The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly &#8211; Texas 49, A&amp;M 39

First, let’s give credit where it is due: The Texas A&M players played a whale of a football game, especially on offense, and Mike Sherman and his coaching staff did a very fine job of preparing their team to exploit the previously un-exploitable Texas defense. To put up 39 points on this defense is one hell of an accomplishment, giving Aggie fans everywhere another of the moral victories they have always liked to point to.

“Moral Victory” by artist Olga Abramova. Reproductions available for $2 at the Texas A&M book store.

Seriously, nice job.

Every coach has a bad day at the office, and Will Muschamp had a really bad one against the Aggie offense. His players came out flat and really not ready to play football for the first time I can remember. This continues to be an ongoing theme for the Texas team (last year being a notable exception) in its series with A&M – and that’s kind of mind-boggling given all the hype that annually precedes this game – but in recent years, the not being ready part has generally been a problem for the Texas offense.

But it was more than just lack of emotion, the problem was schematic as well. Texas came out with a soft defensive game plan that featured no more than 4 men rushing the passer, and more often just 3, with the LBs and secondary mostly attempting – and failing – to execute zone, something this program has seldom been able to do effectively. One result of this had Sergio Kindle and Sam Acho, who have spent the season terrorizing opposing QBs, dropping off into pass coverage as often as not, where they were for the most part just wasted bodies in a failing scheme. Another result of this was Aggie receivers – all of whom appeared to have fingers made of glue – running alone in vast open spaces between Texas defenders.

The decision not to attempt to pressure Jerrod Johnson in this game will forever remain a mystery, given the availability of 11 previous games worth of film that pretty clearly show Johnson and his receivers can mount a very effective passing attack when he is not pressured, but that Johnson tends to make a lot of mistakes when he is under pressure.

But it wasn’t just zone – even when Texas went to man coverage, the Aggie receivers almost invariably out-fought the vaunted Texas secondary players for the ball. Our guys just had a real bad night in general trying to defend this offense, and there’s really not much else to say about it.

Offensively, Greg Davis had a hell of a night. It helped, of course, to have Colt McCoy making a very strong case for why he should win the Heisman. It also helped to have Tre’ Newton demonstrating for second straight week why he probably should be getting most of the snaps at RB in this offense. And it also helped to have Malcolm Williams continuing to develop into the monster WR we know he can be. But Davis came into this contest with a real plan to exploit the manifest weaknesses of the A&M defense, and executed it extremely well.

Nice game, Coach.

Here’s how unbalanced the Texas performance in this game was: The Texas offense accumulated almost 400 yards by halftime, and the team led by just 7 points. At the end of the game, the Texas offense had run up 597 total yards, and only out-gained a 6-6 opponent by 65.

But for all the complaining, here’s what else had happened when the gun sounded to end this contest: The Texas Longhorns had, for the first time in this program’s history, completed a perfect 12 game regular season schedule. All of our previous undefeated regular seasons spanned no more than 11 games – this is the first time we’ve been 12-0 at the end of any regular season.

That is also a hell of an accomplishment, and more than just a moral victory. While this game with A&M gave the coaches and players much to be concerned about and to work on leading into the Big 12 Championship Game with Nebraska, one hopes the team gets to take a few moments to reflect on what they’ve already achieved, because it’s been a terrific ride.

Congratulations to everyone of them.

Let’s go to the Good, Bad and Ugly.

Good and Bad: The game announcers. I really like Craig James doing color commentary and ~~Jeff~~Chris Fowler doing the play-by-play, but can’t stand the third guy in the booth, Jesse Palmer, who looks and sounds like the lead singer in a ‘90s boy band. I’m sure he needs the work, but he just didn’t add much to the broadcast. Erin Andrews was, as she always is, a pleasant addition to the crew, maybe the only sideline reporter working today who actually brings useful information in an unobtrusive way to the audience.

back_street_boys06.jpg image by avilane

That’s Jesse Palmer, second from the right.

Good: Christine Michael. Can someone remind me why our coaches refused to offer this kid? Is he a discipline problem? Were his academics in question? I don’t know. What I do know is that this guy can play some football and will be a consistent thorn in our side for three more years.

Good: Jerrod Johnson to Jeff Fuller. This combination lit the Texas defense up for four successive quarters. Two more guys who will continue to give us fits into the future. We have not played a better QB than Johnson this year.

Good: A&M’s offensive line. They did an excellent job of keeping UT’s 3 or 4 man rush out of Johnson’s face, and opening up lanes for Michael and Johnson to exploit. They were the best offensive line on the field last night.

Ugly: Texas kickoff coverage. My goodness. What a train wreck. This unit had a really good run for about 6 mid-season games, but has now regressed completely back to its first game form over the last three weeks. I guess we should be happy that they only surrendered one return back into Texas territory, but when it becomes a moral victory when you keep a return inside the opponent’s 35 yard line, you’ve got real problems. This ongoing weakness only amplified the struggles of the Texas defense, which seldom was allowed to defend a field longer than 65 yards. Of course, the one time the D did get a long field, it surrendered a 92 yard TD drive, so maybe that wasn’t such a big factor after all.

Texas kickoff coverage unit.

Ugly: Mack taking huge risks early against a 21 point underdog. The fake punt on 4^th and 8 was just a mind-numbing decision. This was our first possession of the freaking game. Even if you make the first down, you’re still 35-40 yards from pay dirt. But you don’t make it, and you give the Aggie team a huge emotional lift. There was no good reason for us to be taking that risk five minutes into the game, and all it ended up doing was giving the underdog one more reason to believe they could win. I also hated the decision on the next possession to go for it on 4^th and about 4 feet. Colt just barely made that one, and only got there on third effort. In Mack’s defense, we got a horrible spot from the Line Judge on that one, and I imagine Mack made the call under the impression we had about a foot, not four feet, to go. I just watched the replay of that sequence, and the spot on that third down play was just unreal – a full yard short of where Colt landed.

The Line Judge from Thursday’s game, and his dog “Bad Spot”.

Good: Texas wide receivers. Kirkendoll, Shipley and Williams all had big games catching the ball, and all three were very visible throughout the night blocking downfield for Newton and Colt. Early in the season, we didn’t see much of that from Kirkendoll, so it was good to see it last night. He is developing into a complete player.

Good: Marquise Goodwin. His kickoff return was the biggest play of the night, and we had no reason to anticipate it would happen. The Aggie kickoff coverage squad had stuffed our returns all night to that point. But it just demonstrates that this team has so many different ways to beat an opponent.

