| 24 October 2010
Missouri Recap
This won't be pretty.
What worked?
- Roy Finch - What a shame that Roy got injured in preseason so he's missed so much practice and game reps. OU's not had a chance to fine tune Finch/Murray playing together for full effectiveness.
- Passing Game for 2 quarters - If OU had executed in the red zone correctly, OU would have been up 28-10 or even 28-7 at half with massive momentum and perhaps a dead home crowd. Landry did a good job mixing up his throws and using all his weapons, had 250 yards passing.
What Sucked?
- Our pass rush or complete inability to get pressure on Gabbert. Venables didn't mix things up at all. Very little blitzing or zone blitzing, our front four got very little pressure. Taylor looked gimpy at best. Alexander looked like he had no burst off the line. Macon did nothing, and our young DTs got little pressure and got worked in the running game. Beal can only do such much with the attention he is receiving.
- Our safety play. Jefferson looked like a lost freshman, had to happen sometime. The real mystery is why Nelson and Carter were so ineffective when Missouri passed in the field of the field. They didn't get their hands on one pass all day. Carter's launching himself at the Missouri TE after playing awful coverage, gave Missouri 50 yards of field position. Nelson did strip Egnew on one play, but was consistently beat by Jackson again and again.
- Our kickoff game. O'Hara cost OU 7 points with a terrible kickoff to star the game. It was like a horrible replay of 2008 again. Even after that, O'Hara had two more suck ass kicks giving away 20 yards of field position each time. Just dreadful
- FG kicking. It's time to end any and all chances given to Jimmy Stevens. He's as unreliable a kicker as there is college football. This 3 year circus fiasco is all on Bob Stoops. It's only cost us key points in about 7 losses the last 3 years.
- Landry's 4th QTR. Trailing 26-21 and needing to reclaim the lead, Landry's first pass is picked off. Even after that, OU is still only trailing 29-21, but Landry proceeds to go 0 for 7 in passing. In crunch time while trailing Landry just bombed.
What else is going wrong?
- Landry made two horrible decisions (both hideously timed play calls) among 30 or so good to great passes. In addition, when it counted in the 4th QTR Landry was horrible. I honestly don't know what to think about Landry's progress or ceiling. The INTs were killers, 10 points in a 9 point game. OU could have taken a two score lead on Missouri and perhaps applied some pressure to the Tigers who never really pressed all game. Can OU's current scheme being managed by a good but not great QB? It all runs through the QB in crunch time due to good defenses ability to stop our running game. Can Landry ever get that big time win on the road (for all his accolades Sam only had one game like that over OSU in 2008)? There appear to be two firm Landry camps at this point. One, Landry is steadily improving under Heupel's guidance and with improved weapons and blocking, Landry can be a conference championship caliber QB. Two, Landry just doesn't have it, and is always going to choke in the 4th QTR in a big game. I'm hoping Camp 1 is right because. Save for a major injury, Bob's never benched a QB with seniority, and Landry as a sophmore has never played so badly that benching him has ever made sense. Benching Landry in 2009 was just silly, this year you could argue at least that Drew Allen could come into the game. Camp 2 is going to be further frustrated by never seeing Allen or Bell in practice or in scrimmages to have any idea what we have at QB behind Landry.
- WR depth is becoming a problem. OU clearly missed Dejuan Miller with the way the Tigers were bracketing Broyles. In addition, the injury to Broyles really hurt his ability to cut and accelerate on those bubble screens, also Broyles probably catches that TD instead of OU missing the FG, and Ryan had a number of catches where he probably gets more RAC yards. Caleb hasn't played a meaningful snap until Missouri for obvious reasons. Kenney made some nice catches but he doesn't present the physical matchup problem that Miller can create. Trey Franks is strictly a slot WR right now. Jaz Reynolds being deep in Bob's doghouse is not helping at all. OU may need to use Finch and Murray in more two back sets to get as many playmakers on the field as possible.
Issues to consider?
- Does OU need to recruit/sign a JUCO DE/DT? OU has a wave of highly recruited young players at both positions and players who have made some players this year. But the Missouri game highlighted that none of those players are there yet. Do you gamble that they become impact players next year or do you go find some insurance/competition.
- Both Baylor and OSU present similar type passing games (with better running games) as Missouri. I'm already having nightmares of Justin Blackmon going "Rashaun Woods" on our secondary. And Griffin is able to buy time before throwing deep downfield. What changes do you make defensively to make more plays against these types of passing attacks? Ronnell Lewis should be back for both games to give OU another pass rush option. None of the LB groupings were very effective against Missouri (Ibiloye and Lewis maybe) I'm not sure OU has many options in the secondary but I'd probably find some way to get Colvin, Fleming, and Hurst on the field together and pray that Nelson/Carter find some way to play better.
One last comment.
I had compared this year to 2006 in terms of what might happen to OU. Instead it's starting to look like 2002. Number one ranked team drops a road game, defense gives up big plays and offense led by a limited QB (Nate Hybl) is unable to respond in the 4th QTR to regain momentum for OU. OU still managed to win the Big 12 that year, and ironically that was OU's last BCS bowl win. OU needs OSU to pick up some losses reducing their momentum for that late scheduled game. Baylor game as well suddenly takes on far more importance.
