The Football Brainiacs

I’m just going to rattle these off bullet point style as I’m still coming to terms a bit with what we all witnessed yesterday.

* One of many things that surprised me yesterday was just how disappointed I felt following the game. I wasn’t angry, it was truly disappointment. And in listening to the postgame stuff on the radio, I think it helped me understand why it was more disappointment than it was anger.

Typically following an OU loss, you’ll have a bunch of crazy (often drunk) morons calling in to scream for someone’s head on the coaching staff. And don’t get me wrong, after some of what happened yesterday (that’ll we will certainly touch on here as well) there was definitely some of that. But what struck me the most about what I was hearing was the resignation of so many OU fans as to what we’d just seen.

Because, sadly, it seems as though it’s something we see at least once every year of late. OU loses a game they shouldn’t for whatever reasons and we’re all left sitting here wondering how/why/what just happened. Now let me be perfectly clear on something real quick. All credit is owed to TCU. They were clearly the better team yesterday and deserved to win. So this is NOT about making excuses as to why OU should have won. Considering the way OU played, in my humble opinion they deserved to lose the game.

But yet here we sit once again, in the midst of a season in which the expectations were deservedly very high, and the fate of which is very much up in the air because of yet another disappointing performance in a game, by all reasonable thinking, OU probably should have won.

You know it was brought to my attention yesterday on Twitter after the game that Bob Stoops hasn’t managed to take an OU team undefeated into the month of November since 2004. I didn’t have time to go back and vet that stat, but if we assume that it’s true just think about that for a minute. Because it perfectly illustrates my point.

We shouldn’t, as a fan base, just accept that this is going to happen at least once every season. And yet in listening to the callers last night after the game, it seems like that’s where a lot of us are right now. And if that’s true, it’s pretty disturbing.

* And while I know it’s never going to change, so bitching about it is truest sense of wasting one’s time…I could not possibly be more tired of Bob same ol’ worn out coach speak excuse following losses. The same blah, blah, blah about getting out-coached and out-played and out-executed.

I hate it.

And I hate it because it never changes even in spite of this type of performance, as described above, seemingly happening at least once every year.

* It’s ridiculous to try and pin this loss on any one thing. There were so many aspects of OU’s play and coaching that isolating it to just one thing would be either incredibly short-sighted, or creating a scapegoat simply for the sake of doing so.

That said, Josh Heupel’s offensive play-calling in the second half was simply indefensible.

At one point, with a QB who was CLEARLY struggling with his accuracy, he called passes on 11 out of 12 consecutive plays. 11 out of 12?!?

I write that as though I am incredulous at it happening, but it’s not like that was the first time we’ve seen Heupel get in a play-calling rut and make questionable decision after questionable decision.

Oh, and this ‘check with me at the line while I try to come up with the perfect play and force you to change already “perfect” play I had called to a different “perfect” play all with under eight seconds remaining on the play clock which inevitable leads to the coaches down on the field frantically running onto the field to waste a timeout that may have come in handy later in the game’ crap has simply got to stop.

* As much as everyone, myself included at times, was screaming to run the ball in the first half, I understood what they were trying to do offensively. Taking those deep shots down the field to back off the TCU defense who were, like every team OU has faced thus far and will the rest of the season (especially after Knight’s performance yesterday), loading up the box. And to their credit, it was working. Even though that certainly is not the strength of Knight’s game, he and Shepard obviously connected on a number of long throws.

But the double edged sword of that scenario, as we saw in the second half, is that Heupel — at least in my opinion and I’m not sure how you can argue it after that second half play-calling — falls in love with the pass.

* Credit Mike Stoops and the defense for shoring things up in that second half. Make no mistake, they played horribly in the first half. But in the second they gave the OU offense every opportunity to win that game, and they simply could not capitalize on the chances they were given.

* What can you say at this point about Trevor Knight as a quarterback? It is painfully clear (and was well before yesterday mind you) that they are not putting him in the best position to be successful. They are not playing to his strengths and we/they saw the results of what you get when you hamstring him by coaching him to stay in the pocket then expect him to just be able to turn it on when needed.

Simply put, he was horrible passing the ball yesterday. Yes, the long balls were nice. But you have to be able to complete passes at least somewhat consistently and on any level 14-of-35 just isn’t going to cut it.

If they continue to ask him to be a pocket passer, this won’t be the last game OU loses.

* And having watched some of that Baylor/Texas game yesterday during commercials of our game, I have no clue how OU is going to move the ball on Saturday. I can tell you right now they are going to have very little success running the ball against that Texas front. Which means they seem to have little choice in asking Knight, once again, to win it with his arm. And after yesterday, I’m not sure why anyone would have much faith in that being a successful strategy.

* I’m certainly not breaking any news in stating Sterling Shepard is simply incredible. To do what he’s done so far in being OU’s only legit receiving threat is beyond impressive. But that also illustrates one of the major problems with this offense at WR, it’s just Shepard.

Durron Neal is a talented player, but five games in it appears as though he has a difficult time getting separation down the field. He can work those underneath routes and get you some yards after the catch, but he does not have the look of a downfield threat. And I have no clue what the coaches are trying to do with KJ Young — when Knight isn’t putting the ball at his shoestrings — or why they have wasted a year of eligibility for Michiah Quick.

They clearly have problems at WR and yesterday only further showed just how much it’s hurting the productivity of this offense, at least against a good defense which OU still have several left to face.

* The fact OU is voluntarily give up any threat of a punt return at the sake of basically just instructing Shepard to fair-catch everything is absolutely pathetic for a program of this stature.

* Running between the tackles with Alex Ross is just stupid.

I don’t know what else they need to see to know that just isn’t his game and that he’s apparently incapable of making any sort of move to actually get around a defender. But it’s abundantly clear to this uneducated fan sitting on his couch at home. And as I’m told daily on the radio by guys simply repeating the things I and my fellow fans have already been saying for weeks, I couldn’t possibly know what I’m talking about.

Either come up with some plays to get him outside the tackles and take advantage of the one strength of his game as a RB, or just keep Samaje Perine in there the whole time.

What happened to the stretch play? Or those swing passes to the RB that were so effective early in the year?

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I could go on, but I’m sure you’re tired of me ranting. But I needed this, so thank you.

I know we’ll have plenty more in the coming days before we move on to Texas. But for now, if you’re anything like me, feel free to get out whatever you need to get out in the comments below.