Good: Roddrick Muckelroy. On a bad night overall for the Texas defense, Rod really stood out with 15 tackles. Other defenders deserving some praise were Earl Thomas, who picked up his Texas record 8^th INT on the year, Kheeston Randall who had two sacks, Sam Acho who made several big plays including a sack, and Lamarr Houston, who remained a brute even in a somewhat bizarre scheme.

Bad: Punt returns. This is the second straight game in which Shipley made a big error while trying to make a spectacular play. It might be time to put Earl Thomas back there on a permanent basis. Rather than rushing up into traffic trying to field a 25 yard punt, Shipley should have stayed back and directed UT players away from the damn ball. Not real good judgment for a senior.

Good: Offensive responses to adversity. Three times in this game, the Texas offense responded to A&M touchdowns with immediate TD drives of its own. This kept the Aggies playing from behind all night long. Had Goodwin not returned that 4^th quarter kickoff for a TD, there was little doubt that the Texas offense would take the ball and drive it for another score. As bad as the Texas D was in this game, the Texas O was just that good.

Special Teams Player of the Game: Marquise Goodwin.

Defensive Player of the Game: Rod Muckelroy.

Offensive Player of the Game: Colt McCoy, who accounted for 304 yards passing, 175 yards rushing, and 5 touchdowns on the night. It doesn’t get any better than that.

This was the 75^th time that Texas has defeated Texas A&M in a game of football. If the Aggies win every game between now and 2049, they’ll be able to tie the series. That’s how one-sided this series has been since 1894. The only exceptions to Texas dominance of this series in modern times came during the Bear Bryant years of the early-to-mid 1950s, and the Jackie Sherrill/early RC Slocum era from 1984 through 1994. Both of those periods of Aggie dominance came when A&M was running an organized outlaw football program.

In years past, I have written an annual post detailing my thoughts on why the Texas/A&M series is not a real “rivalry” in any true sense of that word, certainly not in the same sense of the Texas rivalry with Oklahoma. A real rivalry consists of two opponents who are over a period of time basically evenly-matched, and who annually compete for the same goals. Both of those definitions are obviously true of the Texas/Oklahoma rivalry, but manifestly not true of the series between Texas and Texas A&M.

Another part of my reasoning has been the lack of real upsets in the series. As a general rule, the better football team almost always wins this game. If you track this dynamic in the post-WWII era, you can identify three or four Texas/A&M games prior to 2006 that really qualified as “upsets”. By contrast, there have been single decades in which that many upsets have taken place in the Texas/OU rivalry.

For all of his faults, Dennis Franchione interrupted that dynamic with his teams’ upset wins in 2006 and 2007. In fact, Fran’s teams played Texas very tough all five seasons he was the head coach at A&M.

But in general, the natural stasis of this series when the Aggies aren’t running a slush fund out of the head coach’s office is that Texas dominates. The series returned to that stasis in a big way with the 49-9 pounding of Sherman’s first team, but Thursday’s game demonstrates that the Aggies have made much progress in the second season under this coaching staff. They still lack any real defensive talent other than Von Miller, but they have tons of young talent on the other side of the ball.

Last night was a real signal that the Texas coaching staff is going to have to step up its game to maintain a state of dominance over the Aggie program.

Luckily for Texas fans, Mack and his staff are most likely up to that challenge.

It’s a great day to be a Longhorn fan.

Hook ‘em!!!

Article Tags:

Big 12, College Football, Good Bad & Ugly, Greg Davis, Heisman, Mack Brown, Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Longhorns, Will Muschamp

102 Responses

Toadvine said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:52 am

Shipley flubbing that punt, and not fari catching the one before it, were two hugely important, and awful, plays on his part. If you push back a little farther you’ll see that this was the fourth game in a row in which he has made a bad punt return decision. I’d rather not risk injury to him and Earl anyway.

Goodwin’s returns were consistently awful until the one he broke. Thank God he broke it when he did. I wish we’d throw him the ball deep a little more, but it’s good he is getting touches and being productive.

Malc had a big game and really didn’t even play that well. He had a few drops and he quit on a long throw off a Colt scramble that would have been a TD if Malc had kept running, but he had some beastly stiff-arms and got open deep. I love that we’re throwing it to him.

Buckner has seriously regressed, in confidence and route running. He had a bad drop and showed a lack of effort on a couple of other plays. Kirkendoll was outstanding and is making me feel like a huge asshole for doubting him all year.

I don’t want to think about our kick-off coverage, but someone should be fired for it. There is no excuse, with the athletes in the program, to roll out the same people kick after kick and watch them arm tackle and lose gaps. BTW — horrible, horrible tackling night by our entire defense. All of them.
gardner barnes said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:52 am

ummmm..

Muck was probably the WORST player on D last night outside of Gideon over the top when we ran nickel. Almost every JJ run of any distance was because he took a bad angle or ran himself out of the play.
hopefulhorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:55 am

Thanks for the usual good summary, Eyes. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Agree with most of your observations. Questionable scheme poorly executed on defense. Fortunately, Colt played great and GD was better than usual for the offense. Was afraid GD had forgotten the run with a couple of 3 and outs in the second half.

On that note, using Colt as an aggressive part of the running game really opens things up offensively. It makes the zone read a real threat. Scipio has pointed out that Colt plays better once he has seen a bit of contact. I get that protecting him early in the year was likely a smart move (right, OU and Sam Bradford?).

Most championship seasons contain an escape game that leaves you wondering WTF? This may be that game for us. As ded pointed out on another thread this morning, aggy’s strength is young skill position talent that is superior to any we will see from here on out. NU, Bama and Florida have all won with defense.

The remaining games will be played on neutral fields with plenty of prep time. I like our position.
Toadvine said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:57 am

gardner –

I don’t agree with you. We put Muck, and Keenan, in terrible positions all night as we had them covering Ryan Tanneyhill (their Shipley/flex TE) all night, which made them tentative anytime JJ dropped back to pass. But Muck played allright.
gardner barnes said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:00 am

I seemed to recall that he was assigned to spy JJ quite a few times. However, I was drunk by the 4th qtr so what do I know ;)

good write up.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:05 am

I thought Muck kind of got exposed on the perimeter by Michael and Gray. He seemed like a weak spot. I thought Houston and Sam Acho were the most consistent. Muck getting outrun by Johnson wasn’t their fault.
Kosciuszko said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:05 am

Generally a good called game by Davis. Still, I cannot understand why he tried a rushed QB sneak by McCoy to keep alive our first drive of the second half. I absolutely agreed with the call to go for it, but why not bring in our jumbo set and run with our strength? Too cute by half, a Davis tendency too often.

