Gave Ohio St 3 points
4. Greg Johnson's missed 45-yard FG - Cost Texas 3 points.
So it would have taken pretty much a perfect game with no mistakes to beat Ohio St. They didn't make any mistakes, and Texas made way too many, as the list above shows.
I guess that's about all there is to say. I'm not counting Texas out of the championship race yet. There are 7 teams ahead of Texas right now, with a couple sure to lose this weekend, and so long as 6 of those teams lose by the end of the season, Texas will be right back at the top. This is provided Texas can win the rest of their games, and I still see a loss at Nebraska right now, but at the same time, Texas will be favored in every game they play the rest of the year.
Time to rebound with my picks for week 3. It's a very exciting week in college football, and I will have my HD DVR working overtime to record as many games as possible while I travel to Houston with my brother and wife to attend the Texas-Rice football game with my sister, the Rice grad.
Game
Texas (-31)/RICE: Texas (sorry Laura, it's a blowout)
army/TEXAS A&M (-27): Texas A&M (buzz-cut alert in San Antonio tomorrow)
lsu/AUBURN (-3.5): Auburn (Lester Miles the difference)
Michigan/NOTRE DAME (-6): Michigan (Man I hope Michigan wins this game outright)
ou/OREGON (-4.5): Oregon (OU still sucks)
miami/LOUISVILLE (-4): Miami (undefeated in 6 straight games as the underdog)
texas tech (-1.5)/TCU: TCU (good run game usually beats Tech, wrong team favored)
nebraska/USC (-18.5): Nebraska (USC more worried about covering Bush payments than this spread)
florida (-3)/TENNESSEE: Florida (Tennessee missing 2 def. starters just like Texas last week)
clemson/FSU (-4.5): FSU (both teams might be unranked by the end of the year)
Here's to all hell breaking loose in college fooball and everyone ending the year with 2 or more losses.
