So… On To Basketball

In an entirely unsatisfactory week of football, from the Texas defense imitating empty space, to Vince’s Titans imitating a high school team, to Cedric Benson breaking his leg (conjecture, but season ending surgery nonetheless), the one thing that kept my morale high was DJ and company running circles around #7 Tennessee on the hardwood.

I have never seen a Rick Barnes offense execute the way I saw against Tennessee. There have been some glimpses earlier this year, but nothing on the level that happened Saturday night. AJ is going to terrorize teams this year with his quick shot. The big surprise is Connor dominating. He looks a lot stronger and more coordinated this year. He is also apparently faster, as evidenced by his several fast break dunks and layups already this year.

Kudos to you Barnes, you saved my life.

Post OU Post

1. Colt looked a lot better this game than at any other point in the season. I know he missed some open receivers, I know he double clutched and took sacks when he really didn’t need to, but he looked like Colt again for the most part. He didn’t play well enough to win us the game, but he certainly didn’t lose it for us.

2. Norton laid one of the best hits the entire game and stuffed an OU RB (Demurray I think? I can’t remember if it was before or after he took over) at the goal line. They still scored that drive, but that was AWESOME. The guy was running with a pretty good head of steam and Norton stuffed him one on one. He didn’t gain one inch after contact.

3. Nate Jones and Quan Cosby continue to impress. Nate has been Mr. Clutch for us all season long, getting open and converting third downs. Quan has been absolutely unstoppable no matter where he is on the field. His touchdown was a beauty. Colt just threw it up to him and Quan, with two defenders surrounding him, stole the ball out of the air. He is also one of the most consistent kick returners I’ve ever seen. Come hell or high water he is getting to the 40 yard line… he just needs to work on getting past that last guy. He’ll break a couple before the year is over.

4. Finley was our best weapon against OU. He abused them over the middle time and time again. It didn’t matter who was covering him, they couldn’t come close to stopping him or bringing him down. Too bad we decided to stop throwing his way in the second half. I mean… they were triple covering him in the 2nd quarter and we still threw his way, it isn’t like they could have put more people on him in the second half.

5. Beasley held his own for most the game. He got burned a few times, but was much improved from earlier in the season. Foster shut down his man. Palmer gets burned, but hits hard and doesn’t allow much after the catch. I know OU put up some yards through the air, but I really can’t blame it on the secondary. They played a really good game. If the linebackers (Derry, Bobino, Kill) could have done anything in the middle of the field, or if the D-line could have pretended to bring some pressure, you’d hear a lot of compliments for our secondary in the media.

6. D-line in run stopping mode. They didn’t get a pass rush, but they pretty much clogged the running lanes all game long. It just so happened that if the RB got past them, our Linebackers probably weren’t going to make the play.

Double Fisting is for Moral Victories

1. Jamaal Charles needs to sit. Look, I love Charles. I think he is one of the most talented players to come to Texas during the Mack Brown era. If our line could run-block he’d be tearing it up this year. But you CANNOT fumble the ball in the red zone. You can’t do it and play. Period. Who the hell is telling him to hold the ball 3 feet to his side? I’m pretty sure he either A) thinks the ball is radioactive, B) thinks the ball is a 5’x5′ box, or C) is under the impression that he is confusing his opponents to his actual location. Jamaal killed two big drives for us against OU. Sure the pass to him could have been better, but he needs to make that play. It hit him in the hands. At the very least he could have batted it down. I’m not saying he shouldn’t play, only that he shouldn’t start and should have to earn back his carries.

2. Sweed is out for the season. I’ll be honest, I was mad at him for his performance (before I learned of the injury). He didn’t look like he was trying. I also thought that a WR that wants to be considered an ELITE WR needs to make that catch at the end of the game. It was under thrown, but it was also the type of play Limas is born to make. 6’5” and a leaper. It was his play and we needed it. It appears however that the injury to his wrist was much more serious than was made known. Maybe all his drops this year have been attributed to it. I wish him well. He was a great Horn. He will always be remembered fondly for his catch against OSU. Get well Limas! Hope we get to watch you in the pros for many years!