All’s well that ends well. Thanks for your usual nice write-up.
EyesOfTX said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:08 am

Gardner – what ghostofagroundgame said. Muck was put in an impossible position in the scheme we were in most of the night. That was compounded by the many instances in which our DLs failed to contain Johnson and allowed him to run loose into the Texas secondary. I mean, you’re basically asking the MLB to a) cover the middle of the zone, b) read for a draw or middle screen, and c) spy on the best running QB we’ve faced all year, all at the same time. That’s a poor choice by the coaches.
Toadvine said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:08 am

EOT –

Can we talk about how asinine the specific fake punt call was too? Christ, really? 4th and 6 or whatever, and you run a reverse option pitch for your punter???? From a distance so awkward that everyone watching knew it was a fake???? Just stupid.

ded –

I was at the game and couldn’t see everything, but I thought Muck played the run pretty well. I thought he was getting killed trying to pass cover.
EyesOfTX said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:09 am

Kosciousko: I had exactly the same thoughts about the play you reference. The sneak in that situation made no sense as a play choice.
Trips Right said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:13 am

I was waiting on this all morning. Now I can focus on wagering. Great summary.

I’d like to add one in the Bad column if you don’t mind.

Bad: Anthony Lewis. As in bad muthafucka on kick returns. On the opening kickoff he detonates who’s remains looked to be Jamison Berryhill. Just trucked the poor kid. And then obviously he’s the one that knocked out Deon Beasley. Maybe Lewis is a crappy linebacker, but he definitely strikes people.
EyesOfTX said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:19 am

Yes, Lewis was a bad ass on kickoffs – I just forgot to mention him. thanks for hte catch.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:21 am

Yeah, I specifically noticed they were targeting him in the passing game. I just recall him whiffing some open field tackles that I’ve typically seen him make. He was late getting to Gray and Michael in the passing game and kept bailing the Aggie offense out of favorable down and distances. I’m not sure why Will Muschamp ever takes Sergio Kindle’s hand off the ground. This is what I kept asking myself as I watched the game.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:24 am

If it’s because he’s trying to showcase Kindle’s variety of skills for the NFL, then he’s costing him money right now.
Blueshorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:26 am

Rare props from me to GD on the offensive side. No post-game quotes from Coach Boom on MackBrown.com. I’m curious to know WTF he was thinking on the defensive scheme. It had a Mac Duff futility feel to it that was alarming.

Other than Goodwin’s kickoff return, special teams was also a disaster. I just don’t get why we consistently play this game flat, especially with a berth in the BCS title game riding on the outcome.

All that said, I still like our chances to win it all. This game will provide a lot of learning opportunities for players and staff.
Flamingmonkeyass said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Don’t know how you fault Shipley for the turnover on the punt. He was pretty clearly yelling for the guys to get out of the way but guys 20 yards in front of the punter tend not to listen as they’re assuming the warnings not meant for them. The ball actually hit one of our guys on the ass when he was on the ground after tangling with an aggie. Jordan tried to make a great play by coming 25+ yards to catch the punt. He didn’t get there. That’s one I chalk up to bad luck and move on.

Otherwise good stuff.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:38 am

I don’t think it’s quite as bad as it seems. The only real damage the Aggies consistently inflicted was Johnson running the ball and whoever Chykie Brown was covering. Johnson is harder to defend, imo, than either Tebow or especially McElroy. And, neither one of those teams have a legit #2 like Jeff Fuller to challenge Chykie. They might have a Lyle Leong, though.
SL Xpress said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:43 am

Christine Michael was not recruited because the staff was concerned that he either wouldn’t qualify, or if he did, he wouldn’t be able to compete academically at UT.

Maybe he was ordained to be at A&M. His HS head coach was Craig Stump.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:45 am

I’ll bet he’s majoring in Poultry Science.
Name (required) said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:45 am

The reason this game was close was because it was the most physical OL we have played. They were really muscling our DL up in the 4th quarter. Seriously, for such a disparaged group, they handled our DL better than any other teams OL has. This is really a sign of good coaching by Sherman’s group, because at the beginning of the season they stunk.
Toadvine said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:48 am

Their OL didn’t do anything special. We looked like we were under orders to contain rather than blitz. I think the game plan was to keep JJ in the pocket and make him make throws.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:53 am

The Aggie OL was much better than anyone told me. I thought Houston and Acho were shitcanning them for most of the game and Randall made a nice play or two. Michael and Gray combined for 94 yards on 24 carries. That’s pretty solid run defense. They were gassed from chasing Johnson around all game there at the end. Texas and OU have fucked around long enough with OL recruiting that the Aggies are going to be extremely good with that group of RBs and WRs once Matthews, Joeckel, Klinke and Gramling are ready to contribute. But, that’s like 3 years away and I can’t set any timetable of defensive improvement once Von Miller leaves early.
Diego said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:02 am

SL Xpress – Off topic, but where can I find your commentary regarding the basketball team? I always enjoyed your insight but haven’t found any this season as of yet.
Manifest Destiny said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:10 am

Your entire post was too “manifesty”
Magnificent Bastard said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:15 am

Bad: grass. Last night was the first game on grass this season. The Rose Bowl will be the second.
Horncasting said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:18 am

“Muck was probably the WORST player on D last night outside of Gideon over the top when we ran nickel.”

This game and the last game just prove to me that Gideon can do no right in the eyes of our fanbase. I’m not saying he had a great game againt A&M or KU, but he was no worse than every other player in the secondary, with the exception of Thomas (who blew some assignments and missed tackles as well) and yet he is always the one specifically getting called out.

All 3 starting cornerbacks looked awful for most of the A&M game, both in coverage and missing tackles. On the last TD by A&M, Chykie and Aaron blew the coverage and Earl was late getting over to help. On the TD by Michael, Curtis Brown got run over. On the first TD Chykie got burned badly and then looked lazy by not diving for Fuller as he got to the end zone.

Against KU he made 2 TD saving tackles when the Browns blew the coverage and then missed tackles. On one of those two Thomas also missed a tackle.
ransomstoddard said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:21 am

Rewatch the tape and consider your position that Muck was a ‘good’. He was horrible, for the second week in a row. Falling on top of piles as the whistle blows is not good performance. He was repeatedly out of position and slow. The only worse player last nite was Gideon, who was absolutely abysmal.

