Overall:
Without a defense with some big hairy cojones, Texas would have gotten run out of the Cotton Bowl with their tails between their legs. This was a tale of two units, one led by a coach who is a motivator, innovator and a real inspiration, and who earns his money. The other unit is led by a guy who's last original thought was in middle school and who wouldn't know an innovation if it bit him on the ass. The lack of offensive preparation for this game was staggering.
Offense:
In a number of years of watching Chimp-ball, he's usually managed to impress me a few times a year with a play call or a strategy that's demonstrably stupid. I've come to expect it of him and it's an added entertainment factor. However, his brilliant ploy to feature Greg Smith, the least effective player on the offense, by a large margin, over Buckner, who's been a solid addition to the offense this year, was stupid on an epic scale.
Some of Davis' dumb moves in the past have often been pretty bad, but I'd call them the smallest molehills compared to the mountain of stupidity that El Chimpo rolled out yesterday. The fundamental question is why would you take one of your most effective players off the field in lieu of the worst? Here's why, according to the Chimp. He said, "I wanted Smith in the game for more surface protection in the running game" .(That's coach-speak for more blocking). So The Chimp takes out Buckner for extra blocking when anyone who can remember last year's game knows that the 4 wide with the flex TE was what killed OU. Texas was facing the same OU front 4, with essentially the same OL. Why would the Chimp make the irrational leap of logic that led to him neutering the most effective Texas attack. In my view, his rationale for bringing in Smith is playing right into the hands of the defense. The way you beat a defensive tactic is to make them pay for it. You don't bring in extra blockers, and weaken your pass attack, you force them out of their scheme with one that punishes them for using it.
I also think the Chimp blew it by not giving Colt the green light to run, a game or two ago. He was clearly rusty. Besides that, whats with the damn Colt hook slide. He's gone from a dangerous runner to a guy who runs like an NFL QB on a scramble. To say more about the stupid Texas pass routes is just whistling in a hurricane, nothing's going to change. Once more, Texas figured out how to under-utilize Monroe. They used him as a decoy. How tricky, why didn't I think of that? All in all just another good day for the patented Davis prevent offense.
Defense:
Not a lot bad to say. There was some bad tackling and dumb penalties here and there. Gideon whiffed on Murray on his early long pass play, and Williams did also on Broyles. Overall they played with intensity and spirit, and just squeezed the life out of the OU offense. That's what good defenses do when they're led by a coach who knows the alphabet, and can count to ten.
Special teams:
Decent, no huge breakdowns. Texas made some big plays on the coverage teams, that was a nice change. Place kicks were solid, punts ditto. Returns were stagnant, but you can't be great in every game. What I would like to see Texas start doing is do a reverse action between the two K/O returners, so when Shipley gets the ball, he can hand it off to Monroe. Shipley's no slouch, but I'd rather see Monroe get the ball most of the time. This negates teams kicking away from Monroe--which they surely will.
Hey it was a win, and one of many in the Mack Brown era when the team won in spite of the Primate in charge of the offense. That's getting a little old, but a better day's coming.