3. Why are we not playing at least one of Muckleroy, Norton, or Kindle on every snap? I understand there is something to be said for experience. I understand that Mack wants to give all our players time to shine, and I understand that they love him for it. I don’t understand leaving an ineffective unit on the field. It isn’t that Bobino, Derry, and Killebrew are all bad. They’ve all made plays to help this team win games. But they are bad TOGETHER. They can’t cover for each other’s deficiencies and the result is teams abusing them.

Norton is the best LBer on this team and HAS to be in the game at critical situations. Muck is fighting him for second. Why not, instead of doing a complete unit rotation like we have been, we mix up our units so that we consistently field an effective set of LBers without wearing a single unit out? Is Norton, Derry, Kill and Muck, Bobino, and Kindle not a better set than what we currently do? Sure, I’d like to have Norton, Muck, and Kindle out there 90% of the time, but I understand that won’t happen for various reasons. We certainly can come up with something better than we have and that will still allow our seniors playing time.

4. Aaron Lewis went down. He is my favorite defensive player for the horns this year. He has been everywhere and he hit HARD. Hope you get well soon. Without him our non-existent pass rush against OU might become a season long affair.

5. Why does it seem like every year one of OU’s players goes down with an injury… and then his backup kicks our ass? Kudos to you Demurray.

CONCLUSION:

Horns played their best game of the year and came up short. Why did it take us so long to put together a relatively complete performance? If we see the same type of fire and play that we saw from the team this weekend, we have a shot at going unbeaten the rest of the way. I know OU lost to Colorado, but this was still a very good team that this Texas team took on for 4 quarters. 4 Weeks ago would you have really thought the game would be this close? Moral victories suck, and I would never use them. This was first and foremost a LOSS. That being said, there were some good things to take from this weekend, but we have to convert them to wins the rest of the season.

An Open Letter to Colt McCoy

Dear Colt,

How ya been man?! Long time no see. It seems like only yesterday we were watching you break Nebraska’s heart in the snow and cold of Lincoln. On the plains of Lubbock, with air raid sirens blaring, you lead us through the constant bombing. With accurate passes and clutch runs you almost did the impossible… lived up to the expectations that Vince Young set for us.

Where ya been since then? What ya been doing? Everyone I talk to around here misses you. We were dismayed when you got injured last year against K-state. We’ve been holding our breath, waiting for you to come back. I heard you were back in town over the summer, and I swear I saw you a couple of times against TCU. At the K-State game I saw this guy scrambling around and throwing a touchdown with all types of pressure breathing down his neck. I swore it was you, but never saw you the rest of the game.

Wherever you are, I hope you’re doing better. When you do find your way back, just remember you were great last year… people don’t lose greatness, they just tend to convince themselves they never had in the first place. You did. You do.

-Dahobbs & All Longhorns

Things I Think You Should Think

Glass Half Full:

1. Our offense finally seemed to get together. It is nice to have at least one game where I’m not worried about going into sudden cardiac arrest.

2. The O-line was pushing people around and creating holes. We didn’t run Charles a lot, but I have no doubt he could have broken 150 given a few more carries.

3. Limas Sweed is back. He has had a quiet year until now. It is nice to see that he and Colt have finally seemed to find that chemistry that they had last year.

4. Our D-line is by far one of the best in the nation. They were all over rice today. Holding a team to negative rushing yards, no matter how much better you are than them, is a difficult task.

5. Muckleroy, Norton, Kindle. This is a group of Linebackers I can get behind. They are disruptive, they flow to the ball, and they hit hard.

6. McGee and Chiles looked very impressive. Rice was tired and over matched, but it is nice to see us move the ball so easily. Chiles and Colt will be on the field at the same time for at least a few plays per Greg Davis. I hope these plays work out better than the one we ran against Rice (seriously, why was Colt the one to head out to the Slot?), but this sounds promising. McGee ran hard and deserves carries at Charles expense (especially if he keeps fumbling). I would like to see a 10-20 split.