It continues to amaze me that the best we can do for a kickoff specialist is a 140 lb weakling who cannot kick past the 15 yard line.

I guess on Thanksgiving we can be thankful that, for the most part, the team played hard. If you are only going to beat a terrible aggy team by 10 points, you find the positives where you can.
MerHorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:22 am

Re: Michael, we have some easy majors and lots of players who are not rocket scientist. I think grade is more of an excuse and the fact that Mack was head over heals for Whaley…he would tell anyone who would listen Whaley was the best and greatest.
Aggie Lurking said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:39 am

Why is Coach Boom a sacred cow here? If your offense had stunk it up as bad as your defense did last night then Greg Davis would have been tarred and feathered. It’s rather comical to see the excuses for your poor defensive performance.

JJ played great as he has many times this year and the team made the typical youth mistakes it’s made all year (fumbles ,special team gaffes). CMike would have had a 100 yard game if not for the illegal motion penalty and the offense ran for 190 yards despite that. JJ had 439 yards of total offense himself.

Muschamp is your coach in waiting. I’m OK with that. In fact I’m rather pleased that any would be suitors that saw that game last night have removed him from their hire list. He looks like a keeper to me.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:42 am

You have to give Mike Sherman credit. The 5-wide Aggie set is one of the hardest formations to defend in college football. I’m really not sure what other options DCs are left with except to recruit better players at every position. Aaron Williams, Curtis Brown and Earl Thomas are those type of players. Blake Gideon, Chykie Brown and Muckelroy are not. I would think your only option is to be rolling with defensive personnel to respect the Aggie zone read game. When they split out 5-wide, you’ve only got two options really. Play cover 2 zone which requires you to split your LBs out on slot receivers and Johnson checks to the QB draw. Or, account for Johnson with a LB requiring you to play man and ask Blake Gideon to either cover a guy you don’t want him covering for a nominal amount of time or split 5 verticals. Johnson provides a strategic advantage to the Aggies because he’s actually a threat on 3rd and 8. We were fast enough to catch Todd Reesing and Landry Jones on those same plays too.
bizzle said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:43 am

Your staff didn’t recruit Michael b/c Mack in his wisdom promised Whaley he’d be his man, and to his credit, stuck to it even in light of what at the time – and even more now – is a really stupid decision.

I’ve had to say it several times, but Michael is a good, bright kid (he’s not Goodson, he’s not Moody, he’s not Scott, etc.) – Mack fucked up, it happens.

Now if only Mack could make that mistake with perhaps a cover corner, DT, and rush end or two we might actually have a chance . . .
TOR said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:49 am

Kind of OT: Cincinnati looks like a high school team, is ND sure they want to go after Kelly? How is this team unbeaten and tamu at .500?
Woody Bombay said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:51 am

Aggie Lurking has been drinking deep from the Moral Victory cup this morning.
texoz said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:51 am

thanks for the write up Eyes.

One vote not for Muck for Defensive Player of the Game. It should go to the DL for not walking over to Muschamp and face-planting him on the sideline for asking them to rush only 3, maybe 4, for most of the game. The DL probably had the least worst performance of the defense.

On a semi-related note, with A&M’s loss this means that OU does not have any wins against teams with winning records. We’ll see how their game with OSU goes, but I’d be curious to know when the last time was that OU had a season where they had zero wins against teams with winning records.
TOR said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:54 am

Moral Victory Koolaid® tastes like a spit cup.
cincinnatus said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:07 am

“Good: Rodderick Muckelroy. On a bad night overall for the Texas defense, Rod really stood out with 15 tackles.”

I second the conclusion that Muck graded out at about a B+ on run defense and a D on pass defense. On a night when the D gave up 500 yds, how about “no one” for defensive player of the game? This was a game in which Muschamp clearly got out-schemed.

But Aggie Lurking, the reason Coach Boom gets a pass here is because this is the FIRST time that’s happened in recent memory. Contrast that to GDGD, who routinely shrivels up and retreats into his shell against good defenses. Watch next week, and things will be back to this season’s normal situation: Muschamp’s defense stonewalling an opponent (who lacks a dual-threat QB like Johnson) and Davis’ offense doing just enough vs. a good defense to squeak by.
parlin said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:19 am

Spot on, Eyes, regarding Jesse Palmer in the booth.

When he mentioned Aggies “sucking face” after points were scored, it recalled the era of Rob Lowe and “St. Elmo’s Fire.”

Network execs probably see him as a necessary corrective to Chris Fowler’s intelligence.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:24 am

The only team that can move the ball on Texas is one with a running QB. That’s the only hole every defense has. I now think you can stop Alabama’s offense and Tebow is the bigger threat. However, unlike Johnson, I don’t think Tebow is faster than Muckelroy or Kindle. Acho and Jones will run Tebow down behind the line if he tries the same shit Johnson did last night. I’m convinced now that he possesses some kind of wizardry powers on a Case Keenum level. Those two guys just don’t go down.
hornsince75 said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:30 am

I’m not a defensive coaching genius or anything but there is a counter to the Aggy 5 wide set. You blitz, take the risk of getting beat, and put some licks on Johnson instead of letting an extremely accurate passer get comfortable in the pocket. Aggies were hitting Colt late, why weren’t we putting a few licks on JJ? Muschamp coached like a pussy last night, period. Our D feeds off of his intensity and it wasn’t there last night. There were individual gaffes but ultimately Coach Boom takes the blame on this one. That being said, he has 10 days to re-light the fire under our D and I have no concerns about a repeat performance.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:32 am

Like I told HJ, that’s an option if Chykie wasn’t too stupid to cover his man.
AAS said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am

On the third play from scrimmage he found receiver Jeff Fuller for a 70-yard touchdown pass. Not that Fuller was hard to find. Texas cornerback Chykie Brown was five yards behind Fuller.

The Longhorns’ short week of preparation might have had something to do with that play.

“We probably, looking back at it, obviously we had a bust on the first third down, and that was something we had changed on how we did it,” Muschamp said. “In the short week those are things you shouldn’t change. I did it, and that’s my fault.”
Cesar De La Garza said:

November 27th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

i thought muck played like shit also. if you want to argue that he was put in bad positions all night then fine….he still wasn’t the defensive player of the game
longhornmd said:

November 27th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

I always enjoy the GBU. From an excitement standpoint, these games sure beat the 50 to 10 blowouts where the Horns hardly even try in the second half. The downside is that I was so amped up I couldnt sleep last night…

I was really impressed with the Aggie skill position players on offense. I suppose like a lot of Horn fans, I only briefly watched them when they played Arkansas. Johnson is big, accurate and pretty fast quarterback. At times, I felt like I was watching VY running through some hapless team’s secondary. Other times, he looked like Leinhart throwing against us in the Rose Bowl. Michael is the best running back we played this year. They have several big, physical receivers. Anyway, those Aggies are young and if they learn to play with composure on the road, they will be dangerous next year.

Like everyone else, I thought our defense looked slow last night (? grass field or short week?) and in the first half, the Aggies were able to exploit a lot of mismatches in our coverages. In the second half, I actually thought we made good adjustments but A&M was just playing good football. I mean if Johnson can complete that last touchdown to Fuller with AJ and Earl on coverage, we just need to give the Aggies credit.

I think blitzing Johnson with our defensive backs was very dangerous. First, he outweighs most of them by 40-50 pounds so I would not feel very confident of us tackling him (same problem other defensive coordinators had in defending Vince Young). Second, it would leave one of our linebackers in coverage (and that did not work out very well- watching Robinson and Acho get beat in coverage). I guess the alternative would be to blitz linebackers but that leaves the middle of the field wide open for quarterback draws.

I’d like to think that AJ Williams was not really at full speed. It seemed we were in the “heavy” nickel package a lot and Brewster is not very good in coverage. And while I don’t think our defensive line really played a bad game, Houston did not get as much penetration as he has most of the season- really it makes me appreciate his play in other games even more. Along with Colt, I think he will be our biggest loss next season.

In 2005, we had an off game against A&M and as we know, came back strong, so lets hope we follow the same path in 2009.

Hook em.
SL Xpress said:

November 27th, 2009 at 12:23 pm

Diego, I’m hit and miss. I’ve posted some on Barking Carnival. I like this basketball team’s potential ceiling. I’m concerned as to how much of it they reach.

On Michael, they knew about him prior to the offer to Whaley, and there were some thoughts about trying to recruit him even after the unfortunate “you’ll be the only running back we recruit” promise. The excuse given for not recruiting him full bore was concern regarding his academics.

I didn’t say it was a legitimate concern. This isn’t the place for a critique of UT’s recruiting policies — which in the end have produced a pretty incredible program. It was BS when they decided not to recruit Michael, and it’s BS now. I have no doubts the kid is fine academically. I didn’t have any doubts when they chose not to recruit him, the same way I didn’t have any doubts about Daryl Stonum, and I didn’t have any doubts about Jermie Calhoun (at least in terms of him qualifying) — but that same excuse was used for them, too. Others as well.
Monahorns said:

November 27th, 2009 at 12:25 pm

Hats off to A&M. Their offense played well all game. Texas defense did look sluggish though. I think it was just a bizarro world game. UT ran the ball well, JJ completed for higher % than CM, UT secondary played poorly, the turnover on the punt, the 4 and 6 fake punt, the bad spot on Mal Williams that led to a turnover on downs!

All the strangeness, and we still won. My only hope is that we don’t travel back to that dimension again. Though I would like Colt’s running production to make the trip back to the real world.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 12:29 pm

I kind of with longhornmd on thisone. As much we hate to admit it, the Aggies have great talent at the skill position. I can’t think of one team in the country I’ve seen play that is scarier than Johnson, Micael, Gray, Uzi, and a healthy Fuller. It won’t get any worse than that, certainly not against Flordia or Bama. Muschamp has a month to teach Chykie how to cover Riley Cooper in man. The TX defense didn’t get slower over night, the Aggie players made them look that way. Florida and Bama don’t have those kind of weapons across the board and either Tebow or McElroy will throw picks against that 2nd half coverage. I’m convinced Uzi and Fuller use stickem, but I haven’t convinced anyone with authority to check them yet.
BornaHorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

I am confused. When we play five wide (empty backfield), the other teams bring pressure, forcing Colt to attempt (and largely complete) short passes of the 3-5 yard variety. We have more success when they bring presuure but play softer coverage.

When A$M played five wide, we rushed 4 and sometimes three and tried to cover everyone for 4-5 seconds. Covering 5 receivers for a long time has never worked well and without real pressure the QB usually looks good. Johnson looked good last night. Apparently, we underestimated Johnson or overestimated our coverage skills.
dedfischer said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:05 pm

Because Kirkendoll gets pimp slapped around, Malcolm Williams disappears and Cody Johnson isn’t getting behind anyone on a pass route. You know against defenses better than A&M. Shipley and Buckner are scary, though, so teams without depth at DB will have 50 hung on them.
Earmuffs said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

Hopefully kickoff coverage isn’t one of those things that Mack put’s on his spring to fix list. It’s time to fix that shit right now. Whatever changes were made after the Kansas game were obviously not enough. Hopefully we don’t piss away a National Championship because we didn’t make the necessary changes to one unit.
Savage Henry said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Do aggy fans ever get tire of seeing their team playing this well ONLY once per year? If they showed up like this every game you wouldn’t struggle to get to bowl games.
MerHorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Christian Scott will be a nice addition after a month of practice with ones/twos for the bowl game. Going into Game 1 he was right there with AJ and Earl as the best playmaker in the secondary.
Mike said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Off topic, but I’m watching the Bama Auburn game and the announcer (can’t remember this one’s name) just gave away the CBS SEC bias in a ridiculous manner.

Ingram goes for about 3 on a 3rd and 2 to get a first. This announcer says “Ingram is phenomenal with a 6._ avg ypc against top 25 team, and Auburn…Auburn is in some of the polls at 24 through 26…”

None of the polls I’m aware of. But when an Alabama or a Florida play ANYONE in the SEC, they’re playing top 25 competition. Just ask CBS. Fucking ridiculous.
SL Xpress said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

ESPN is joining the SEC propaganda team, too.

What I’ve never completely understood, is why is USC always pumped so much by the WWL? I certainly think Texas gets more than their fair share of publicity, so I’m not complaining, but I’ve never completely understood the rationale regarding USC.