Drinking is still nice:

1. I know Txhny loves him, but Beasley is a liability when on the field. He has plenty of talent. His speed allows him to recover when his poor technique gets him all turned around, but he is basically constantly recovering. He gets lost and his receiver gets open. Hopefully he’ll eventually “get it”, but he should see only limited playing time as long as Foster can play.

2. PLEASE BE OK FOSTER!

3. Colt still isn’t right. He missed on several throws that he made consistently last year. Perhaps he is thinking too much, or perhaps he still isn’t accustomed to his extra strength Whatever it is, he doesn’t have the touch he did last year. His bad decisions continue. Should have thrown another interception again this week… but at least the mistakes were limited in comparison to previous weeks.

4. Charles, stop fumbling. Seriously… anytime now… I mean, we have duct tape, we have super glue. Why Charles seems to prefer baby oil, I can’t fathom.

5. Even Baylor scored 42 against Rice.

Some testosterone (Or at least hopefully less estrogen)

[This marks the first of at least weekly columns from the only male contributor at Gabriel’s Horn. He’ll be handling our ‘game wrap-ups’ so to speak, and your lovely editors are excited to have him on board! – Eds.]

First things first. I’m proud to come on board as the first and only male contributor to this blog. Thanks to the girls at Gabriel’s Horn for giving me my blog debut.

Ok, on to game observations.

GLASS HALF FULL:

1. We won! Yay Texas! Texas fight, Texas fight, Yay Texas fight!

2. Jamaal Charles is a much stronger runner this year. He now has 3 games over 100 yards rushing and has been consistently averaging over 4 yards a carry (over 6 the last two games). And let’s be fair, the line hasn’t exactly been opening gaping holes (or even not so gaping ones). Jamaal is earning all his yards on his own. See USC v. Nebraska for an example of what good run blocking looks like. (see #2 below for the big “but”)

3. Pittman, Shipley, Melton, and Kindle are back! Pittman and Shipley should hopefully give our passing offense the explosive element it so desperately needs. Nate Jones has filled in admirably for Billy, but Billy has more of a knack than anyone else in our WR core for getting open in space. Melton might not add anything, but I certainly fail to see how adding a 260 pound RB/DE could possibly hurt. Kindle should improve a LBer core that has played out of position and has been unable to finish plays.

4. Brandon Foster and Ryan Palmer have both been improving dramatically. Palmer is still a liability in coverage, but he has made substantial progress in that area and he is a solid tackler. Foster has been everywhere in our last three games and might be Akina’s next Thorpe winner.

5. No one is as experienced as we are at recovering onside kicks in a game situation. Woohoo! (RUN TO THE GODDAMN BALL, DON’T LET IT COME TO YOU!)

EVEN HALF EMPTY GLASSES ARE GOOD FOR DRINKING

1. I like field goals as much as the next guy, but occasionally going all the way would be nice. Kudos to Bailey, he was our player of the game (or should be), but if we don’t start getting in the end zone this will be a very long year.

2. Jamaal Charles can’t fumble. He is our best weapon this year, and we need to be able to rely on him.

3. O-line stands for olay-line. Ok, the passing blocking hasn’t been that bad, especially considering our personal shortage due to injury, but our run blocking has been about as close to non-existent as it can possibly get. It is great that Charles can break a couple of tackles or reverse field to gain yards, but I swear the next time I see our line get to the second level it will be the first. Part of the blame is offensive play calling, but we also aren’t getting any push. We seldom pull anyone anywhere, and when we do we let someone in completely untouched. Again, watch USC-Nebraska, West Virginia v. Anyone, hell watch Rutgers blocking for Ray Rice and you’ll see what an o-line should be doing.

4 . Be okay Limas… for the love of god.

5. DKR doesn’t serve alcohol for the majority of us.

And for the real reason why the game wasn’t so great:

I hate to admit it, but I’m the cause of our lackluster play on Saturday. You see, I had a ticket to the game, but I failed to procure a plane ticket and was thus forced to give away my game ticket (To Kathy of Hornfans fame). I’ve never done anything like that before and I can’t help but feel somewhat responsible. I promise I just won’t let it happen again.

Hook’em!