I certainly understand the rationale re: the Goebbels treatment of the $EC. If the rest of college football not named the Big Ten can’t find better countervailing forces, it’s going to get much much worse in the near future.
Mike said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

I think the humongous contract that CBS has with the $EC might have something to do with it.
Mike said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Auburn, BTW, is ranked between THIRTY four and THIRTY six. Which, I guess using the prevailing CBS exchange rate, converts from $EC currency to FBS currency as top 25. I’d love to hear that announcer defend that statement. He would, no doubt, simply say that he meant to say that Auburn has a top 25 defense – another statement that I’m not sure is true. Chizik and all.
SL Xpress said:

November 27th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

Mike, I’m rereading my comments and wondering how you came up with your response. Of course it’s because CBS is paying huge dollars for the SEC television contract. That was my point about ESPN, too, who has an even BIGGER contract with the SEC.
MerHorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:12 pm

Re:USC and ESPN has everything to do with SC being the pro team of LA and surrounding areas. On top of that SC built some national credentials this decade when they won 2 MNC and started traveling early in the year to play average teams which were made into “game of the week”. With SC having open practices all year the WWL sent Shelly Smith to camp out at SC.
topo gigio said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

Rotations and resting players on on defense — I don’t think we’ve been rotating defensive players nearly as much durign the course of games (not garbage time) this year as in the past. Definitely could use some depth for fresh legs assuming we make it to the nat’l champ game. especially against teams that can run the ball. that D was GASSED in the second half.
ColoradoAg said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

“Christine Michael was not recruited because the staff was concerned that he either wouldn’t qualify, or if he did, he wouldn’t be able to compete academically at UT.”

Spare me the academic rhetoric. You aren’t Duke or Northwestern. Perhaps Michael isn’t the Rhodes Scholar of Jamall Charles.
MerHorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

Ag: he is saying that is the excuse our coaches used to not offer. How’s 6-6 taste?
macanudo said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

[quote]What I’ve never completely understood, is why is USC always pumped so much by the WWL? I certainly think Texas gets more than their fair share of publicity, so I’m not complaining, but I’ve never completely understood the rationale regarding USC.[/quote]

West of the BigXII, Boise State notwithstanding, there’s a complete lack of college football. And since LA doesn’t have a pro team, and the other California pro teams are average (San Diego) barely tolerable now (San Francisco) or generally terrible (Oakland), ESPN needs something to get the Westies are fired up about.
dick said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

“Their OL didn’t do anything special. We looked like we were under orders to contain rather than blitz. I think the game plan was to keep JJ in the pocket and make him make throws.”

Correct, he just made good passes to good receivers.

“I thought Muck kind of got exposed on the perimeter by Michael and Gray.”

Gray did absolutely nothing, 5 carries for 10 yards. Michael did most of his damage up the middle not on the perimeter, mostly on the drive that he scored his TD on. He was about 3ypc other than that drive. He does look like a very good player but everyone already knew that. No idea why LSU and Texas both passed on him. The Whaley excuse is just that, an excuse. There was another reason and it wasn’t ability. Maybe stupidity is the reason.

“Bad: grass. Last night was the first game on grass this season. The Rose Bowl will be the second.”

The Cotton Bowl has natural grass right?

“That was compounded by the many instances in which our DLs failed to contain Johnson and allowed him to run loose into the Texas secondary.”

Johnson had two long runs that accounted for 81 of his 97 yards rushing. They scored 3 points out of those two runs. He was 12 carries for 16 yards other than those two runs. JJ running “loose” in our secondary? Not really.

Jeff Fuller is a man (thankfully he decommitted from OU) and their other receivers made some good catches and we also took some bad angles on short passes turning them into longer gains. I did notice Kindle covering slot WRs but rarely did they go to his man.

I’m not worried about Nebraska doing the same thing to us next week. They don’t have the personnel and we will be ready to play.

Aggie has played well at home this year, enjoy the 10 point win on the road.
ColoradoAg said:

November 27th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

“Ag: he is saying that is the excuse our coaches used to not offer.”

Well that is a dogshit excuse then. Whaley as the lone RB is more believable.
dick said:

November 27th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

LSU passed on him too and no way was academics their excuse. Nobody knows the reason except the coaches. It is even harder to believe that they thought Whaley was a better RB for our system. Ags got lucky on that one.
Minnesotahorn said:

November 27th, 2009 at 3:04 pm

“Why is Coach Boom a sacred cow here? If your offense had stunk it up as bad as your defense did last night then Greg Davis would have been tarred and feathered. It’s rather comical to see the excuses for your poor defensive performance.”

He’s not but the reason Muschamp is granted more leniency here is because our scope of information informing our evaluations of coaches is greater than twenty four hours you stupid motherfucker.
Groundhog Day said:

November 27th, 2009 at 4:45 pm

Props to the Aggies for a hard fought game. Johnson played incredible and Michael is going to be very good. It might be scary when they actually field a real oline. Fuller is going to be a 1st round draft pick. He is that good.

One theory on why we weren’t blitzing might be the fact the A. Williams was banged up and because of that Brewster played a lot in the first half. Coach Muschamp knows what liabilities both Brewster and Gideon are that he didn’t want to further expose those weaknesses with blitzes especially with a corner operating on one leg. I am by no means excusing the lack of prepartion on D and play calling but that’s how I see it. For anyone who thinks that Scott should not play on D if we play in the title game, I think they should rethink their position on this issue. Gideon and Brewster lack range and are poor tacklers.

Our Lb’s were a non factor and I think all of them (including Muckleroy) played poorly. Kindle was a non factor.

Hats off to Houston, Thomas, and the whole offense including a big thank you to McCoy.

Our special teams play outside of Goodwin’s return was just plain atrocious.
Ricky said:

November 27th, 2009 at 5:24 pm

I still don’t understand why Gideon wasn’t used as the blitz guy when they ran 5 wide. I know he isn’t that fast and not a sure tackler but it seems the reason for the blitz in this case is to disrupt timing, make the QB move to disrupt the pattern, or at least keep the passes short. Its seems it would be safer to get Gideon upfield and hope that he screws things up enough for JJ to get an incompletion or funnel him into the DL rather than leaving him downfield trying to cover or tackle guys who are faster than him. You don’t even have to ask him to tackle JJ, just go for the ball and force him to tuck it.
patronsaint said:

November 27th, 2009 at 5:40 pm

The thing the annoys me about Gideon is that his lack of physical tools aren’t the worst part of his game. He is so fundamentally unsound on tackling that he blows about three a game. He never (as my old coach would say) puts his head “across the bow” which results in a weak arm tackle easily shrugged off. I guess that no one behind him (e.g. Brewster) is any better because Muschamp has to see this too. Combine this with the fact that the kid just isn’t a gamer and it ruins what is usually a fun defense to watch.
WWGDD said:

November 27th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

I’m just thankful the Ags didn’t have Tech’s DE ole Tim has been talking about.
TOR said:

November 27th, 2009 at 7:21 pm

Love how aggy has to smear feces all over the place after a loss. They really do belong in the SEC. ‘Academically’, spiritually, and play-skool wise, they’re an SEC school.

Went back and watched the Arkansas/A&M game, and their skill players, especially JJ, were playing outside of themselves last night. If anything Sherman should be getting more heat for not being able to motivate that team into playing up to their potential more than once a year.
SL Xpress said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:39 pm

Actually, I know the reason why the other programs seemingly weren’t involved in Michael’s recruitment. It had nothing to do with Michael himself.

coloradoag, I’m not saying anything bad about Michael’s academics. I can’t explain to you why the Texas coaches sometimes make that rationale. It often doesn’t make sense to me. Two other high profile players they said the same thing about are Daryl Stonum and Jermie Calhoun, and I didn’t think it was a good reason for either of them, either.

I certainly have no desire for Texas to be academically selective with their football and basketball recruits. To me, you either decide you want to be big time in those sports, or you decide you want the football and basketball players to be equals in the classroom with the rest of your student body, no exceptions. I feel strongly you can’t be both.

In any case, you’re getting upset at the messenger for no discernible reason that I can ascertain. I honestly don’t care. Get upset all you want. I’m just telling you — well, actually EyesofTX — how it went down. At least, in a very brief way, because I’m not going to go into all the details.
Groundhog Day said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:42 pm

Ricky,

Did you see who was blitzing on the blown coverage by Chykie Brown on the third play of the game? The blitzer wasn’t even close to getting to JJ. That should answer your question.
Earmuffs said:

November 27th, 2009 at 8:45 pm

How is it that the tone of these aggie posts are that of team who won the game not lost at home by 10? These stupid motherfuckers never cease to amaze me.
Nordberg said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

I guaran-goddamn-tee you that I’ll show up at work on Monday, and have various office aggies gloating. It happened in 2005, so I fully anticipate it happening now.

You all have my full permission to shoot me in the face with a shotgun if our program is ever at a level where we’re giddy over a 10 point home loss.
NateHeupel said:

November 27th, 2009 at 9:36 pm

Every national title contender always has at least one game in which they shouldn’t be challenged where it ends up being closer than it should be. Usually those are rivalry games. The underdog plays WAY over its head, and the better team just pulls it out. I don’t know what the hell some of you are complaining about. UT fought tooth and nail to beat what is clearly a mediocre OU squad by 3. This game with A&M wasn’t even that close.

UT is an outstanding team on defense and special teams (last night notwithstanding), and the offense is more than passable. You’re one win away against a poor offensive team from a trip to the national title game.

What the fuck are you all complaining about????
Nordberg said:

November 27th, 2009 at 10:10 pm

I’m with Nate. Christ, the 05 team was one of the greatest teams of all time, and probably should have lost to an a&m team that went 4-8. Alabama should have lost today to a very average Auburn team. And don’t forget that the last undefeated national champion was our 05 team. So, yeah, I’m actually pretty fucking thrilled with a 10 point win last night, and I clearly remember saying three months ago that I’d be thrilled with a seven point win in College Station.
dick said:

November 27th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

People need to stop saying we “should” have lost a game that we won by 10. It didn’t happen in 2005 and it didn’t happen last night.
Moishe Oishe OY from JYC said:

November 28th, 2009 at 6:27 am

But who knew?
ransomstoddard said:

November 28th, 2009 at 7:22 am

Ingram ran 16 times for 30 yards yesterday. Congrats Colt on winning the Heisman!!
LB said:

November 28th, 2009 at 7:30 am

Colt and Tebow are the stars of BC. I never heard of them until I started reading this blog.
Ricky said:

November 28th, 2009 at 8:50 am

Groundhog,
So we tried it once? I don’t remember seeing them using Gideon that way again. From what I remember Brown blew his coverage so badly that even Usain Bolt wouldn’t have gotten there in time to disrupt the play. It seems better to get Gideon upfield and away from his other weaknesses in hopes that he disrupts things every so often then having him back in ‘coverage’ or trying to tackle RBs whom he can’t wrap up.
ColoradoAg said:

November 28th, 2009 at 9:41 am

Aggies that gloat after loses like this or glean moral victories make me want to drink myself to death.
Toadvine said:

November 28th, 2009 at 10:28 am

Well, not exactly. JJ threw a moon ball, 40 yards deep. To have time to see that route and throw the ball a quarterback has to be decently comfortable in the pocket. Which he was, because Gideon is not a great blitzer.
Art Vandelay said:

November 28th, 2009 at 11:12 am

Good: Having the game back on Thanksgiving night. I never thought I would say that. It’s a great national showcase, and it just feels right.

Personally I never felt the game was in doubt… sure it was uncomfortable, but a great game in a great setting.

No question that the defense played poorly, but Colt got his statement game. The resiliency of Colt and this team is amazing.

When a Sooner (Nate) is the voice of reason, then it’s time for folks to step back and look at the big picture. Let’s kick the crap out of “The Children of the Corn” at the Deathstar!

Thanks Eyes!!
CT06 said:

November 28th, 2009 at 11:45 am

Good: Thanksgiving Night game. National Spotlight time-frame with millions of eyeballs–Colt McCoy can thank his upcoming Heisman trophy that the game wasn’t on Friday at 11 a.m.
NateHeupel said:

November 28th, 2009 at 1:32 pm

I think UT’s biggest liability right now is the fact that they clearly haven’t faced anybody good. Take the Bedlam game for example. It’s a game to who’s the least good football team. Ugly.
Toadvine said:

November 28th, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Well Nate, we’ve face one good defense, OU, and one high performing and talented offense, A&M. Put them together and we’ve faced a good team…
trkhorn said:

November 28th, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Good: Colt and Jerrod Johnson.

Bad: Texas’ defense, and A&M’s defense which looked like the Texas D circa 1986. However, let’s get this straight – JJ is a decent running QB, no more, no less. He is not Tebow, nor is he faster(that’s hilarious). Weird shit happens at Kyle, e.g. the 25-yard muffed punt, and Kindle whiffing on a tackle like I haven’t seen since 2006 Nebraska. All we can do is move on hope for a correction to the mean.

Ugly: The fact that A&M is 6-6. This should be no worse than an 8-4 team. They brought intensity to our game, Tech and Baylor and the results showed. Can Sherman get these guys to show up every week next year? Or perhaps he and Byrne can convince all of their opponents to put on Texas unis.

The difference in this game was Goodwin’s return and the missed FG. I do feel like Colt would have pulled us out of the fire had it come down to that. What a stressful game. I had to explain to my wife after an evening of yelling at the TV and slapping the furniture, that going 11-0 then losing to A&M=the End of the World. We would have never lived it down, and they would still be crowing years from now. I am truly thankful we won this game.
Nordberg said:

November 28th, 2009 at 2:25 pm

I would like to also add that a&m plays us about 20 points better than they should, every year. We’re going to give the same effort against a&m that we give against Baylor, OU, and Rice, and that’s exactly what Mack wants.

But for a&m, that kind of ‘up for some, down for some’ shit gets you close games against your rival, but it also gets you a 50 point beatdown against K-State.
Hobbes said:

November 28th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

Marquise Goodwin TD return was the play of the year in my opinion.
Toadvine said:

November 28th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

Anyone who watched that game objectively knows that we were never going to lose. The missed FG was an afterthough. They were down two scores. And if Goodwin doesn’t return that kickoff then Colt leads us down the field and kills the game off.
TM horn said:

November 28th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

WTF was the number on the helmet thing? Take that crap off of the best helmet in football.
Bob in Houston said:

November 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pm

IIRC, it’s the helmet they wore in 1963.
Woody Bombay said:

November 28th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

TM, it was a tribute honoring the rich legacy of Texas Longhorn football. Not “WTF” “crap.”

I remember in ’05 my aggie relative gloated that aTm’s performance cost Vince Young the Heisman. (He loves moral victories against Texas.) I can’t wait to call him and thank the aggies for boosting Colt to the Heisman.
TM horn said:

November 28th, 2009 at 8:28 pm

oh…the number still looks like crap. As long as it’s not the new thing.
CD said:

November 28th, 2009 at 11:41 pm

Good: Colt and Jerrod Johnson.

Bad: Texas’ defense, and A&M’s defense which looked like the Texas D circa 1986. However, let’s get this straight – JJ is a decent running QB, no more, no less. He is not Tebow, nor is he faster(that’s hilarious). Weird shit happens at Kyle, e.g. the 25-yard muffed punt, and Kindle whiffing on a tackle like I haven’t seen since 2006 Nebraska. All we can do is move on hope for a correction to the mean.

Ugly: The fact that A&M is 6-6. This should be no worse than an 8-4 team. They brought intensity to our game, Tech and Baylor and the results showed. Can Sherman get these guys to show up every week next year? Or perhaps he and Byrne can convince all of their opponents to put on Texas unis.

The difference in this game was Goodwin’s return and the missed FG. I do feel like Colt would have pulled us out of the fire had it come down to that. What a stressful game. I had to explain to my wife after an evening of yelling at the TV and slapping the furniture, that going 11-0 then losing to A&M=the End of the World. We would have never lived it down, and they would still be crowing years from now. I am truly thankful we won this game.
XOVER said:

November 29th, 2009 at 12:13 am

I think Boom just over-thought in the space of 4 days.

When Texas opened with a base-4 rush, my impression was Boom was looking to shut down the run with the LBs, to make AM one dimensional, and then, when AM passed, to flood the lanes with players in an attempt to force TOs, which Texas has done successfully all year long.

Boom just didn’t analyze thoroughly what other teams had done to disrupt AM — blitz JJ, get him out of his comfort zone, and then he becomes erratic, inconsistent, and prone to TOs.

As AM continued to score, Boom went into a shell, and, apparently, felt sufficiently insecure at the half (or perhaps just stubborn), that he failed to make halftime adjustments.

Anyhow, one thing about Boom: If it’s FL, then he knows how to scheme that club, having done it twice with great success in the past, once resulting in victory.

AM is most likely an aberration — Boom has proven over the course of 2 years that he knows how to coach defense.

Bring on NU, boys!
hornsince75 said:

November 29th, 2009 at 1:07 am

CD – I don’t know which quarterback you were watching but Jerrod Johnson is most definitely faster than Tebow and an much better passer. At least for the game he played against us he was. I’ve watched a few of Florida’s games this year and nothing Tebow has done was half as impressive as the shit Johnson was pulling out of his ass. Our D made him look a little better than he really is, but I’d much rather have Tebow lining up behind Florida’s O-line than Jerrod Johnson. Tebow= Great kid/leader/fullback, Jerrod Johnson=Baller. And I don’t like giving Ags props.
EyesOfTX said:

November 29th, 2009 at 7:31 am

I really liked the numbers on the helmets, and hope they keep them. In fact, I liked everything about our Nike Combat uniforms, and would not mind seeing them become permanent. I also liked all the other Combat unis I saw the last two weeks, except for Missouri’s.

Hook ‘em!!!
Chad said:

November 29th, 2009 at 9:31 am

I like the new uniform overall but keep the existing helmet. Our helmet with the horn logo is getting better and better with time the way I look at it (over 30 yrs that I have been a horn fan). Compare with other teams that try to cram a lot of stuff on the helmet that you cannot tell what it is from far away (example FSU, OSU). We can see our horn on the helmet from north to south end zone. Another helmet thats I like are Pen State and ND.

So you know I am a minimalist.
TM horn said:

November 29th, 2009 at 10:14 am

EOT..I’m surprised that you, a true conservative at heart, would like the numbers. W/O the numbers the helmets are a classic. The numbers definitely distract from the logo and seem to promote a “me” attitude. The names are enough. We don’t need a more. As far as the new nike uniforms, if they are an improvement in performance then great.

Anyway, my opinion only. It’s not like we have any say. We were born to bitch about stuff like this.
TM horn said:

November 29th, 2009 at 10:23 am

one more thing. I liked the Missouri unis. Cool black on black look. Just a touch of the gold trim.

I might as well get this out too. Giving Muck Def POG honors was a travesty. He may have played his worst game of his career. Yes, he was in on lots of tackles but he missed many plays where he should have stopped the runner for little to no gain and his pass defense was simply awful.

After reading some of the other comments I still can not fathom the defensive game plan of not pressuring Johnson even it took a steady diet of blitz. A conspiracy theorist might believe that this was all planned so we could keep Colt in the game in a situation to mazimize his stats so he could win the Heisman. Nah…

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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Texas 49, A&M 39

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